Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-119)

M.Comm. / New products are essential for a firm's long term growth and survival. But the process is frought with risk since new products fail at an unacceptably high rate in the marketplace. Thirty five years of research has not improved the results materially necessitating a re-investigation into the causation of new product success I failure outcomes. The study investigates the total market environment to identify key new product success and failure factors. This entails an examination of the firm's micro, macro and market elements to provide insights into the problem and provide information for strategic marketing planning to reduce the risk of failure. Since past research identified key failure factors by analysing results obtained from across many industries and from a firm's perspective, this study focuses on one industry and one complex product to identify new product threats from a customer's perspective. The reason for this approach was to identify the nature of the industry and product related threats that product managers should be aware of when launching new products, aspects which are not contextually raised in the literature. Customer value- and performance quality expectations, were found to be strong independent variables that determined the customer's value and performance satisfaction which in turn influences total customer satisfaction. In turn, total customer satisfaction is a pre-requisite for first time-, repeat and ongoing purchasing, a process essential for new product growth, increased demand, new product profits and its success. A new product which cannot generate planned profits is a failure. The empirical study verified these findings, leading to a proposed strategic framework for guiding the new product process. The framework considers the adoption of the marketing concept, neglected by most innovating firms and a customer focus to manage total customer satisfaction profitably before and after launch along the new product's life cycle. The framework formalises the new product development activities in the firm's hierarchical levels to attain and maintain total customer satisfaction, from the ideation stage to the product's planned termination phase. To avoid the risk of new product failure, customer satisfaction has to be maintained with superior new product/service value from the customer's perspective and with a sustainable competitive advantage from the firm's perspective. These objectives are best be achieved by planning, implementing and controlling the new product's marketing strategy that focuses on achieving total customer satisfaction in a turbulent business environment.

Choi, Wing-Hon. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-61). / Abstract and questionnaire also in Chinese.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Any successful new product development team must have some differences in perspectives and orientations. However, conflict and disharmony between R&D and marketing can severely hinder the successful development and launching of new products. It is therefore of the utmost importance to avoid any disharmonies and to work towards a better integration and meaningful co-ordination between these two departments. The avoidance of any disharmonies that may occur through various management methods is generally less costly and more effective that attempting to overcome long-standing disharmonies.

Ability to measure value from the customer's point of view is central to the determination of market offerings: Customers will only buy the equivalent of perceived value, and companies can only offer benefits that cost less to provide than customers are willing to pay. Conjoint analysis is the most popular individual-level value measurement method to determine relative impact of product or service attributes on preferences and other dependent variables. This research focuses on how value measurement can be made more accurate and more reliable by measuring the relative influence of selected methodological variations on performance in prediction and on stability of value structure, and by grouping customers with similar value structure into segments which respond to product stimuli in a similar manner. Influences of the type of attributes included in the conjoint task, of the factorial design used to construct the product profiles, of the type and form of model, of the time of measurement, and of the type of cluster-based segmentation method, are evaluated. Data was gathered with a questionnaire that controlled for methodological variations, and with a notebook computer as the measurement object. One repeated measurement was taken. The study was conducted in two phases. In Phase I, influences of methodological variations on accuracy in prediction and on respective value structure were examined. In Phase II, different cluster-based segmentation methods--hierarchical clustering (HIC), non-hierarchical clustering (NHC), and fuzzy c-means clustering (FUC)--and according conjoint models were evaluated for their performance in prediction and in comparison with individual-level conjoint models. Results show the best models for a variety of design parameters are traditional individual-level, main-effects-only conjoint models. Neither modeling of interactions, nor segment-level conjoint models were able to improve on prediction. Best segment-level conjoint models were obtained with a fuzzy clustering method, worst models were obtained with k-means and the most fuzzy clustering approach. In conclusion, conjoint analysis reveals itself as a reliable method to measure individual customer value. It seems more rewarding for improvement of accuracy in prediction to apply repeated measures, or gather additional data about the respondent, than to attempt improvement on methodological variations with a single measurement.

D.Ing. / During the last pre-millennium decade South African engineers were involved mainly in military product development. The downscaling of development within the military arena, forced the engineering as well as other industries to refocus on commercial product development and marketing (the engineers in the military environment were not the only ones influenced by the change in the economic climate. Many others were also affected, but for the sake of explanation, the military environment was used). This stage led to the creation of various small- to-medium enterprises (SMEs), which were set up by creative, determined engineers and entrepreneurs. However, by the latter part of the last decade, these initiatives ended sadly in the liquidation of quite a number of companies. These ongoing liquidations are a result of various aspects, such as cash flow restrictions, growing currency value and a low national- growth figure. The research done in fulfilment of this thesis, addresses some of the events of the last decade and offers general, practical suggestions on how to overcome some of these hurdles within the current economic climate. It illustrates that experience enables an entrepreneur to develop methods and provide suggestions on how to create, establish, survive and grow within a high-technology driven SME. Shortfalls, methods and products are discussed by means of case studies. The products discussed in the thesis, are all classified among the field of mobile, portable and static electronic power-conversion. Thirty high-technology companies participated in a survey in support of the research statements. As a summary, it is shown that various aspects often restrict new product development (NPD) for SMEs. Optimum and effective usage of knowledge and experience in areas of technology, marketing, human resources, organisational, operational, manufacturing and financial management is required to achieve goals successfully and to survive in today’s industry. An investigation was done to determine the relationship between these interdivisions of an SME. In conclusion, methods and models are presented to optimise the techniques that are currently used within SMEs. These techniques are then further expanded on and presented as guidelines for business discussions. Practical examples are presented in support of the actual models.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

by Cheung Pui Kay, Michelle, Lo Yuk Yi, Angel. / Includes Chinese questionnaire. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [12]-[15] (2nd group)). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF EXHIBITS --- p.vi / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.viii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- RESEARCH OBJECTIVES --- p.6 / Chapter III. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.8 / Definition of New Product --- p.11 / Stages of New Product Development Process --- p.13 / Opportunity Identification --- p.14 / Ideation --- p.14 / Screening --- p.15 / Development --- p.15 / Commercialization --- p.16 / Concept Testing --- p.16 / New Product Launch --- p.19 / Comparative Market Analysis --- p.20 / Chapter IV. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.21 / Research Design --- p.21 / Data Collection --- p.23 / Secondary Data Collection --- p.23 / Primary Data Collection --- p.24 / Sampling --- p.26 / Sampling Method --- p.26 / Sampling Size --- p.27 / Contruction of Questionnaire --- p.28 / Field Work --- p.30 / Data Analysis --- p.30 / Editing --- p.30 / Coding --- p.31 / Method of Analysis --- p.32 / Chapter V. --- LIMITATIONS --- p.39 / Sampling Control --- p.39 / Information Control --- p.40 / Administration Control --- p.42 / Limitations on Concept Testing --- p.42 / Chapter VI. --- FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS --- p.44 / Market Overview --- p.44 / RTD tea market in USA --- p.44 / RTD tea market in Hong Kong --- p.51 / Current Situation in the Soft Drinks Market --- p.60 / The Preference for Drinks When Water is Not Available --- p.60 / Number of Tea Drinkers in the Market --- p.61 / The Reasons for Not Drinking Tea --- p.62 / General Situation of Tea Market --- p.63 / Consumption Rate of Tea --- p.63 / Hotness of Tea Preferred --- p.64 / Occasions for Drinking Tea --- p.65 / Place Where People Get Tea --- p.66 / Reasons For Drinking Tea --- p.68 / The Type of Tea Frequently Drank --- p.69 / The Types of Drinks Used to Substitute for Tea --- p.71 / General Situation of RTD tea Market --- p.72 / Number of RTD tea Drinker in Hong Kong --- p.72 / Willingness to Try RTD tea for those Non-RTD tea Drinker --- p.73 / Consumption Rate of RTD tea --- p.73 / Popularity of Various Types of RTD tea --- p.75 / Evaluation of the Perception of RTD tea's Attributes --- p.76 / Attributes Considered for Selecting Tea --- p.76 / Perception Towards RTD tea --- p.79 / Perceptions of RTD tea's Attributes and Their Importance to Their Customers --- p.81 / Attitudes Towards RTD tea --- p.82 / General Attitudes Towards RTD tea --- p.82 / Relationships Between Attitudes and Personal Attributes --- p.83 / Appropriate Product Lines For RTD tea --- p.89 / Tea with Added Flower Flavors --- p.90 / Tea with Added Fruit Flavors --- p.96 / Suggested Types of Tea to be Launched in RTD Version --- p.101 / Difficulties of Launching New RTD tea --- p.102 / Product --- p.102 / Promotion --- p.103 / Distribution --- p.104 / Chapter VII. --- RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.106 / Timing --- p.106 / Product --- p.107 / Price --- p.109 / Promotion --- p.109 / Packaging --- p.110 / Distribution --- p.111 / Conclusion --- p.113 / APPENDICES / RTD Tea Participants in USA / Questionnaires / BIBLIOGRAPHY

Choi Lai Chun Lesley. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 1998-99, design report." / Includes bibliographical references. / Chapter 1 --- Acknowledgments / Chapter 2 --- Design objectives / Chapter 3 --- client & user profile / Chapter 4 --- Site & context / Chapter 5 --- Design development / Chapter 6 --- Design project - overview / Chapter 7 --- Urban scale strategy / Chapter 8 --- Building scale strategy / Chapter 9 --- appendix 1 - planning & site contraint / Chapter 10 --- Appendix 2- schedule of accommodation / Chapter 11 --- appendix 3 - building cost estimates / Chapter 12 --- Appendix 4 - project finance & management / Chapter 13 --- Appendix 5 - programming report

In this study on product development and positioning in the hunting industry in the Eastern Cape, two conceptual frameworks were developed, based on a literature study. These positioning and product development concepts were tested against primary and secondary information gathered about the hunting industry. The game and hunting industries were in a strong growth phase at the time of this study. These industries are playing an increasingly important role in the economy of the Eastern Cape, and more and more agricultural land is utilised for game ranching. From the perspective of obtaining a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive environment, it is therefore important for hunting providers to develop suitable products, and to position these products correctly. It is also important to investigate the characteristics of the game and hunting industries in the Eastern Cape and to get information about the characteristics of the market in which product development and positioning take place. Hunting is the most important form of game utilisation in the Eastern Cape, followed by cropping of game and live game sales. At the time of this study, the total value of the game utilised annually in the Eastern Cape was in excess of R168 million. Game utilisation seemed to be taking place on a sustainable basis, as the number of animals utilised annually was less than the annual production. Kudu and springbok provide the biggest total income, and, together with mountain reedbuck, are the most abundant species in the Eastern Cape. The main game-producing areas in the Eastern Cape coincide with the areas where extensive beef, sheep and goat farming are practised. The hunting products on offer from hunting providers, differ in certain ways. Aspects like price, type of hunting provided, game species available for hunting, terrain where hunting takes place, and various other aspects in connection with the hunt, differ from hunting provider to hunting provider. Characteristics of the hunting experience that hunters desire may be divided into core and variable elements. The core elements include: · the conditions pertaining to the hunt being spelt out clearly; · the maintenance of safety standards; · reasonable day fees; · the presence of game in sufficient numbers; and · other aspects generally desired by hunters. In the study it was found that the needs of hunters also differ regarding certain aspects of the hunting experience. These variable elements include price levels, type and availability of accommodation, and the role of the hunting provider. The core aspects that hunters desire are as a rule part of the product offering. From a product development perspective, the variable elements provide an opportunity to customise products to hunter needs. The inclusion or exclusion of variable elements from the product offering give rise to certain unique product features, and therefore provide the opportunity for product differentiation. After development, products are positioned firstly by selecting a market segment to focus on. Secondly, the needs of hunters in the target segment should be clearly identified, followed by the development of suitable products based on hunter needs, and taking into account the features of competitive offerings. Decisions should also be taken about the features to be included in the product offering to achieve product differentiation. After development of a suitable product, an image or brand should be chosen for the product, and this image should be effectively communicated to the market. A number of possible positioning options were identified for hunting providers. It was found that factors like the physical features of the ranch, available infrastructure, the market segment chosen, desires of the hunting providers, and the perception of the needs of hunters, eventually influence decisions about product development and positioning. The final decisions on positioning should take the core competencies of the hunting provider into account and should ensure that the hunting provider has the ability to fill the chosen position in the market.