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After over 25 years of decline, the global poverty rate has started to increase driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, taking millions back into poverty, most of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Low-income consumers are underserved and do not have the means to pay for or access to goods or services which are required for a minimum standard of living. These consumers struggle to find essential goods, the products do not always meet their needs or are too expensive for them to afford and the products' benefits are not easily understood. Yet the spending power and demand from consumers at the bottom of the economic pyramid in emerging markets and developing countries are motivating for global consumer goods companies. Not only does the opportunity presents financial benefit but is a social obligation to democratise new product innovations across markets. The 4As Framework (Affordability, Acceptability, Availability and Awareness) encompass factors which help manufacturers to better reach and serve low-income consumers. This framework is applied in this research to understand products meet their needs of low-income consumer across these four factors; and how designers employ human centred design to design products for low-income consumers against these factors. Human Centred Design has been employed to develop solutions to complex problems with great empathy to users and stakeholders for many years but has been gaining popularity with business and social ventures since the early 2000s. By interviewing consumers and designers, this study delved into understanding (1) the motivations and challenges of designing products for low income consumers, (2) how human centred design was being employed in the design of consumer goods for this group against the 4As framework and (3) how products currently meet the needs of low-income consumers, against the 4As framework. It was found that designers were consistently motivated by designing products for this consumer group which they believed served them. However, the constant evolution of needs, and needing to design for an affordable price were challenges. It was also found that some human centred design practices were prominent but there was more consistency needed in application, particularly when dealing with acceptability, affordability and awareness.

This paper is about the central role of product design on consumer evaluations. While the design literature has articulated two different types of design, i.e. form-based design and function-based design (Khalid 2004), most extant marketing literature has mostly focused on the impact of functional design on performance (see Chitturi, Raghunathan, and Mahajan (2007) for a notable exception). In this paper, I examine the individual and joint effects of the two design dimensions: form design and functional design on consumer evaluations of new products. In the first essay, employing theoretical underpinnings from processing fluency theory, I investigate four major research questions. First, all else equal, does form design matter? Second, how does form design interact with functional design? Third, does the interaction between form and functionality change in an innovation context? Specifically, given a certain level of functionality, what type of form is more advantageous for a radically new product (RNP) or an incrementally new product (INP)? Fourth, is there an individual difference in consumer evaluations to innovative products with various form designs? Results from the four experiments conducted demonstrate that (1) more typical form design leads to more positive attitudes toward the product than less typical form design, (2) a more typical design compensates for the average functionality of the product and hence a product with average functionality is evaluated as well as highly functional products in the more typical design condition. In a less typical design condition, a product with high functionality leads to much lower consumer attitudes towards the product, (3) whereas the form design for incremental innovations must be closer to the incumbent products for favorable evaluations, less typical form is evaluated as good as more typical form for radical innovations. (4) Form design of an innovative product matters more to the technologically more sophisticated consumers (experts) than technologically less sophisticated consumers (novices). In the second essay, I examine the issues involved in using form design to nullify first mover advantage. Pioneers or first movers can be defined as the first firm to sell in a new product category. Despite the proliferation of the pioneering advantage research, there are few empirical studies which examined how the product design enables the later entrants to nullify the first mover advantage. Employing theoretical underpinnings from categorization theory, I investigate the following research questions. First, what type of form is more likely to enhance consumer evaluations and nullify first mover advantage when the follower's product is featured with higher or lower functionality? Second, how does form design interact with functional design for the follower's product? Results from the experimental study conducted demonstrate that (1) if the follower's functionality is not superior to the pioneer's, follower had better focus on design differentiation which can compensate for the lower functionality of the follower (2) if the follower's functionality is superior to the pioneer's, follower had better follow the pioneer's design for the better product evaluation. The managerial implication is clear: Form design is a critical determinant of consumer evaluations. Form design helps create and appropriate value for firms.

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This thesis examines the process of new product development for small firms, aiming to specify what separate top performers from the rest. Every year, thousands of new products are introduced to the market. Yet, 75 % to 90 % of all products launched suffer from failure. Prevailing theory is founded on examinations on large firms, which differ significantly from small firms in terms of financial and human capital. This gives reason to suspect that prevailing theory fail to serve the specific needs of a small firm. In this study, previous research is summarized in a theoretical framework. A set of survey questions was sent out to 2,287 managers in Swedish small manufacturing firms. A research model was developed to help analyze and interpret the 156 complete responses. 32 significant variables separating top performers from the rest were acknowledged and three factor areas were specified in a framework for small firm new product success. The findings of our study indicate that prevailing theory fail to serve small firms. We conclude that small firms benefit from focusing to simplify rather than adding to refine, and that this is strongly correlated to the limited financial and human resources of a small firm.

The thesis analyses process of launching a new financial product of Conseq Investment Management, a.s. The new product is Investment mortgage. Theoretical part describes parts of the launching, process of adaptation and marketing mix. In practical part is introduced company Conseq Investment Management, a.s. and its basic products. There is described process of launching the product Investment mortgage. At the conclusion there are suggested a few recommendations for the company.

Many companies depend on their innovation capabilities to increase sales in an increasinglycompetitive market. This affects the companies’ R&D departments, which have to identify and develop new products that the market demands. However, even though new product development has been a well-researched area, there is still a gap between theory and practice regarding how to implement efficient new product development processes. Therefore, this study has investigated how the outcomes of new product development projects can be more  consistent. Particularly, the study has focused on how project governance of new product development can be improved. This investigation has been done by conducting a case study of six new product development projects at Sandvik Materials Technology in Sandviken, Sweden, a world-leading manufacturer of high-value added steel products. The results indicate that new product development at Sandvik Materials Technology works well, however there is still room for improvement. The findings suggest that in order to improve the consistency of the project outcomes, education in the process and workshops are needed. Furthermore, roles and responsibilities should be more specific and a structure for how to handle projects in the matrix organization has to be implemented. The findings of this study have implications both on the theoretical and practical aspect. Regarding the theoretical aspect, the findings provide additional data in a well-researched area  that still has a knowledge gap between literature and practice. Furthermore, from a theoretical point of view, the findings show how a world-leading manufacturer can improve the consistency of its new product development project outcomes. / Många av dagens företag måste förlita sig på sin produktutveckling för att öka försäljningen på enalltmer konkurrensutsatt marknad. Detta påverkar företagens forskning- och utvecklingsavdelningar som måste identifiera och utveckla produkter som marknaden efterfrågar. Trots att produktutveckling är ett väl utforskat område finns det ett gap mellan de teoretiska modeller och den praktiska implementeringen av dem. Denna studie har därför studerat hur resultatet av produktutvecklingsprojekt kan förbättras. Mer specifikt har denna studie fokuserat på hur styrningen av produktutvecklingsprojekt kan bli bättre. En fallstudie på sex produktutvecklingsprojekt i Sandvik Materials Technology, en världsledande tillverkare av högt förädlade stålprodukter, i Sandviken, Sverige har bidragit till empirin. Resultatet indikerar att produktutvecklingen på Sandvik Materials Technology fungerar bra, däremot finns det utrymme för förbättringar. Förbättringarna gäller framförallt utbildning i processerna, workshops, förtydliga roller och ansvar och en tydlig struktur för hur produktutvecklingsprojekt ska hanteras i matrisorganisationen. Studien kommer att bidra till teorin genom empiri i form av en fallstudie. Denna fallstudie kan tillsammans med andra studier fylla gapet mellan teoretiska projektmodeller och den praktiska implementeringen av dem. Denna studie kommer även att bidra till en förbättring av Sandvik Materials Technologys produktutvecklingsprojekt.

The ongoing globalization of companies has resulted in a highly competitive business climate where companies have to be cost-effective but still flexible with fast response to customer feedback and present in the international scene. In order to meet the fast paced technological development from the competition and changing demand of the customers, companies focus on creating new products and reducing their time-to-market with an early product launch to gain profits from increased market shares. However, in order to maintain profitability of the new product, it becomes even more important for the company to quickly deploy a full-scale production of the product, also known as the production ramp-up phase. Despite being known as a major cost driver in new product development projects, production ramp-up is a research area which have yet received sparse attention compared to research on product launch and time-to-market in new product development projects. However, with shorter product life-cycles and higher market competition it has resulted in a need to shorten the length of a new product’s ramp-up time without making any trade-off to the cost-effectiveness of the ramp-up project and the end product’s final quality. The study identifies the common problems in volume production of a contract electronics manufacturer and their sources of disturbances from the new product introduction process. It also identifies the factors influencing the new product introduction process at the company and how these factors are connected different sources of disturbances. To identify these findings, a single case study was designed and performed at Orbit One AB, a contract electronics manufacturer with a low-volume production of products. The data collection course was executed in an iterative manner over a period of four months through interviews, observation and internal documentation and was backed up and analyzed with a literature study. The data collection through interviews was carried out in two separate rounds, where the first round of interviews was focused on identifying the common problems in volume production and the second round was focused on the factors influencing the output from the new product introduction process. The discoveries from the interviews were analyzed together with the other sources of collected data to reach a conclusive analysis. The results of the study showed that the most common problems in volume production of the company could be traced to six different sources of disturbances: Product, Production System, Design-Production Interface, Quality, Resource Management, and Personnel. The most common problems could also be summarized as: Problems with manufacturability of product; High variation of process performance, Poor correctness of information, Quality issues with products, and High workload on resources. The factors identified in the findings of the study shows that there are multiple and connected factors which affects the final output of the new product introduction process which corroborates with earlier studies and research in the area of production ramp-up. The study did identify two factors which has not been identified by other ramp-up studies, these were: Lack of organizational project culture and customer flexibility.

The first phase of new product development (NPD) is today commonly referred to as the Front End (FE) of NPD. The phase has received a decent amount of attention during the recent years, nevertheless insufficient considering its ability to influence a project’s outcome. The phase begins when an idea is born, and ends when a formal meeting decides whether to invest in the idea or not. The investment then leads the project to enter a formal phase. During the FE, a large number of issues occur, which are believed to be the result of deficient processing of information. If the issues are not managed correctly, the NPD procedure will not be efficient. When information is being processed into knowledge, sometimes an uncertain, equivocal, or complex situation arises, which leads to delays, additional costs, and wasted efforts. These information processing problems (IPPs) need to be managed by firms in order to reduce their negative repercussions. Depending on a firm’s perception of the novelty towards a product, the project is considered to be either radical or incremental. Depending on that novelty, it is theorized that the IPPs will have different dispersions, and pose differently significant challenges to the project. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the differences of the significance and dispersion of the IPPs, during the FE, when comparing radical and incremental NPD projects. For this purpose, a case study approach was deemed appropriate. In order to collect data concerning the IPPs, seven case studies were conducted. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, with respondents that possess' an extensive experience from working with NPD within Swedish firms. The data analysis from the seven interviews proved that indeed there is a difference in how the IPPs vary, dependent on whether the project is of a radical or incremental nature. All the IPPs showed higher levels of significance in the FE in radical projects, than in incremental ones. Uncertainty proved to be the IPP that differed the most and therefore possessed the greatest significance difference. This means that differentiated approaches in radical respective incremental projects are needed in order to reduce uncertainty. Equivocality represented the IPP with the least difference in significance, meaning that the FE in radical and incremental projects require rather similar design in how to prevent equivocal problems. By understanding the differences in dispersion and significance, one can create differentiated management approaches during the FE, that fit the level of novelty of the product at hand. For some products, preventive actions must be taken to a larger degree compared to others. By doing so, the lead time of the FE can be shortened as less problems will arise, creating a faster and smoother process. The resources saved could be spent on improving activities, instead of being wasted on repairing unnecessary problems. The study contributes to the research field of NPD by adding newknowledge, aiding the collective effort of increasing firm’s proficiency in how to manage the FE.

高科技產業本身所具備的高風險、快速變動、產品生命週期短的特質，促使置身高科技產業中的企業必須具備更快速的因應能力，方能在競爭激烈的環境中生存。 有鑑於研發活動重要性日漸提高，市場上新產品的競爭狀況越演越烈，在台灣不論什麼產業都需不斷致力於發展新產品的活動。而列為國內首屈一指高科技國防武器研發單位的中科院；其新產品的研發績效，是一值得探討的課題。 本研究遂以組織特性及新產品發展過程，探究新產品開發所產生的影響效果，以中科院大型武器系統研發為研究對象；採用個案研究的方式，進行結構性深度訪談。本研究採用組織特性中的組織對創新的鼓勵、主管支持、資源、時間壓力等四個變數；將新產品發展過程分為產品創意、產品概念、產品雛形、最終產品、行銷計畫五個構面；探究對於新產品開發績效包括：「財務績效」、「市場績效」、「機會窗口」等之影響，作為研究架構。 主要研究目的為以下三點： 1. 探討組織特性與新產品發展過程之關係。 2. 探討組織特性與新產品發展過程對新產品開發績效之影響。 3. 探討中科院的組織特性與新產品發展過程對新產品開發績效之影響。 研究主要發現為： 1. 新產品發展過程中，不管是組織鼓勵、主管支持或是充裕的資源皆有助於提高員工的創造力；組織鼓勵與主管支持與激勵員工內在的動機有較大的關連，但是充裕的資源對員工創造力的提升可能會帶來最直接的立即效果。 2. 由研究的個案資料中發現，中科院在新產品發展過程中的阻礙有兩項因素：(1)產品生命週期較長，故不需要不斷的創新或發展新的產品；(2)因為有特定市場及需求顧客，所以沒有去注重行銷計畫。 / High-tech industry itself possesses high risks, combined with fast fluctuation, short product life cycles. High-tech enterprises thus have to own the flexibility to deal with such situation and enable to survival in the most competitive environment. In the light of increasingly important Research & Development activities and more competitive new products on the market, industries in Taiwan have all require being committed to activities for developing new products. Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, an eminent institution developing national defensive weapons, deserves to be explored in its performances of new products development. This research explores the effects of organization characteristic and new product development process on the performance of new product development, and takes large-sized weapon system of Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology as the research object; the research is carried out in the way of the case study, conducting in-depth interviews in structure. The research uses four variables in the organization characteristic, such as encouragements for creativity, supervisor’s support, resources and time pressure; the new product development process contains five stages, which are product creativity, product concept, product prototype, final product and marketing plan; New product development performances to be explored in their influences include financial performance, market performance, window of opportunity as the framework of the research. The purpose of the research focuses on the following three points: 1. It explores the relations between organization characteristic and new product development process. 2. It explores the effects of the organization characteristic and new product development process to new products, 3. It explores the effects of the organization characteristic and new product development process to new products in Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology Important findings: 1. On the process of developing new products, either organizational encouragements or superiors’ supports or ample resources have been beneficial to the increase of employees’ creativity; organizational encouragements, superiors’ supports and employee stimulation have greater links with employees’ inner motive; however, ample resources may bring direct effect on employees’ creativity. 2. Case study reveals that there are two hindrance factors on the process of developing new products at Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology: (1) the product life cycle is longer, so it required less continuing innovation nor new product developments; (2) it has certain markets and fixed customers, so marketing strategies have not been particularly emphasized. / 第一章　緒論---------------------------------------------------------------------1 　　　第一節　研究背景與動機---------------------------------------------1 　　　第二節　研究目的------------------------------------------------------3 第三節　研究範圍------------------------------------------------------5 第四節　研究流程------------------------------------------------------5 第二章　文獻探討---------------------------------------------------------------7 　　　第一節　組織特性------------------------------------------------------7 1-1 組織特性與創新之關係-------------------------------9 1-1-1組織鼓勵與創新之關係------------------------------9 1-1-2主管支持與創新之關係-----------------------------11 1-1-3資源與創新之關係-----------------------------------12 1-1-4時間壓力與創新之關係-----------------------------14 　　　第二節　新產品發展過程--------------------------------------------14 2-1 創新的定義---------------------------------------------15 2-2 創新的類型---------------------------------------------16 　　　 2-3 新產品之定義與分類---------------------------------20 　 2-4 新產品發展過程---------------------------------------25 第三節　新產品開發績效--------------------------------------------35 第三章　研究方法--------------------------------------------------------------43 　　　第一節　研究方法-----------------------------------------------------45 　　　第二節　研究架構-----------------------------------------------------46 　　　第三節　研究假設-----------------------------------------------------47 　　　第四節　研究限制-----------------------------------------------------47 第五節　訪談問卷設計-----------------------------------------------47 第四章　個案研究--------------------------------------------------------------50 　　　第一節　研究對象-----------------------------------------------------50 　　　第二節　訪談內容彙整及分析--------------------------------------51 第五章　研究發現與命題-----------------------------------------------------59 第六章　修正研究架構與管理意涵-----------------------------------------62 　　　第一節　修正研究架構-----------------------------------------------62 　　　第二節　管理意涵-----------------------------------------------------62 第七章　結論與建議-----------------------------------------------------------64 第一節　結論-----------------------------------------------------------64 第二節　研究建議-----------------------------------------------------65 參考文獻--------------------------------------------------------------------------66 附錄一　個案研究及其種類--------------------------------------------------70 第一節　個案研究及其特徵-----------------------------------------70 第二節　個案研究的種類--------------------------------------------70 第二節　個案研究的實施步驟--------------------------------------71 附錄二　訪談問卷--------------------------------------------------------------74 附錄三　問卷訪談之完整內容-----------------------------------------------80 圖　目　錄 圖1-4-1　 研究流程圖---------------------------------------------------------5 圖2-1-1　 組織創新能力及創新組成理論---------------------------------8 圖2-2-1　 創新架構------------------------------------------------------------19 圖2-2-2　 實用創新矩陣------------------------------------------------------20 圖2-3-1　 新產品的種類------------------------------------------------------21 圖2-4-1　 部門階段模式------------------------------------------------------28 圖2-4-2　 新產品發展過程---------------------------------------------------31 圖3-2-1　 本研究之觀念性架構圖------------------------------------------46 圖6-1-1 修改後觀念性架構圖---------------------------------------------63 表　目　錄 表2-2-1　創新能力的組織影響因素--------------------------------------7 表2-2-2 創新之分類--------------------------------------------------------16 表2-3-1　各學者對新產品發展類型之分類-----------------------------24 表2-3-2 各學者對新產品開發績效衡量的構面與指標--------------41 表3-5-1 訪談問卷表--------------------------------------------------------48 表3-5-2　訪談問卷表--------------------------------------------------------48 表4-1-1　受訪者背景資料表-----------------------------------------------50 表4-2-1　訪談問卷壹、組織特性/(一)、組織鼓勵/1.【支持創新文化】之統計-------------------------------------------------------51 表4-2-2　訪談問卷壹、組織特性/(一)、組織鼓勵/2.【組織獎酬】之統計-------------------------------------------------------------52 表4-2-3　訪談問卷壹、組織特性/(一)、組織鼓勵/3.【承擔風險的意願】之統計----------------------------------------------------52 表4-2-4　訪談問卷壹、組織特性/(二)、主管支持/1.【支持的程度】之統計-------------------------------------------------------53 表4-2-5　訪談問卷壹、組織特性/(三)、資源/1.【資源充足性】之統計----------------------------------------------------------------54 表4-2-6　訪談問卷壹、組織特性/(四)、時間壓力/1.【工作時間】之統計------------------------------------------------------------54 表4-2-7　訪談問卷貳、新產品發展過程/(一)、產品創意之統計 ---------------------------------------------------------------------55 表4-2-8　訪談問卷貳、新產品發展過程/(二)、產品概念之統計 ----------------------------------------------------------------------55 表4-2-9　訪談問卷貳、新產品發展過程/(三)、產品雛型之統計 ----------------------------------------------------------------------56 表4-2-10　訪談問卷貳、新產品發展過程/(四)、最終產品之統計 -----------------------------------------------------------------------57 表4-2-11　訪談問卷貳、新產品發展過程/(五)、行銷計畫之統計 -----------------------------------------------------------------------57 表4-2-12　訪談問卷參、新產品開發績效之統計----------------------58