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The growing investment gap and the declining foreign aid in recent years have compelled many African countries to turn to foreign direct investment (FDI) as a means to avoid development financing constraints. This article seeks to examine the performance of FDI flow to various regions and countries in Africa and the implication(s) on FDI of the recently launched new partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) programs.

Explores strategies for accelerating the flow of FDI to Africa, especially the implications of NEPAD programs.

Africa's FDI inflows are highly uneven both between regions and between countries depending on economic and political environment. In addition, if implemented successfully, NEPAD programs would help spur the flow of FDI to Africa.

Besides the socio‐economic policy recommendations, suggests marketing strategies to help increase the flow of FDI to Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a state of the art description of open air markets (OAM), a little-known phenomenon that is indispensable in Africa’s consumer packaged goods industry.

A qualitative methodology comprising in-depth semi-structured interviews and direct observation was employed.

Analysis of data from Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, reveals that channel members have roles that are different from that of their Western counterparts. For example, distributors often do not distribute and principals are expected to actively sell on behalf of their distributors to empty the latter’s warehouse. Also, while many end-users in developing countries expect credit sales and opportunity to bargain, extant literature does not include these demands in the formal list of service output demands. Another major finding is the surprising order underlying OAM. It is the bedrock of commercial activities: for most consumer packaged goods manufacturers, sales through OAM account for over 90 percent of revenue.

The focus on one industry and country limits the generalizability of the above findings.

Africa is the next growth frontier. Tapping into this growth requires a deep understanding and appreciation of the important role played by its unique marketing channels.

Given the dearth of documented knowledge about marketing channels in emerging markets, this study addresses an important gap. Its findings could inform theory development and encourage more research on marketing channels in developing countries.

Information and communication technologies are being increasingly used across various sectors including the tourism industry. However, equitable access to online information remains a significant challenge, especially for people with disabilities (PwD). There is a pressing need for research into the accessibility of the internet to promote social equality. This study aims to identify patterns in both the technical accessibility and the content information related to accessibility and disability that is available on the official websites of leading global tourist destinations.

A cluster analysis assessed the technical accessibility of the websites, while a principal component analysis evaluated the content information concerning accessibility and disability.

There has been a substantial improvement in the technical accessibility of tourism websites over that described in earlier studies. There have been no advances in content information on accessibility and disability, which continues to be very heterogeneous and dispersed.

This evaluation of the technical accessibility and content related to accessibility and disability on tourism websites provides a basis for developing strategies to eliminate barriers that PwD encounter in accessing tourism information. To augment the efficacy of big data inputs, it is imperative to homogenise variables associated with technical access and content information on accessibility. Such standardisation will improve the functionality of algorithms critical to the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies. These enhancements are likely to spur innovations that bridge the inequality gap and promote environments where technology serves as a cornerstone of social inclusion and equality.

信息和通信技术在包括旅游业在内的很多行业的应用越来越广泛。 互联网是游客不可或缺的工具, 但并非每个人（在本研究中为残疾人、PwD）都能以相同的方式获取可用信息。有必要对无障碍使用互联网进行研究, 以促进社会平等。本研究旨在识别全球主要旅游目的地官方网站的技术可及性以及网站内容上有关可及性和残疾信息的规律。

聚类分析评估了网站的技术可及性, 主成成分分析评估了网站的可及性和残疾的相关内容信息。

与早期研究中描述的相比, 旅游网站的技术可访问性有了实质性的改善。关于无障碍和残疾的内容信息没有任何改善, 仍然非常异质性和分散性。

本研究对旅游网站的技术可及性以及有关可及性和残障人士的内容信息的评估为制定以消除残疾人旅游所面临的障碍的未来战略奠定了基础。为了提高大数据输入的有效性, 技术可及性和可及性内容信息相关的变量必须标准化和同质化。这将提高关键算法的效率,以增加物联网和人工智能技术的功能。这些改进可以促进创新, 缩小不平等差距, 并营造让技术成为社会包容和平等基石的环境因素。

Las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) se utilizan cada vez más en diversos sectores, incluido el turístico. Sin embargo, el acceso equitativo a la información online sigue siendo un reto importante, especialmente para las personas con discapacidad. Existe una necesidad acuciante de investigar la accesibilidad de Internet para promover la igualdad social. Este estudio identifica patrones en la accesibilidad técnica y en el contenido de la información sobre accesibilidad y discapacidad disponible en las páginas web oficiales de los principales destinos turísticos mundiales.

Un análisis de conglomerados evaluó la accesibilidad técnica y un análisis de componentes principales analizó el contenido de la información sobre accesibilidad y discapacidad en los sitios web.

Se constata una mejora sustancial en la accesibilidad técnica de las páginas web de turismo con respecto a los resultados de estudios anteriores. No ha habido avances en el contenido de la información sobre accesibilidad y discapacidad, que sigue siendo muy heterogénea y dispersa.

Esta evaluación de la accesibilidad técnica y del contenido de la información relativo a la accesibilidad y la discapacidad en las páginas web turísticas proporciona una base para desarrollar estrategias que eliminen las barreras con las que se encuentran las personas con discapacidad para acceder a la información turística. Para mejorar la eficacia de las entradas de big data, es necesario estandarizar las variables relacionadas con la accesibilidad técnica y el contenido de la información sobre accesibilidad. Esta normalización mejorará la funcionalidad de los algoritmos fundamentales para el internet de las cosas y las tecnologías de inteligencia artificial. Es probable que estas mejoras impulsen innovaciones que reduzcan la brecha de la desigualdad y promuevan entornos en los que la tecnología sirva como piedra angular de la inclusión social e igualdad.

Rising expectations for exceptional customer experiences demand strategic amalgamation of cross-functional, customer-focused teams (marketing/sales/service departments). However, the long history of interface conflicts between functional teams continues to attract research attention. Past research has given more attention to conflicts between marketing and sales teams than to triadic interface conflict between custom-focused teams and their sub-conflicts in a business-to-business (B2B) sales process. The purpose of this research paper is to quantify the triadic interface conflicts and associated sub-conflicts between customer-focused teams, discuss conflict resolution strategies and perform a sensitivity analysis (SA) to give a fuller account of functional team conflict.

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) based in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is proposed for identifying and resolving conflicts in customer-focused team interfaces. A group of 30 managers of a large electronics company participated in this research. The authors collected the data from customer-focused team managers during training sessions on interface conflicts and conflict management/resolution strategies. The authors perform SA to test the robustness of conflict resolution strategy rankings.

The findings reveal that managers adjudge task as the most crucial conflict attribute driving teams apart, followed by lack of communication. For the sub-conflicts, managers considered how to do the task as the most important conflict attribute, followed by lack of regular meetings. For conflict resolution strategies, managers regarded collaboration or integration as the overall best strategy, followed by compromise. Leveraging the AHP-based MCDM to resolve customer-focused team interface conflicts provides managers with the confidence in the consistency and the robustness of these solutions. By testing the SA, it is also discovered that the final outcome stayed robust (stable) regardless when the priorities of the main criteria influencing the decision are increased and decreased by 5% in every combinations.

This study examined only a large B2B company in the electronics industry in African and Middle East settings, focusing on interface conflicts among customer-focused departments. Future research could address these limitations.

This paper advances our understanding of customer-focused team interface conflicts in a B2B sales process. It also provides valuable insights on effective management of major and sub-interface conflicts. This paper provides a framework for and practical insights into how interface conflicts that are prevalent in marketing, sales and service sectors can be resolved to improve customer experience and business performance.

This study contributes to the literature by developing an AHP-based MCDM, which not only extends our conceptual understanding of the interface conflicts between customer-focused teams by emphasizing their triadic nature but also provides valuable strategies and insights into the practical resolution of such conflicts in a B2B firm’s sales process. Methodologically, SA is valuable to ensuring the robustness of the conflict resolution strategies’ rankings that will influence relevant pragmatic decision-making.

This paper aims to strengthen the connection between therapeutic built environments and tourism research and practice. While there is evidence in the importance of the Built Environment (BE) of cities, workspaces and health-care facilities to health, the BE of facilities for tourism in relation to health remains relatively unexplored.

The paper conducts an exploratory search on architecture and tourism BE and narrowed it down to a scoping review on wellness tourism and architectural health impacts from 2010 to 2024. This would highlight lessons learned from the field of medical architecture, i.e. a cross-disciplinary field combining BE research, public health and health-care services research, to explore potential synergies of cross-pollination with the field of hospitality and medical architecture.

Principles and theories of medical architecture can be incorporated into the BE of wellness hospitality, tourism for ageing and pandemic preparedness.

The paper sets the basis of a novel cross-disciplinary collaboration between therapeutic architecture and hospitality for increasing the societal impact of the latter. This is particularly important in a post-Covid and an ageing society.

本文旨在加强治疗性建筑环境与旅游研究和实践之间的联系。虽然有证据表明城市、工作场所和医疗设施的建筑环境(BE)对健康很重要, 但与健康相关的旅游设施的建筑环境仍相对未被探索。

作者对建筑和旅游建筑环境进行了探索性搜索, 并将其缩小到2010年至2024年期间的健康旅游和建筑健康影响的范围审查。这将突出医疗建筑领域的经验教训, 即结合建筑环境研究、公共卫生和医疗服务研究的跨学科领域, 以探索与酒店业和医疗建筑领域交叉授粉的潜在协同效应。

医疗建筑的原则和理论可以纳入健康酒店业、老龄化旅游和大流行病准备的建筑环境中。

我们为治疗性建筑和酒店业之间的新型跨学科合作奠定了基础, 以增加后者的社会影响。这在后疫情时代和老龄化社会中尤为重要。

Este documento pretende reforzar la conexión entre los entornos construidos terapéuticos y la investigación y la práctica del turismo. Aunque existen pruebas de la importancia del entorno construido (EC) de las ciudades, los espacios de trabajo y las instalaciones sanitarias para la salud, el EC de las instalaciones para el turismo en relación con la salud sigue estando relativamente inexplorado.

Realizamos una búsqueda exploratoria sobre arquitectura y el EC turístico y la acotamos a una revisión de alcance sobre el turismo de bienestar y los impactos arquitectónicos en la salud desde 2010 hasta 2024. Esto pondría de relieve las lecciones aprendidas en el campo de la arquitectura médica, es decir, un campo interdisciplinar que combina la investigación de la EC, la salud pública y la investigación de los servicios sanitarios, para explorar posibles sinergias de polinización cruzada con el campo de la hostelería y la arquitectura médica.

Los principios y teorías de la arquitectura médica pueden incorporarse a la EC de la hosteleria para el bienestar, el turismo para el envejecimiento y la preparación ante pandemias.

Sentamos las bases de una novedosa colaboración interdisciplinar entre la arquitectura terapéutica y la hostelería para aumentar el impacto social de esta última. Esto es especialmente importante después de la crisis y en una sociedad que envejece.

The purpose of this paper is to examine two key dimensions of in‐store marketing, namely in‐store promotions and price markdowns. These seem to be the two most important aspects of in‐store marketing, though other dimensions such as retail personal service are also worthy of study.

A sample of 287 New Zealand clothing and shoe retailers was studied. Survey questions included the perceived importance of in‐store promotions and price markdowns. The aim was to explain these perceptions in terms of marketing strategies, threat of competition and environmental uncertainty.

The results indicate that a discount marketing strategy, environmental uncertainty and emphasis on price‐promotions are key to explaining retailers' perceptions and use of specific in‐store marketing activities. In addition, seven key marketing activities were found to distinguish high‐ and low‐performance retailers with respect to in‐store promotions.

The study has highlighted strategic aspects of in‐store marketing, by focusing on two key components of in‐store marketing, namely in‐store promotion and price markdowns. The findings should provide much needed advice to retailers on the use of sales promotion tools in different environmental settings.

This paper should prove valuable to academic researchers and retailing managers (particularly to those in smaller countries), owner‐operated retail outlets, and chain stores.

This research involves a review of the principal aspects of the concept of perceived price fairness in consumer purchasing behaviour.

The research reviews the principal aspects of perceived price fairness analysed in the literature. First, it tackles the dimensions of the concept of fairness before examining the dual entitlement principle, from which the idea of reference prices and the term fair price derive.

The research establishes research ideas for further research into this important topic, which is not currently the subject of much research.

The principal limitation of the research is that it only focuses on the consumer, without analysing the vendor's point of view in pricing. Additionally, it is limited to considering the effects of perceived unfairness on satisfaction. In future research it will be important to include aspects such as loyalty or confidence in the decision making process.

The research offers a thorough overview of the concept of perceived price fairness, proposing several future research areas that are better adjusted to the real‐world functioning of this important concept and should lead to improved understanding.

El objetivo de este trabajo es hacer una revisión de los principales aspectos relacionados con la percepción de justicia de precios en el comportamiento de compra del consumidor.

Este trabajo revisa los principales aspectos relacionados con la percepción de justicia de precios analizados en la literatura. Así, en primer lugar se abordan las distintas dimensiones que componen el concepto de justicia, y en segunda instancia, el denominado principio de doble derecho que introduce el precio de referencia y da lugar al término de precio justo.

Este trabajo plantea líneas de investigación futuras para profundizar en un tema tan importante, pero poco analizado en la actualidad.

La principal limitación de este trabajo es que se centra solo en la perspectiva del consumidor sin analizar el punto de vista del vendedor cuando fija los precios. Además, se ha considerado únicamente los efectos que la percepción de injusticia tiene sobre la satisfacción, siendo interesante incluir elementos como la lealtad o la confianza en la decisión.

Este trabajo aporta una visión integrada del concepto de percepción de justicia de precios, planteando una serie de líneas de investigación que pueden permitir un conocimiento mejor y más adaptado a la realidad de un concepto tan relevante.

The effect of customers’ forward-looking behavior on firms’ profit has been highlighted by many researchers and practitioners. This study aims to develop a mathematical model for new generation products to analyze the optimal pricing and advertising policies in the presence of homogeneous forward-looking customers. A firm that produces and sells a new generation product was considered. This firm aimed to determine the optimal pricing and advertising expenditure by maximizing the total profit.

The demand was presented as a diffusion model inspired by the Bass diffusion model. This paper used Pontryagin’s maximum principle to analyze the proposed model. The presented model was implemented in some numerical examples by proposing a heuristic solution method. Numerical examples confirmed the theoretical results.

This paper found a threshold on the optimal advertising policy depends on customers’ forward-looking behavior, advertising coefficient (both direct and word-of-mouth advertising) and discount rate. The funding showed that the optimal pricing path of the first generation was monotonically decreasing or increasing and, then, decreasing. Results revealed that, by increasing the customers’ forward-looking behavior, the firm should reduce the price and advertising expenditure. Also, the price was shown to be negatively affected by the discount rate and word-of-mouth advertising. The profitability will improve if the firm spends more budget on advertising by increasing the discount rate and advertising effectiveness. Further, when the word-of-mouth advertising effect is high, the firm should increase the advertising expenditure first and, then, decrease it.

Nowadays, forward-looking customers’ anticipation for releasing a new generation can harm the firms’ profit. In this regard, this research analyzed optimal pricing and advertising policies for a new generation product in a market populated by homogeneous forward-looking customers. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study that investigated these two marketing policies jointly in the presence of forward-looking customers.

The study aims to focus on the effectiveness of international investment agreements (IIAs) in helping or facilitating the influx of foreign direct investment (FDI) to host developing countries.

To critically examine the topic, the black letter approach and the socio-legal analysis are adopted. The study has analysed how Mauritius, being a developing country, is responding to FDI needs from various bilateral and multilateral investment treaties concluded, and the research includes the analysis of official data publicly made available by the World Trade Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Monetary Fund and Mauritius governmental agencies’ reports.

From the methodologies used, it was found that other than IIAs, there are various key determinants which foreign investors consider prior to injecting their capital in developing countries in terms of environmental, social and cultural factors. Also, there are some inherent loopholes mostly in terms of monitoring, in the way IIAs are concluded and are applied in practice by and amongst signatory states.

This research is amongst the first studies to conclude the link between IIAs and FDI flows in developing countries with a particular focus on Mauritius. Additionally, an overwhelming number of studies have emphasised on the efforts to boost FDI, which are inspired mostly by action plans of developed nations, but this research will analyse the policy options adopted by China, being itself a developing country, and the extent to which such recommendations are applicable in the context of Mauritius will also be considered.