Firms frequently use brand extension strategies to enter new product categories. Another type of entry strategy is co-branding by effectively exploiting the equity of both constituent brands. Co-branding may effectively drive consumer preferences if consumers believe the combination of two brands offers a better solution than either one separately. However, there is also the risk that consumers may get confused with the combination, or have perceptions of strengths regarding one of the brands diluted, leading to the failure of this strategy. While much has been written on brand-category extension, despite its prevalence, the use of co-brands to enter a new category has attracted relatively little attention. In this study, the author models the effects on consumer perceptions and preferences of combining two brand names for a new product. The proposed model provides a mechanism to represent how consumers’ prior attribute beliefs about constituent brands, the extendibility of the brands into the extension category, the compatibility between the constituent brands, and the uncertainty associated with them can jointly determine their preferences for the co-branded product. The contribution that this model enables is a means to study co-branding and new category entry simultaneously, by assessing the drivers of consumer preference for a co-brand in a new product category. An empirical study is designed to test the model, using real brands and hypothetical extensions and co-brands. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of this study are discussed.

<p>This paper os about how is it relevant for companies to create or extend a brand, and what limits they should respect.</p>

Texas A&M University of the United States and the Institute National Agronomique de Tunisie (INAT) of Tunisia established a collaborative relationship of mutual exchange of information and ideas for the further advancement of both universities. The researcher worked closely with these universities to conduct a qualitative study in Tunisia to determine the effectiveness of agricultural institutions working to further development in that country. The emphasis of the study was on the transference of knowledge and innovations from the research level through extension to the farmers and other end users. The triangle of teaching, research, and extension provided a base perspective. The researcher interviewed 37 respondents, including researchers, extension personnel, administration, professors, and farmers. From data that respondents provided, the researcher used a constant comparative method to organize results into the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the agricultural institutions as a system. Overarching themes included a pointed focus on meeting farmer needs, but this desire was hindered from being carried out fully due to complex communication systems and an organizational structure that did not facilitate change. Hope did abound for Tunisian agriculturalists because the opportunities available through globalization and international collaboration far outweighed any possible threats to development, such as fierce competition in trade and lack of quality water. The researcher also made specific recommendations based on the information gathered in the study. These recommendations were based on the findings of the study, and they were directed to leaders within the Tunisian agriculture system and other agriculturalists wishing to further development in countries facing similar situations as Tunisia.

This paper os about how is it relevant for companies to create or extend a brand, and what limits they should respect.

The purpose of the study was to examine the administrative structure needed to coordinate the numerous institutions of higher education offering postsecondary degree programs on an Army installation. The study then identified the management problems and solutions to those problems, as perceived by Education Services Officers when coordinating among the participating institutions. The population consisted of representatives from eleven U.S. Army Continuing Education Services Centers.The Education Services Center representatives having the responsibility for coordinating the postsecondary programs were interviewed by telephone to collect the data. An interview form was designed to elicit non-directed responses to perceived major problems confronting the representatives, problems at Department of the Army and possible solutions to the problems.Education Services representatives encountered difficulty in providing a quality program during a period when on-Post program effectiveness was evaluated by Department of the Army. Major problems existed in the coordination among several institutions with differing administrative policies, requirements, and recognition of transfer credit.Solutions to the problems included the adoption of an Advisory Committee concept to assist in academic advisement and evaluation, the incorporation of evaluation in program, the development of guidelines for evaluation, and clarification of the requirement for negotiation of the institution agreement. Other recommendations were to develop more concise guidelines for quality assurance and evaluation, and for the closer correlation between academic needs of Army students and professional development needs of the U.S. Army. The reduction of the number of participating institutions was seen as a positive way to improve management and quality control of the on-Post programs.

The purpose of this study was to identify the critical factors for effective quality management in the Cooperative Extension System (CES) and develop an instrument that measured quality management performance in selected CES organizations as a means of identifying organizational training needs. Three procedures were applied in this study. First, critical factors of quality management were identified through a literature review and verified by an expert panel. Second, performance measures defining each critical factor were generated from the literature, approved by an iterative panel and assigned to scales. Finally, an instrument was developed and administered to a test population for purposes of establishing reliability and validity of the scales. Seven critical factors were identified that contributed to effective organization-wide quality management in the CES: (a) Administrative Support for Quality, (b) Strategic Quality Planning, (c) Continuous Quality Improvement, (d) Strategic Human Resources Management, (e) Quality Information and Analysis, (f) Clientele Satisfaction, and (g) Quality in Education and Training. Performance measures characterizing quality management were operationally defined from the literature, and approved by the iterative panel. An instrument, comprised of 69 performance measures, was designed and administered to a test population of Extension professionals, achieving a 91% response rate. Five of the critical factors including: (a) Administrative Support for Quality, (b) Strategic Quality Planning, (c) Strategic Human Resources Management, (d) Clientele Satisfaction, and (e) Quality in Education and Training, and seven of their corresponding scales, showed evidence of reliability and validity. The critical factors of Quality Information and Analysis and Clientele Satisfaction each had a scale that were reliable, but construct validity was not evident. The critical factors of Strategic Human Resources Management, and Quality in Education and Training each had a scale that did not show evidence of empirical utility. All three scales within the critical factor of Continuous Quality Improvement did not show evidence of empirical utility. This study offers a promising model for subsequent theory building and for more systematic research in assessing organization-wide training needs preceding the introduction of quality management technology in the Cooperative Extension System. / Graduation date: 1992

Decentralization is a key governance reform which many developing countries have embarked on. Local governments are expected to use their informational advantage to improve the delivery of public goods. This result implied by Tiebout’s (1956) model requires fully informed citizens who “vote with their feet.” The model’s application to developing countries has been limited, since local decisions may not be responsive to local demands. Practitioners are shifting to innovations that minimize institutional constraints so that decentralized programs can lead to improved outcomes. Examples of such innovative ways include decentralized agricultural extension programs, which embrace farmers’ empowerment, local government, and private sector participation. Few impact evaluation studies on agricultural extension have combined qualitative and quantitative methods. This dissertation contributes to the literature by applying these methods and survey data to study the impact of a decentralized extension program in Uganda, known as the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) on the value of farm production per acre. The program is non-randomly assigned to local governments and farmers self-select in or out within participating sub-counties. Using a sample of 305 participating and non-participating farmers and local government assessment indicators as instruments, we cannot reject the null that the NAADS program has had an impact. The 2SLS results show no program impact; however, the OLS results show that the program had a positive impact on the value of farm production per acre of about 20 percent. Qualitative results show that NAADS farmers: participate in local decision making processes through farmers’ institutions; have increased knowledge on farming; and practice enterprise diversification. The quantitative finding must be treated with caution; for example, the study did not account for spillover effects. The NAADS program faces challenges inherent in Uganda’s decentralized structure; particularly the low financial and human capacity, and the weak monitoring at the local level. The policy implications include: the need to strengthen farmers’ institutions; development of a marketing strategy; clear policy guidelines for local government support to NAADS; improved coordination of NAADS activities among line ministries; need for additional resources for NAADS activities; and improved capacity of service providers.

This study sought to examine the performance of participants in training courses of the Agricultural and Environmental Services (AES) unit and determine variables affecting participants' scores on the General Standards Examination (GSE). The data sample for the study comprised 150 individuals who completed the 8-hour course between February 2011 and February 2012 and submitted instruments developed for this study (demographic and evaluation survey, pre-test, post-test, and GSE). The demographics of the pest control industry in Texas - or, more specifically, the demographics of those taking a Structural Pesticide Applicator Training (SPAT) course from AES - have not changed much since 1998. The major differences in demographics between the two groups of individuals investigated (commercial and non-commercial applicants) were in age and size of business where employed. Commercial participants tended to be younger than non-commercial participants. Those seeking commercial certification tended to be employed in smaller firms than did those seeking non-commercial certification. This study found moderate, positive correlations between the pre-test, post-test, and GSE. Finally, though the examination scores were correlated, there were statistically significant differences between participants' performances on the pre-test, post-test, and GSE. These differences were quadratic; all three pairs - pre-test and post-test, post-test and GSE, and pre-test and GSE - differed, with pretest scores in the middle, then post-test scores highest, and GSE scores lowest. The researcher recommended that further research be conducted on demographic variables that may affect the outcome of the examinations, and that the rigor and relevance of the pre-test and post-test be increased to predict more accurately the results of the GSE.

Today budgeting occurs in all types of organizations, from authorities and municipalities, to private companies and non-profit associations. Depending on whether the organization is large or small it can look very different. In large organizations the budget can be such a comprehensive document that it is difficult to keep track of it. Furthermore, in large organizations, the budget work starts very early. Thus, an effective budget process could reduce resources, time and ultimately costs. This master’s thesis report describes a budget application built with the Business Intelligence software QlikView. With the application a budgeter can load desired budget data and through a QlikView Extension Object edit the loaded data and finally follow up the work of different budgets. The Extension Object has been implemented using JavaScript and HTML to create a GUI. The edited data is sent to a back-end interface built with one web server and one database server. To evaluate the usability of the Extension Object’s GUI and determine how the budget application works and to get feedback on the Extension Object and its functionality, a user study was performed. The result of the user study shows that the application simplifies budget processes and has great potential to help budgeters and controllers to increase their effectiveness.

Background Brand managers often use brand extension as a “lower” risk alternative when introducing new products. A lot of research has been conducted about brand extensions but mostly focusing on fast moving consumer goods, therefore ignoring the impact that this strategy carries on experience goods and more precisely, the video game industry. Video games have turned from a niche product to a global billion dollar market in which brand extensions are a common marketing strategy. There are several examples of both successful and failed brand extensions in the video game industry. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to identify brand extension success factors in the videogame industry  and how important these factors are for the consumers, a model will be created to test the obtained results; further on the authors will look at different segment of gamers and how the importance of the identified factors differ among them. Method In order to analyze the level of importance that video game users give to the brand extension success factors, an online questionnaire was created with Likert Scale questions to measure each factor. Descriptive statistics, linear regression analysis, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test were utilized to analyze the results of the questionnaire and to identify differences between the responses of different type of video game users. A second identical questionnaire was distributed only to Tomb Raider users in order to create a model which gave each factor a score depending on the results of the questionnaire and weighted their positive or negative influence into the likelihood of success of each of the Tomb Raider games; the purpose of the model is to predict if each game could be considered a success or not and then compare the prediction with the real outcome of each game in the Tomb Raider series. Conclusion The most important factors for the success of a brand extension in the video game industry are the factors game-play, the brand extension quality as perceived by the users and the factor storyline. On a lower level of importance, the gamers classified the parent brand quality by users and the factors audio, graphics, developer and genre. The lowest category of importance includes the quality as perceived by the critics of the parent brand and the brand extension, the parent brand awareness and the factor multiplayer mode. Finally the survey showed that the cultural familiarity, the factors publisher and rating, and the marketing campaign for the brand extension are not important for the gamers. A second survey was conducted exclusively with Tomb Raider users in order to create the model and the results for this second survey were the same as the one targeted to general gamers, which allows the possibility to generalize the results of the model. The findings of this thesis can help members of the video game industry to better allocate resources towards the factors that most influence the brand extension success.