The interest group theory of financial development in China: Openness and the role of interest groups

The interest group theory of financial development predicts that the incumbents' opposition to financial development will be weaker when an economy is open to both trade and capital flows. Based on regressions of financial development on trade and financial openness, existing studies only provide indirect tests of the hypothesis and deliver mixed findings. This paper proposes models for direct tests of interest group theory for China. Using Chinese cross-province data, we define and measure interest groups based on the close tie between state-owned enterprises and local government in China. The empirical results show that the opposition from interest groups to financial development cannot be weakened in provinces with high trade or financial openness alone. However, the opposition is indeed weakened in provinces with high levels of both trade and financial openness. These results provide robust support for interest group theory in accounting for cross-province differences and time-series variation in financial development in China.     

Choosing among alternative new product development projects: The role of heuristics

The initial screening decision that marketing managers make is critical. It requires the selection of what innovation project to invest in, which is fundamental to marketing success. However, our knowledge of how managers make these decisions and how this impacts performance is limited. By drawing upon cognitive psychology and the managerial decision-making literature, we address two critical questions. The first question focuses on identifying specific decision-making types (e.g., specific heuristics, intuition) used when making an innovation screening decision. Based on this analysis and prior research, we develop specific decision-maker profiles about how an individual manager decides. The second research question is about connecting these profiles with performance. Specifically, it addresses what the consequences of different decision-maker profiles are on the perceived accuracy and speed of decision-making? Data were collected from 122 senior managers in these industries. We find that when heuristics are used alone, or concurrently with intuition, managers make decisions that are as accurate as when they rely on analytical decision-making. However, the process is significantly faster. The findings provide an important step toward a more comprehensive understanding of decision-making at the front-end of innovation.     

A study in international marketing: The development of a consumer database marketing capability

This paper examines the reasons why Seagram Europe & Africa (SE&A) decided to develop their database marketing capability in Europe. The paper describes the environmental changes, external and internal, that led SE&A to re‐evaluate their marketing communications strategy and examine sponsorship and direct marketing opportunities for Europe. The paper focuses on the major issues SE&A addressed when weighing up the strategic role of database marketing. Finally, the key considerations in the development and implementation of an European‐wide database marketing discipline for the division are discussed.     

Why consumer animosity reduces product quality perceptions: The role of extreme emotions in international crises

International crises often influence consumers to reject offerings associated with a hostile country. While research has shown that negative emotions mediate the influence of animosity beliefs on consumer behavior, scholars do not examine the specific influence of different discrete emotions. This study extends prior research by demonstrating that extreme negative emotions of contempt and disgust play a key role in explaining the effects of animosity beliefs on behavior. The strength of these emotions results in a degraded image of the target country that is associated with social exclusion and intergroup hatred. In such circumstances, animosity also reduces product quality perceptions and is extremely difficult to manage. The best strategy is to eliminate any connection between the country of origin and the relevant offering. The findings of this study suggest that rather than assessing negative emotions in general, managers should consider the specific emotional reactions elicited by the country under examination.     

New product development in the financial service industry: A case study

New product development is an important aspect of service marketing. Information, however, is sparse on the actual development processes that are used by service firms to develop these new products. Utilizing a case study approach this article traces the development of a new service for a major UK based financial institution. Through an in‐depth examination of the processes it was found that a complex development system was used. The authors were able to identify a number of factors that were essential to the successful development of this new product.     

The effect of a similarity versus dissimilarity focus in positioning strategy: The moderating role of consumer familiarity and product category

Results of three studies show that the effectiveness of positioning strategies based on similarity and dissimilarity vis‐à‐vis other brands or with respect to the product category as a whole is moderated by the degree of familiarity of the consumer with the objects of comparison (Study 1) and by the degree of imageability and concreteness of the memory representation of the product category (Studies 2 and 3). Perceptual judgments appear to be more responsive to similarity and dissimilarity positioning either when consumers are more familiar or when product categories allow consumers to form clear, concrete memory representations. Study 3 shows that such effects are due to a shift in the relative proportion of common and distinctive features made salient under similarity and dissimilarity instructions. Methodological and practical implications are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Beyond organic: consumer interest in new labelling schemes in the Central Coast of California

Producers are interested in developing labelling schemes that go ‘beyond organic’ to address ethical criteria not included the US Department of Agriculture organic standards. However, consumer interests in labels that are not as widely available as organic in the market are poorly understood. This study reports results of focus‐group research and a survey of 1000 households in the Central Coast region of California to determine which standards consumers are most interested in supporting through their purchases. The results indicate that standards for the humane treatment of animals have the highest level of support, followed by a standard for local origin, and for a living wage for workers involved in producing food. Logistic regression analysis suggests that humane is more likely to be chosen by women, European‐Americans, younger people and frequent organic purchasers. Locally grown was preferred by older people and households with children. A living wage for workers involved in food production was selected more often by Latinos. Although a characterization of trends is not possible due to a cross‐sectional design, the results suggest some potential directions for producers in this region who are willing to supply unmet consumer demands for ethical criteria. There are three basic directions that new and emerging labels may take with respect to US national organic standards: (1) separate from organic; (2) institutionally separate, but tightly integrated with organic; and (3) intended to supplant organic. The success of each of these strategies will depend on how much trust consumers continue to place in government oversight of organic food. The study results also suggest that the movement for a more sustainable food system would benefit from devoting more attention to issues of animal rights and social justice.     

Social capital and new product development outcomes: The mediating role of sensing capability in Chinese high-tech firms

This study investigates the effects of social capital (trust and power) on a high-tech firm's new product development outcomes through the leveraging of its sensing capability in an emerging market, China. A sample of high-tech firms in China is used to test the proposed relationships. Findings confirm that both trust and power in a high-tech firm's social network are significantly associated with its two new product development outcomes through sensing capability which fully mediates the relationships.     

The influence of innovation orientation in human resource management on new product development: The moderating role of innovation type

Despite substantial prior research on new product success, there are still high failure rates. Why might this be the case? This paper argues that (1) the most important determinants of new product success involve managerial behavior and therefore a need exists to examine the influence of innovation orientation of human resource management (IO-HRM) on these determinants, and (2) these relationships are moderated by the type of innovation, product versus service. Data from 275 product innovation projects suggest that IO-HRM is a significant predictor of not only new product success but also its prime determinants: the proficiency of development activities, product advantage, marketing synergy, and top management support. Further, the linkage between IO-HRM and new product success and marketing synergy is found to be stronger in service than in product innovation projects.     

Beyond radical affordability in the base of the pyramid: The role of consumer self-confidence in product acceptance

When developing products and services for base of the economic pyramid (BoP) consumers, it has been widely assumed that organizations must set extremely low prices that are dependent on substantial product acceptance and economies of scale. However, such pricing is often not feasible. Growing evidence suggests that more moderate price levels are needed for organizations to viably serve the needs of low-income consumers. However, price sensitivity is less understood in low-income contexts. To promote the success of social enterprises through fresh insight, we reexamine the extremely low-price BoP assumption by investigating product acceptance among low-income consumers using two experiments in Latin America. Results reveal that a belief in one's capabilities to make effective consumption decisions, consumer self-confidence, helps explain the acceptance of moderately-priced products. Discussion highlights directions for stimulating acceptance of socially beneficial products in low-income contexts.     

新品牌规避消费者预期效应的产品营销路径探索

产品营销关乎企业生存与发展,面临众多大品牌的激烈竞争,对于一个新品牌来说,如何规避消费者对新品牌的不信任预期,使自己企业的产品受到更多消费者的青睐,是一个普遍存在的问题.因为知觉恒常性和知觉定势的存在,消费者在购买产品之前就会形成自己的预期,改变消费者的预期会对产品营销带来非常巨大的作用.改变消费者的预期可以通过消费者...     

Managing supplier involvement in new product development: a portfolio approach

Supplier involvement in new product development projects has become an increasingly popular method for improving project effectiveness (product costs and quality) and project efficiency (development costs and time). One of the key issues in managing this involvement is determining which type of involvement a manufacturer should have with the various suppliers that may be engaged simultaneously in a development project. In this article, a Supplier Involvement Portfolio is introduced to distinguish four types of supplier involvement in development projects. Subsequently, suitable supplier–manufacturer interfaces for the four types of involvement are defined in terms of the direction of information flow, the communication media used, the amount of communication, the topics discussed and the functions involved.     

Experiential product attributes and preferences for new products: The role of processing fluency

This study shows how experiential product attributes that are part of the design of new products can create compelling consumer experiences. Following processing-fluency theory, when consumers attend to experiential attributes (sensory or affective), they should process them fluently (i.e., spontaneously and with little effort); however, consumers should process functional attributes always deliberately, irrespective of whether or not they attend to them. An experiment testing the fluency hypothesis confirms that the processing of experiential attributes, but not functional attributes, depends on attention focus. When consumers focus their attention on specific experiential features, products with experiential attributes are evaluated more positively. In contrast, the processing of functional attributes does not depend on attention focus. Further confirming the fluency hypothesis, the experiment also shows that presentation duration does not affect the processing of experiential attributes but does affect the processing of functional attributes. The authors discuss how marketers can use experiential product design in market segmentation and innovation.     

Familiarity and competence diversity in new product development teams: Effects on new product performance

When developing new products, most firms use cross-functional teams, but research on the effect of functional diversity on new product performance returns heterogeneous results. We propose a measure of competence diversity that is more comprehensive than the common functional diversity proxy. Empirical findings, based on a survey of 142 product and sales managers, support the improved predictive validity of our scale. We further observe a mediating effect of the instrumental use of information in the competence diversity–new product performance relationship. Finally, we discuss the moderating effect of familiarity among team members on the relationship between competence diversity and the instrumental use of information. All authors contributed equally to this article and are listed in random order.     

Consumer acceptance of a revolutionary technology-driven product: The role of adoption in the industrial design development

Understanding how consumers adopt a state of the art product is important for the development and marketing of innovative products. The purpose of this study is to examine factors that affect consumer intentions to use a revolutionary technology-driven product (RTP). The research integrates two innovation adoption models, the Unified Technology Acceptance and Utilization Theory (UTAUT) and the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) model with two antecedents of consumer characteristics: consumer innovativeness and perceived value of a new product. The study examines consumer responses to an unfamiliar product, the TEASER which is a conceptual digital cookbook that offers taste sampling, thereby providing an online food-tasting experience. Consumers who are prone to innovativeness and who perceive value in a RTP’s aesthetics are able to discern the conditions that support their intent to use such a product. The resulting model expands the UTAUT and TTF theories by showing that UTAUT variables mediate between the variables of TTF and adoption intentions. These results support the need for nonlinear industrial development processes involving consumers.     

The evolution of interorganizational relationships in emerging ventures: An ethnographic study within the new product development process

Emerging ventures rarely have the resources they need, which often force them to reach beyond their boundaries to access these resources. While the field has acknowledged how critical external relationships are in the emergence process, we lack an understanding of how these relationships evolve. Drawing on fourteen longitudinal case studies, this article begins to fill that gap by examining how emerging ventures use interorganizational relationships to discover, develop, and commercialize new products. We found that emerging ventures tended to establish outsourcing relationships early and that many outsourcing relationships progressed into alliances. This suggests that these early relationships are dynamic, evolve through the emergence process, and may be critical to the successful emergence of a venture. We also discovered that many entrepreneurs developed strong socioemotional bonds with their alliance partners. Unexpectedly, our study revealed that in many cases these socioemotional bonds clouded the entrepreneur's judgment of the partner's abilities and led to problems that threatened the venture's survival.     

Ambidexterity in new ventures: The impact of new product development alliances and transactive memory systems

Unlike established firms, new ventures often lack the resources and structure necessary to simultaneously pursue exploration and exploitation activities in the process of developing and introducing new products into markets. Thus, it remains unclear whether and how ambidexterity (i.e., simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation activities) can develop in new ventures. This study posits that product development alliances and the transactive memory systems of entrepreneurial teams contribute to new venture ambidexterity. Moreover, we propose that the two mechanisms reinforce one another. Data collected from 148 new Chinese ventures support these hypotheses.