The aim of this thesis was to develop and evaluate a Clean and Green Decision-Support System by exploring the practice of a large Australian Winery and developing a decision-support system that would facilitate movement towards clean and green wine product packaging. This thesis took into account the relationship between wine manufacturers and their packaging suppliers as shared information between these parties is central to the National Packaging Covenant (NPC) which is an outcome of concern for the environment. This concern has had a dramatic impact upon this relationship in the wine industry because each has to comply with Government regulations and customer demand for environmentally friendly packaging. / A review of the current knowledge about New Product Development revealed that the implicit emphasis within this body of research was upon modification of existing products to reduce the cost of production and/or increase sales volume. Many authors recognised the impact of external demands upon the new product environment yet there was little inclusion of one of the forces driving these external demands- the need for 'Clean and Green' production processes. It was argued here that the inclusion of clean and green in models of New Product Development was necessary for company sustainability because of the pressure from Government and from customers for environmentally friendly products. / The notion of a sustainable competitive advantage underpinned the importance of meeting customer needs and introduced the need to develop unique attributes that cannot be easily copied by competitors. The intense competition in the Australian wine industry made this an important consideration. While a significant number of studies had linked sustainable competitive advantage with New Product Development, studies that incorporate these concepts within the clean and green context were extremely limited. It was further recognised that any theoretical model developed only from the manufacturer's perspective and which overlooked the perspectives of suppliers, customers and the Government would be flawed because it may limit the implementation of clean and green practices. Therefore, there existed a gap in knowledge about how a company could incorporate clean and green practices into their New Product Development and remain competitive. / An exploratory, qualitative case study based upon Yin's (1994 and 2003) case study methodology was undertaken. Data were triangulated through open-ended semi-structured interviews, archival documents and literature reviews. The interviews explored the key drivers, key barriers and key relationships that may influence the consideration of clean and green product development. Seventeen participants were interviewed; eight from the suppliers, eight from the case study organisation and one from the wine industry association. Content analysis was used to analyse the interview transcripts and the archival documents. The findings confirmed that the relationship between the supplier and manufacturer was very important and symbiotic in nature and that each was concerned with customer demands and Government regulations. This was related to the drivers which were all aimed at the Winery retaining or improving its sustainability in the market place. The barriers were found to be communication (and the related problem of sharing information), which when operating smoothly could facilitate the process but when not (as in this case), provided a strong barrier to implementation of clean and green practices in the wine industry. The analysis was used to develop an eleven step easy-to-use Clean and Green Decision-Support System which calculated a final score for each wine packaging product. This system was then evaluated using data about wine bottles that was collected during the data collection phase. It was found that the Clean and Green Decision-Support System developed as part of this thesis provides easy-to-understand output that allows the decision-maker to choose the product that is as close as possible to the ideal clean and green product. / This thesis contributes to knowledge in three ways. Firstly, it contributes by theoretically linking the constructs of clean and green, New Product Development and sustainable competitive advantage to develop a new theoretical model which also incorporates the various perspectives of key stakeholders. Secondly, it contributes to knowledge of industry practice by explicating the issues faced by a Winery when seeking to implement Clean and Green New Product Development. Finally, it contributes to professional through the development and evaluation of a Clean and Green Decision-Support System in a real-life setting that has immediate practical application. This simplifies the decision-making related to evaluation of clean and green products and helps to resolve the communication problem somewhat by clearly identifying what information is needed and the source of that information thereby further facilitating the implementation of clean and green practices. / Opportunities for further research exist in the areas of expanding upon the scope of the study to improve its generalisability; further exploring the Winery-supplier relationship, particularly in regard to the development of symbiosis; and in the further development and simplification of the process of obtaining the information needed for the Clean and Green Decision-Support System. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: leaves 118-126.