The effect of strategic marketing planning practices on performance: a study of Australian private hospitals

Although many marketing text books and a number of studies claim that strategic marketing planning can help firms improve their organizational performance, little or no study particularly in Australia has examined the effect of strategic marketing planning practices on private hospitals. This paper aims to present the results of a study that addressed whether strategic marketing planning practice is related to private hospitals organizational performance

Strategy implementation and organizational performance: a study of private hospitals

Although there is continuing interest in the concept of strategic planning, very little research has been done to examine whether the extent to which marketing strategies are implemented in private hospitals could explain variations in their organizational performance. This paper aims to present the results of a study that addressed whether there are significant differences in the extent to which marketing strategies are implemented in private hospitals that have high level of organizational performance versus private hospitals that have low level of organizational performance

Effects of conventional and conservation tillage on soil compaction in Omuntele and Ogongo constituencies of Namibia

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Effects of conventional and Namibia specific conservation tillage on soil moisture content in Ogongo, Namibia

Farmers in Northern Communal Areas (NCA) of Namibia practise conventional tillage using mouldboard or disc implements that pulverise fragile soil structures thereby destroying vital organic matter. This subsequently creates hard pans and plough lines that lead to soil degradation and consequently reduced moisture content and low yields leading to food insecurity. Studies were conducted at the Ogongo Campus of the University of Namibia between 2011 and 2013 to compare the differences between two conventional tillage (CV) treatments (i.e. tractor - drawn disc harrow (TDH) and animal - drawn mouldboard plough (AMP) and two Namibia Specific Conservation tillage (NSCT) treatments (tractor - drawn ripper furrower (TRF) and animal - drawn ripper furrowers (ARF) used by farmers in Namibia. A Fallow treatment of No tillage No crop (NTNC) was used as a control. The experimental research design used was a „split plot randomized complete block design‟ with tillage method as the main plot factor, and two mulch rates (0 and 3 t ha-1) as the subplot factor in 4 blocks, totalling 40 plots. This study showed significant (p<0.003) differences in moisture among tillage methods and interaction between time and tillage (p<0.001), with soil moisture peaks in February for both years. TRF resulted in the highest percentage increase in moisture content with 8.1%, whilst TDH increased by 3.9%, ARF increased by 3.1%, AMP actually decreased by 3.1% over the two year period. There was however no mulch effect on the moisture levels over the two years. Overall, the moisture contents under the NSCT treatments were higher than the corresponding moisture contents under the CV technologies and fallow treatments, Farmers in the NCA of Namibia are therefore advised to adopt the NSCT methods

Restraints and enablers of green initiative-taking among hospitality employees:a mixed-methods approach

Green initiative-taking, an employee’s self-starting opportunity-seeking action to improve environmental performance is a desirable outcome of organizations’ green policies. Given prior inattention to this area of study, it is unclear what fosters green initiative-taking, and why. This study attempts to answer these questions using a mixed-methods approach. First, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted. Green human resource management, eco-silence, supervisor bottom-line mentality, and co-worker voice emerged as the major themes of employees’ experiences when seeking to engage in green initiative-taking. Second, building on social information processing and social learning theories, a quantitative study proposes a conceptual model of the inter-relationships between the themes that emerged from the first study. Results from a multinational multisource time-lagged quantitative study support most of the hypotheses and shed light on avenues for future research. It suggests that supervisor bottom-line mentality inhibiting green initiative-taking might be standard procedure bottom-line mentality rather than profit bottom-line mentality. Post-hoc, to enhance the study’s applicability, a fuzzy-set analysis was conducted to offer managers the configurations that best yield green initiative-taking among hospitality employees

A comparison of conventional and conservation tillage implements used for crop production in Omusati region of Northern Namibia

Experiments were conducted to test and compare the performance of four tillage implements (two for Conventional Tillage (CV) and two for Conservation tillage (CT) used by farmers in Omusati conditions of Namibia. The two CV implements are the animal drawn plough and the tractor drawn disc harrow whilst the two CT implements are the animal drawn and the tractor drawn ripper furrowers. The parameters evaluated were draught force, draught power, effective field capacity, field efficiency, average depth and width of cut during the various operations. The research design was a randomised complete block design. Results showed that there are significant differences (p = <0.001) in mean depth, draught and effective field capacity among the tillage methods. They show that draught requirements vary with implement type, speed of operation and depth of operation

Competitiveness of the UK Fertility Market - A National Comparative Assessment

The fertility Industry in the UK has continuously faced threats from international competition. This is evident in the growing rate at which fertility patient’s travel to other international markets for fertility treatments. A Europe-wide study suggests that ‘hundreds of British couples travel to the continent every month for fertility treatment because they cannot get it at home’ (BBC Website). The Czech market, in particular, has been a major market for patients travelling for fertility treatments with many more patronising the country because of the relatively cheaper cost of service as well as availability of donor eggs among other things. Adopting the Porters Comparative Diamond framework reveals that the factor conditions in the UK fertility Industry are relatively less competitive because the price offering, as well as governing regulatory practices, make services less accessible to patients relative to what obtains in the Czech market. Hence, though the situation may pose limiting factors for investment in UK fertility market, nevertheless the study seeks to review relative competitiveness of the Czech and UK fertility market for possible efficiency gains. The study utilises a standardisation framework to assess the degree of similarities that exists in both markets and hence proposes a point through which investments in both markets can be beneficial

An Exploratory Examination of the Marketing Philosophy Utilization in the Health Industry: A Case of Preventative Family Home Visiting Health Program in Australia

According to the literature the application of the marketing concept philosophy is fundamental to the success of any program run in organizations. However, despite its importance, limited research has been focused on investigating the adoption of the marketing concept philosophy in the health industry. This paper presents the results of a study that was designed to examine whether the marketing concept philosophy is being utilized in health services programs particularly in a preventative home visiting program operating in a rural community in Australia. The home visiting program investigated in this research was a two-year publicly funded program that involved recruiting and training experienced parents as volunteers to visit and support first-time parents or carers. In order to investigate whether the marketing concept was being applied within this program, a survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to all parents and carers upon entry into the program. Results of the research showed that parents/carers participating in this home visiting program came from a similar socioeconomic background and did not appear to have a need for the program. Further research is warranted to identify segments of society who have a need for such a program and to tailor their needs to these programs