To Launch or Not to Launch: An Empirical Estimate of New Food Product Success Rate

New product introduction is one of the most important activities for a company’s growth. It is generally accepted that new product introductions are essential to the health of food companies. Yet, many believe that most new products fail, therefore discouraging companies to introduce some new products. However, most of the estimates suggesting high failure rates are either anecdotal or qualitative. This article provides a quantitative approach to measuring new product success rates for food products and to show the relationship between the success of new product and entry strategies. This article uses a quantitative approach to measuring product success/failure exclusively for food products. The authors contend that failure rates for food products are not nearly as low, and success rates much higher than it was previously established in the literature and perceived by the industry professionals. There was a significant variability of success rates between various food groups ranging from 58% for both fruit and vegetables and desserts and ice-cream categories to 88% for baby food. Success rates also varied among the different introductory strategies of the new food products, ranging from 50% for new packaging to 75% for re-launch strategies.

Academics and practitioners usually quote very low success rates for new products based on subjective and/or strictly qualitative information. This empirical quantitative research shows that success rates for food products are much higher than previously reported. This should encourage greater use of new products to grow sales and profits. The previously reported low success rate may have led to the reluctance to introduce new products and therefore set many of the legacy food companies in their current poor financial condition.     

Activity-based Costing (ABC) and the Life Insurance Industry

This paper describes the concept of activity-based costing (ABC) and examines its relevance to the life insurance industry. The paper contends that the high overheads and diversified product lines of many life insurance companies makes them appropriate environments within which to apply ABC. It is considered that ABC can provide at least three important benefits to a life insurance company, namely: more accurate cost information, closer insights into the costs of production and better information concerning the strategic consequences of business decisions. These attributes can help a life insurance company to achieve important business objectives, such as the management of expenses and the continuous improvement in the quality of its products and services. However; the transition to ABC is not easy and it cannot be seen as a panacea for all corporate woes. Nevertheless, the paper concludes that with sound project management, an ABC system can provide life insurance companies with much better information for activity management and the achievement of longer term strategic goals.     

Non-Discrimination in Human Resources Management as a Moral Obligation

The purpose of socially responsible investing (SRI) is to: (1) allow investors to reflect their personal values and ethics in their choices, and (2) encourage companies to improve their ethical, social, and environmental performance. In order to achieve these ends, the means SRI fund managers employ include the use of negative screening, or the exclusion of companies involved in “sinful” industries. We argue that there are problems with this methodology, both at a theoretical and at a practical level. As a consequence, current SRI offerings cannot accurately reflect the values and ethical beliefs they propose to represent. Moreover, the use of a?priori criteria is potentially misleading, as we show by discussing examples of glue and wine making. Applying this flawed approach SRI funds fail to influence the direction of the firms they deem most in need of re-directing. Rather than engaging in the simple a?priori assumption that some industries are “saints” while others are “sinners” (Freeman, 2007) we suggest a new framework upon which the SRI screening methodology could be grounded. Embracing the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism, we suggest that SRI methodology could be improved by engaging in an analysis based on (1) the actual impacts of the company’s products and services, (2) the company’s relationships with its specific, real stakeholders, and (3) the contingent environment (social, economic, political, legal, and cultural) in which the business operates.     

Value creation by company‐consumer interaction

Company‐customer interaction is becoming increasingly widespread in industrial markets, bringing benefits that are both productive and strategic. This paper looks at the prerequisites for applying the same logic in consumer markets.

The conclusion is that due to new technology and the emergence of more qualified and demanding consumers, the logic is already appearing in a wider range of industries, with interaction in one or more activities in the value‐creating process; in design, production and marketing as well as in the consumption and later destruction of products. But, up to now, the benefits are mainly on the consumer side. There seems to be some potential for considerable strategic advantages for companies, however, provided that their organizational structure is modified, new communication channels are built, the competence of the front‐line staff is developed, and the company culture becomes more consumer‐oriented.     

The importance of understanding the exchange context when developing a decision support tool to target prospective customers of business insurance

Companies use decision support tools that enable them to efficiently manage their customers. When targeting new prospective customers, companies need to be able to select those customers who are not only more likely to respond to their marketing activities but are also going to buy their products. There is a lot of research about customer relationship Management and the analytical models that can be used to effectively select and manage customers. There is however less attention that is given to the actual process of developing and building a marketing decision support tool. In this paper, we pay particular attention to the construction process of a marketing decision support tool. A key contribution of the paper is that we propose that companies should pay more attention to studying their exchange context and its unique features when they are developing analytical models to support marketing decisions. We illustrate the research contribution through the story of a company that is involved in the direct marketing of business insurance and faces the need to implement a better targeting model.     

Marketing aspects of environmental practices of multinational enterprises in host countries: A Brazilian case study

This article investigates both the marketing and the production activities of a multinational enterprise (MNE) operating in the Brazilian chemical industry. The case chosen illustrates how the MNE has managed to adapt or to upgrade some of its main policies, programs, production activities, and products in conformity with both its long-term strategic positioning and the host country's environmental regulatory policy. The company established two effective environmental programs that deserve mention. One of the programs has been set up to generate receipts through the provision of environmental services for a price. The other one pursued systematic procedures to better serve clients through customized applications of waste reduction practices. The latter reveals how proactive companies may profit from effectively envisaging the whole product cycle along their value chain. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Missing Link Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Trust: The Case of Fair Trade Products

This paper investigates the link between the consumer perception that a company is socially oriented and the consumer intention to buy products marketed by that company. We suggest that this link exists when at least two conditions prevail: (1) the products sold by that company comply with ethical and social requirements; (2) the company has an acknowledged commitment to protect consumer rights and interests. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a survey among the clients of retail chains offering Fair Trade products. The results show that socially oriented companies can successfully leverage their reputation to market products with high symbolic values.     

A study to identify the training needs of life insurance sales representatives in Taiwan using the Delphi approach

This article reports a study conducted to identify the needs for continuing professional development for life insurance sales representatives and to examine the competencies needed by those sales representatives. A modified Delphi technique was used. Most life insurance companies in the USA implement an education and training plan advocated by the Life Office Management Association. Insurance companies in Taiwan implement similar education and training plans, but they do not seem to result in the successful performance of their sales representatives. Besides augmenting knowledge of various financial products and marketing approaches, this study also suggests that life insurance companies need to train their sales representatives to an adequate standard in competencies of problem solving, communication, information technology utilization, culture compatibility, emotional intelligence, collective competence and ethics.     

Reputation as Matching Identities and Images: Extending Davies and Chun's (2002) Research on Gaps between the Internal and External Perceptions of the Corporate Brand

Corporate reputation is defined as a construct representing aggregated perceptions of people in and around companies. A corporate personality scale was developed to measure identities as internal perceptions and images as external perceptions with the same instrument. We report here an application of this instrument and the replication of a previous study conducted by Davies and Chun in 2002 (Corporate reputation review 5(2/3): 144–158), by comparing two similar companies operating in the same industry. Perceptions of employees, students, journalists and professional colleagues were measured for each company. The reputations of the two companies were different in synchronization of perceptions of respondent groups for each company (one high and one low) and in their comparative scores from different respondent groups. The study discovered that two companies could be equally successful in performance while their reputations can be significantly different. The second significant theoretical implication of the study was the finding that a composite, aggregate measure of a corporate reputation can obscure as much as reveal perceptions of different valuing groups. The main practical implication of the study is that companies can achieve comparable performances despite having different personalities both in profile and in coherence. This implies that executives need to observe their organizations through various views, which should allow them more freedom of action and experimentation.     

Global Chamions in Wating——Prospects and challenges of Chinese Automobile firms M&A activities on the world stage

In recent years,Chinese companies have accelerated their global activities in line with China's ascent as a major economic power.While some Chinese companies globalize organically,many others have pursued mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to accelerate their global presence.High-profile deals such the SAIC's 50.6% acquisition of Korea's Ssangyong in 2004,Nanjing Auto Group purchased British auto company MG in 2006,and more recent Geely Automobile Holdings acquire' Australia's Drivetrain Systems International,or DSI,the world's second largest auto transmission supplier in 2009,have introduced the world to a new generation of Chinese companies with aspirations to be global competitors.     

Thinking of exporting?: Export management companies could be the answer

With the interest in globalization, many domestic manufacturing companies are anxious to export their products. Lacking the resources and experience to sell effectively abroad, manufacturers often rely on export management companies (EMCs) to act as their export departments. How successful have these arrangements been? Haigh reports that the performance of EMCs is below the expectations of manufacturers more than half the time, but concludes that EMCs can be a very effective strategy for entering foreign markets if care is taken to select an appropriate company.     

EVA及其对我国上市公司的意义

EVA是经济增加值的简称 ,是经过调整后的税后营业净利润扣除全部资金成本后的余额。EVA考虑了包括股权资金在内的全部资金的成本 ,体现了企业在某个时期创造或毁坏的价值量。与会计利润相比 ,EVA易于理解且不易被操纵 ,根据其所设计的“奖金银行”是一种有效的激励机制 ,并且向企业提供了一个单一的、协调的目标 ,避免了多目标的混乱。EVA指标对当前我国的上市公司具有特别突出的意义 ,应用EVA来评价上市公司有利于规范我国上市公司的融资行为、投资行为和股利分配行为 ,并约束上市公司的“内部人控制”。应加快研究适合我国国情和上市公司实际的EVA计算方法 ,把EVA作为我国上市公司业绩评价和相关部门制订政策时的参考指标之一。     

Untangling the muddled management of public affairs

Many companies do not realize the importance of understanding the public affairs sector of their business environment and underestimate the need for individual company mechanisms to manage public affairs.     

The Business Value of Health Management

For organizational development that is future-oriented, enterprises increasingly need qualified, motivated and efficient workers who are able and willing to contribute actively to technical and organizational innovations. Furthermore, customers and consumers are increasingly interested in healthy products and services. Therefore, health has become a (potential) business value of strategic importance. In interaction with all relevant stakeholders, an approach was developed for companies that want to manage their health impact in a proactive and preventive manner. The approach was termed Integral Health Management (IHM). IHM forms a strategic approach for reducing the costs of sickness absence and working disability, while the productivity and resilience of the company and its employees are increased. This brings the company direct economic benefits. Finally, it is of prime interest for employees to remain physically and mentally healthy and employable. The IHM approach distinguishes seven lines of development: (1) health as a strategic company interest; (2) the realization of a healthy primary process; (3) a safe and sound physical (work) environment; (4) an inspiring social (work) environment; (5) vital people; (6) a sound relationship with the immediate organizational environment and local community, and (7) healthy products and/or services. The inter-relationships between the seven development lines are essential for combining an improvement of the business impact on health with a strategic interest of companies and organizations. The seven lines of IHM development can easily be linked to the European Foundation for Quality Management's European Excellence Model.     

上市公司年报供应链信息披露现状分析

本文认为,供应链信息是对公司进行分析评价的重要依据,而现行体制下的年报规范并不要求直接披露供应链信息,而是通过一些间接指标和情况来反映公司的供应链情况。文章指出,通过供应链特征词词频分析可了解公司对供应链管理的关注程度;通过基于主要交易额的聚类分析可认识上市公司供应链集成度的总体水平和具体公司的供应链集成度。这两种聚类分析原理和方法不同,但结果基本一致,结论可相互印证。总体看来,我国上市公司对供应链管理关注程度不够,综合供应链管理水平偏低;虽然供应链集成度总体水平较低,但在部分供应链环节上,相当多的公司已经具有了较高的供应链集成度;公司年报对供应链信息关注和披露的程度有逐年上升的趋势,少数企业已开始有意识地从供应链视角披露自身重要经营事项。     

Towards Shared Social Responsibility: A Study of Consumers’ Willingness to Donate Micro-Insurances when Taking Out Their Own Insurance

In recent years, the concepts of charity and development aid have changed significantly. Present concepts combine direct money transfer with co-production, knowledge sharing and the development of products and services designed for the need of developing and transition economies. The concept of micro-financing is a financial service which has proven to allow for entrepreneurs in the respective countries to start up their businesses. A relatively new financial product for these countries is micro-insurance. This article deals with the question whether consumers in the Netherlands are willing to donate micro-insurances and which factors influence this willingness to contribute to the non-profit micro-insurance approach of an insurance company. The data were collected with questionnaires among a sample of the Dutch population (N = 504). The data have been processed in a one-way between-groups ANOVA, a paired sample t test and an ordinal regression analysis. The results show that approximately half of the Dutch consumers are willing to pay an additional amount on their insurance premium for the donation of micro-insurances. The amount of the insurance premium did, however, not affect the willingness to donate (WTD). If consumers could choose the beneficiary less people are willing to donate, yet those people are willing to donate more money. In conclusion, there is readiness among consumers to contribute to micro-insurance via an insurance company that assists in setting up micro-insurance projects. This indicates a possible role for companies to act as an intermediary between philanthropic acts and consumers.     

Made in Europe: Small Companies

This is the third report on the 'Made in Europe' research programme. Earlier reports concentrated on the maturity of implementation of 'best practice' in both the design and manufacturing processes of larger European companies. Here, the authors shift the focus to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) particularly in Britain and Italy. While few SMEs are in the world-class category, small company practices are customer-oriented, responsiveness-focused and concerned with new products. SMEs' competitive edge typically comes from speed, responsiveness and closeness to customers. SMEs exhibit a greater level of confidence than larger companies in their ability to make change, but neglect training and education. Within the SME sector there are sharp differences between micro (5–20 employees), small (21–50) and medium-sized (51–200) companies while those which are subsidiaries of larger companies have significantly higher levels of best practice. There are differences between countries and regions.     

When consumers penalize not so green products

To cash in on consumers’ willingness to pay higher prices for green products, several companies are promoting conventional products as green by highlighting a few green attributes. Through a theoretical lens, the authors investigate how consumers perceive such attempts. This research illustrates that not so green products make consumers sensitive to the monetary sacrifice associated with the purchase of such products. The current research shows that consumers have a negative attitude toward such products and they become concerned about the ethicality of the company when they encounter such products. Both implicit and explicit measures suggest that consumers notice the company's motive behind such practices which, in turn, impacts their price perceptions.     

Using Trade Shows Throughout the Product Life Cycle

Abstract

Trade shows have long been recognized as an important marketing tool when introducing new products. This study examines the effectiveness of trade shows across the product life cycle (PLC). The results indicate that trade shows are an effective promotion tool for products in any stage of the product life cycle, but the nature and objectives of show use change over the life cycle.