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Dear colleagues:

This is a call for teaching cases to be potentially included in a new casebook:

Marketing Management and Strategy: An African Casebook

The case book will be edited by George Tesar, Professor Emeritus, Umeå University (Sweden) and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater; and John Kuada, Professor, Aalborg University (Denmark). It will be published by Routledge. The expected date of publication is scheduled for late 2012.

What kind of teaching cases?

We are looking for teaching cases dealing with issues related to marketing management and strategy among African corporate entities of all sizes and levels of technological sophistication. The cases should highlight types of problems, issues, or dilemmas that African managers face in their attempts to objectively and rationally manage commercial entities in diverse business environments. We will consider teaching cases ranging from marketing management problems faced by small owner-managers attempting to manage start up enterprises to marketing management problems confronting managers of matured multinational enterprises operating in diverse African environments. At the same time, we are interested in teaching cases that describe the market introduction of products or services with differing levels of technological sophistication that experience acceptance or resistance from a variety of customers, consumers, clients, or users in both business-to-business or business-to-consumer markets.

The size of the enterprise and its technological sophistication also provide an interesting framework for managerial decision making in the context of marketing management. More specifically, it is important for students to understand how marketing managers arrive at their decisions, how they allocate scares resources, and how they delegate responsibilities to carry out the outcomes of their decisions are very much important topics for this publication. Many enterprises, especially the smaller start up enterprises in the African environments, are frequently looking for product or service opportunities. They may be interested in producing simple consumer nondurable products, harvesting and processing a variety of agricultural products or, from a technological perspective, providing services for the expanding information technology industry.

In all of these examples the entrepreneurs are faced with fundamental issues of resources—financial, human, and physical. They are also frequently confronted by unfriendly or even hostile political or social conditions in which it is difficult establish and operate a rational business venture. Managers responsible for decisions in the large and matured enterprises are frequently faced with strategic decisions that are very much dependent on the overall business environments in which the enterprises operate. Their internal marketing operations frequently mirror the climate in their specific business environment. All of these situations create excellent examples and learning tools for students interested in becoming entrepreneurs, owners, or managers.

A range of examples suitable as a basis for teaching cases dealing with problems and issues of marketing management in the African context can be provided. Among others are examples such as collection of information dealing with consumer behavior including consumption habits, purchase practices, and attitudes towards conservation and resource utilization; financing of consumer purchases; or logistics and distribution of consumer products in rural areas. However, the three more germane and broader examples below are especially relevant.

1. Preparation and implementation of marketing plans in economically, politically, and socially unstable business environments.
2. Development, implementation, and control of marketing strategies given the levels of financial, human, and physical resources.
3. The scope and depth of managerial decision making within the social and anthropological constraints (extended family, personal friendships, and age differences among other cultural constructs leading to irrational decisions).

Need for relevant teaching cases

There is a growing interest in Africa among business schools and management institutes in using teaching cases from African countries in courses that are based on actual, real world experiences of managers, academics, and researchers; such as teaching cases to which students can relate. Unfortunately, students in business and management programs are confronted with teaching cases based on experiences, developments, or problems based on either the North American or European perspectives. Most of them are irrelevant to students’ experiences or understanding how marketing management practices are evolving and maturing in African markets. There is an essential need for original teaching cases describe marketing management problems in the context of African business environments.

Our objective is to provide a theoretical and conceptual framework for a series of such teaching cases in a casebook suitable for instructional uses for business and management students on higher undergraduate and graduate levels interested in marketing management. A number of business and management MBA programs in African institutions of higher learning still rely on textbooks and lecture material using examples that, based on their own experiences, are completely out of context. Native professors educated in North American and European universities realize that they need additional indigenous teaching cases written especially for their students. The objective of this marketing management casebook is, at least in part, to remedy this deficiency.

Specifications

We are looking for original teaching cases focusing on aspects of marketing management in African environments. The teaching cases should be based on primary or secondary research, consulting experiences, or ongoing situations in a variety of markets. All submitted teaching cases will be refereed. Before final publication the authors will need to provide a release letter stating that the submitted teaching case may, in fact, be published. Appropriate acknowledgment will be given to each author(s) of each case.

Each teaching case should be sixteen to eighteen pages long, single spaced, using Times New Roman 12 point fonts. No more than fifteen key terms used in the body of the teaching case should be provided for indexing. A two page teaching note should be provided with each teaching case.

Deadline for submission is September 30, 2011.

Expected publication is late-2012.

Reference material

Bonoma, Thomas V., “Case research in Marketing: Opportunities, Problems, and a Process,” Journal of Marketing Research, XXII (May 1985), 199-208.

Garvin, David A., “Making the Case,” Harvard Magazine, 106/1 (September-October 2003), 56-65 ff.

For more information please contact:

John Kuada kuada@business.aau.dk or George Tesar tesarg@uww.edu

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