New Product Development Process: A Perspective for Reexamination

In spite of the increased sophistication of new product development processes, the percentage of successful new product introductions has not improved significantly in the last two decades. This calls for a reexamination of the new products development process. Yoram Wind and Vijay Mahajan suggest 13 strategic guidelines for the development of new or modified products. These guidelines, if followed, could improve a firm's chances of developing and introducing successful new products.     

Inevitably reborn: The reawakening of extinct innovations

In our innovation-driven world we tend to lay concepts that have lost their attractiveness to rest and rush to embrace the next giant leap. However, in most fields of creation, patterns of reawakening of old, extinct innovations can be found. It often looks as if new technological and social concepts have a life of their own, survival instincts and adaptive properties: They simply refuse to die. Should these phenomena be resolved on an ad hoc basis or are they grounded in the foundation of social behavior or evolutionary processes of technology? In conditions in which continuum equations would predict the extinction of a population, the presently offered microscopic representation proves that individuals self-organize in spatiotemporally localized adaptive patches that ensure their survival, resilience, and development as a collective. A similar treatment can explain why so many innovations are inevitably reborn. Accordingly, in assessing the value of social ideas, trends and even wants we ought to consider longer time frames following the decline of innovations, otherwise we might prematurely and erroneously discard successful promising concepts.     

Autonomy and Effectiveness of Equity International Joint Ventures (EIJVs): An Analysis based on EIJVs in Hungary and Britain

The paper utilizes data collected from 34 equity international joint ventures (EIJVs) located in Hungary and 49 EIJVs located in Britain to examine the effects of autonomy on EIJV effectiveness. Study results suggest that for the total sample, permitting an EIJV to develop local HRM policies and to implement business plans independently contribute to EIJV effectiveness. Additionally, there is a positive correlation between EIJV age and effectiveness. When the samples are broken up, the results are consistent except that developing local HRM policies is not a significant factor with respect to EIJV effectiveness in Hungary. The paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating that autonomy is a multidimensional construct and by providing initial support for the development of a theory relating EIJV autonomy to effectiveness based on a hierarchy of autonomy measures. The paper also suggests a model of relative recommended autonomy levels for different EIJV activities.     

Environmental policy and innovations

The paper defines and uses the concepts environmental policy cycle and innovation cycle and explores the links between the two in search for an environmental policy that creates incentives for innovation in environmental technology. We conclude that key factors are shortening the period the bureaucracy takes for preparing new environmental requirements, transparency and consistency of bureaucratic and political decision‐making and fast and strict implementation with environmental policy instruments that give pollution sources freedom in their choice of suitable technology. Economic instruments provide strong incentives for innovation because they speed up implementation. Large R&D subsidies may be needed to make technology development profitable under the conventional policy of direct regulation by emission standards and regulation by way of covenants. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Industrial product diffusion by market segment

This article focuses on the need to forecast diffusion patterns by market segment. The usual single market forecasts may be quite inappropriate if the market is segmented. Evidence is offered, based on the marketing of a new medical technology, that the diffusion pattern does vary by segment. The marketing of new technologies can potentially be improved by planning and forecasting on a segment by segment basis.     

Dimentions of tourist satisfaction with a destination area

Pizam, Abraham, Yoram Neumann, and Arie Reichel.. “Dimensions of Tourist Satisfaction with a Destination Area,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. V, No. 3, July/September 1978, pp. 314–322. This paper empirically identifies eight factors of tourist satisfaction with Cape Cod, Massachusetts (USA) as a tourist destination area; and it suggests the means to measure them. By using a factor-analytic approach based on data obtained from a survey of 685 vacationing tourist, the following factors of tourist satisfaction were derived: beach oppurtunities, cost, hospitality, eating and drinking facilities, accommodation facilities, environment, and extent of commercialization.