How does intellectual capital affect product innovation performance?: evidence from China and India

Purpose: Intellectual capital reflects the sum of existing knowledge a manufacturer is able to leverage and plays a critical role in new product development. This study aims to empirically investigate the mechanisms through which intellectual capital enhances product innovation performance and how economic and institutional environments affect the mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach: Using a knowledge-based view and institutional theory, this study proposes a model on the relationships among intellectual capital, supplier knowledge integration, supply chain adaptability, and product innovation performance. The hypotheses are empirically tested using multiple group structural equation modelling and data collected from 300 Chinese and 200 Indian manufacturers. Findings: We find that intellectual capital improves product innovation performance both directly and indirectly through supplier knowledge integration. However, the effects are different in China and India. In particular, the direct effect of intellectual capital on product innovation performance is significantly higher in China than that in India, and intellectual capital improves product innovation performance indirectly through supplier knowledge integration only in India. We also find that supplier knowledge integration improves product innovation performance indirectly through supply chain adaptability in both China and India. Originality/value: Using a moderated mediation model, this study provides insights into the joint effects of intellectual capital, supplier knowledge integration, and supply chain adaptability on product innovation performance. The findings enhance current understandings of how supply chain management helps a manufacturer develop new products using existing knowledge and the influences of economic and institutional environments on knowledge and supply chain management

Innovation, marketing information sharing and new product success in the European insurance sector

Most companies the world over are actively participating in the race of investments in the service industry. The main question to solve is what new products and services should offer these companies to remain profitable. Avaílable frameworks aiming at aiding the managerial decision-making process, -as it regards to new products and services design and development, are largely based upon empirical data proceeding from the manufacturing sector. Given that services are different from goods, the expansion of insurance services may require sorne peculiar approaches. Morgan et al. say that the turbulent environment of the eighties, "created the pre-conditíons necessary lor the consumer direct insurance industry to become a laboratory 01 experimentation jor the financial servíces industry". So far, as Stone et al. (1997,354) suggest: "lnsurance companies are now having to manage customer bases where average persistence is substantially lower that it used to be. This means a much stronger jocus on customer retention, customer acquisition, and customer development". This article examines how far the manufacturing oriented frameworks elaborated for the design and development of new products apply to the service sector in general, and to the European insurance industry in particular. European insurance companies operate in a highly volatíle market, so their survival relies upon the identification of the outstanding cornerstones leading to market leadership. For that purpose, insurance firms must design and re-design the essential core elements that will allow them to identify new areas of business and attracting and retaining customer. Drew states that the success and/or faílure of the new product/service development process for service firms are influenced by factors similar to those encountered in industrial firms. Nevertheless, insurance products and services use to have short product life cycles and it is easy to copy them; thus, sorne differences may arise between industrial products and insurance services. It should be also taken into account that the managerial practices of the European Insurance companies may diverge as the companies belong to different countries, deal with different types of insurance premiurns, and achieve diverse performance success levels. So far, it is important to develop an explanatory model that allow both researchers and practitioners to recognise the isolated and conjoint effects of the different variables that affect the success of the New Service Development Process. In this article, we examine how most successful insurance companies, -as it pertains to the quality, frequency, and quantity of successful new services,apply their managerial practices. More particularly, we review the underpinning points between innovation degree, marketing information sharing -as related to managerial practices, new product success and corporate performance. The model is tested applying structural equation modeling techniques to a sample of 113 European Union Insurance firms. We identify the different explanatory relationships, as well as the relative importance of the different analysed variables

Exploring the comparative effects of societal syndromes on knowledge discovery in new product-process development : contrasting Anglo-Western society and Han-Chinese society

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Business.International marketers must learn how to match product and process transformation requirements to localised cultural predispositions, as not all cultures are equally disposed towards novel innovation or improving existing technologies. In this thesis, the original unification of prior histological investigations and first application of quantitative analyses of reflective and structural equation models, newly confirmed that a comprehensive understanding of cultural predispositions in society at large and in the workplace, is necessary and indispensable, in guiding the rightful assignment of global new product-process development tasks. Moreover, the affiliation between cultural antecedents and final product-process outcomes was shown not to be a direct relationship, as formerly assumed: Instead, cultural predispositions, based on newly revealed societal syndromes, were unmistakably found to act to foster or impede knowledge building (i.e., knowledge sharing and creative synergies) and knowledge discovery. Thus, in this thesis, for the first time, knowledge building was unambiguously shown to; intermediate the relationship between cultural antecedents and final new product-process development outcomes. Key societal models, established in this exploratory research, were developed for multiple cross-societal applications. However, for first measurement, significant to the twenty-first century product and process development, Anglo-Western society and Han-Chinese society were selected to test an original societal syndrome archetype comprised of the primary dimensions of Vertical Power Ethos, Horizontal Altruism and Conventional Orthodoxy. ‘First measures’ were made, in ‘seminal’ and quantitatively exploratory research, to reveal Han-Chinese general superiority in replicating known technologies and making minor incremental changes to enhance known technologies. Alternatively, Anglo-Western society was typically more talented in developing first generation (often high transformation) or intermediate transformation product-processes, which require higher levels of lateral knowledge sharing and involvement of out-groups. Extensive structural equation modelling confirmed original societal syndromes. A new intermediation primary path model and accompanying moderators were statistically validated. Armed with a new knowledge of societally-based predilections, towards either progressing highly novel product-process innovation or forms of innovation aimed at improving traditional practices; based on particular needs, global companies, with various products and components, such as Boeing Inc. and 3M, can now benefit, from a more informed basis for assignment of their product-process development tasks. Unifying socio-cultural studies and histological accounts enabled study of cultural antecedents, providing a more integrated theoretical qualitative discipline-wide model than previously available. Development of a dynamic structural design (archetype) comprised of original societal syndromes, elucidates for theorists the relationships of societally qualified syndromes on knowledge building across multiple disciplines From the perspective of cross-societal dispositions, concerning products and processes, future researchers should study the implications of profitability and new research commitment, on original innovation vis-à-vis cultivating accepted approaches. New transnational cross-societal equity corporate relationship types could be progressed, to concurrently achieve benefit, in both creative product-process innovation and existing product-process generation improvement, across societies in joint-venture relationships, by leveraging societally localised advantages globally

Factors Influencing Small Medium Enterprise’s Behavior in Adopting E-fulfillment Services

Purpose: Since the SMEs were the key players in these current digital businesses in Indonesia, the purpose of this study is to analyse the benefit in adopting the e-fulfillment services by considering the variable of technology acceptance model that was related with trust. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research was used three exogenous variables, namely: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived security and risks-free. In addition, the research considered the adoption in new e-fulfillment services platform as endogenous variable with trust as intervening variable. The data collected from the SME’s who are located in the Jakarta and its surrounding areas and further analyzed statistically using Structural Equation Model approach. Findings: The key finding of this research was trust played a significant role in influencing the customer adoption of the e-fulfillment platform. The research also showed that perceived ease of used was the main factor in creating customer trust. The maximum usage of e-fulfillment services allowed the SME’s to focus more the product development and marketing activities. Research, Practical & Social Implications: SME’s would enjoy strong business competitive positioning if they were able in adopting the e-fulfillment services. Originality/Value: Since the concept of e-fulfillment services were quite new in Indonesia, the study recommends the needs to increase the awareness and knowledge to SME’s by ensuring the benefit of this new platform.&nbsp

Reinterpreting excellence for sustainable competitive advantage: the role of entrepreneurial culture under information technological turbulence

Purpose – This study aims to understand the culture of excellence by examining the role of entrepreneurial culture in shaping how firms achieve sustainable competitive advantage (CA). This study takes into consideration the firms’ capability to transform the entrepreneurial culture into a sustainable CA by generating product development and adapting the information technological turbulence. Design/methodology/approach – This study first gathers evidence from literature then carries out a detailed study to propose a structural equation model followed by an online survey that supports empirical evidence. This empirical test involves a data set with 782 usable responses following the 4,000 emails sent to the respondents and removed data due to the missing values. The population data are taken from the firm directory in Surabaya City that the Indonesian Ministry of Trade and Industry published. Findings – There is a strong tendency that entrepreneurial culture is imperative for firms to attain sustainable CA by supporting new product development. The results show that product development provides a partial mediating effect, which indicates that entrepreneurial culture may affect the sustainable CA directly and with the product development support. This study also touches on dynamic capability by proposing a scenario approach that suggests that firms should refine the entrepreneurial culture to adapt to the information technological turbulence. Originality/value – This study extends the understanding of the culture of excellence by underpinning the dynamic capability theory, which argues that entrepreneurial culture is a valuable resource, which helps firms achieve sustainable CA by promoting product development

New product development in an emerging economy: analysing the role of supplier involvement practices by using Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo technique

The research question is whether the positive relationship found between supplier involvement practices and new product development performances in developed economies also holds in emerging economies. The role of supplier involvement practices in new product development performance is yet to be substantially investigated in the emerging economies (other than China). This premise was examined by distributing a survey instrument (Jayaram’s (2008) published survey instrument that has been utilised in developed economies) to Malaysian manufacturing companies. To gauge the relationship between the supplier involvement practices and new product development (NPD) project performance of 146 companies, structural equation modelling was adopted. Our findings prove that supplier involvement practices have a significant positive impact on NPD project performance in an emerging economy with respect to quality objectives, design objectives, cost objectives, and “time-to-market” objectives. Further analysis using the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm, yielding a more credible and feasible differentiation, confirmed these results (even in the case of an emerging economy) and indicated that these practices have a 28% impact on variance of NPD project performance. This considerable effect implies that supplier involvement is a must have, although further research is needed to identify the contingencies for its practices

Supporting 'design for reuse' with modular design

Engineering design reuse refers to the utilization of any knowledge gained from the design activity to support future design. As such, engineering design reuse approaches are concerned with the support, exploration, and enhancement of design knowledge prior, during, and after a design activity. Modular design is a product structuring principle whereby products are developed with distinct modules for rapid product development, efficient upgrades, and possible reuse (of the physical modules). The benefits of modular design center on a greater capacity for structuring component parts to better manage the relation between market requirements and the designed product. This study explores the capabilities of modular design principles to provide improved support for the engineering design reuse concept. The correlations between modular design and 'reuse' are highlighted, with the aim of identifying its potential to aid the little-supported process of design for reuse. In fulfilment of this objective the authors not only identify the requirements of design for reuse, but also propose how modular design principles can be extended to support design for reuse

Integrasi realiti terimbuh (AR) dalam aktiviti mewarna

Mewarna merupakan salah satu kaedah pembelajaran yang digunakan untuk meningkatkan kemahiaran psikomotor dan kreativiti kanak-kanak. Namun begitu, kandungan yang disediakan di dalam buku mewarna adalah bersifat statik dan tidak menyediakan elemen-elemen dinamik seperti interaktiviti. Kanak-kanak mudah merasa bosan kerana tiada interaksi dua hala yang berlaku antara mereka dan karakter ketika proses mewarna dilakukan. Sebagai penambahbaikan terhadap permasalahan tersebut, satu aplikasi mewarna yang dinamakan Dr Bubble Coloring AR dibangunkan. Aplikasi ini menggunakan teknik realiti terimbuh (AR) yang diintegrasikan ke dalam aplikasi mewarna. Imej yang diwarnakan menjadi penanda untuk diimbas oleh peranti mudah alih lalu dipaparkan secara maya dalam bentuk tiga dimensi (3D). Aplikasi ini menyediakan bebutang interaksi bagi membolehkan pengguna berinteraksi dengan karakter serta mengesan objek yang diwarnakan di dalam buku mewarna. Secara keseluruhan, 75% responden sangat bersetuju aplikasi ini menarik dan menyeronokkan, manakala 84% responden sangat bersetuju keseluruhan aplikasi ini berfungsi dengan baik dan sempurna

Dimensions of perceived product quality – understanding the consumer’s view

Objectives. We identify core product quality components from the consumers’ perspective and construct a psychometrically sound instrument for their assessment within different purchasing contexts. Methods. Study 1 (N = 34) used a qualitative approach to reveal core components of perceived product quality in the context of apparel evaluations. Study 2 (N = 305) was designed to construct and quantitatively validate the quality scale in a retail store setting. In Study 3 (N = 180) using a second purchasing context the scale’s dimensionality was cross-validated in a mail-order context. Results. Six components of product quality emerged (material, workmanship, design, care, color, fit) and explained approximately 75% of the variance in consumers’ product evaluations. Their dimensional structure was validated using confirmatory factor analysis. Differences concerning the quality dimensions’ relative importance were found for the two purchasing situations. Conclusion. The quality scale proved to be reliable and valid in two important purchasing contexts