Research Project (M.B.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / MBA-MOT Program. Senior supervisor : Dr. Colleen M. Collins-Dodd. Research Project (Faculty of Business Administration) / Simon Fraser University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 245-252) and index.

This paper is based on the proposition that the choice of different product tactics is influenced by the nature of the firm’s external environment. It illustrates the type of product activities suggested for a complex and turbulent environment, when viewing the environment through a chaos and complexity theory lens. A qualitative, case method, using depth interviews,investigated the product activities in two companies to identify the product activities adopted in a more successful, versus a less successful, firm in a complex/turbulent environment. The results showed that the more successful company uses some destabilizing product activities but also partially uses stabilizing product activities. These findings are of benefit to marketers as they emphasize a new way to consider future product activities in their firms. Since businesses and markets are complex adaptive systems, using complexity theory to understand how to cope in complex, turbulent environments is necessary, but has not been widely researched, with even less emphasis on individual components of the marketing mix.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A product placement or placement occurs when a brand is integrated into a film, game or sitcom for advertising purposes. This integration can either be in the form of a visual placement, verbal placement or both. The practice of product placement has become popular due to the loss of advertising effectiveness of traditional media channels. This is due to the advent of technology, which allows the consumer to avoid advertisements. Marketers have therefore sought alternative, more effective forms of advertising, leading to an increase in spending on product placement. As product placement becomes more popular, there is a growing need to justify the large amounts spent on this practice. This research addressed this need by developing a framework for practitioners to use in order to determine the effectiveness of a placement. The framework will help to provide an understanding of the returns gained from investing in a product placement strategy. This research, which is in the form of a qualitative study, has made use of both primary and secondary data sources to meet this research objective. The primary data source is based on the findings from an interview conducted with a placement-practitioner, while the secondary data was based on all published literature regarding the means of measuring the effectiveness of product placement. The study begins by reviewing the literature in order to gain an understanding of advertising effectiveness and how it has been measured by past researchers. This review and analysis led to the discovery of three stages of measuring advertising effectiveness, these are the cognitive, affective and conative stages. These three stages were used as the starting point for the development of the framework which measures the effectiveness of product placement. The literature was then analysed with the aim of determining the measures used for each stage to determine the effectiveness of a placement. These measures were grouped according to the stage within which they belonged, i.e. either the cognitive, affective or conative stages. For example, brand awareness, which was found to be a measure of product placement effectiveness, was grouped under the cognitive effects of a placement. The results of the literature analysis were validated by conducting an interview with a product placement practitioner. The aim of this interview was to gain an understanding of how the industry determines the effectiveness of a product placement. An additional category, namely financial impact, was extracted from this interview. The end result was the creation of a framework, with four categories, which can be used to determine the effectiveness of a product placement.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of the research undertaken for this thesis was to examine management practices relating to new product development processes in small to medium-sized manufacturing firms (SMEs). The thesis topic has its origins in a European Community funded research project carried out during 1997-9 and designated CIMA (Continuous Improvement in Global Innovation Management) ESPRIT project 26056. The CIMA project had as its objective the development, testing and dissemination of a methodology to support knowledge transfer in the product innovation process. The CIMA model suggested a relationship between management behaviours and performance outcomes that used literature from a variety of research areas including continuous improvement, product innovation, performance measurement, and inter-project learning. This literature was centred largely on research undertaken in large organisations, with little information available on the new product development (NPD) practices in SMEs. This thesis sought to examine the management of NPD activities in SMEs across a range of important variables as identified in larger organisations in an effort to evaluate whether they were as relevant in smaller organisations. The literature review reduced the research to four broad questions: 1.what is the relationship between a business unit’s competitive strategy and its new product development strategy, 2.how management involvement in improving NPD performance, 3.does a more systematic approach to management of NPD projects would lead to better outcomes, and finally 4.how new product development performance is measured in SMEs. A two-stage, field based research methodology was used to gather data for this thesis. Firstly, a quantitative survey instrument was used to collect data across a broad range of variables. The data thus gathered were supported by a subsequent set of interviews in three SMEs that. In each of these firms, employees from the broad functional areas of sales, operations, and design, were interviewed to gain a greater understanding of the issues that might emerge in the quantitative survey. Thematic analysis was used to examine the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics, in the main were used to evaluate the quantitative data. Findings relevant to each of the research questions provide valuable insights into NPD practices in SMEs. For instance, strategies tend to be hazy, and have a short term emphasis. The qualitative interviews in particular showed a lack of certainty and direction when it came to strategy. With regard to management involvement, there was more emphasis on individual effort rather than team-based activities. Managers tended not to look for external sources to improve their NPD performance. The approach taken in managing NPD activities, whether it was systematic or informal, did not appear to affect innovativeness, though it did appear to impact other variables such as time-to-market. Finally, performance measurement in SMEs tended to emphasise cost outcomes as opposed to variables critical to customers such as conformance quality or time-to-market. Further, outcomes in those performance dimensions did not appear to influence future strategy or actions within the organisations. A detailed review of the data is provided in chapters five, six and seven. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri--Rolla, 2007. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed November 26, 2007) Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-58).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-200). Also available on the Internet.