To satisfy new market requirements, manufacturing industry has shifted from mass production that takes advantage of the scale of production, to quality management that optimizes the internal enterprise functions, to e-manufacturing era that leverage intellectual capital via collaborative innovation. In the same time, the product itself is becoming the most important asset for sustainable business success. Consequently, the effectiveness, efficiency and innovation for the development of the product across the whole product lifecycle are becoming key business factors for manufacturing enterprise to obtain competitive advantages for survival. To tackle such challenges, a new business model called collaborative product services in virtual enterprise is proposed in this paper. The architecture of this new model is developed based on the framework and the application of web service and process management for collaboration product service in virtual enterprise. Indeed, it is hoped that this architecture will lay the foundation for further research and development of effective product lifecycle management in virtually collaborative enterprise environment. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

This study argues that a firm's product location choice may be a function of the firm's way of splitting the product market (i.e., divisionalization) and the concern for product cannibalization at the division and the firm levels. The focus of this study is at the division level and a division's new product location choice vis-à-vis its own products (intra-divisional new product distance), the products of a rival division of competing firms (inter-firm divisional new product distance), and the products of a sister division of the same firm (intra-firm divisional new product distance). The hypotheses were tested using data on the U.S. automobile industry between 1979 and 1999. The results show that a focal division with a high level of inter-firm divisional domain overlap with a rival division, relative to the focal division's own domain, is more likely to locate its new product (here new car model) closer to that rival's existing car models. And it was also found that divisional density affects a division's new product location choice. But this study didn't find any significant role of divisional status on new product location choice. And contrary to our expectation, the results of intra-firm divisional domain overlap and new product location choice suggest that inter-divisional product cannibalization might not be such an important concern when divisions introduce their new products, as we had originally expected. By addressing the firm's competitive engagement in the context of a division's new product location choice, this study expands the basic logic of market overlap at the firm level into the unit- or division-level, and highlights how a division's new product location choice is affected by intra-firm divisional structural relationship as well as interfirm divisional structural relationship. In so doing, this study hopes to contribute to the literature on divisionalization, new product location choice, competition at the unit-level, and product cannibalization, among others.

This dissertation focuses on the challenges that arise when the SMEs enter into an international market (Internationalization) and adopting international product strategy to survive in foreign market. To be able to gain better understanding of the subject, research questions concerning the challenges faced during internationalization by SMEs from product adaptation and standardization perspective. Challenges in internationalization have been categorized into internal and external challenges. Internal challenges deals with firm specific while external challenges arise from country and industry specific factors. At the same time international product strategy counting product adaptation and standardization has been discussed. The empirical data includes case study of one Swedish company manufacturing assistive listening devices (hearing equipment for hearing impaired people) situated in Halmstad, Sweden. Findings shows that the main challenges in internationalization are socio cultural differences and inadequate knowledge about the foreign market while laws and regulations regarding frequency standards issues are most challenging in international product strategy.

In this report the eight steps in systems engineering process have been followed in order to develop a student bicycle. To successfully make a student bicycle needs and preferences had to be retrieved from the students. This has been done with an online survey. The chosen concept, the Z-frame bicycle includes a unique frame, side kickstand, separate luggage carrier, integrated front light, back light mounted on the luggage carrier, an integrated chain lock, steer lock and a visible serial code on the frame. From a reliability allocation table it is estimated that the first failure that needs maintenance will occur after 226,2 hours of usage. The price of the bicycle is estimated on €189,54 (about 1600 SEK), which is within the requirements. Simulating forces on the frames in SolidWorks showed that the frames are capable of handling the weight and forces that the student produces on the bicycle. Finally the steps that need to be fulfilled to make a working prototype are displayed in a Gantt-chart. The resulted conceptual student bicycle is a good representation of what a student needs and prefers in a bicycle.

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BackgroundThe biggest issue of our time is the environmental damage we have caused. Publics are becomingincreasingly aware of this challenge: environmental concern has risen. This change toward greenvalues is commonly referred to as “greening of society”. Having generally been considered theenvironmental villains, companies are now also seen as the solution to the environmentalproblem. More and more companies are going green as they have realized the potential of greeninnovations to yield competitive advantages. Therefore, a greening of the business domain canalso be observed. However, only little research has been conducted on why and howenvironmental issues are integrated into the development of new products. Considering thatchemical companies are the epitome of the environmental villains, investigating the case of amanufacturer of branded chemical goods that has been the market leader in the highly contesteddetergent market for more than a century – despite or even because of – pursuing an ecoleadershipstrategy becomes more intriguing.AimThe aim of this study is to investigate the how and part of the why of integrating environmentalissues into product development by analyzing and discussing Henkel’s environmentallycompatible product innovations and their relation to the greening of society.MethodThe method of choice is content analysis. Drawing on secondary data, the research strategy isqualitative and the design is longitudinal while the approach is descriptive and idiographic.ResultsSocietal values and Henkel’s product portfolio seem to move in the same direction as both havebecome greener and greener ever since the 1970s. However, concluding that the portfolio changesas a response to the value change is premature, especially because the innovations are often theresult of decades of research and development. Also, the portfolio has not become greener at anincreasing pace because the corporate goals have changed. Rather, the greening progress has beenaccelerated by technological progress. While over the years Henkel’s innovations have offeredgreen benefits at an increasing proportion, this development is not strongly reflected inadvertisement. Until recently green values have – if at all – only been addressed rather as an aside;the most emphasis has always been on performance. While the latest positioning of innovations astruly green indicates that promotional strategy now acknowledges that preserving the environmenthas become a mainstream value, societal value change has been more strongly reflected inadvertisement in terms of values associated with convenience rather than with the environmentand sustainability.

Development of biological conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to biogas is one approach to utilize straw comprehensively. However, high lignin contents of lignocellulosic materials results in low degradation. The main aim of this study was to investigate the appropriate pre-treatment to increase biogas production from Chinese agricultural residues. In this study, Chinese corn stalk, rice plant and wheat straw were evaluated as substrates by applying three different pre-treatments. The investigated pre-treatment were mechanical pre-treatment (cut whole straw into 1-1.5cm) combination of thermal and alkali pre-treatment (1M/L NAOH, 80℃,15 hours) and biological pre-treatment(enzymes provided by Scandinavian Biogas Fuels AB). Biogas production of these substrates was evaluated by batch digester; Sewage sludge from Nykvarn treatment plant and current digesters (Scandinavian Biogas Fuels AB )was the co-digestive substrate which seeded in batch with straw of all pre-treatments. The results indicate that at least 50% of organic contents in Chinese agricultural residues could be converted to biogas by these pre-treatments. The optimizing biogas yield is achieved from Chinese corn stalk with combination of thermal and alkali pre-treatment, Chinese rice plant and wheat straw from pre-hydrolysis pre-treatment respectively .Chinese wheat straw has the most biogas potential from combination of thermal and alkali pre-treatment.

Abstract This study mainly investigated the changing of pricing leverage of brand among different situations, especially, among distinctive product categories and among various levels of product knowledge which consumers obtained. Firstly, the research tries to verify existence of the hypothesized pricing leverage of brand; that is to test (1) the influences of levels of brand awareness on consumers¡¦ price perception; and (2) the effect of brand awareness on consumers¡¦ tolerance over the price increasing. In addition, this research manipulates three other variables, namely: product category, product knowledge which consumer obtained, and consumers¡¦ involvement toward the product in interest, as to seek and explore the conditions on which the pricing leverage of brand can occur. As experimentation is the method of this study, it utilizes a 3 ( brand awareness: high, middle, low) x 3 ( product category: convenience goods, shopping goods, specialty goods) x 2 ( product knowledge: much, little) x 2 (involvement: high, low) factorial design as its basic framework of experiment design. A focus group depth interview discussion, which participants were from target subject group, was held to collect the appropriate or suitable products, brands, pricing levels, product information, and product attributes, ... etc. The products eventually used in the experiments are six items: fresh milk, toilet tissue, hand-bag, leisure shoes, watch, and digital camera. According to the products chosen, the brand names are selected based on the levels of awareness in the markets in which the subject purchase. The subjects of the experiments are 144 students of National Sun Yat-sen University located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. There are 815 entries of data obtained from the subject in the experiments. Factor analysis, ANOVA, and MANOVA are used to analyze the data obtained from the experiment. The analysis findings support several propositional statements, including (1) the higher level of market awareness a brand enjoys, the higher price perception consumers acquire for it; (2) Among the difference product categories, the effect of price leverage of brand varies; (3) there is no influence from the magnitude of product knowledge which consumer obtained on the price leverage of brand.

Over the past decade, new approaches to innovation management have become prime drivers of various industries. Considering product quality, product innovation and service innovation in the automotive industry, this study tries to adopt game theory and real option models to analyze competing and consuming behavior among high- quality firms, low-quality firms and rational consumers. With an argument that firms will undertake innovation activities if they produce high-quality products, this study wishes to demonstrate that high quality products will induce both product and service innovations simultaneously. To achieve the research objective, this study divides innovation into product and service innovations, and then, discusses quality¡¦s impacts on product and service innovations separately. Game theory models concerning quality and product innovation indicate that the fixed cost of innovation, the barrier to a firm¡¦s engaging in innovative activities, is overcome only if a firm produces high-quality products. Moreover, another dynamic game also shows the strong relationship between product quality and service innovation. Applying real options models to evaluate service innovations in the automotive industry, including half-price purchase warranty and extended test drive service, also verify that effective service innovations might increase consumer willing-to-buy and enlarge the sales and profits for the innovative firms. Besides quality, this study also reveals that consumer preference to new product or service is another key successful factor for business innovation management. Successful innovation management depends on continuously improving product and service, concerning the status of expected market, and understanding the needs of potential consumers. Even though a general consensus on product and service innovations among different industries remains lacking, this study strongly supports the argument that firms producing high-quality products will be active in innovations. From the broader perspective of process management, total quality management, which increases product quality, undoubtedly supports innovation management.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, The Graduate School of Business, Aug. 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-57). Also available on the Internet.