New Product Development of a Yoghurt Dessert via E-Collaboration

The following contribution describes how an E-collaboration platform may be used within new product development. In order to develop a new dairy product (a yoghurt dessert), a leading Austrian dairy co-operated with representatives from the Austrian University of Natural Resources and Applied Live Sciences Vienna and other experts by use of a specific E-collaboration platform. The main aim of the project was the preparation of innovative product concepts. All necessary data and documents concerning consumer behaviour, market trends, product features etc. were distributed via a closed E-collaboration platform. The participants worked together for about half a year; however, only two personal meetings were necessary, all other communication processes (also group discussions) were done via the E-collaboration platform. It was possible to simultaneously communicate and co-operate even though the participants were located in Vienna, Upper Austria and Italy (South Tyrol). In the end a new product could be developed which was launched in one of the big three Austria supermarket chains in 2004. It could be proven that the state of the art in new product development is absolutely compatible with the usage of information technology for communication and knowledge transfer purposes; however, confidentiality and trust are absolutely indispensable for the success of such a project.innovation, new product development, dairy industry, E-collaboration, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

Economic Evaluation of the Austrian Rural Development Programme: Is EU-funding an Appropriate Means to Increase Competitiveness of the Agricultural Sector within the Food Supply Chain?

The EU provides a number of subsidies for the European agricultural sector to promote rural development. In particular, the public funding intends to increase the competitive­ness of the agricultural sector within the food supply chain. This paper will only focus on subsidies granted for economic purposes.In Austria, the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism takes over the responsibility to distribute the funds and guarantees effective use of EU funds. The Ministry is obligated to review the success of the national RDP every two years (2017, 2019 and at the end of the RDP). To evaluate the success of the RDP public funding, the Ministry designated several independent evaluators for all kinds of areas (economic, social, environmental targets).We took over the responsibility to evaluate the economic part of the RDP. In particular, the evaluation scheme focuses on target P3 of the RDP: “Promoting food chain organisation, including processing and marketing of agricultural products, animal welfare and risk management in agriculture”. The relevant focus area (3A) addresses the competitiveness of producers: “Improving competitiveness of primary producers by better integrating them into the agri-food chain through quality schemes, adding value to agricultural products, promotion in local markets and short supply circuits, producer groups and inter-branch organisations” (European Commission, 2014). Indicative public support for this focus area alone amounts to about 540 million Euros (in total, the public spending within the Austrian RDP 2014-20 amounts to almost 8 billion Euro). The parts of focus area 3A relevant for evaluation amount to more than 300 million Euros.To approximate the effectiveness of the public spending, a sample out of all subsidised companies has been evaluated by means of several data sources. In addition to secondary data provided by the companies themselves, we conducted a number of in-depth personal interviews collecting business data, personal estimation of effects, satisfaction with application and transaction procedures, organisational issues, etc. In all, the intention is to approximate the net effects of public funding in view of economic development in rural areas

Trust in ICT-Based New Product Development - Guidelines for Virtual New Product Development Teams

The traditional process of new product development is focusing on an intra-organizational workflow, which should - in its ideal form - be done by virtual interdisciplinary teams. Team members should be from several departments like manufacturing, research & development, sales and marketing. But innovation is happening more and more in networks of companies, clusters or so called network companies. The following article delivers a framework of guidelines for virtual team management in order to improve the success of innovation strategies.e-collaboration, virtual team work, new product development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Viability of Values and Attitudes Concerning Purchase Intentions and Benefit Attribution for an Organic Sport Drink

The following contribution describes a product development case study for an isotonic organic sport drink in which the value factors of GfK Sinus Milieus have been applied. The underlying research question is, if the prescribed values are a viable tool to differentiate buyers and nonbuyers of organic food in respect to purchase intention in the case of sport beverages. The authors furthermore investigate the importance of “organic” or other product features for fitness oriented consumers. The paper draws on data from a survey in Austrian and German fitness centres with a total of 400 respondents. Purchase intention was indirectly measured with a Conjoint analysis, for the influence of values and factors on the purchase intention an analysis of variance was applied. Results illustrate, that the GfK values and attitudes factors are a viable tool to differentiate between shoppers and non-shoppers of organic food. Our study has shown that the necessary factors to differentiate purchase intentions are varying over product categories. Furthermore a use of single factors is not recommended, only a combination of them is able to differentiate consumers in respect to their purchase intention. Further research would be required to facilitate full understanding of the complex decision making process with regard to different product categories of organic food products. This research indicates that a combination of attitudes and values at the same time influence purchase intention. Furthermore values and attitudes differ among product categories and buying situation.innovation, new product development, organic food, sport beverage, attitudes and values, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Quality Labels in the Food Sector: What do Consumers Want to Know and where are they Looking for Information?

This study analyzes consumers’ information needs concerning quality labels in the food sector. We analyzed that by using one of the most well-known quality labels for food products in Austria as our research object (the quality label of the organization AgrarMarkt Austria, the so-called AMA Seal). Apparently, there is a lack of consumer-oriented information. Up to now, the type of information consumers of AMA sealed products demand is more or less unknown. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (1) to identify consumers’ actual use of information and (2) their information needs about quality labels to provide needs-based consumer information

Sustainable Products and Consumers’ Brand Choice

Within this study selected empirical results out of a 3 year project concerning the analysis of Austrian panel data are presented. Raw data coming from the most important Austrian consumer tracking panel was analyzed with respect to consumers’ variety seeking and brand choice behavior. It is analyzed if consumers tend to switch to “sustainable” (here: organic) products and brands more frequently compared to brand switches between conventional products and brands (significant interrelation between sustainability and consumers’ brand choice). After a brief introduction into a specific variety seeking model operationalizing consumers’ brand switching tendency, a descriptive analysis of the analyzed data set, and analytical outcomes concerning “sustainability” and “brand switching” are presented

The Difficulties in Measuring Individual Utilities of Product Attributes: A Choice Based Experiment

The study combines different theoretical approaches in the field of conjoint analysis to estimate the im-portance of product related attributes. This is of major importance in food marketing, where we still try to find a valid answer, in particular, how to measure the real willingness to pay (WTP) for specific product specifica-tions. Based on a comprehensive literature analysis, a common method was used to approximate the im-portance of several product attributes. As usually suggested in literature, we used discrete choice modeling and developed a choice based experimental design considering selected product attributes. The study object was frozen pizza, a convenience good frequently bought by most households.Up to this point, there is nothing special about the choice based experiment in comparison to direct measure-ment of the importance of product attributes. However, one of the core problems of discrete choice modeling – the approximation of individual utility functions – was then addressed by transforming the choices of con-sumers into scores. With these scores traditional conjoint measurement can be used to approximate individual utilities even in choice based experiments. The individual part-worth utilities will be compared with a usual but very complex approach to approximate individual part-worth utilities, the hierarchical Bayes method. Our ap-proach addresses methodological considerations concerning the restrictions of discrete choice modeling, namely the complexity of approximating individual utilities which is of huge importance in particular for market segmentation

Online food shopping under COVID-19 – a technology acceptance model to evaluate consumption motives and barriers

Since the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) a global pandemic, online food retailing has experienced tremendous growth. Initial forecasts expected global year-over-year growth rates of approximately 33% in 2020. The aim of this research is (1) to identify the relevant consumption motives and consumption barriers of Austrian online grocery trade using the technology acceptance model and (2) to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the driving factors. The results of the empirical analysis showed that perceived usefulness has the greatest influence on acceptance behavior in online grocery retailing. Perceived ease of use of online stores also contributes to acceptance behavior. The higher the perceived shopping pleasure and visibility of grocery online retailers, the higher the perceived benefits and ease of use. Regarding barriers, the lack of possibility for consumers to sensory check the quality of food before purchase turned out to be a weak-significant barrier that reduces the perceived usefulness. In contrast to other studies, the time facets of delivery and ordering were significantly found to not be a barrier in this research. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more people have been shown to purchase groceries online. Although a large portion of the sample believes that grocery shopping online is a way to reduce or protect against the risk of infection, neither health aspects nor the situational factor used significantly affect acceptance in this research. In contrast, aspects of COVID-19 have a moderating effect on the purchase intention and purchase behavior. People who perceive grocery online retailing as helpful in protecting themselves from COVID-19 infection perceive a significantly higher benefit and hav

The communication of CSR activities via social media A qualitative approach to identify opportunities and challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises in the agri-food sector

Within this paper we analyze a state-of-the-art type of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, communication via social media. This type of communication with stakeholders is of growing importance. Opportunities and challenges of communication through social media channels are identified with special emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agri-food sector. 8 expert interviews were conducted on the basis of a broad literature review. The results of the qualitative interviews are analyzed by means of a comprehensive computer aided qualitative content analysis. The study enables the reader to get insights into the current situation regarding the implementation of CSR communication through social media channels in SMEs. Opportunities and threats of the application of social media are identified. The results are compared with relevant findings from literature

Evaluation of the Economic Impacts of the European Rural Development Program in Austria

The results of an ongoing evaluation process of EU subsidies of the European Rural Development Programme 2014-20 are presented (2nd intermediary report). By means of personal interviews of subsidised companies in the Austrian food and beverage sector, the impact of subsidies on profitability, competitiveness, and related variables are approximated. Data sources are, amongst others, conventional business data collected by personal face-to-face interviews, as well as financial statements of companies. The results show that subsidies in general have positive effects. In addition, two third of the sample would change their investments significantly or even refrain from investing at all without public support