The role of launch planning in the early commercial success of high technology products

This thesis examines the association between launch planning and the early commercial success of high-tech products. The literature suggests that the launch phase is of great importance to new product success and that launch planning is a critical issue. The high cost of most launches also places a premium upon undertaking this activity effectively. A sample of 30 firms was drawn from the population of UK, mid-sized electronics companies. This group was chosen because of its importance to the national economy and its innovative record. Data was gathered by personal interviews with marketing directors and managers. Respondents were asked to nominate a successful new product launch to serve as a case example. Performance was measured on a dependent variable designed to capture the degree of commercial success one year after launch. Analysis of the contribution of the independent variables to success was by means of parametric & non-parametric statistical tests, complemented by verbatim records. The results of the research strongly confirm the hypothesised association between more sophisticated planning and superior new product commercial performance. Additionally, a more concentrated marketing strategy (incorporating: 'ambition', 'effort', and 'focus') was also associated with better performance. However, contrary to expectations, sophisticated planning was the senior partner having a much stronger relationship with success. The implication is that the planning process is more important than the content of the marketing strategy. Consequently, the findings provide strong support for the proposition that a sophisticated, well executed launch planning process is a vital contributor to the early success of new high-tech products. Planning pays! The practical implications of the findings are that firms should devote more attention to their launch planning. Not simply by formalising the process, but with measures designed to improve information gathering, participation from inside and outside the firm, monitoring & control and a willingness to adapt the plans during the post-launch phase. It was found that most of the sample companies were trying to implement similar marketing strategies. What has the greatest impact upon launch success is the attention given to the planning process over both planning initiation and implementation (ie the pre & post launch phases). From a theoretical perspective the thesis has contributed to three areas - (1) Contrary to the emphasis given by some researchers to the pre-development stages of NPD, this study indicates that it is just as important to effectively execute the latter stages. (2) It demonstrates the value of measuring planning as a dynamic, multi-dimensional process extending over both initiation and implementation phases. (3) The results indicate that launch planning practices can have a more significant impact upon early commercial success than the realized strategy ie 'process' can be more important than 'content'

Grain Size Effect on the Induced Piezoelectric Properties of 0.9PMN-0.1PT Ceramic

Lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 - PbTiO3 (PT) solid solutions have been widely researched to produce devices that can be used in low- and high-electric-field applications. For some applications, such as medical ultrasonic transducers, it is necessary to prepare the ceramic with high density and small average grain size. The effect of grain size on the low- and high-field properties of 0.9-PMN-0.10-PT ceramics is described in the present work. To prepare highly dense ceramic, vibratory and attrition milled powders were sintered between 1000 and 1250 ⁰C. The average grain sizes of the sintered ceramics varied from 0.7 to 3.5 micrometers. To understand the grain size effect, dielectric, pyroelectric, electrostrictive, and induced piezoelectric properties were studied

Research and theory for nursing and midwifery: Rethinking the nature of evidence

Background and Rationale: The rise in the principles of evidence-based medicine in the 1990s heralded a re-emerging orthodoxy in research methodologies. The view of the randomised controlled trial (RCT) as a “gold standard” for evaluation of medical interventions has extended recently to evaluation of organisational forms and reforms and of change in complex systems—within health care and in other human services. Relatively little attention has been given to the epistemological assumptions underlying such a hierarchy of research evidence. Aims and Methods: Case studies from research in maternity care are used in this article to describe problems and limitations encountered in using RCTs to evaluate some recent policy-driven and consumer-oriented developments. These are discussed in relation to theory of knowledge and the epistemological assumptions, or paradigms, underpinning health services research. The aim in this discussion is not to advocate, or to reject, particular approaches to research but to advocate a more open and critical engagement with questions about the nature of evidence. Findings and Discussion: Experimental approaches are of considerable value in investigating deterministic and probabilistic cause and effect relationships, and in testing often well-established but unevaluated technologies. However, little attention has been paid to contextual and cultural factors in the effects of interventions, in the culturally constructed nature of research questions themselves, or of the data on which much research is based. More complex, and less linear, approaches to methodology are needed to address these issues. A simple hierarchical approach does not represent the complexity of evidence well and should move toward a more cyclical view of knowledge development

Academic motherhood and fieldwork: Juggling time, emotions and competing demands

The idea and practice of going ‘into the field’ to conduct research and gather data is a deeply rooted aspect of Geography as a discipline. For global North Development Geographers, amongst others, this usually entails travelling to, and spending periods of time in, often far-flung parts of the global South. Forging a successful academic career as a Development Geographer in the UK, is therefore to some extent predicated on mobility. This paper aims to critically engage with the gendered aspects of this expected mobility, focusing on the challenges and time constraints that are apparent when conducting overseas fieldwork as a mother, unaccompanied by her children. The paper emphasises the emotion work that is entailed in balancing the competing demands of overseas fieldwork and mothering, and begins to think through the implications of these challenges in terms of the types of knowledge we produce, as well as in relation to gender equality within the academy

Copyright and cultural work: an exploration

This article first discusses the contemporary debate on cultural “creativity” and the economy. Second, it considers the current state of UK copyright law and how it relates to cultural work. Third, based on empirical research on British dancers and musicians, an analysis of precarious cultural work is presented. A major focus is how those who follow their art by way of “portfolio” work handle their rights in ways that diverge significantly from the current simplistic assumptions of law and cultural policy. Our conclusions underline the distance between present top-down conceptions of what drives production in the cultural field and the actual practice of dancers and musicians

Paradoxical Association of C-Reactive Protein with Endothelial Function in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: Within the general population, levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) are positively associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). Whether CRP is causally implicated in atherogenesis or is the results of atherosclerosis is disputed. A role of CRP to protect endothelium-derived nitric oxide (EDNO) has been suggested. We examined the association of CRP with EDNO-dependent vasomotor function and subclinical measures of atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis in patients with raised CRP resulting from rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Methodology/Principal Findings: Patients with RA (n = 59) and healthy control subjects (n = 123), underwent measures of high sensitivity CRP, flow-mediated dilation (FMD, dependent on EDNO), intima-media thickness (IMT, a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis) and aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV, a measure of arteriosclerosis). IMT and PWV were elevated in patients with RA compared to controls but FMD was similar in the two groups. In patients with RA, IMT and PWV were not correlated with CRP but FMD was positively independently correlated with CRP (P<0.01).Conclusions/Significance: These findings argue against a causal role of CRP in atherogenesis and are consistent with a protective effect of CRP on EDNO bioavailability

Radiography for a Shock-accelerated Liquid Layer

This program supported the experimental study of the itneraction of planar shock waves with both solid structures (a single cylinder or a bank of cylinders) and single and multiple liquid layers. Objectives of the study included: characterization of the shock refraction patterns; measurements of the impulsive loading of the solid structures; observation of the response of the liquid layers to shock acceleration; assessment of the shock-mitigation effects of single and multiple liquid layers. The uploaded paper is intended as a final report for the entire funding period. The poster described in the paper won the Best Poster Award at the 25 International Symposium on Shock Waves

‘Blindness to the obvious’?: Treatment experiences and feminist approaches to eating disorders

Eating disorders (EDs) are now often approached as biopsychosocial problems, but the social or cultural aspects of the equation are often marginalised in treatment - relegated to mere contributory or facilitating factors. In contrast, feminist and socio-cultural approaches are primarily concerned with the relationship between EDs and the social/ cultural construction of gender. Yet although such approaches emerged directly from the work of feminist therapists, the feminist scholarship has increasingly observed, critiqued and challenged the biomedical model from a scholarly distance. As such, this article draws upon data from 15 semi-structured interviews with women in the UK context who have experience of anorexia and/or bulimia in order to explore a series of interlocking themes concerning the relationship between gender identity and treatment. In engaging the women in debate about the feminist approaches (something which has been absent from previous feminist work), the article explores how gender featured in their own understandings of their problem, and the ways in which it was - or rather wasn’t - addressed in treatment. The article also explores the women’s evaluations of the feminist discourse, and their discussions of how it might be implemented within therapeutic and clinical contexts