Abstract The biotechnology industry is an industry that uses applied science and bioengineering to employ living organisms or parts of organisms to make or modify products. Although there are many websites, databases, and research instruments focused on this field, the information given is still incomplete. Therefore, in this research report we will find that Taiwan¡¦s Biotechnology Industry has certain characteristics: it is going through its developing period, it has long research & development cycles, faces many government rules and regulations, has a complex value chain, is technique intensive, innovation oriented, has low energy dependence, high add-value, etc. After analyzing the literature and data from the case company, the results of the research indicate that: 1. Product: There is high threat from substitutes, so the case company should emphasize its differences from other products, make product level enlargements, create more extensions to their products, recheck its product positioning in the market to reduce threat. 2. Price: The case company should refer to the market price when deciding on a product price; they should take a more active approach in their pricing strategy. Moreover, they should take into consideration the whole operation system when deciding on a price by evaluating each product¡¦s break-even-point. 3. Place: The case company uses traditional methods of transporting its products, so it should enlarge its logistic channels, to make the products more popular and easier to buy. They should use a vertical marketing system to reduce the relocation of resources, and reinforce the sales techniques of its salesmen. 4.Promotion: The case company uses direct marketing so they know their customers¡¦ needs, but they have limited customer resources. The company should increase its product publicity, and improve its promotion strategy and public relationship to draw in more potential customers. Key words: Biotechnology Industry; marketing theory; five force analysis;4P analysis

This research is based on marketing theory by utilizing content analysis. By the indepth interview and questionnaire in two dimensions of international hostel managers and dwellers in cross straits, using qualitied and quantified statistical tools, trying to comprehend the tendency of development of international youth hostels and predicting the future developments and directions. Besides, the measured standard of quality service and 8P of marketing mix examine nowadays managing situations of international youth hostels between cross straits, trying to find the diverseness of development as the basis of a comparision of cross straits, building informational cross-platform to reach bright future. The results of this research are not only beneficial to the managers of international youth hostels in Taiwan to understand the lack of management skills in developing international hostels in China, but helpful to investors from Taiwan. Furthermore, by analyzing the data of this research, the future development and service of the international youth hostels between cross straits pursue for high-quality management strategy. Facing to the economic hotels put premium on the competitive advantages of service quality, it is bound to improve the service quality. And by the pricing strategy, all the managers of international youth hostels of cross straits desire to attract customers by low pricing. This research provides those managers in the budding stage industries, and developes directions to achieve the vision of international hostels between cross straits.

Abstract   Hansson, C. (2015). Implementation of medical yoga as part of public health work . Bachelor thesis in Public Health science. Department of work- and public health science. The academy of health and working life. University of Gävle, Sweden.   Introduction This paper aimed to explore and describe the implementation of medical yoga in the health promotion sector in Sweden.   Method The method was of qualitative design, and telephone interviews were conducted with people working in public health promotion that was using medical yoga in their work with patients.   Result Results indicate that the implementation of medical yoga can be described by the theory Diffusion of innovation. The informants described high observability, simplicity (low complexity) and relative advantages and few obstacles and barriers with implementation of the innovation medical yoga. The channel that promotes medical yoga and the place where the innovation are implemented are the Swedish healthcare system. The people who work there seems to be the target group of the innovation. Medical yoga is spreading through the people who are practicing medical yoga in their work.   Conclusion Conclusions are that the five stages model and the key factors of Diffusion of innovations can be part of the explanation and identifying the cause of how and why the implementation of medical yoga has been made by the informants. The innovation is appreciated by the informants and has perceived health benefits and few barriers. / Sammanfattning   Denna uppsats undersöker och beskriver implementeringen av medicinsk yoga inom hälsosektorn i Sverige.   För att möta en ökad efterfrågan har Världshälsoorganisationen (WHO) gått ut med en rapport med uppmaning och strategier för införandet och kompletterande av konventionell medicin med traditionell- och/eller komplementärmedicin. De uppmuntrar till att göra kunskaperna och behandlingarna tillgängliga för fler. Med rapporten vill organisationen att traditionell medicin ska få större utrymme i hälso- och sjukvården. De uppmuntrar även till mer forskning inom ormrådet för att öka säkerheten kring och effektiviteten runt implementeringen.   Inom hälso- och sjukvården i Sverige eftersöks nya kostnadseffektiva, verksamma och säkra behandlingar som är vetenskapligt framtagna. Medicinsk yoga är en av metoderna i traditionell och komplementär medicin som är forskad på och bevisat kostnadseffektiv. Den används inom hälso- och sjukvården på 127 enheter som sjukhus, vårdcentraler och öppenvårdsmottagningar av personer utbildade via Mediyoga institutet som tillhandahåller utbildningen antingen på plats eller via lärare runt om i landet. Medicinsk yoga är utvecklad i Sverige och är en lugn och meditativ form av yoga. Den är utformad från kundaliniyoga och har rörelser som går att anpassas och utföras av friska och väldigt sjuka individer.   Undersökningens syfte var att beskriva implementeringen av medicinsk yoga utifrån två folkhälsoteorier för implementering av hälsokampanjer eller innovationer/ produkter. Teorierna som valdes ut var Social marketing och diffusion of innovation för att beskriva produkten, promotionen, spridningen och implementering av medicinsk yoga.   Undersökningen bygger på material inhämtat via telefonintervjuer med personer som arbetar inom hälsosektorn med medicinsk yoga.   Resultatet visar att informanterna upplevt och beskrivit implementeringen av medicinsk yoga som enkel, observerbar och med flera relativa fördelar och egenskaper. Endast ett fåtal hinder och barriärer beskrivs i samband med implementering. Med utgångspunkt i Diffusion of innovations är identifieringen av dessa nyckelfaktorer en förklaring till att implementeringen av innovationen lyckats. Promotion och spridning har skett inom hälso- och sjukvården till kollegor, chefer och patienter. Spridningen av innovationen sker genom personerna som arbetar med medicinsk yoga.   Slutsatsen är att femstegsmodellen och nyckelfaktorerna som beskrivs i teorin Diffusion of innovations kan ge förklaring till hur och varför implementeringen av medicinsk yoga skett inom hälso- och sjukvården genom informanterna. Medicinsk yoga tycks vara en uppskattad innovation, med flera upplevda hälsovinster och få hinder och barriärer.

The main aim of this thesis, „An Examination of the Marketing and Relationship Marketing Concepts, by Analysing Power, Disciplining and Compliance in Customer-Provider Relations‟, is to expand knowledge and thinking in the subject area of marketing by researching power, disciplining and compliance in relations between customers and providers. As such, it is part of current developments in marketing theory, as the following discussion will illustrate. Marketing is a dynamic and evolving discipline (Saunders and Lee 2005) and has been enriched by the introduction of significant new topics such as consumer passion, longing, gift giving, and history of ownership (Belk et al. 2003; Lowrey et al. 2004). The „variety and eclecticism‟ in current marketing research (Saunders and Lee 2005) have been achieved partly by drawing on frameworks, concepts and models developed in other disciplines (Baumgartner 2002). In recent years, „a more open minded attitude to research‟ and „methodological relaxation‟ have been encouraged (Tapp and Hughes 2008), and new methodological approaches have been explored (e.g. Thompson 1998, 2002; Sherry and Schouten 2002). Moreover, the supremacy of experimental-nomothetic methodological positions of quantification is being questioned (Fournier and Glenn Mick 1999) and, even though quantitative research continues to dominate (Hanson and Grimmer 2007), previously „unconventional‟ methodologies such as narrative analysis and hermeneutical frameworks demonstrate the growing acceptability of a wider range of methodologies (Saunders and Lee 2005). Such developments in marketing thought and approaches result from the identification of weaknesses or gaps in the conventional received wisdom on the subject (Wells 1993), and so place existing interpretations under scrutiny (Dawes and Brown 2000). However, commentators suggest that further growth and development are required. For instance, while Svensson (2006) argues that traditionalism still predominates, Tapp and Hughes (2004) and Katsiekas et al. (2007) invite scholars to analyse new topics and areas which are pertinent to practitioners and which contribute to a better understanding of marketing practice. At stake is the degree to which marketing research offers practitioners and society something „novel‟ and „of relevance‟ (Gummesson 2005). For marketing thinking to develop further, topics which are as yet inadequately researched need to be analysed more systematically (Katsiekas et al. 2007). An example of such a topic is the expression of power, influencing, disciplining and relational problems during interactions between customers and providers (Brown et al. 2000; Keysuk 2000; Ivens and Blois 2004). Though present in marketing theory, there are aspects of power which deserve greater attention. Examples of such issues are the types of power applied by providers and the ways in which providers design and carry out the disciplining of consumers during interactions in order to make them more compliant. These are the issues addressed in this thesis.

The aim of this research is to develop, examine and validate a conceptual framework, which explains factors of the export supply chain relationship focusing on information sharing in export supply chain management field. This research seeks to understand the dyadic exporter-producer relationship in the export industry of fresh fruit and vegetables from Jordan to the European Union. Jordan supplies very limited fresh fruit and vegetable exports to the European market and the exporter-producer relationships are still weak, which impedes the emergence of a high performance supply chain within this promising market. There has been a lack of conceptual and empirical research on information sharing, which limits the understanding of the business relationship and there is no theoretical framework analysing export supply chain relationships. Therefore, this research examines the possible association between the following factors: relationship, network and transaction dimensions; information sharing; and export performance. A framework for the influence of information sharing on a dyadic exporter-producer relationship of supply chain management guiding this research is developed initially, based on three perspectives: relationship marketing theory, network theory and transaction cost theory. Qualitative methodology is used to achieve the research aim and objectives in Jordan. The research is comprised of two phases. In phase one, seven interviews with experts are conducted to refine the initial framework for key propositions and propose a framework for supply chain management. In phase two, there are ten multiple-case studies, which contain 40 semi-structured interviews, 40 hours of observations and archival records. These cases are primarily conducted with the selected exporter and producer firms in the export industry of fresh fruit and vegetables. Data are collected and analysed, based on key themes and a case study protocol, which individually explore each exporter-producer relationship ―case‖ in order to examine the proposed framework. Finally, the ten cases are cross-analysed to explain the key findings and to match them to the framework in order to validate it as the final conceptual framework for supply chain management. The research findings support the central premise that specific dimensions of relationships, networks and transactions are the key antecedents of information sharing, which in turn influences export performance. The findings confirm that the exporters and the producers are able to support their relationships through the benefits gained from these dimensions at the relationship, network and transaction levels of the export III Information Sharing in an Export Supply Chain Relationship Luai Jraisat supply chain. It is through this alignment that firms create better information sharing between them. Likewise, the findings suggest that firms will be able to gain strategic advantages from supply chain management based on information sharing and its components, namely content, sharing methods, sources and value, thus suggesting that the firms should apply information sharing to improve financial and non-financial export performance. The research makes key contributions to theory and methodology, and has policy and managerial implications. Theoretical contributions are made to the supply chain management literature by providing a holistic framework for supply chain management to understand the exporter-producer relationship. The research expands on the applications of the three perspectives combined and focuses on information sharing as a key factor. Methodological contributions are offered as this research connects the qualitative methodology to the theory, enabling an analytical generalisation of supply chain management relationships by examining both sides of the dyadic relationship to guide their information sharing. This research expands more on the validity and reliability aspects to ensure the strength of this qualitative empirical research. Policy and managerial implications are addressed for managers and policy-makers. The research limitations and guidelines for future research are discussed.

Damp, rotting, smelly, rising from the depths, washed up on shorelines. Seaweed (or Macroalgae) has transitioned over time in its position and uses within the British Isles; as discussed in the thesis it has undergone an evolution from its historical use as a source of food in times of desperation, to the superfood it is lauded as today. Other applications, from medicinal to agricultural, have contributed to a narrative of seaweed’s identity over the centuries, to the appeal of seaweed as a food source in the present day. There is an increased interest in seaweed, especially for culinary purposes, in the British Isles. Research by chefs, cookbooks and innovative product ranges also frame the current attitudes in the use of seaweed in common everyday foods. The case study shows the challenges and opportunities in the current revitalised seaweed market, identifying marketing analysis approaches useful for changing the attitudes toward seaweed in the British Isles. Based on interviews with companies marketing seaweed, and a focus on Seagreens®, I draw on advertising theory and consultancy tools (such as SWOT, AGCC, ELM and DAGMAR) to analyse the current seaweed market defining what I call a ‘consumer triad’ of potential consumers. Findings indicate many possibilities for future USP endorsements depending on the target market, from health-orientated to sustainably farmed. Seaweed interest appears to be more knowledge than consumer driven, so the question instead surrounds the prospect of knowledge sharing in an integrated online manner. Meanwhile, challenges in farming, labelling and conservation within the EU hamper advancements in the field, with the balance shifting to invested interest in Blue Economy models and IMTA systems.

LOHAS stands for “Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability”. LOHAS describes an emerging new lifestyle that is defined by attention to health and well-being and, environmental sustainability. The problem with the introduction of a description of a lifestyle that is supposed to capture broad social, political, economic, and behavioral changes is that the discussions of this lifestyle have moved faster than any research to support it. The validity and the conceptual richness and implications of the LOHAS can only proceed if there is a reliable and valid instrument to measure the LOHAS lifestyle; and there isn’t. The research focuses on the development of a reliable and valid LOHAS scale. The proposed research consists of five studies; specification of domain of the LOHAS, item generation, measurement purification, reliability assessment and validity assessment. This research will contribute to the understanding of the nature of LOHAS and provide a variety of theoretical and practical applications.

The population in the United States is expected to increase an estimated 42% by the year 2042; ethnic minorities will become the majority group. Marketing executives must understand the environment in which consumers from diverse cultures respond to marketing stimuli. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies senior marketing executives use to implement successful multicultural marketing campaigns. The target population consisted of senior marketing executives from 3 profitable companies in the state of Michigan with experience in the implementation of successful multicultural marketing campaigns. The conceptual framework was the critical multicultural marketing theory. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and organizational documents. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5 stages of analysis: compiled and organized, disassembled into fragments, reassembled into a sequence of groups, interpreted for meaning, and conclusions were drawn. Methodological triangulation and member checking were used to validate the trustworthiness of data interpretations. The findings showed 3 emerging themes: marketing using diversity and inclusion strategies; segmentation, target marketing, and positioning strategies; and cultural competence strategies. The information gathered in this study is valuable to current and future marketing managers with an interest in marketing to multicultural consumers. The implications for positive social change include creating and sustaining an environment of inclusion that proactively and strategically engages underrepresented populations of consumers.

This work examines and presents evidence for the existence of a gap in epistemological views between academic and practice marketers. Few if any academics would seem to challenge the ‘gap’ premise but the importance of any gap and its nature are issues about which little agreement exists. The intractable nature of the academic practitioner gap has a long history of interesting and diverse debate ranging from Dewey’s argument about the true nature of knowing to contributions based on epistemic adolescence, ontological differences and more pragmatic suggestions about different tribes. Others include the rigour versus relevance issue, failures in curriculum or pedagogy and a clash between modernist and postmodernist epistemologies. Polanyi’s description of tacit versus explicit knowledge further extends the debate as do issues of knowledge creation and dissemination in particular through Nonaka. Irrespective of approach actual evidence for a gap was largely based on argument rather than empirical proof. This work address that lack. The intractability of the gap suggests that it is at root, epistemic. To identity the existence of a gap in such terms a domain specific epistemic questionnaire developed by Hofer was used. A factor analytic process extracted a common set of factors for the domain of marketers. Five epistemic factors were identified. Three of these showed significant difference in orientation between practitioners and academics confirming that the theory practice gap is tangible and revealing an indication of its nature Broadly results from factor analysis with interpretation informed by factor item structure and prior theoretical debate suggests that academics and practitioners views on knowledge and how they come to know share similarities and differences. Academics are more likely to see knowledge as stable, based on established academic premise legitimized from academy. Practitioners are more likely to see knowledge as emerging from action, as dynamic and legitimised by results. Other significant findings included the emergence of dialogue as a means of closing the gap, and the emergence of a group of academics with significant practice experience termed here as, hybrids, who are located in the Academy but mostly share their epistemic views with practitioners. Correlation analysis showed that academic propensity to engage in dialogue with practice moved academic factor scores towards practitioners. This shows that dialogue has a clear role in both perpetuating the gap in its absence or reducing it. Fundamentally dialogue plays a clear role in bridging the two epistemologies and in providing for additional epistemic work. Finally a solution to bridging the gap has been proposed. The model called dialogic introspection melds dialogue and introspection to create epistemic doubt, the volition to change and a means of resolution. The model avoids prescription of what form knowledge should take but instead adopts a stance similar to more mature disciplines like medicine in which the status of academic work is enhanced in line with its relevance to practice which itself is embodied in dialogue. This approach recognizes the centrality of epistemology as shaping the conditions necessary for recognizing epistemologies as hierarchies in which the epistemology most capable of additional epistemic work is the most desirable. Such an epistemology would have the capacity to add epistemic work and reinforces Nonaka’s call for epistemology to be recognized as central to knowledge creation.

An investigation of the product life cycle concept as an instrument in marketing decision-making for selected small organisations in South Africa. The product life cycle concept is currently a dominant component of marketing theory. There is however much criticism on and doubt about the applicability of the product life cycle concept as a marketing decision-making instrument. No evidence exists of the efficacy of the product life cycle concept as an instrument to develop marketing strategy. The purpose of the study was to test the underlying theory of the product life cycle concept with the primary objective of establishing what the use and practical value of the product life cycle concept is in making marketing decisions in small manufacturing and dealer organisations. The main focus was to test the ability of marketing decision-makers in small manufacturing and dealer organisations to associate their application and use of the product life cycle concept with Kotler's assumptions on the identified marketing characteristics, described marketing objectives and proposed marketing strategies. A major finding was that small organisations tended to display a marketing knowledge level that was not in total unison with the existing marketing theory. Another important conclusion of the study was that the current product life cycle concept theory needs to be broadened to include strategies on the expanded marketing mix (people, processes and physical evidence). Apart from the different use and application by marketing decision-makers in small organisations in South Africa the product life cycle concept theory has potential as a strategic tool and a high likelihood for its future use as a marketing decision-making instrument. / Dissertation (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Marketing Management / DCom / Unrestricted