Hanne Harmsen

A framework for analysing innovation in the food sector.

The introduction of new products is widely regarded as an essential element of competition between food companies, and the successful management of new product development a key determinant of business performance. It is estimated that the modern supermarket often carries a product range of 10 000 to 15 000 products and turns over perhaps 10% or more of these every year. A leading UK food retailer is said to have introduced around 1500 new private-label products alone in 1993, compared with 300 in 1987 (Hughes, 1994).

Identifying the determinants of value creation in the market: A competence-based approach

Abstract The marketing and strategy literature has long urged companies to become more market-oriented, the suggested means for doing so ranging from developing a market-oriented organisational culture to carrying out various activities related to generating, disseminating, and responding to market information. The methodological approach to translating market demands into company competencies presented in this article allows us to develop a method for determining how to create value in a given market by investigating the links between market demand and company competencies. The theoretical basis of our approach is drawn from the competence literature, while the method is based on the concept of managerial cognition. After identifying market demands, we then link these to company competencies through a cognitive mapping procedure using key informants from industry. The article contributes to an increased understanding of the complex relationship between market and company and to the development of methodological approaches to determining the creation of market value in a specific situation. It also serves to link the market orientation and competence literatures.

Why Did We Make that Cheese? An Empirically Based Framework for Understanding What Drives Innovation Activity

In the more recent product development literature the interplay between R&D skills and competencies and market skills and competencies is seen as a major determinant of successful innovation. The study reported in this article was done in order to cast more light on these two constructs in an industry with low R&D expenditures, but where product development is nevertheless considered to be strategically important. That industry is the food processing industry. The results of a series of case studies indicate that constructs other than R&D and market orientation may be more appropriate for understanding innovation and explaining innovation success in the case material. A new set of constructs focusing on what causes specific innovation activities to occur is proposed and a revised framework is developed.

Implementation of success factors in new product development – the missing links?

This paper addresses companies’ lack of implementation of success factors in new product development. Drawing on theory in the competence perspective and an exploratory empirical study, the paper points to two major areas that have not been covered by previous studies on new product development success factors. The two areas are knowledge and skills of individual employees, values and norms and it is suggested that increased understanding of these two areas holds potential in making identified success factors more accessible to companies.

Overcoming the barriers to market‐oriented product development

Discusses the concept of market‐oriented product development and describes the extent to which a number of Danish food companies and Dutch manufacturers of medical equipment were market oriented in developing new products. The results are combined with the current product development literature to identify the major barriers that prevent managers from capitalizing on existing normative results regarding market‐oriented product development. Concludes with major implications for both researchers and practitioners.

New Areas in Agricultural and Food Marketing

There is wide agreement in the public debate that the food industry in Western industrialised countries is entering a difficult period. Several tendencies taken together work to increase the competitive pressure on food companies (Grunert et al., 1996): In affluent economies, it is one of the laws of economics that growth in markets for food products, if any, is not in terms of quantity, but in terms of value. Most industrialised economies are characterised by an oversupply of agricultural products. A global tendency towards deregulation, decrease of government subsidies to producers of agricultural and food products, and reduction of trade barriers removes many of those shields which have protected food companies from competition in some countries. Consumers are believed to become less predictable in their behaviour, as consumer demands become more fragmented and less consistent. Concentration in the retail sector has resulted in powerful agents. Not only do the agents exercise an important gatekeeper function but they can also put competitive pressure on food manufacturers.

Innovation in the food sector: a revised framework

In this study, we set out to understand how food companies innovate, and how innovation is linked to business success. A series of 12 case studies in six European countries has been described in the preceding chapters. The cases were guided by a framework which we built up based on a comprehensive literature review This framework is reproduced in Figure 15.1.

Pennine Foods: always prepared for a new ready meal

Pennine Foods is a subsidiary of the large UK food conglomerate, Northern Foods (turnover 2.5b ECU). It produces chilled ready meals, primarily based on Italian recipes, which are sold exclusively as private-label products in Marks & Spencer, the UK market leader in the sector

Tholstrup Cheese A/S: in love with cheese

The following case is about a highly successful medium-sized Danish dairy company, which bases its success on a strategy markedly different from that of its major competitors. Many competitors, including much larger ones, claim that a brand strategy is impossible these days, partly because of increasing retailer power and partly because of high costs of mass media advertising. They therefore lean increasingly towards production of private labels. In contrast, the case company has followed a pure manufacturer’s brand strategy, developing and launching products which have become firmly rooted in consumers’ minds — and has achieved this without major spending on advertising. Also in another area the company sets aside what is regarded as conventional wisdom, namely by claiming that it is not market-oriented and that new products never come about by asking consumers what they would like to have. Instead, the company leans on the expertise and ‘feeling for the business’ inherited from years of experience.