Success Through Customer-Driven New Product Development: A Comparison of U.S. and New Zealand Small Entrepreneurial High Technology Firms

Although high-tech, entrepreneurial firms may be small in size, they often play a large role in developing innovative products and thus spurring economic growth. Managers from firms of all sizes may gain useful insights by examining the new-product development (NPD) practices of these small, technology-based firms. And in an era of increasingly global competition, those managers can benefit from understanding the NPD practices of firms from various countries. William Souder, David Buisson, and Tony Garrett contribute to that understanding by describing the results of a study that compares the relative NPD proficiency of small, technology-based firms in the United States and New Zealand. The firms participating in the study (26 from the U.S. and 29 from N.Z.) operate in rapidly growing, highly competitive markets characterized by evolving customer needs. The participating companies share similar goals: creating technically superior products with unique features for emerging markets, with the ultimate goal of becoming the product and market leaders within their respective industries. Despite these similarities, the study reveals several important differences between the U.S. and N.Z. participants. Overall, the N.Z. respondents had higher levels of NPD performance than those of their U.S. counterparts. In particular, the relationship marketing and customer-focused NPD practices of the N.Z. firms set them apart from the U.S. firms. Top-level managers from the N.Z. participants report higher levels of satisfaction than their U.S. counterparts with the results of their NPD efforts. The results of the study indicate that repondents from the two countries differ in terms of the focus of their NPD mangement systems and the manner in which they strive to achieve success. For the U.S. firms in the study, their NPD management systems focus on the characteristics of the project manager. The N.Z. respondents place greater emphasis on marketing skills and NPD proficiencies. The results suggest that the higher levels of NPD performance acheived by the N.Z. firms in the study arise from greater insights into their users' needs, together with better capabilities for acting on those insights.     

Debt and taxes : Japan compared with the U.S.

The extreme reliance on debt that has been a persistent feature of corporate finance in contemporary Japan is at least partially due to low personal tax rates. This statement is supported by comparison of Japan and U.S. taxes based on the taxes and failure cost theory of finance.     

Competition and Service Quality in the U.S. Airline Industry

The U.S. government, media, and flying public have expressedgreat concern in recent years over both airline market concentration and flightdelays. This study explores potential connections between the two by examining whetherthe lack of competition on a particular route results in worse on-time performance.Analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 2000 indicatesthat both the prevalence and duration of flight delays are significantly greater onroutes where only one airline provides direct service. Additional competition iscorrelated with better on-time performance. Weather, congestion, and schedulingdecisions also contribute significantly to explaining flight delays.     

浅议输美产品的包装色彩

近几年来，我国输美产品日渐增多。在这些输美产品中，凡外包装的色彩符合美国人需求的，进入美国市场后便容易销售；而一些外包装色彩不符合或不完全符合美国人需求的，则往往销路不畅。事实已充分说明，输美产品是否受欢迎，在很大程度上，取决于外包装的色彩。因此，研究美国人对包装色彩的需求，不断改进输美产品的包装色彩，是至关重要的。美国人对包装色彩有哪些特殊的心理追求与爱好呢主要有以下几点：一是庄重商品的包装色彩，宜采用红、蓝、白三种颜色。红、蓝、白三色是组成美国国旗的颜色。因此，美国人对其特别有感情。二是季节…     

Inventive efficiency: How the U.S. compares with Japan

This study argues that inventive (R&D) efficiency may be an important factor in the competition for global market shares and goods and services. The authors compare R&D efficiency for 14 industrial groups in the United States and Japan using multiple indices of inventive efficiency. Findings show interesting differences in inventive efficiency across industrial groups and between the United States and Japan. United States food, textile, chemical, rubber, metals, fabricated metals, and other miscellaneous manufacturing industries appear to be relatively more efficient in inventive efficiency than their Japanese counterparts. In contrast, Japanese paper, petroleum, machinery, and scientific equipment industries display greater inventive efficiency than their United States counterparts. The electrical equipment, transportation, and stone industries in the two countries appear to be equally efficient. The implications of these differences are discussed.     

The Job Quality of U.S. Immigrants

This paper compares authorized and unauthorized immigrants in terms of twelve job‐quality indicators. Along all indicators examined, unauthorized immigrants score lower than the authorized. The lower job quality of the unauthorized prevails even when compared to authorized immigrants with similar educational levels and duration of stay.     

Consequences of the shifts in U.S. Research and Development policy

This paper is an edited version of a talk given in Copenhagen, Denmark on June 19, 1984 on a panel on public policy at the 26th international meeting of The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS). The talk deals with the consequences of the recent marked shifts in the research and development policy of the U.S. government, as seen by the top federal science and technology administrator in three major areas: defence, aeronautics and space, and energy. Collectively they put the shifts into good perspective, see them in the main as being beneficial, and describe certain needed modifications to what in some respects have been evolving policies.     

Contingent Product Design and Marketing Strategies Influencing New Product Success and Failure in U.S. and Japanese Electronics Firms

The commercial success or failure of a product doesn't rest solely on the whims of the marketplace. The myriad, often interdependent, strategic trade-offs made throughout the product development process go a long way toward determining whether a product succeeds or fails. The key to success often rests in finding the right combination of product design and market choice decisions. Toward that end, William E. Souder and X. Michael Song examine the relationship between product success and several product design and market choice strategies. In particular, they explore the possibility that the correct strategy combination differs depending on a firm's perception of market uncertainty, which they measure in terms of the respondents' perceived familiarity with the market for a product, perceived understanding of customer needs, and perceived capability to translate those needs into product performance specifications. Recognizing that the correct combination of strategic choices may also depend on firm size, industry, and culture, the study focuses on small U.S. suppliers of electronics components. Fortune 500 producers of electronics final products, and Japanese producers of electronics final products. For the small U.S. firms in the study, an emphasis on performance superiority, technical superiority, or radically new products provides a recipe for failure under low market uncertainty. Even under high market uncertainty, these characteristics do not equate to success for the small U.S. firms in this study. The findings suggest that these firms should focus on design compatibility with a purchaser's installed base. The responses from Fortune 500 firms and Japanese companies indicate that under low market uncertainty these larger organizations should consider emphasizing compatibility and avoiding radical designs. For markets that the larger firms perceive to be highly uncertain, the results suggest that these companies should emphasize performance superiority, technical superiority, and radical designs. The findings related to market choice strategies also support the notion that the correct combination of strategic decisions depends on firm size, culture, and the perceived level of market uncertainty. However, the guidelines presented in this study should not be construed as hard-and-fast rules for formulating product strategy. Instead, the results presented here will be helpful for challenging assumptions and guiding actions, as one element in the effort to shape an effective product strategy.     

Product location choice and firm capabilities: evidence from the U.S. automobile industry

We test theories of product differentiation and firm capabilities using data from the U.S. automobile industry. We find managers introduce new models close to their existing ones but far from rival models. We also find entrants and foreign manufacturers locate models closer to rival models. These results are consistent with both economic models of product differentiation and theories of firm capabilities Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linking Product Development Outcomes to Market Valuation of the Firm: The Case of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry*

The purpose of this research was to examine empirically the effects of new product development outcomes on overall firm performance. To do so, first product development and finance literature were connected to develop three testable hypotheses. Next, an event study was conducted in order to explore whether the changes in the stock market valuation of firms are influenced by the outcomes of efforts to develop new products. The pharmaceutical industry was chosen as the empirical context for the present study's analysis largely because the gate‐keeping role played by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides a specific event date on which to focus the event study methodology. As such, this study's events were dates of public announcements of the FDA decisions to approve or to reject the New Drug Applications submitted by the sponsoring firms. Consistent with the efficient market hypothesis, this study's results show that market valuations are responsive strongly and cleanly to the success or failure of new product development efforts. Hence, one of this study's key results suggests that financial markets may be attuned sharply to product development outcomes in publicly traded firms. This study also finds that financial market losses from product development failures were much larger in magnitude than financial market gains from product development successes—indicating an asymmetry in the response of financial markets to the success and failure of new product development efforts. Hence, another implication of this study's results is that managers should factor in a substantial risk premium when considering substantial new development projects. The present study's results also imply that managers should refrain from hyping new products and perhaps even should restrain the enthusiasm that the financial community may build before the product fully is developed. The effect on firm value is severe when expectations about an anticipated new product are not fulfilled. Managers in effect should take care to build reasonable and realistic expectations about potential new products.     

美国减税政策的历史演变及启示

自20世纪30年代以来,美国历史上先后经历了五次较大规模的减税政策.可以说,美国的减税政策史是一部沉痛与光辉并行、曲折与浩荡兼具的发展史.本文重点研究美国减税政策的历史演变轨迹,并在此基础上进一步分析它带来的启示和借鉴作用.     

Product innovation,product–market competition and persistent profitability in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry

Increasingly, strategy scholars are exploring the relationships between innovation, competition, and the persistence of superior profits. Sustained high profitability may result when a firm repeatedly introduces valuable innovations that service previously unmet consumer demands. While the returns to the firm from each innovation may erode over time, innovation ensures that, overall, the firm maintains a high performance position. At the same time, sustained high profitability may also accrue to firms that innovate less often, but effectively avoid the competition that otherwise erodes high returns. This paper elaborates these relationships before presenting an empirical analysis of the effects of differential innovative propensities and differential rates of competition on pharmaceutical firms’ abilities to sustain profit outcomes that are above those earned by competing firms. The analysis, which is situated within the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, finds support for the expected relationship between high innovative propensity and sustained superior profitability, but no support for a link between persistence and the ability to avoid competition. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparing technology education in the U.S. and U.K.

British and American discourses and experiences with respect to technology education are compared. Out of this comparison important issues are identified that have implications for the larger ongoing conversation on technology beyond these countries. They include the role of the state in establishing and validating the subject, the dual claims of technology literacy and technological capability, and dual curricular approaches — content and process.     

美国开放式基金产业发展现状及其对我国的启示

通过分析美国基金产业现状发现,美国开放式基金产业是美国普通居民首要的投资渠道。作为金融市场最重要的投资者,开放式基金对塑造现代美国金融结构和竞争环境发挥了重要作用。美国的基金产业发展得益于良好的法律法规和监管机制等基础制度建设,以及较低的准入门槛和金融市场的有序竞争。     

Industry Structure,Segmentation, and Quality Competition in the U.S. Hotel Industry*

We examine how quality competition affects the relationship between market size and industry structure at the product level using evidence from the U.S. hotel industry. Starting in the early 1980s, quality competition for business travelers became more based on variable and less on fixed costs, and became less scale intensive. Since then, market size increases have been met by more, but smaller, hotels in business travel destinations but continued to be met by larger hotels in personal travel destinations. Our results illustrate how the way consumers benefit from increases in market size depends on how firms compete.     

Capital Investment and Amortization Policies in the U.S.S.R.

This article deals with the two major problems in depreciation: how to determine actual wear and tear and, thus, life of equipment; and how to treat depreciation and its associated expenses in the accounting records. With regard to the first, the author recognizes that a certain amount of arbitrary action is probably inevitable. Industry in the USSR is evidently bound by its own equivalent of “Bulletin F”, which sets “amortization norms” or depreciation allowances for each class of machinery; and it is found that these often do not correspond to actual operating experience. The machine may be scrapped either before its allocated life span, or survive fully depreciated. This fact is, of course, quite familiar, and the author has no suggestions to offer beyond pointing out the problem. He also questions, for technical reasons, the straight line method which is now generally used. Yet it is almost impossible to justify, on functional grounds, any regulated alternative method, such as declining balance or sum-of-the-years-digits.     

国际原油价格上涨对中国、美国和日本宏观经济的影响

2002年至2007年,国际原油价格上涨的特点包括:1)油价持续上涨的周期长,上涨幅度大;2)油价上涨与美元走弱密不可分;3)原油期货市场的投机因素对现货市场的影响逐渐加大.2003-2006年,原油价格波动对世界经济的影响有明显弱化的迹象,但是,2007年世界主要经济体在宏观经济指标方面出现波动,高油价对世界经济的影响似乎初现苗头.本文采用一种新的非对称协整检验方法,研究分析2002年以来原油价格波动对美国、日本和中国宏观经济的影响.结果显示,由持续到2002年的数据得出的结论,与持续到2007年的数据得出的结论有所不同.原油价格冲击对于供给侧和需求侧的影响,近年来发生了变化.原油价格冲击对于经济体的影响取决于经济体的产业结构和能源消费结构.原油价格波动与总体价格水平之间存在长期稳定协整关系,原油价格波动影响总体价格水平的传导机制相对而言更为复杂.     

美国智能电网发展模式的系统分析

在全球金融危机的大背景下,智能电网作为奥巴马能源新政的一项核心内容加以提出,得到经济刺激计划大力支持,在全球掀起了建设智能电网的热潮。在系统回顾关国智能电网发展战略的孕育、成熟以及实施整个过程基础上指出,发展智能电网并非是美国政府在全球金融危机背景下的应急策略,而是经过数年的深思熟虑,依次经历了战略研究与规划、立法保障、政府主导推进3个阶段,是一个典型的美国国家发展战略推进过程,该过程具备延续性、完整性、系统性的特点,对我国当前推进智能电网建设具有一定借鉴意义。     

Product line strategies of new entrants in an established industry: evidence from the U.S. bicycle industry

A firm's product line breadth in a given market has both benefits and costs; these effects can be more clearly seen by examining not only the number of products a firm offers, but also the degree of complexity that the product line represents. The effects of breadth are particularly important for new entrants in a relatively mature industry and I examine the breadth–survival relation on new entrants in the bicycle industry in the period 1993–98. I find that firms offering a greater number of products, those with very simple and very complex product lines, and those whose product lines have a moderate degree of overlap with rivals have the highest survival rates. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unions and the U.S. Comparative Advantage

Analysis of data covering 134, three-digit (SIC) manufacturing industries from the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties undermines the claim that unions are responsible for altering the composition of U.S. trade flows. Heavily unionized industries are not found to have lost any more to imports nor gained any more in exports than comparable U.S. industries. On the other hand, industrial concentration appears to be a significant disadvantage.