Timing of Market Entry for New Products: An Exploratory Case Study of the Success Factors for Pioneering and Following

Launching a new product at the optimal time is imperative for the successful entry and penetration in the competitive market. Expectations of customers, responses of competitors, challenges of emerging start-ups, shortening of product life cycles, and global alliance of corporations are some of the evolving factors that are relevant to the timing decisions for a new product. This paper re-examines the timing-related strategic issues, reports an exploratory case study of the ninety-two pioneering or following market entries, and discusses the managerial implications for a firm’s market-entry decisions for a new product or service

Tradeoff and Synergy in Sustainable Product Innovation: An Exploratory Case Study of Residential Building

Minimizing the negative impacts on the environment is a key challenge to the firms pursuing sustainable product innovations for residential building and construction. This paper examines three cases in the U.S., i.e. Amazon Forms LLC, the Town of Frisco and Denvers Built Green(tm) Program, that illustrate unique ways of initiating sustainable innovation. The cases confirm that, in order to stimulate the diffusion of a new sustainable product or project, there must be a force driving the change of thinking and action, including corporate initiative, government regulation, consumer demand and technological advance

Quantitative and qualitative investments in internal control personnel and firm operational efficiency: Evidence from Korea

Although internal control systems in firms aim to provide reasonable assurance regarding objectives related to operations, reporting, and compliance, research focusing on operational efficiency is limited. This study investigates the impact of both quantitative and qualitative investments in internal control personnel on a firm’s operational efficiency. Utilizing a fixed-effect regression model, the Heckman (1979) two-stage model, and a two-stage least squares procedure, this study analyzes 4,471 firm-year observations from Korean listed firms from 2018 to 2020. The findings indicate a positive association between investment in internal control personnel and operational efficiency. This relationship remains robust even under sensitivity tests and concerns of potential endogeneity, as confirmed by the Heckman and two-stage least squares models. Specifically, the Heckman model shows that the ratio of the number of employees (coef = 0.023, t-value = 5.20) and certified public accountants (coef = 0.256, t-value = 5.43) responsible for internal control is positively associated with operational efficiency. Average work experience (coef = 0.002, t-value = 1.84) of internal control personnel is also positively related to operational efficiency. This study provides empirical evidence for the significance of investing in internal control personnel to boost operational efficiency and suggests that firms should consider both quantitative and qualitative aspects of internal control