Rosanna Garcia

The Effects of Environmental Turbulence on New Product Development Strategy Planning

Managers need guidance on how to cope with turbulent environments in order to improve corporate performance. Research on environmental turbulence has suggested that firms adopt a less centralized, more organic structure in dynamic, uncertain environments. Little work has been done specifically, however, on how environmental turbulence affects strategy planning for new product development (NPD). In this article, we specify a baseline model with firm innovativeness, market orientation and top management risk taking as antecedents to NPD speed and corporate strategic planning; these in turn are modeled as antecedents to NPD program (not project) performance. Two conceptualizations of the role of environmental turbulence are examined: (1) that market turbulence and technological turbulence are additional direct antecedents to NPD program performance; and (2) that the baseline model is moderated by turbulence (that is, that the strengths of the paths differ depending on levels of turbulence). A cross-sectional survey methodology including four diverse industries [automotive, electronics, publishing, and manufacturing/research and development (RD risk-taking decisions ought to be encouraged in such environments.

The Role of Knowledge in Resource Allocation to Exploration versus Exploitation in Technologically Oriented Organizations

Decisions regarding research and development (R&D) activities of an organization greatly affect the fiscal and market outcomes of technologically oriented firms. Yet, the resource allocation choices between these two activities are tied strongly to an organizations technology knowledge. Technological knowledge is itself a resource that the firm can manage to achieve strategic and competitive advantage. In this paper, the authors present a system dynamics view of the decomposition of R&D efforts into explorative and exploitive activities and the resultant knowledge-specific and performance outcomes from the decision to focus on one type of activity or another. Four factors are shown to affect the relative value of innovative knowledge to the organization: resource availability, exogenous competition, aging of knowledge bases, and adaptive capacity, a firms ability to adapt to its environment. A variety of long- and short-term strategic issues are discussed in relation to these forces.

Women wine consumers: information search and retailing implications

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine gender differences in information search procedures and selection criteria relative to purchase situation and social and financial risk aversion.Design/methodology/approach – An online questionnaire was completed by 497 males and 877 females in the USA. A total of 88 percent of the respondents stated that they drank wine at least once per week. Participants were obtained by sending e‐mails to customer lists provided by wine‐related organizations.Findings – Findings suggest that, if a consumer is unsure about making a wine selection, women are more apt than men to seek information from store personnel, a server, sommelier, or winery personnel. Labels and shelf tags are also significantly more important for women. While winery region is very important to both men and women, women rely on medals and awards more than men.Research limitations/implications – Consumers who are not necessarily comfortable with using the internet would not have had an opportunit...

An exploration of organizational factors in new product development success

Purpose – This study surveys a broad spectrum of new product development (NPD) projects from the biochemistry industry in the USA, Canada, Germany, the UK, and Belgium with the purpose of exploring the role of the organizational activity factors in the NPD success.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the resource‐based view of the firm, the authors present a set of hypotheses concerning the relationship between the people resources, development resources, testing resources, and launch resources committed to NPD projects and their financial success. In addition, the effect of the firms international market involvement on the NPD project success is considered. In this study, testing of the hypothesized relationship is accomplished through linear probability model, binary probit model, and binary logit model.Findings – Empirical results generally support the predictions from the theory. Specifically, the findings of this study show that: the involvement of a strong champion, use of a multi‐disciplinary ...

The drivers for collective horizontal coopetition: a case study of screwcap initiatives in the international wine industry

This paper investigates antecedents for forming collective horizontal coopetition, where all or most major competitors in an industry cooperate to achieve a common goal while competing with each other in other areas of business. The purposes of this paper are: 1) to gain an understanding of how coopetition emerges within an industry using a case study of the screwcap initiative in the Australian, New Zealand and US wine industries; 2) to develop a conceptual model that describes the factors that lead to coopetition among horizontal competitors at the industry level. The following five factors are found to facilitate formation of this type of collective horizontal coopetition: strategic common goals, greater expected collective benefits, safeguards against knowledge transfer, intra-industry complementarities and strong ties in cooperative networks. These factors are presented as propositions. Then, theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

An illustration of modeling moderating variables in cross‐national studies

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore how moderation can and should be modeled in cross‐national/cultural contexts. A multi‐national study of consumer involvement is utilized to demonstrate proper methods for modeling the different types of moderation.Design/methodology/approach – Using data from a consumer survey regarding wine purchasing preferences conducted in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, the paper demonstrates how to identify moderators of form and of strength. A form moderator is modeled using multiplicative interactions while a strength moderator is modeled using multi‐group analyses in structural equation modeling (SEM). Differences in consumers across the three countries are examined from the results.Findings – This study suggests that search behavior is positively influenced by involvement in New Zealand and the USA but not in Australia. It also shows that perceived risk of occasion decreases involvement in all three countries, while partial support for the positive effects of importance ...

A Multinational Study of the Diffusion of a Discontinuous Innovation

There has been a great deal written about the diffusion of discontinuous technical innovations, but very little about diffusion of discontinuous innovations in other areas, such as packaging. Also, little research explores differences in diffusion rates of low-technological discontinuous innovations in different countries or cultures. This project studies the differences in the diffusion process for the screw cap on wine bottles in three countries. We use an internet survey of over 3,600 wine consumers to understand why this discontinuous innovation appears to be slower to diffuse in one country (the US), than in the other two (Australia and New Zealand). Logistic regression is used to model the characteristics of adopters versus non-adopters in each country. Our results show that educating the consumer about the advantages of discontinuous innovations can help to speed diffusion. Education can occur through advertising programs directed at the media and consumers, and also through word-of-mouth campaigns directed at consumers.

Exploring Antecedents of Consumer Resistance Towards Microgeneration Technologies in Ireland

The diffusion of microgeneration technologies like micro wind turbines provides great potential to reduce CO2 emissions, ease fossil fuel dependency and stabilize energy costs. The uptake of microgeneration technologies among home owners, however, remains low and they are often referred to as resistant innovations. Consumer resistance to innovations is a generally underresearched area and empirical evidence is scarce. The research presented in this study is based on a large scale study around micro wind turbines, which was conducted with home owners in the Republic of Ireland in 2009. The contribution of this study is twofold. Building on recent advances in the literature, the study firstly operationalises and empirically validates a measure of consumer resistance to green innovations. Secondly, this measure is anchored in a theoretically grounded model based around status quo bias theory (Samuelson and Zeckhauser 1988) to empirically test the relative influence of factors leading to consumer resistance to micro wind turbines. The proposed scale and framework are both validated via structural equation modeling techniques, providing valuable information for marketers and policymakers aiming to promote the uptake of micro wind turbines in Ireland.

What Drives Competitors to Cooperate?: Antecedents of Collective Marketing Coopetition

Coopetition is generally referred to simultaneous cooperation and competition between organizations. In this paper, we limit our attention to direct competitors that cooperate with each other. Based on the previous literature, we define coopetition as simultaneous cooperation of direct competitors in some areas of business and competition in other areas of business. Specifically, we focus on one particular type of coopetition, “collective marketing coopetition,” where all or most competitors in an industry cooperate in order to promote a new idea, a new technology, or a new standard collectively.

Specialisation in technology exploration and exploitation: a systems approach

Technologically-oriented firms must allocate resources between exploration (research) and exploitation (development) activities. While scholars have emphasised the need for a mix between exploration and exploitation, some firms consciously choose to specialise only in either exploration or exploitation. The reasons for such a strategic posture could be many, including rigidities emanating from resources or routines. While previous studies suggest that an exploration/exploitation mix is necessary for success in an innovation strategy, focused strategies have recently come into research focus. We adopt a methodological approach using case studies combined with an agent-based simulation model in order to learn about the effectiveness of specialisation strategies. The results suggest that an exploration-based specialisation strategy can have a relative advantage over an exploitation-based specialisation strategy, and a balanced strategy is not absolutely necessary to ensure innovation success. We find that as competitive intensity increases, the relative advantage of exploration-based specialisation strategy diminishes.