人民币贬值和债务危机

人民币要么防御性贬值，要么被债务危机打低，眼下尚有选择余地。     

叶莺的新玫瑰

作为一个职业经理人，要么选择归属一家伟大的公司，要么选择归属一个伟大的命题。     

服装品牌的O2O突围

就像有人说在21世纪，要么电子商务，要么无商可务的那样，电子商务已经作为结构性的观念和技术，改变了人类社会的方方面面。     

企业朝EPC模式转型有多难

核心提示：对于我国传统施工总承包企业而言，要实现EPC转型，主要驱动力要么依靠技术，要么依靠综合管理能力，显然朝EPC模式转型并不容易。     

露台、庭院餐厅晚风拂处有清凉

酷暑当道，要如何度过的？想来想去，都是被空调环抱，生活在办公室、住所的屋顶下，出门在外要么窝在冷气车内，要么擦着有凉荫的墙壁溜走。     

向美军学习

每个国家的军队都有自己的战略，但这些战略多数有措施而没有境界，有细节但没有全局，要么不变，要么多变。而美军的战略始终是清晰而坚定的。     

向美军学习

每个国家的军队都有自己的战略，但这些战略多数有措施而没有境界，有细节但没有全局，要么不变，要么多变。而美军的战略始终是清晰而坚定的。     

哈佛商学院 关于领导力的新观点

一般来说，公司出现财务丑闻时，董事会肯定饱受指责。人们认为腐化的首席执行官们对公司财务大动手脚时，董事们要么是串通一气的同谋，要么是无知、自鸣得意的傻瓜。     

房价不可能大降

中国楼市从根本上来说是一个政策市。政府旨在抑制房价而不是打压房价，房价短期可能微跌，但中长期的“理想”状态是，要么维持在高位，要么缓慢上涨。     

技术能帮助零售企业撑过2009年吗

有些美国零售企业非常郁闷，比起之前要么申请破产保护、要么努力度过难关，它们现在只能彻底认输：倒闭、裁员、清算。这是真实发生在这几个月的事情，     

等离子电视反扑

国内独有的等离子电视回暖现象背后,是整个电视机行业博弈的结果,但这很可能依旧改变不了中国彩电业没落的格局。     

职业经理人的甜蜜点

民企的诱惑力,正在一点点地逼近甚至超越跨国公司。2008年5月15日,福建新华都集团总裁兼CEO唐骏从重庆飞抵北京,接受本刊记者的专访。这一天距离其以引发轰动的10亿元薪酬加盟新华都正好一个月。谈到这第一个月的工作,唐骏的神情疲惫中透着兴奋,"很充实,特别特别地忙!"他说。看来,     

From Experience: Why Bad Things Happen to Good New Products

The rollout of a new product can be an exhilarating time for everyone involved in the development and launch effort. Just as a construction crew may meet at a local gathering place to hail the “topping-off” of a new home or office building, the development team—or possibly the entire company—may gather to celebrate a new product’s release. Launch meetings generate enthusiasm among the salespeople, and favorable reviews lead to an influx of inquiries from prospective customers. Despite this initial wave of enthusiasm, however, customer desire for the innovative new product may soon wane. Does this mean that everyone was wrong about the new product’s potential?Citing three examples of launches that followed this pattern, Neil Rackham addresses a key question for product development professionals: “Why should promising products from highly respected companies fail despite clear evidence of market need, strong marketing support, and real enthusiasm and energy from salespeople?” Based on his own experience in these three cases, as well as research investigations into elements of these and other launches, he rejects the conventional wisdom that the problem stems from resistance to change on the part of either the customers or the salespeople.He suggests that the problem rests with the way in which highly innovative products are launched to the salesforce, which in turn influences the manner in which the products are sold. He notes that the launch of an innovative product typically focuses on all the great new features the product offers. However, the new features that make the product so exciting may draw the salesperson’s attention away from the most important issue in the selling process: the customer’s needs. In other words, he suggests that the launch and the selling of innovative products tend to be product-centered instead of customer-centered, causing customer interest to fade as the selling process progresses.Rather than fill the salesforce with details about a product’s “bells and whistles,” he suggests that the launch should focus on describing the product in terms of the problems it solves for the customer. Similarly, rather than bombard customers with details about product features, he suggests that the salesperson should focus on asking questions. In this customer-centered approach, the product’s features are considered only in terms of the manner in which they meet the customer’s needs.     

Managing Diffusion Barriers When Launching New Products

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the link between new product launch activities and market success. So far, most empirical research has focused on launch activities that target customer adoption barriers. However, with such a focus the influence of other stakeholders on innovation diffusion is not taken into account. A review of diffusion research and stakeholder theory serves as a basis for discussing the influence of different stakeholder groups such as customers, dealers, suppliers, and competitors on innovation diffusion. Essentially, it is expected that addressing multiple diffusion barriers during new product launch will have a positive impact on market success. The new concept for launch activities addressing multiple diffusion barriers is tested with data on new product launches in industrial markets using a multiple‐informant approach. The results lend support to the notion that a successful launch requires activities addressing diffusion barriers related to different stakeholder groups. Specifically, barriers related to customers, suppliers, and stakeholders of the further firm environment need to be lowered during market launch. For the group of competitors, a balanced launch approach including measures to both lowering and erecting entry and diffusion barriers will increase the market success of new products. The subsequent investigation of the influence of technological turbulence, market turbulence, and product complexity on the performance relationships shows that under high uncertainty managing multiple‐diffusion barriers is of higher relevance than in more unambiguous, clear‐cut contexts. Thus, the results demonstrate that a careful management of diffusion barriers related to multiple stakeholders is a relevant task when launching a new product. The paper concludes with implications for management practice and avenues for future academic research.     

Industrial New Product Launch Strategies and Product Development Performance

Just as reporters must answer a few fundamental questions in every story they write, decision-makers in the new product development (NPD) process must address five key issues: what to launch, where to launch, when to launch, why to launch, and how to launch. These decisions involve significant commitments of time, money, and resources. They also go a long way toward determining the success or failure of any new product. Deeper insight into the tradeoffs these decisions involve may help to increase the likelihood of success for product launch efforts. Erik Jan Hultink, Abbie Griffin, Susan Hart, and Henry Robben present the results of a study that examines the interplay between these product launch decisions and NPD performance. Noting that previous launch studies focus primarily on the tactical decisions (that is, how to launch) rather than on the strategic decisions (what, where, when, and why to launch), they explore not only which decisions are important to success, but also the associations between the two sets of decisions. Because the strategic launch decisions made early in the NPD process affect the tactical decisions made later in the process, their study emphasizes the importance of launch consistency—that is, the alignment of the strategic and tactical decisions made throughout the process. The survey respondents—managers from marketing, product development, or general management in U.K. firms—provided information about 221 industrial new products launched during the previous five years. The responses identify associations between various sets of strategic and tactical decisions. That is, the responses suggest that the strategic decisions managers make regarding product innovativeness, market targeting, the number of competitors, and whether the product is marketing- or technology-driven are associated with subsequent tactical decisions regarding branding, distribution expenditure and intensity, and pricing. The study also suggests that different sets of launch decisions have differing effects on performance of industrial new products. In this study, the greatest success was enjoyed by a small group of respondents categorized as Niche Innovators. Their launch strategy involves a niche focus, targeting innovative products into markets with few competitors. Tactical decisions made by this group include exclusive distribution, a skimming pricing strategy, and a broad product assortment.     

Lean Launch: Managing Product Introduction Risk Through Response-Based Logistics

New product launch research has identified four strategic issues that involve activities essential to introduce a new product to its target market. The sum of these decisions is critical to new product success. Substantial research has focused on decisions guiding the proper product, price, and promotion mix to favorably impact market goals. Considerably less research has centered on determining how place capabilities such as logistics and supply chain relationships impact launch performance. Logistics and supply chain collaboration—the processes involved in planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements—can greatly reduce risk associated with new product launch. They combine to provide a structure to facilitate rapid response to developing demand by location and intensity. In this article, an effort is made to fill the gap in extant knowledge regarding new product launch strategies by reviewing relevant literature and comparing traditional launch strategies based on anticipatory demand forecasts with alternative lean launch strategies based on the principles of response-based logistics. The result is a lean launch model for continued empirical testing and managerial review. The article contrasts traditional logistics support of new product launch with an emerging logic called lean launch strategy. The traditional launch strategy is forecast driven and is based on anticipatory logistics (push). The lean launch strategy is formulated on principles of postponement and is based on response-based logistics (pull) and supply chain management. Response-based logistics systems provide flexibility that enables better management of inventory levels. Improved replenishment times and in-stock availability of products from a centralized inventory allows managers to rapidly react to actual demand. Lean launch enhances successful introduction by allowing greater flexibility in product variant selection while minimizing out-of-stock potential. Lean launch also can cut losses in product launch failures by reducing launch inventory exposure. Finally, lean launch can improve chances of new product success by helping limited volume technical successes achieve profitability.     

The Impact of Market Orientation, Product Advantage, and Launch Proficiency on New Product Performance and Organizational Performance

Some scholars have suggested recently that a market‐oriented culture leads to superior performance, at least in part, because of the new products that are developed and are brought to market. Others have reinforced this wisdom by revealing that a market‐oriented culture enhances organizational innovativeness and new product success, both of which in turn improve organizational performance. These scholars do not reveal, however, through which new product development (NPD) activities a market‐oriented culture is converted into superior performance. To determine how critical NPD activities are for a market‐oriented firm to achieve superior performance, our study uses data from 126 firms in The Netherlands to investigate the structural relationships among market orientation, new product advantage, the proficiency in new product launch activities, new product performance, and organizational performance. We focus on product advantage—because product benefits typically form the compelling reasons for customers to buy the new product—and on the launch proficiency—as the launch stage represents the most costly and risky part of the NPD process. Focusing on the launch stage also is relevant because it is only during the launch that it will become evident whether a market orientation has crystallized into a superior product in the eyes of the customer. The results provide evidence that a market orientation is related positively to product advantage and to the proficiency in market testing, launch budgeting, launch strategy, and launch tactics. Product advantage and the proficiency in launch tactics are related positively to new product performance, which itself is related positively to organizational performance. Market orientation has no direct relationship to new product performance and to organizational performance. An important implication of our study is that the impact of a market orientation on organizational performance is channeled through the effects of a market orientation on product advantage and launch proficiency; subsequently through the effects of product advantage and the proficiency in launch tactics on new product performance; and finally through the effect of new product performance on organizational performance. These channeling effects are much more subtle and complex than the direct relationship of market orientation on organizational performance previously assumed. Another implication of our study is that the impact of a market orientation on performance occurs through the launch activities rather than being pervasive to all organizational processes and activities. A reason for this finding may be that NPD is the one element of the marketing mix that predominantly is the responsibility of the firm, whereas promotion and distribution often are in control of organizations outside the firm (e.g., advertising agencies, major retailers) and whereas the channel or the market often dictates the price. Both implications provide ample opportunities for further research on market orientation and NPD.     

The Impact of the Corporate Mind‐set on New Product Launch Strategy and Market Performance

In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in the link between new product launch strategy and market performance. So far, new product launch research has focused on this performance relationship without giving much attention to background factors that can facilitate or inhibit successful launch strategies. However, investigating such antecedents that set the framework in which different strategic launch decisions enable or prevent the market performance of new products is useful for enhancing the current state of knowledge. Drawing on the concept of a firm's orientation, the present study discusses the influence of the corporate mind‐set on new product launch strategy and market performance. It is hypothesized that the capability to successfully launch new products is based on the interplay between a firm's mind‐set (i.e., an analytical, risk‐taking, and aggressive posture) and its strategic launch decisions on setting launch objectives, selecting target markets, and positioning the new product. A research model with mediating effects is proposed, where the corporate mind‐set determines the launch strategy decisions, which in turn impact market performance. The model is tested with data on 113 industrial new products launched in business‐to‐business markets in Germany using a multiple informant approach. The results support the mediated model as the dimensions of the corporate mind‐set have a significant impact on most strategic launch decisions, which in turn significantly contribute to market performance. It is found that while an analytical posture relates to all three strategic launch decisions, risk taking and an aggressive posture have a significant impact on two, respectively one, launch strategy elements. These findings confirm the importance of investigating antecedents for a successful new product launch, as the corporate mind‐set serves as a background resource that sets the framework for successful new product launch decisions. In the final section implications for research and managerial practice as well as limitations of this research are provided.     

First Product Success: A Mediated Moderating Model of Resources,Founding Team Startup Experience,and Product‐Positioning Strategy

The success of the first product is of paramount importance for the future development of the new venture. Developing and launching a first product in the Chinese market is even more challenging than in a well‐developed market economy because of weak enforcement of intellectual property laws, a general consumer distrust of new products developed by Chinese firms, and the immediate threat of copycat. This article develops a mediated moderating model to examine first product success in Chinese new ventures, in which product‐positioning strategy (conceptualized as the degree of product differentiation) mediates the impacts of marketing resources, technical resources, and founding team startup experience on product success (conceptualized as timing of product launch and product market and financial performance). Furthermore, we argue that founding team startup experience moderates the impact of marketing and technical resources on building strong product‐positioning strategy. We test our conceptual model using a sample of 909 new products developed by 909 Chinese new ventures in a two‐step selection model. The empirical results provide important insight for new ventures' first product development. Product differentiation does not mediate the impact of marketing resource on product success; but it fully mediates the impact of technical resources on timing of product launch and partially mediates the impact of technical resources on product performance. Marketing resources have significant direct positive effects on both product performance and timing of product launch. Surprisingly, the impacts of marketing resources on product differentiation and product performance are negatively, not positively, moderated by founding team experience. When the founding team has nine years or less startup experience, an increase in marketing resources leads to a significant increase in product differentiation; and when the founding team has more than nine years of startup experience, an increase in marketing resources will not lead to an increase in product differentiation. The impact of marketing resources on product performance is smaller for founding teams with more prior startup experience than those with less prior startup experience. The impacts of technical resources are not moderated by founding team startup experience. Technical resources positively affect product market and financial performance directly as well as through its positive impacts on product differentiation. However, technical resources can negatively affect timing of the product launch because developing a highly differentiated produce can potentially delay the launch of the product. Therefore, new ventures have to be mindful in managing the available resources to succeed in the first product development.     

The determinants of mobile game success in South Korea

The global gaming industry, especially the mobile game market, has grown rapidly in recent years. One of the important characteristics of mobile games is that their lifetime is remarkably short compared with those of PC or console games, and downloads of most games peak during the early period of the service. Acquiring as many users as possible immediately after the launch and retaining these users therefore becomes very important for the successful performance of mobile games. This study aims to identify the determinants of mobile game success during different periods after the launch by comparing the first week's performance with the first 4 weeks' performance using a multiple regression analysis with mobile game application downloads from Google Play and estimated sales revenue as performance indicators. The predictors were classified on the basis of the pre- and postlaunch phases, and developer/publisher and third-party factors. A key finding is that for both revenue and downloads, TV advertising and the number of online videos have strong impacts on both the first week and 4 weeks' performance. In addition, preregistration during the prelaunch stage is effective for increasing both revenue and downloads in a relatively short time. Online videos uploaded by the users during the postlaunch phase may help to maintain long-term revenue. Although awareness of IP and name value of publishers are significant for short-term downloads, the effect diminishes after a month, which might imply that there could be an opportunity for small- and medium-sized companies to invest in media and obtain mobile platform advantages in the long run.