Driving-market or market-driven? A case study analysis of the new product development practices of Chinese business-to-business firms

Our current understanding of NPD processes among Chinese firms is limited. Early evidence suggests that the drivers of new product success in the PRC might be different to those in the West. Much of the more recent (Western) literature implicitly identifies the importance of both driving-market and market-driven approaches to NPD success, although what this translates into in practice is less clear. Drawing on multiple case studies, we identify four types of NPD practice in Chinese B2B firms and explore the reasons for variation in performance between the four. Critically, the most successful firms were found to be those characterised by a driving-market approach, rather than those relying solely on relationships and reacting to changing market phenomena.     

International R&D partnerships and intrafirm R&D–marketing–production integration of manufacturing firms in emerging economies

Although cross-functional integration is important for research and development (R&D), research about implications of cross-functional integration has been rather sparse. In new product development (NPD), no study to date has examined intrafirm as well as interfirm integration of key functions such as intrafirm R&D–marketing–production together with interfirm integration of host R&D–partner R&D. Such marketing and operations interface contributes to a better understanding of how operational and marketing activities impact on competitiveness and firm performance. This study collected data from 202 electronics manufacturing firms operating in an emerging economy, mainland China and Hong Kong with international R&D partnerships. The findings indicate that a high level of R&D integration between firms improved NPD performance when cross-functional integration is based on existing rather than new product configurations and key technologies. Interestingly, in high distance situations, cross-functional integration in the production validation stage generated NPD success. The findings show that high environmental uncertainties lead to a high level of host and partner firms R&D integration. However, product newness has no significant effects on R&D integration in any of the NPD stages.     

On the range of options prices

In this paper we consider the valuation of an option with time to expiration and pay-off function which is a convex function (as is a European call option), and constant interest rate , in the case where the underlying model for stock prices is a purely discontinuous process (hence typically the model is incomplete). The main result is that, for “most” such models, the range of the values of the option, using all possible equivalent martingale measures for the valuation, is the interval , this interval being the biggest interval in which the values must lie, whatever model is used.     

Navigating the new product development process

The quest for success in new product development (NPD) requires management to navigate complex processes. This study presents empirical evidence of the evaluative criteria used by well-experienced NPD managers from the UK and the Netherlands to control performance at different gates of the NPD process. The emerging usage patterns suggest that these criteria are aligned to the specific requirements of each stage in the process. This allows for detection of problems and initiation of adjustments that increase the chance for overall success of the new product. Based on these findings, recommendations are provided for managers to safeguard strategically the performance of their NPD efforts.     

The Role of Accountants in Decision-Making in Lebanese Firms

The issue of accountants＇ role in decision-making has been the center of attention of lots of studies in the last decade but never did it get the adequate coverage in Lebanon. This paper studies to what extent accountants are involved in the managerial decision-making in Lebanon. Two hundred experienced accountants from all over the country were randomly selected for a questionnaire survey. This survey provides evidence as to what factors contribute to the variance of influence accountants have in managerial decision-making. The results from the questionnaires varied, but we conclude that accountants＇ involvement in new product development （NPD）, the skills that accountants have, their role in the financial analysis of the firm, and how much the finn they work for encourages them to advice on business decisions affect the degree of contribution an accountant has to decision-making. The findings of this research could be used as a reference to help in understanding the role of accounting in Lebanon by various finns and organizations.     

Solving RE models with discontinuous policy rules – an application to minimum wage setting in Germany

The legal regulations require the minimum wage in Germany to be adjusted biennially which gives rise to a policy discontinuity. From the perspective of rational expectations models, such policy features render standard local approximation techniques infeasible. The article presents a stylized model in which negotiated wages and corporate profits are the outcome of an optimization problem, while changes to the minimum wage are modelled by a discontinuous policy rule. Using the simple example of minimum wage setting in Germany, the article illustrates how such models can be solved using the method of undetermined coefficients and presents selected simulation results.     

Does organizational creativity always drive market performance?

This study develops and tests arguments that the relationship between organizational creativity and market performance is channeled through new product development (NPD) capability, and that the indirect effect of creativity on performance, via NPD capability, is conditional upon levels of environment dynamism and market responsiveness. The proposed relationships are tested on a sample of 221 small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in a major sub‐Saharan African market. Findings from the study indicate that process and product NPD capabilities partially mediate the effect of novelty and usefulness elements of organizational creativity on market performance. The study further finds that while environment dynamism weakens the indirect effects of novelty and usefulness of organizational creativity, via process and product NPD capabilities, on market performance, the effects are strengthened under conditions of greater responsiveness to target market needs. A theoretical contribution from this study is the finding that how organizational creativity dimensions drive market performance is more complex than previously thought: it depends on whether or not organizational creativity components are first used to develop an organization's process and product innovation capabilities, and whether target market environment conditions are dynamic and an organization has ability to respond to target market demands.     

Dynamic optimization with a nonsmooth, nonconvex technology: the case of a linear objective function

This paper studies a one-sector optimal growth model with linear utility in which the production function is only required to be increasing and upper semicontinuous. The model also allows for a general form of irreversible investment. We show that every optimal capital path is strictly monotone until it reaches a steady state; further, it either converges to zero, or reaches a positive steady state in finite time and possibly jumps among different steady states afterwards. We establish conditions for extinction (convergence to zero), survival (boundedness away from zero), and the existence of a critical capital stock below which extinction is possible and above which survival is ensured. These conditions generalize those known for the case of S-shaped production functions. We also show that as the discount factor approaches one, optimal paths converge to a small neighborhood of the capital stock that maximizes sustainable consumption.This paper is dedicated to Professor Mukul Majumdar on his 60th birthday. His research with various co-authors in the late 70s and the 80s pioneered innovative techniques for the analysis of nonconvex dynamic optimization models – both deterministic and stochastic. Roy considers himself particularly fortunate for having had the opportunity to learn economic theory and mathematical economics from Professor Majumdar. This paper has benefited from helpful comments and suggestions by an anonymous referee. Financial support from the 21st Century COE Program at GSE and RIEB, Kobe University, is gratefully acknowledged.     

儿童用品乙烯-醋酸乙烯酯共聚物塑料中甲酰胺的顶空气相色谱法（NPD）测定

建立了儿童用品乙烯-醋酸乙烯酯共聚物塑料中甲酰胺的顶空气相色谱（NPD）分析方法，定量限为10mg/kg，平均回收率为93.5%-101.4%，重复性相对标准偏差3.4%-3.9%。该方法充分利用了氮磷检测器专属性强的特点，操作容易，可以快速准确定量。     

An Investigation of the Factors Affecting Innovation Performance in Chain and Independent Hotels

SUMMARY

The failure rate of new service projects is high, because the knowledge about how innovations should be developed is limited. In the last decade, several studies have investigated the success factors associated with service innovations (e.g., Atuahene-Gima, 1996; de Brentani, 2001; Storey and Easingwood, 1998). However, no research in new service development (NSD) has addressed the question of whether chain affiliated and independently operated service firms have different approaches for developing successful innovations. The majority of past new service development (NSD) success studies have concentrated on the financial service sector, which is generally represented by large corporate organizations. The findings of this study indicate that the factors which impact on the performance of NSD depend on the organizational relationship of hotels-chain affiliation or independent operation. The study's results suggest that market attractiveness, process management, market responsiveness and empowerment predict NSD success within chain affiliated hotels. While empowerment and market attractiveness are also related to NSD success in independent hotels, this is also linked to effective marketing communication, employee commitment, behaviour based evaluation, training of employees and marketing synergy.