Externally Directed and Internally Directed Market Launch Management: The Role of Organizational Factors in Influencing New Product Success

Introducing new products remains a critical challenge for managers. Consumer acceptance of new products is key to new product success and requires the effective implementation of market launch activities. The present study describes the relationship between different types of market launch activities and market‐related, time‐related, and financial market launch success. The study's framework extends previous work on launch management by complementing the view that launch activities are predominantly outwardly directed with the notion that launch management can also be inwardly directed. More specifically, launch activities can both target customers as the external audience, for example, via communication and pricing, and address an internal audience, such as management and sales personnel, for example, using departmental coordination or employee incentives. The study also sets out to investigate how situational factors impact the relative effectiveness of both externally directed and internally directed launch activities in engendering successful new product launches. In particular, product newness, technology drivers, and firm size are considered as relevant variables. Structural equation analysis of data on 178 new products across industries provide empirical evidence that market launch success depends on the intensity of both externally directed and internally directed market launch activities. With regard to the overall impact of internally directed activities, the findings confirm that organizational factors and antecedents indeed play a critical role in new product launch and its respective performance with internally directed activities having an even stronger impact on time‐related and financial success than outwardly directed instruments. Specifically, these internal activities are often viewed as idiosyncratic resources that are hard for competitors to observe and are therefore more difficult—if not impossible—to replicate compared to externally directed activities in market launch. The paper clearly pinpoints that the successful launch of new products is a complex task that also necessitates the implementation of internally directed launch activities. Fast market penetration requires coordination among the different internal players as well as support from top management. Furthermore, the financial objectives of the market launch can only be met if employees and executives both receive the necessary incentives and support to effectively execute the new product introduction. The study also demonstrates that moderators impact the strength of the effectiveness of these two different types of market launch activities. This research provides important implications for launch management by advocating that the two foci on external and internal constituencies should not be pursued in isolation but that instead, the opposite is true.     

The Mixed Blessings of Technological Innovativeness for the Commercial Success of New Products

This study addresses the contradiction that, although technological innovativeness of new products is often seen as a major driver of competitive advantage and commercial success, empirical research is not always able to show a significant performance influence. In order to find an explanation, the effects of technological innovativeness are decomposed as its influence on the market, the innovating firm, and the firm's environment is considered. The proposed model is tested on a sample of new product development projects. In order to avoid systematic biases, this paper uses a longitudinal survey design with two informants and a sample that includes both incremental and highly innovative projects. The results show that technological innovativeness has both positive and negative effects on the commercial success of new products. On the one hand, technological innovativeness can increase customer value, which in turn has a positive effect on success. On the other hand, incorporating new technologies into new products also implies changes in the innovating firm and potentially in its environment. These changes have a negative impact on commercial success. The positive and negative effects compensate for each other, so that the total effect of technological innovativeness on commercial success is close to zero. The findings imply that firms developing new products through incorporating radically new technologies often seem to underestimate the inherent complexities with respect to both internal and external changes. Developing and introducing new products with a radically changed technology also implies anticipating the need for new competences, processes, structures, and network partners. Social and political resistance against technological changes, large investments in new infrastructures, and the long duration of these changes additionally become frequent features of such innovation endeavors. Hence, firms embarking on a path of exploiting radically new technologies should consider those complexities very carefully when making their new product development decisions.     

The Nature of Technological Knowledge: Philosophical Reflections and Educational Consequences

Technological knowledge has a normative component that scientific knowledge does not have. When we have knowledge of a computer, that often comprises normative judgements: it functions well or it does not function well. In knowledge of technical norms, rules and standards as another type of technological knowledge we also find a normative component. This characteristic has consequences for our assessment of knowledge. For scientific knowledge truth is the ultimate condition. For knowledge of norms, rules and standards as a type of technological knowledge this the condition is problematic. They refer to things that do not exist yet, but are still to be designed or made. Nor truth, but effectiveness is the condition here. For technology education the normative component is important. Pupils must learn to make judgements about effectiveness, as this is a prominent characteristic of technological knowledge, that makes it distinct from scientific knowledge. Pupils must also learn to deal with ethical and other values when doing technological project work.     

美运动服饰消费趋升

根据Just—Style的统计数字,从2003年至2008年,美国运动服饰市场约增长了8．5％,消费总量从130亿美元上升至141亿美元,并预计到2014年,还将增长8．5％至153亿美元。     

The Union Avoidance Industry in the United States

This paper analyses the development of the union avoidance industry in the United States during the past half‐century. Focusing on one leading example from each group, it examines the activities of the four main actors that constitute that industry: consultants, law firms, industry psychologists and strike management firms. Although these firms have experienced a fall in business as unions have declined in strength and numbers — a development that the union avoidance industry has contributed to — they continue to play an important role in the US system of industrial relations. Over three‐quarters of employers hire consultants when confronted by organizing campaigns, and large union avoidance firms are increasingly seeking export markets for their expertise.     

Technological Innovativeness as a Moderator of New Product Design Integration and Top Management Support

Many war stories, as well as a number of empirical research studies, point to the value of design integration and top management support in new product development (NPD) efforts, where design integration is conceptualized as the coordination of product and process design activities performed by various organizational groups. However, some emerging evidence suggests that these aspects of program management are not equally valuable in all NPD contexts. Furthermore, the benefits of these approaches may not extend to all dimensions of NPD performance. This article addresses these issues as they relate to technological innovativeness. The author reports the results of a research study designed to (1) assess the direct contributions of design integration and top management support to several dimensions of NPD performance, and (2) identify potential moderating influences of technological innovativeness on these direct effects. A survey of 136 NPD projects drawn from firms representing most of the major U.S. manufacturing industries provides data for the study. The overall goals of the study were to amplify our understanding of management's role in NPD and to further the development of contingency theory explaining new product success. The results indicate that design integration is positively associated with higher design quality in NPD, but it is not significantly linked with better financial performance. In addition, design integration appears to be an important influence on achieving NPD time goals, but only in cases of high technological innovativeness. This result suggests that increased design integration produces its greatest impacts when development processes are full of uncertainty. Top management support is positively associated with better time‐based performance, design quality, and financial performance on the whole. However, a significant interaction effect suggests that high levels of top management support are ineffective in securing good financial performance in high technologically innovative environments. Other forces appear to be at work in these circumstances, making top management support less important. The article discusses the implications of these findings for management practice, a contingency‐oriented view of NPD processes, and future research.     

The imbalances of telephone traffic for the United States

The US posts a large and growing deficit in international telephone services, a phenomenon often blamed on the accounting rate system. Using data for international calls between the US and 148 foreign destinations between 1991 and 1997, this paper finds that the increasing payment deficit for the US is associated with decreasing accounting rates. In other words, the international revenue settlement is related more to imbalances in telephone traffic than to accounting rates. The econometric model shows that growing asymmetries in teledensity, market concentration, and income levels between the US and the rest of the world explain the imbalances. Therefore, the appropriate solution to the payment deficit in telephone services is to focus on long-term economic factors that determine the flow of traffic.     

The Value of a Utilitarian Curriculum: The Case of Technological Education

The position taken in this paper is that narrow conceptions of human development and the purposes of schooling have tended to displace rather than situate subjects like technology in the curriculum. Arguments which support this position, however, are only possible when the paradigm through which schooling is operationalized, is inverted. Viewing classic school subjects as abstractions which perpetuate narrow conceptions of pedagogy is a contentious position to take. But taking it and understanding how a utilitarian curriculum spawns real human development and learning gives a whole new perspective to curriculum theory and practice.     

The Direction of Union Mergers in the United States: The Rise of Conglomerate Unionism

Trade union mergers have become common throughout the industrial world. In the United States, since the late 1970s, these have become increasingly multi-jurisdictional. Beginning in the 1990s, the trend has been dominated by five 'conglomerate' unions, who have embraced this as a strategy for growth and increased effectiveness. This article will examine the roots of this 'conglomerate' direction and quantitatively assess the claims for greater effectiveness in finances, organizing, and collective bargaining. The tentative conclusion is that while resources and policy matter, the conglomerate merger strategy of these unions has not improved any of these functions either over time or in comparison to other unions that have put less emphasis on multi-jurisdictional mergers.     

Merger Policy in the United States: A Reconsideration

Review of Industrial Organization -     

美国《消费品安全改进法案》及变化动态——美国ASTMF963-08标准与中国GB6675标准对比

《美国消费品安全改进法案》的主要内容是：在全美建立统一的强制性国家标准;进一步规范含铅玩具;玩具上加贴可追溯性标签;将自愿性标准ASTMF963转化为强制性标准;对某些儿童产品实行强制性第三检测;对玩具中的6种邻苯二甲酸盐实施控制。     

美欧玩具标准的比较

我国玩具出口以欧美地区为主,欧美的玩具政策和标准主导着世界各国政策的制定,通过研究欧美最近更新的法规,可以更好地掌握玩具标准法规的发展趋势。     

Profit Sharing and Public Policy: Insights for the United States

Nations differ in their approach to profit sharing, with policies ranging from nonintervention to mandatory sharing. Mounting evidence that profit sharing has a positive impact on employment and productivity has spurred some American legislators and economists to propose additional tax incentives. While this option has been effective in increasing the number of plans, a more prudent response would be the creation of a national tripartite body to accelerate and enhance the quality of profit-sharing research.     

欧盟对中国产塑料娃娃玩具发出消费者警告

2011年11月11日,欧盟委员会非食品类快速预警系统对中国产玩具娃娃发出消费者警告。本案的通报国为西班牙。此次通报的玩具娃娃附带一些小部件如梳子、镜子等,纸盒包装;Ref码编码为FTC50159,条形码编码为8436031754834,批次07／2010。由于该产品中邻苯二甲酸二乙基己基酯（DEHP）的含量达10％,不符合欧盟REACH法规的相关规定,存在致使用者化学过敏的危险。目前,西班牙主管部门已下令对该产品采取撤出市场措施。     

Globalization and Declining Unionization in the United States

For decades, the private‐sector unionization rate in the United States has been falling. At the same time, the integration of the United States into the world economy has been rising. Many anecdotes suggest the latter has played a role in that decline, with unions feeling pressured to reduce employment and/or compensation demands in the face of rising cross‐border activity of employers. To investigate this possibility econometrically, in this paper I assembled a panel of U.S. manufacturing industries that matches union‐coverage rates with measures of global engagement such as exports, imports, tariffs, transportation costs, and foreign direct investment. The main finding is a statistically and economically significant correlation between falling union coverage and greater numbers of inward FDI transactions. Possible interpretations of this finding are then discussed. Because U.S. affiliates of foreign multinationals have higher unionization rates than U.S.‐based firms do, this correlation does not reflect just a compositional shift toward these affiliates. Instead, it may reflect pressure of international capital mobility on U.S.‐based companies, consistent with research on how rising capital mobility raises labor‐demand elasticities and alters bargaining power.     

美国创新药物研究与开发对我国的启示

本文从美国医药科技创新技术体系、法规体系和投融资体系等不同侧面,分析了美国创新药物的研发模式和成功经验,并提出了如何建设我国医药创新体系和提升我国医药科技自主创新能力的观点和建议,力求对提高我国新药创制能力有所裨益。     

Youth Apprenticeship in Britain: Lessons for the United States

Britain's effort to introduce youth apprenticeships over the past decade offers important general lessons about the role of employers in school-to-work initiatives. In particular, the incentives facing employers work against efforts to provide skills training. Alternative arrangements for such programs are suggested that create incentives for employers to improve the skills of youth apprentices.