Application of Marketing Mix Strategies and the Effect on Market Performance of Motor Vehicle Dealers in Kenya

The environment in which organizations operate is constantly changing with different micro and macro-economic factors influencing the organization’s performance. Coping with the increasingly competitive environment has called on firms to rethink their marketing strategies. The need to respond to market changes on a daily basis, and the difficulty of predicting the direction of such changes means that organizations must strategically focus on their core competences and capabilities. The World Bank report (2015) clearly indicates that motor vehicles imports in Kenya have increased with 2.0% in the year 2015. However, this ratio keeps on changing depending on macro-economic factors such as increase or decrease on imports duty. Entry of new competitors into the market has caused a drastic change not only to the specific companies operations, but also to their products and services in the demanding market. The competition in the markets has created an attention for these companies to review their marketing strategies in order to remain relevant in the market. One of the determinant of performance is marketing mix focusing on the product, its price, its position and how well it is known by its customers. Studies show that application of marketing mix strategies influence the level of sales. However, minimal research exists on this relationship. Therefore, this study sought to establish the effect of marketing practices on market performance of Motor vehicle Dealers in Kenya. The study adopted four major practices namely; product strategies, price strategies, positioning strategies and promotion strategies and market performance as the dependent variable. Porters Five forces model, Resource based view model, stakeholders’ theory and pricing theory were applied to explain the empirical literature. The study area was in Nairobi County, while target population of the study was the 7 major Dealers in cars. The study sampled at least one respondent from each management offices in the marketing department. Therefore, the study target a total of 21 respondents. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations will be used to analyse the data. A regression model was used to measure and explain the relationship of the study variables. The study concludes that the four strategies namely; product strategies, price strategies, positioning strategies and promotion strategies had a significant effect on performance. The study recommends that to achieve a high output, there is need to utilise all the four strategies as each has a specific contribution to the performance. Keywords: Marketing mix, Product, Pricing, Positioning, Promotion, market performance, motor vehicle dealers DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-27-06 Publication date:September 30th 201

Workforce Diversity Management and Employee Performance in The Banking Sector in Kenya

The rapid growth in the Banking industry has posed several challenges such as workforce diversity which is a natural phenomenon that has both negative and positive impacts on employee performance depending on how well it is managed. This has affected the commercial banks, Non-Banking Financial Institutions, and even the Micro-Finance sector. It is in this context that this Research investigated the effects of workforce diversity management on employee performance in the Banking industry in Kenya. Descriptive survey research design was used. The target population included all the 4000 employees of the bank. Nairobi region was purposively selected because of nearness to the researchers, accessibility, and time limit. The respondents were selected using stratified random sampling technique from 3 branches in Nairobi region. The study revealed that the Bank had strategies such as balanced recruitment, support to minority groups, diversity training and equal employment opportunities. Other than an employee’s level of education and performance ability, there was no other workforce diversity variable that determined an employee’s compensation. Workforce diversity was found to affect employee performance at varying degrees considering both managers and non-managerial employees of the Bank. The managers registered a greater impact while the impact was less among the non-managerial employees. The various tests of hypotheses showed a significant level of association between employee performance and the mean productivity levels of the bank workforce when categorized by gender, age and level of education.Key words: Workforce, Diversity Management, Banking Sector, Keny

Enhancing Soil Carbon in East Africa: The biophysical evidence, socio-economic incentives, and policy implications

This report provides a summary/sythesis of key research outputs and messages gathered from the four year BMZ-funded project on "Scaling up soil carbon enhancement interventions for food security and climate across complex landscapes in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Antioxidant activity and antimicrobial properties of <i>Entada leptostachya</i> and <i>Prosopis juliflora</i> extracts

Background: Natural phytoconstituents produced by plants for their sustenance have been reported to reduce disease. Objectives: This study determined the phytoconstituents, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of crude methanolic extracts of Entada leptostachya and Prosopis juliflora extracts. Methodology: Antioxidant activity was determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and β-carotene assays; the total phenolic and flavonoid were estimated using Folin–Ciocalteau and aluminium chloride, whereas antimicrobial activity was determined using the zone of inhibition method. Results: Screening of the extracts revealed the presence of terpenoids, flavonoids, saponins and phenols. Fourier transform infrared spectra of the extracts revealed presence of hydrogen bonded –OH functional group. E. leptostachya barks had the highest antioxidant activity followed by P. juliflora roots, E. leptostachya roots and P. juliflora leaves [μg/mL]. Prosopis juliflora (roots) had the highest bleaching effect, whereas E. leptostachya (barks) had the lowest bleaching effect. The total flavonoids were determined to be 0.15 ± 0.02 mg/g, 1.18 ± 0.18 mg/g, 0.39 ± 0.05 mg/g and 0.64 ± 0.03 mg/g for E. leptostachya roots, E. leptostachya barks, P. juliflora leaves and P. juliflora roots extracts, respectively. The total phenols were determined to be 0.93 ± 0.18 mg/g, 2.69 ± 0.41 mg/g, 0.62 ± 0.08 mg/g and 0.62 ± 0.08 mg/g for E. leptostachya roots, E. leptostachya barks, P. juliflora roots and P. juliflora leaves extracts. All plant extracts exhibited moderate activity against the growth of selected microorganisms. Conclusion: Antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of the two plants was as a result of secondary metabolites found in the crude extracts

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to HIV and reproductive health care among women living with HIV (WLHIV) in Western Kenya: A mixed methods analysis

Results: We analyzed 1,402 surveys and 15 in-depth interviews. Many (32%) CL participants reported greater difficulty refilling medications and a minority (14%) reported greater difficulty accessing HIV care during the pandemic. Most (99%) Opt4Mamas participants reported no difficulty refilling medications or accessing HIV/pregnancy care. Among the CL participants, older women were less likely (aOR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.92–0.98) and women with more children were more likely (aOR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.00–1.28) to report difficulty refilling medications. Only 2% of CL participants reported greater difficulty managing FP and most (95%) reported no change in likelihood of using FP or desire to get pregnant. Qualitative analysis revealed three major themes: (1) adverse organizational/economic implications of the pandemic, (2) increased importance of pregnancy prevention during the pandemic, and (3) fear of contracting COVID-19

Prevalence and correlates of bacterial vaginosis in different sub-populations of women in Sub-Saharan Africa: a cross-sectional study

Background: Clinical development of vaginally applied products aimed at reducing the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, has highlighted the need for a better characterisation of the vaginal environment. We set out to characterise the vaginal environment in women in different settings in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted in Kenya, Rwanda and South-Africa. Women were recruited into pre-defined study groups including adult, non-pregnant, HIV-negative women; pregnant women; adolescent girls; HIV-negative women engaging in vaginal practices; female sex workers; and HIV-positive women. Consenting women were interviewed and underwent a pelvic exam. Samples of vaginal fluid and a blood sample were taken and tested for bacterial vaginosis (BV), HIV and other reproductive tract infections (RTIs). This paper presents the cross-sectional analyses of BV Nugent scores and RTI prevalence and correlates at the screening and the enrolment visit. Results: At the screening visit 38% of women had BV defined as a Nugent score of 7-10, and 64% had more than one RTI (N. gonorrhoea, C. trachomatis, T. vaginalis, syphilis) and/or Candida. At screening the likelihood of BV was lower in women using progestin-only contraception and higher in women with more than one RTI. At enrolment, BV scores were significantly associated with the presence of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the vaginal fluid and with being a self-acknowledged sex worker. Further, sex workers were more likely to have incident BV by Nugent score at enrolment. Conclusions: Our study confirmed some of the correlates of BV that have been previously reported but the most salient finding was the association between BV and the presence of PSA in the vaginal fluid which is suggestive of recent unprotected sexual intercourse

Successful Entrepreneurship

In Finland, many foreigners seeking to settle in the country have embarked on starting up their own businesses. Most have been successful and growing, others have not been as lucky. The Ministry of Employment and the Economy (MEE) wishes to raise the number of successful entrepreneurs and help the existing ones. The purpose of this study is to establish which factors affect business survival and success among SMEs owned by persons of foreign origin in Finland. Based on a survey of restaurants in the Leppävaara area, the study discloses that customer relations, access to capital, marketing and knowledge of Finnish language significantly affect the likelihood of business success in a positive way, while taxation and legality do so in a negative direction. These findings suggest that to be a successful business, the owners of SMEs should pay more attention to improving marketing strategy, learn the Finnish language, and to acquire capital and improved access to information. Other parties interested in the development of SMEs, such as government agencies, schools and business development services, should also be prepared to give assistances in these areas

Acute oral toxicity, cognitive-enhancing and anti-lipid peroxidation efficacy, and qualitative phytochemistry of the aqueous aerial part extract of Launaea cornuta (Hochst. ex. Oliv. &Hiern) C. Jeffrey

At present, there is no cure for dementia or its related cognitive impairments. Available treatments only provide symptomatic relief and do not alter the disease's progression and they suffer serious drawbacks limiting their clinical use, hence the need for alternative therapies. Although Launaea cornuta has been used traditionally to treat cognitive deficits, its pharmacological efficacy and safety have not been empirically validated, prompting this study. Acute oral toxicity of the extract was examined in Swiss albino mice using the up-and-down procedure described by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development guideline number 425. The Morris water maze technique was adopted in assessing cognitive-enhancing effects of the extract in ketamine-induced cognitive-impaired mice. The malondialdehyde concentrations in the whole brain of experimental mice involved in the MWM experiment were measured to determine the extract's anti-lipid peroxidation efficacy. Qualitative phytochemical screening of the extract was performed using standard procedures. Our results showed that the test extract was safe and did not cause any clinical signs of acute oral toxicity in mice at all doses (LD50 > 2000 mg/kg BW). Moreover, the extract significantly improved cognitive function in ketamine-induced cognitive-impaired mice in a dose-dependent manner, as indicated by reduced escape latency, navigation distance, and longer latency in the target quadrant during the probe trial. The extract also significantly reduced malondialdehyde concentrations in mice in a dose-dependent manner, demonstrating its antioxidative stress efficacy. The studied extract contained various phytochemicals associated with cognitive enhancement and antioxidant efficacy, among other pharmacologic effects. Further empirical studies are needed to determine and characterise the extract's specific cognitive-enhancing compounds, specific mechanisms of action, and complete toxicity profiles

Genetic structure and diversity of East African taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott]

Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L) Schott] is mainly produced in Africa by small holder farmers and plays an important role in the livelihood of millions of poor people in less developed countries. The genetic diversity of East African taro has not been determined. This study utilizes six microsatellite primers to analyze five populations of taro from three different regions of East Africa. Plant material consisted of 98 taro cultivars obtained from East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda). Principal component analysis of microsatellite data indicated variation but did not show any distinct structure. Population diversity estimate was relatively low with the highest being 0.27, for accessions sourced from Lake Victoria basin. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed most variation among individuals within population at 79%. Nei’s genetic distance showed that relatedness is not based on geographical proximity. Based on these findings, this study proposes establishment of a regional collection that will be conserved and ensure a broad genetic base for available varieties and enable development of improved varieties through breeding programmes. Key words: Genetic diversity, simple sequence repeats (SSRs), taro