Yvon Dufour

Functional Food and Nutraceutical Registration Processes in Japan and China: A Diffusion of Innovation Perspective

Purpose - This paper looks into the functional food and nutraceutical registration processes in Japan and China. The Japanese have developed the Foods for Specified Health Use (FOSHU) registration process whereas the Chinese have put into place the Health Food (HF) registration process. The aim of this paper is to compare the regulation processes between the two countries in search for answers to three core empirical questions: (1) how have the registration processes developed and changed? (2) What are the similarities and differences between the processes of registration in the two countries investigated? (3) Why are the registration processes similar/different? Method - The study was conducted using secondary sources. The literature surveyed covered academic journals, trade journals, magazine and newspaper articles, market reports, proceedings, books and web pages of relevant regulatory authorities and regulatory consultants. Information from the more recently published sources was used preferentially over older sources. As well as using the most recent sources, information was selected on the basis of which source it was from. Official regulations and SFDA and MHLW websites would contain accurate and up to date information and information from here would be taken as true over other sources of information. Results - The two diagrams of the registration processes respectively in Japan and China clearly show that there are similarities and differences. There are six categories under which these can be found: (1) the scientific evidence required; (2) the application process; (3) the evaluation process; (4) the law and the categories of products; (5) the labels and the types of claims; and finally (6) the cost and the time involved. Conclusions -The data analysis suggests that the process of diffusion of innovation played a role in the development of the regulations. Further it was found that while Japan was at the outset a pioneer innovator in nutraceutical registration processes, there are indications that in more recent years it too imitated other countries. NOVELTY STATEMENT: The assortment of regulatory regimes creates much uncertainty for the firms and the lack of familiarity and poor knowledge of the regulatory situation increases the risk of failure. The research presented in this paper provides highly valuable information to any biotech/pharmaceutical/nutraceutical companies developing their market entry strategy in Japan and China. There are few national and international studies of drug registration application processes but even fewer comparative studies of functional food and neutraceutical registration application processes such as this one and none using a diffusion of innovation perspective.

Revisiting a classic case study

Purpose – On 10 September 2007 the world was stunned by the news that Anita Roddick – the founder of The Body Shop – was dead at the age of 64. Everyone recognizes the success of The Body Shop, but it is not easily explained using traditional strategic thinking. This paper aims to shed new light on Anita Roddicks entrepreneurial and managerial flair, as well as on her legacy to the field of management.Design/methodology/approach – Configuration as a quality is an intriguing and intuitively appealing new idea. The main innovation is the premise that organizational elements form common gestalts such that each can be best understood in relation to the other elements in the configuration. This paper probed the conceptual notion of configuration as a quality in an empirical sense by revisiting one of the classic Harvard Business School (HBS) case studies: The Body Shop International.Findings – The paper shows The Body Shop as a good example of a comprehensive configuration that allows immediate intuitive appr...

Inaccuracy in traffic forecasts : lying or strategizing? A contextualist analysis of a troubled initiative in the Hong Kong container industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look into the fate of a troubled initiative in Hong Kong that was developed in the midst of discussions between Beijing and London leading towards the 1997 handover. It sets out to shred new light on the “forecasting gap”: the gap between the anticipated level of traffic and the real volume of traffic in the years following the opening of a new infrastructure.Design/methodology/approach – This research uses primarily qualitative methods. The data collection process comprises three main activities: documentary search, observational and ethnographic material, and interviews. The general strategy of data presentation and analysis is to develop a descriptive framework for organizing the longitudinal case‐study.Findings – The paper puts forward that there is little basis to the claim of Machiavellian practices in the Hong Kong container handling community. The analysis suggests that the gaps are residual of prolonged decision‐making processes featuring a diversity of s...

Promises in psychological contract drive commitment for clinicians

Purpose – Job satisfaction, mental health and organisational commitment are important for clinician retention. Psychological contracts, organisational justice and negative affectivity (NA) have been linked with these outcomes but there is limited research examining these concepts in combination, particularly for clinicians. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationships between psychological contract breach, organisational justice and NA, on the outcomes of organisational commitment, psychological distress and job satisfaction, in a medical context. Design/methodology/approach – Surveys were distributed to Australian hospital clinicians through their internal mail and 81 completed surveys were returned (response rate=24 per cent). Findings – Multiple regression analyses revealed that organisational commitment was related to NA, psychological contract obligation and the interaction between psychological contract breach and distributive justice. Psychological distress was related to NA and procedural...

Réussir sa carrière : qu'est-ce que cela signifie ?

Au cours des dernieres annees, l’internationalisation et des changements survenus dans l’environnement economique et demographique ont fortement modifie la trajectoire des carrieres en gestion de meme que la conception du succes aussi bien au point de vue individuel qu’au point de vue organisationnel. Parallelement, la crise economique et de nombreuses fraudes financieres commises par des dirigeants reconnus ont terni et remis en question notre conception traditionnelle des dirigeants-vedettes tout comme celle de leur succes et de ce que signifie, plus globalement, reussir en tant que gestionnaire. Il apparait alors important – pour les personnes et pour les dirigeants d’entreprise – de s’interroger sur ce que veut dire le succes en carriere afin de mieux le gerer. Une revue de la documentation nous permet de presenter differents modeles et metaphores du succes professionnel. Cette reflexion sur le succes ainsi que les resultats d’une etude que nous avons menee sur le sujet interpellent non seulement les gestionnaires qui gerent leur vie professionnelle, mais aussi les organisations qui les embauchent et les ecoles de gestion qui les forment.Fonctions : management, GRHIndustries : toutes

Middle managers' career success and business strategy in the Canadian aerospace industry

Purpose – The main aim of this paper is to investigate the way middle managers picture their career success and the business strategy of their firm with the following key question in mind: “Is there a relationship between the two?”.Design/methodology/approach – This research is based on a “polar sample” of two companies of the Canadian aerospace industry that use generic business strategies which differ considerably along the continuum of strategic approaches from one another. A list of 50 people was made in collaboration with the executives of the companies investigated. A total of 74 percent (37) of the middle managers invited to be interviewed accepted the invitation. The interviews lasted on average 90 minutes. They were analyzed using NVivo software.Findings – The analysis yielded a set of four empirical configurations of career success. The idea of central orchestrating theme has been at the core of configuration theory since its inception but few researchers have set the task to investigate them le...

Customer strategies via internet commerce in the energy industry

The application and performance of Internet Commerce (IC) strategy has become a critical success factor in an industry characterised by volatile change and transformational upheaval. This article presents research examining how IC has been applied in Australian electricity utilities from a retail perspective. The industrys transformation from government regulation to full retail contestability means that retailers need to reassess the way they position themselves in the market and determine how best to interact with their environment. The article reports how Australian electricity retailers have utilised IC to strengthen their relationship with their customers and proactively respond to customer expectations in the provision of more information, greater interactivity and increased access to information in a timely manner and suggests further enhancements.