New Product Preannouncement as a Signaling Strategy: An Audience‐Specific Review and Analysis*

Firms in various industries with highly competitive environments use new product preannouncement (NPP) as one of the most effective and popular signaling tools. Preannouncements can bring both benefits and costs to firms. Extant research has studied NPP from different perspectives and tackled the questions, “Should a new product be preannounced and when?” and “What information should be preannounced and why?” However, the benefits and costs of preannouncements from an audience‐specific perspective are less well understood. It is important to notice that benefits and costs of a preannouncement vary among different audiences and firms need to apply group‐specific weights in assessing the overall benefits and costs prior to making new product preannouncements. The purpose of this article is to review the existing literature on new product preannouncements for commonly observed marketing problems and to develop a general approach focusing on the target audiences and the incentives in sending signals to each audience and the impacts of these signals. This paper first reviews the literature on marketing‐related NPP issues as well as the determinants and effects of various factors on NPP decisions. Then, it discusses the phenomenon of new product preannouncements linked to other marketing and economics problems: (1) product development and positioning; (2) product diffusion and adoption; (3) firm value; (4) vaporware and antitrust litigations; and (5) consumer welfare. In addition, this paper divides the target audience of the new product preannouncement into four groups: customers, competitors, investors, and distributors. Based on current signaling theory, it proposes an audience‐specific framework to analyze the determinants, incentives, and impact of new product preannouncements. The proposed approach may provide more comprehensive insights on NPP strategies to managers and industrial decision makers. Finally, the paper suggests a number of future research directions from four different perspectives (i.e., customer, firm, government/industry, and methodology).     

Industrial buyer complaining behavior

Many areas of household consumer behavior research were extended to study organizational buyer behavior in the recent years. However, one exception is the buyer dissatisfaction and complaining behavior area. This article discusses the various conceptual aspects of organizational buyer complaining behavior. A model of buyer complaining behavior is proposed and some theoretical portulates are formulated for additional research.     

简析风险投资与中小企业的发展

在对风险投资的涵义研究的基础上，分析了我国中小企业在国民经济中的地位，提出了利用风险投资以促进中小企业发展的若干建议和措施。     

西方经济学教学方法初探

针对西方经济学作为一门理论课具有很强的抽象性，学生在学习中感到比较困难的实际，结合教学经验。对西方经济学的教学方法做了有益探索。     

浅论会计信息的质量特征

文章论述了会计信息的相关性和可靠性．二者共同构成会计信息质量特征要求．缺一不可。针对我国目前会计信息严重失真的现状提出了治理措施。     

商贸市场的邮政储蓄业务开展探讨

为加大邮政储蓄在商贸市场开展业务的力度和效果,文章分析了邮政储蓄服务商贸市场的优劣势,探讨了邮政储蓄在商贸市场开展业务的策略。     

从含钴废料中回收钴的研究进展

介绍了从转炉渣、净液钴渣、镍钴硫化物三种含钴废料中回收钴的方法。     

市场、技术及管理三维创新协同过程及模型研究

技术、管理及市场三维创新协同,可以充分发挥单维创新所无法实现的"1+1>2"的协同效应。三维创新协同不仅强调技术、管理及市场部门之间的知识及信息的互动与协调,而且更强调这些部门间的价值互动和创造。提出了市场、技术及管理三维创新概念,阐释了三维创新协同的内涵,分析探讨了三维创新协同过程及模型。     

Holiday users of the Internet — ease of use,functionality and novelty

This study is based upon a sample of 517 international visitors to New Zealand. It suggests that Internet usage is based upon perceived usefulness and ease of system use. Of additional importance is user confidence about system security. Functional issues of purchasing seem to take priority over information search as users become more familiar with web pages. An additional finding is that entertainment needs are arguably better met by other Internet functions than those provided by destination web pages. Novelty on the Net is perhaps sought from specific sources, and not from the Net generally. Implications are discussed for both measurement and marketing. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.