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To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2010.00733.x Byline: Namwoon Kim (1), Kwaku Atuahene-Gima (2) Abstract: While the need for research on the market-learning efforts of a firm in relation to its new product development is continuously emphasized, the empirical results on this issue reported so far have been mixed. The current study contends that the inconclusive nature of the empirical evidence is mostly due to the existence of different dimensions of organizational market learning-exploratory and exploitative-and to possible different routes by which these learning dimensions are linked to new product performance. More specifically, this study argues that exploratory market learning contributes to the differentiation of the new product because it involves the firm's learning about uncertain and new opportunities through the acquisition of knowledge distant from existing organizational skills and experiences. By contrast, this study posits that exploitative market learning enhances cost efficiency in developing new products as it aims to best use the currently available market information that is closely related to existing organizational experience. This study provides empirical support for this two-dimensional scheme of organizational market learning and its consequent effects on two components of new product advantage: new product differentiation and cost efficiency. Further, given that the effectiveness of firms' strategic efforts is contingent upon the nature of the market environment, the current study examines the moderating effects of environmental dynamism and market competitiveness for this market learning-new product advantage relationship. This study is based on survey data from 157 manufacturing firms in China that encompass various industries. The empirical findings support the two-dimensional market learning efforts that increase new product differentiation and cost efficiency, respectively. The study confirms that exploratory market learning becomes more effective under a turbulent market environment and that exploitative market learning is more contributive when competitive intensity is high. It also suggests that because of their differential direct and moderating effects on new product advantage either exploratory or exploitative market learning may not be used exclusively, but the two should be implemented in parallel. Such learning implementations will help to secure both the feature and cost-based new product advantage components and will consequently lead to the new product success. The current study attempts to contribute to greater clarity and better understanding of how market learning influences new product success as it theoretically identifies and empirically validates the two forms of new product advantage as the conceptual mediator between market learning and new product performance. Author Affiliation: (1)Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2)China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) Article note: Address correspondence to: Namwoon Kim, Department of Management and Marketing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel.: (852) 2766-7141. Fax: (852) 2765-0611. E-mail: msnam@polyu.edu.hk.

The crucial role of market research and cross functional alliances in successful product development process is discussed.

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2006.00206.x Byline: Kwaku Atuahene-Gima (1), Haiyang Li (2) Abstract: How should sales managers enhance the support and commitment of young, inexperienced salespeople during a new product selling? Some scholars have suggested sales managers should use formal controls (i.e., output and process controls) to develop the salespeople's trust in their benevolence. Drawing on a sample of young, inexperienced salespeople with rather low education selling new products in China's competitive, volatile, and transitional economic environment, the present study investigates the relationship between output and process controls and supervisee trust (i.e., the salesperson's trust in the sales manager). The empirical results of the study suggest that process and output controls have differential effects on supervisee trust. Specifically, the results indicate that process control enhances supervisee trust by itself and also under conditions of intense training for new product selling and when market volatility is perceived as high. However, process control hinders supervisee trust when the manager is long-term oriented and engages in participative supervision. It was found that output control engenders supervisee trust when the manager is long-term oriented but hinders supervisee trust when salespeople have undergone intensive training for new product selling. Implications of these results are provided for both researchers and practitioners involved in launching and selling new products. Author Affiliation: (1)University of Wollongong, Australia (2)Rice University in Houston, Texas Article note: Address correspondence to: Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, China Europe International Business School, 699 Hongfeng Road, Pudon, Shanghai 201206, People's Republic of China. Tel.: 86-21-28905641. Fax: 86-21-28905650. E-mail: kwaku@ceibs.edu.

Research on proactive and responsive market orientation indicates that new product program performance is improved when one of the two orientations is high and the other is low. More complex interactions and effects are delineated and discussed.

A conceptual model analyzes factors affecting salespeople adoption of a new product and the associated behavior exhibited during the selling process. Two problem-solving styles of employees, namely systematic and intuitive, are examined relative to speed in the new product process. It was revealed that a salesperson's receptiveness to a new product is affected by his learning style, performance orientation and problem-solving style. It was also shown that an intuitive problem solver is more receptive to new products.

A comparison between the success factors for new products and services in Australia is presented. Manufacturers and service companies are discovered to have different perceptions and priorities of innovation activities. A company's attention towards human resource strategy and administrative support and teamwork is found to be the most significant factor that affects new service performance.

Many businesses emphasize the importance of market orientation in their mission statements, policies and procedures. However, there is little evidence to support the assumption that new product performance is significantly influenced by market orientation. A study exploring the relationship between market orientation and new product development activities and performance among 275 Australian companies is presented.

Prior research indicates that purchasing is the least important function in the new product development (NPD) process. With a sample of Australiam firms active in product development, this study examines the effect of selected personal, organizational, and purchasing factors on the involvement of organizational buyers in the NPD process. The results show that perceived importance of the purchasing function, perceived confidence in the capabilities of buying personnel, effectiveness of supplier interaction, buying personnel mobility within the firm, risk-taking propensity, and interactions with other departments are significant positive correlates of organizational buyers' involvement in the NPD process. Top management cost sensitivity and perception of NPD as an exclusive marketing and engineering activity are significant barriers to their participation in the process. Managerial implications of the findings are presented. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

More industrial firms are acquiring licenses to technology developed by other firms as an alternative to investing in their own research and development programs. The benefits of this practice are listed, with the lower cost of market introduction as being the primary benefit, followed by access to future technology. The risks and costs of technology licensing involve licensor-dependent decision making and market entry costs.

The propensity of Australian engineering firms to adopt inward technology licensing (ITL) as a new product development method is examined. ITL refers to an agreement between a firm which intends to acquire rights to a technology from another company in consideration of compensation. It is shown that adoption of ITL is dependent on previous ITL experience, perceptions regarding ITL costs and benefits, awareness of ITL opportunities and internal research and development capabilities.

Managerial perceptions of costs and benefits make a greater impact than organizational factors, such as research and development capabilities, on a firm's inclination to obtain new technology via licensing from foreign non-affiliated companies, according to a survey of Australian firms. Both sets of factors contributed to the firms' propensity to license-in foreign technology, and international licensors evaluating potential licensees should screen both managerial and organizational factors.

Decisions to adopt inward technology licensing (ITL) are influenced by pressure on an organization to develop new products in spite of limited resources. ITL involves the purchase of the right to use from a patentholder which in turn receives royalty from the sale of products which used the patented technology. A conceptual framework is used as a guide for management and policymakers in deciding to use either ITL or internal research and development in developing new products.

N0 ONE LIKES TO BE CALLED A THIEF or a cheat. Indeed, the easiest way to break the spirit and confidence of someone in any competitive activity such as sport, [...]

Prof. Kwaku Atuahene-Gima * says for corporate Africa to make headway in the innovation race, it should follow the example of the Asian Tigers and ditch the accepted 'common sense' [...]