The design and impact of a marketing training to strengthen customer value creation among Ethiopian pastoralists

Abstract

The excitement I had four years ago when I started the PhD process has come across in this thesis with the help of many people and organizations. I express my earnest gratitude to all of them. I would like to take the pleasure of the completion of my thesis as an opportunity to thank those who made significant contribution to the successful completion of the PhD journey. Foremost, I am deeply thankful to my promotor Prof. Hans van Trijp and co-promotors Dr Paul Ingenbleek and Dr Workneh Kassa. Dear Hans, I am grateful to the freedom you gave me to explain my views during our discussions, and your incisive suggestions and comments that helped me a lot to grow as a researcher. Your approach to simplify theoretical abstraction, to sketch relationship of concepts/ideas in a simply pictorial representation and to keep me lively, enthusiastic and in the same page of our discussions has remained in my mind as a valuable asset. I also greatly appreciate your 'deep reading' approach that leaves no room even for a small spelling error beside to the metacognitive synthesis, reflections and comments. Paul, I immensely thank you for the day-today guidance, follow-ups, constructive criticisms, comments and suggestions. Had it not for your dedicated support, guidance and insightful inputs, it would have never been possible to fruitfully complete the PhD process in four years. At all stages in the course, I benefited from your advice and astute criticisms, particularly so in eyeing concepts at a theoretical landscape and concretization to the real lives and interpretation schemes of the subjects of this PhD research. You have always a way to encourage and remind that a PhD life is a "going-concern" that demands consistent commitment with the hope to achieve the goal in a foreseeable feature. Your phrases 'get out of your comfort zone', 'be strong' and 'good luck' became my dayfares to think strategically, to aim higher and to energize myself to keep the momentum. I really thank you for the dedication and approach you followed to shape me to become a better researcher. Workneh, you have mentored and supported me in my journey since my undergraduate. In the course, you have treated me as a brother and supported me by setting a good example and sharing your experiences that become an instrumental guide to foster my thinking horizons and to systematically manage challenges. I am very much grateful to you for all the advice, support, inspirational discussions and comments. I would like to thank the members of the defence committee Prof. Han van Dijk, Prof. Arjen Wals, Dr Bas Hillebrand and Prof. Belay Kassa for reviewing my thesis and coming to Wageningen for my public defence. It is a great honour for me to have you in my PhD committee. My gratitude also goes to my paranymphs Robert Goedegebure and Falylath Babah Daouda for your support during my preparation for the PhD defence and your friendship during my PhD study. Undertaking this PhD study would have never been possible without the financial support from the Netherlands Organiz...

Meat Consumption Culture in Ethiopia

“…The Coptic Orthodox Church, the dominant religious sect, has been dictating many food customs in Ethiopia since the fourth century ( Bea, 1993 ). According to the belief of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Christians, the faithful must abstain from eating meat and dairy products to attain forgiveness of sins committed during the year, and undergo a rigorous schedule of prayers and atonement ( Teklehaimanot, 2005 ). Therefore, followers do not eat meat and dairy products (i.e.…”

“…Therefore, followers do not eat meat and dairy products (i.e. egg, butter, milk, and cheese) on fasting days such as Wednesdays and Fridays except the 50 days running from Easter, the Fast of the Prophets, the fast of Nineveh, Lent, the Fast of the Apostles and the fast of the Holy Virgin Mary ( Teklehaimanot, 2005 ). The Ethiopian Orthodox Christians follow fasts in a way similar to other Orthodox Christians but with a frequency of approximately 250 days in a year ( Rakesh and Tafesse, 2010 ).…”

“…During lent, for example, Christians who abstain from eating meat, milk and eggs consume fish. As a common dish of fasting days, peoples consume fish and vegetarian meals by making the stews from pulses, lentils, peas, field peas, chick peas, peanuts and varieties of vegetables ( Teklehaimanot, 2005 ).…”

“…Considering the two Ethiopian major religions in broad, the Christian sects in general and the Islam have influential role by restricting their followers for some of the type of animal’s flesh foods. Both, Ethiopian Christians and Muslims in common do not eat pork as it is forbidden by their religious beliefs ( Teklehaimanot, 2005 ). They have also types of meat animals they restrict independently.…”

Customer value creation in a natural resource-scarce environment: the role of market knowledge in adaptation and sustainability

“…Chapter 1 their target customers (Ingenbleek, Tessema, & van Trijp, 2013;Teklehaimanot, Ingenbleek, Tessema, & van Trijp, 2017). With increasing market integration, the pastoralists are also accumulating knowledge about the needs of customers and competing offerings (Teklehaimanot et al, 2017;Tessema et al, 2019). Hence, with market integration, they most likely combine two types of knowledge: the traditional ecological knowledge about adaptation to natural resource scarcity and the market knowledge about the needs and requirements of markets.…”