The merger integration process in one of the most critical stages of the deal, and getting a good price is important, but not as important as making sure the deal works. There have been several theses discussing the merger process as well as the importance of post-merger integration, focusing on culture melding or financial system synergy. This study focuses on the post merger integration process of a subsidiary of MNC in Taiwan. The parent company in the past few years have acquired two MNCs and experienced two large global scale integration processes in which the Taiwan subsidiary followed the HQ directives to undertake acquisition integration of the two acquired firms’ local subsidiaries. The integration of two other local subsidiaries provides a rare opportunity to investigate the post-acquisition process occurred in a MNC context. The finding throws light on the post-acquisition process at the subsidiary level and how the process related to the parent’s global strategy of merger and acquisition. All three subsidiaries involved are mainly marketing and sales organizations. Therefore, this study would focus on the integration of marketing and sales functions. This study chose the case study research methodology because the pharmaceutical industry is the industry the research is most familiar with and there is no other case, either a subsidiary or a company, having experienced similar M&A. The researcher found the case company-subsidiary is a unique one, because of the two M&A it experienced, presenting a rare opportunity for studying M&A at subsidiary level. The case study approach investigated deeply the two complete M&A integration process. The case study approach relies on researching the parent and subsidiary history, academic literature on M&A, and in-depth interview with key executives of the subsidiary to identify key activities and decision points in the whole integration process. The research discovers that successful melding of cultures and integration of product management helps post-acquisition growth, and organizational learning played a key role in utilizing the first M&A experience to accelerate the subsequent merger-integration activities. Key words: Merger/ Acquisition, Post-merger integration, Product management process / The merger integration process in one of the most critical stages of the deal, and getting a good price is important, but not as important as making sure the deal works. There have been several theses discussing the merger process as well as the importance of post-merger integration, focusing on culture melding or financial system synergy. This study focuses on the post merger integration process of a subsidiary of MNC in Taiwan. The parent company in the past few years have acquired two MNCs and experienced two large global scale integration processes in which the Taiwan subsidiary followed the HQ directives to undertake acquisition integration of the two acquired firms’ local subsidiaries. The integration of two other local subsidiaries provides a rare opportunity to investigate the post-acquisition process occurred in a MNC context. The finding throws light on the post-acquisition process at the subsidiary level and how the process related to the parent’s global strategy of merger and acquisition. All three subsidiaries involved are mainly marketing and sales organizations. Therefore, this study would focus on the integration of marketing and sales functions. This study chose the case study research methodology because the pharmaceutical industry is the industry the research is most familiar with and there is no other case, either a subsidiary or a company, having experienced similar M&A. The researcher found the case company-subsidiary is a unique one, because of the two M&A it experienced, presenting a rare opportunity for studying M&A at subsidiary level. The case study approach investigated deeply the two complete M&A integration process. The case study approach relies on researching the parent and subsidiary history, academic literature on M&A, and in-depth interview with key executives of the subsidiary to identify key activities and decision points in the whole integration process. The research discovers that successful melding of cultures and integration of product management helps post-acquisition growth, and organizational learning played a key role in utilizing the first M&A experience to accelerate the subsequent merger-integration activities. Key words: Merger/ Acquisition, Post-merger integration, Product management process

New product ideation is the transformation of a raw idea into a robust concept with consideration of fit and feasibility of technologies, customer benefits, and market opportunity. Although the ideation process often involves ambiguous processes, it is the most critical activity in new product development (NPD). As a creativity task, the ideation process is considered heuristic rather than algorithmic. However, managing the ideation process as either a completely heuristic or an entirely algorithmic procedure leads to just conventional outcomes. Rooted in cognitive psychology, this study proposes that ideation activities in NPD should be pursued as Simonton's "constrained stochastic behavior." An ideation task not only needs good componential factors but also requires constraint to frame the task by precluding unwieldy ideas while promoting high variability of ideas. Focusing on the inputs and attempting to strike a balance between algorithmic and heuristic ideation process may provide the mechanisms to manage the psychological perceptions with an aim to stimulate and orchestrate the ideation staff's cognitive efforts to generate the creative idea. To achieve this goal, new product idea creativity is considered as the ideas that could turn out to be products that are novel to and useful for customers, and appropriate to firms' existing production systems. In addition, the study asserts that componential factors include two factors: specialization representing idea creators' depth of NPD knowledge, experience, and skills in a product domain, and diverse expertise representing the breadth of ideation team's knowledge, experience, and skills concerning the same domain of NPD. These factors are essential and collectively can enhance creativity in the development of new product ideas. Finally, goal constraint is defined, operationalized, and incorporated in the NPD ideation framework. This constraint encapsulates the overall criteria and stylistic principle for a particular product domain and reflects the frame of reference for new product idea development. The findings provide mixed results, and yield at least three new concepts. First, the process of new product idea development truly requires specialization and diverse expertise if its ultimate goal is creativity. Both componential factors are essential and together can enhance new product ideas on all important dimensions. Second, goal constraint exhibits a linear relationship, rather than an inverted U-curve relationship, with idea newness and usefulness-two dimension of creativity important for customers. Finally, goal constraint can enhance creative outcomes of new product ideas, especially in the ideation team exhibiting a low level of specialization.

Customers play an active role throughout the marketing process. This dissertation concerns itself with customer's co-creation of value for self (co-production) and for other customers (co-consumption) during service production and delivery. With the servuction system as its overarching framework, this study explains how changes in the customer's perceived co-production and co-consumption, caused by a service innovation, influence her perceptions of service innovation characteristics and modify her adoption behavior. It draws on a multidisciplinary body of knowledge and develops a conceptual framework and a set of substantive propositions. The empirical research was contextualized in three services: self check-out at grocery stores, Build-A-Bear stores, and meal assembly centers. It focused on members of Generations X and Y who were familiar with these services. The qualitative investigations and pilot study helped adapt the extant scales and construct new scales. In line with prior works, the focal service encounters were simulated through a series of consumption scenarios. The exploratory factor analysis in the pilot study and the confirmatory factor analysis in the main study indicated that the instruments were culturally informed, internally reliable, and construct-wise valid. The results indicate that co-production and co-consumption play important roles in explaining innovation characteristics and adoption decisions. More specifically, the focal customer's co-production of the service for self (CPS), other customers' co-production of the service for the focal customer (OCP), the number and the nature of other customers (crowding and homophily) can help to explain the focal customer's evaluation of service innovation characteristics as well as her adoption decision. The focal customer's disposition to participate (DTP) and its interaction with CPS are also useful explanatory constructs. Focal customer's co-production of the service for other customers (CPO) and its interaction with DTP emerged as non-significant. In comparing the high- and low-DTP groups, it was found that the former was more convenience-prone in two service contexts, and the latter in the third context.

The purpose of this research is to determine whether optimal ad placement and page context can significantly impact advertising effects, by extending hemispheric processing theory. This study contributes to the marketing literature by 1) addressing theoretical conflicts regarding optimal hemispheric ad placement (more favorable effects with leftward photo ads and rightward text ads; Janiszewski 1988) and page context (matching activation from "priming" of opposing brain hemispheres Janiszewski 1990), 2) by evaluating multiple advertising effects in relation to mere exposure rather than focusing primarily on attitudes (Janiszewski 1988, 1990), and 3) by addressing an important knowledge gap regarding optimal Web advertising (Dahlen, Rasch and Rosengren 2003). A growing amount of money is being spent on Internet advertising, with revenues totaling $12.5 billion in 2005, up more than 30 percent over 2004 (IAB 2006). However, banner ad click-through rates are low (between .1 and .2 percent for standard ads; DoubleClick 2007) and only 10% of business executives believe that banner advertising is highly effective in generating new business (Forrester 2006). Advertisers continue to use banner ads, perhaps because the "branding" benefits are not limited to clickthroughs (Briggs and Hollis 1997). While numerous ad-related factors have been previously studied (e.g., ad context creative factors, recall/recognition effects, repetition), to the author's knowledge no research has examined the effect of banner ad placement on advertising outcomes such as attention, recognition, brand attitude and purchase intention. / A 2 x 2 x 2 between subjects factorial design was implemented, in which the ad type (pictorial or verbal), ad placement (left or right of Web page), and the page type (text or image-oriented) were manipulated in an online environment. While the results only partially support the hypotheses (rank-ordered stimuli groups from "optimal" to "least optimal" effects) matching activation and hemispheric ad placement appeared to differentially affect advertising outcomes. A supplementary data analysis, which directly compared hemispheric ad placement and matching activation, indicates that matching activation has a greater effect on attention, while hemispheric ad placement has a greater effect on purchase intention. The findings suggest that online advertising efforts should be specifically matched with advertising goals. Managerial implications are discussed. / by Kendall Goodrich. / University Library's copy lacks signatures of Supervisory Committee. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2007 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Chiu Chung-Bun. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 85).

Yan Tin-yau Howard. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Bibliography: leaf 108.

Abstract not available

Environmental costs of products are closely related to their environmental impacts incurred at all life cycle stages of a product. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methods are often used to estimate these environmental costs and impacts. However, LCA analysis is known to be a costly and time-consuming method, whereas LCC analysis often neglects the social cost which is currently paid by society as a whole. Therefore, this research proposes a new methodology to assess the environmental impact and social cost for the entire life cycle of a product, which can be used as a simple and transparent tool for the early conceptual design stage. The methodology delivers the Environmental Impact Drivers and the associated Social Cost Drivers for all product life cycle stages via spreadsheets, and it provides the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method in the SimaPro software as a user interface. Furthermore, the drivers provide the values for four different geographical regions and damage categories. The conceptual model is based on the impact pathway approach which integrates the Simplified LCA (SLCA) model and the social cost databases. The SLCA model is derived from an extension of previous research whereas the social costs are based on the most suitable Economic Valuation (EV) studies such as the EPS2000d, EXMOD, Ecosense and Asian EV studies. The data collection for the SLCA database was accomplished by using the LCA analysis of the Eco Indicator 99 H/A method and the Hierarchical clustering technique. The data for the social cost database was collected using the Benefit Transfer Method which obtains the EV studies mainly from the Environmental Valuation Reference Inventory (EVRI) data source. Several case studies utilising existing products, including a product redesign case study were used to prove the concept and demonstrate the efficiency of this proposed methodology.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Sociology, December 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

The life cycle of the semiconductor equipment industry has evolved from a fast growth high profit ramp-up phase to one of much slower growth and intense competitiveness that has squeezed profit margins. In this environment, one of the key success factors for semiconductor equipment suppliers is product management. A correct product planning and implementation strategy will generate a healthy market performance and profitable business operations. Semiconductor equipment manufacturers and agents need to consider their product competencies to develop a planning strategy for new product introduction, which includes product positioning, target market selection as well as new product introduction guidance and evaluation procedures. This thesis focuses on industrial data analysis and a case study based on face-to-face interviews with several people at various positions within semiconductor equipment suppliers. The major approach of this study is a description of competitive strategy through a qualitative analysis of the industry, and an analysis the key factors¡Xincluding product management, product lifetime cycle and knowledge management¡Xthat influence the technology service ability of an equipment company. The conclusions of this study are presented as follows: Semiconductor agency has to introduce new product to different market segments for its product life time extension or future business development as well as product competence enhancement. New technology development trends become a threat to existing technology and products, which will replace current products in the market within a short period. Product management needs a procedure to evaluate the new product and the service income potential in order to assess the product¡¦s profit and loss prospects. Then the management can adjust the business priorities to maximize total company revenue through periodic review. Future studies should consider the effect of changes in the industrial structure and/or the market environment and analyze the impact on market development risks and strategies.