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Product demonstrations are powerful promotional tools which can vary in how they present information, either illustrating step-by-step processes, or showcasing final outcomes customers may achieve after product usage. Our research investigates customers' cognitive and social experiences while viewing product demonstrations to reveal which type is most effective in driving purchase intentions. Drawing on theories of mental simulation, cognitive flow, and narrative transportation, we propose that when a customer views a demonstration with a process (versus outcome) focus, this encourages a cognitive flow state which facilitates customers' absorption into the product story, and results in increased purchase intentions for the demonstrated product(s). Effects are attenuated when the customer experiences the social presence of other audience members. We find support for our proposed process across five studies using multiple product categories and presentation modalities and offer practical guidance to help marketers optimize product demonstrations to motivate purchasing in a constantly evolving, increasingly digital marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social problems have been a part of the society since ages and efforts to address them have been on practice along with. The evolution of knowledge society and the technology have enabled better ways of addressing such problems. In this context, the present study " Design Thinking for Social Innovation" was undertaken by Freshman students of undergraduate engineering students to identify a relevant social challenge and address it with the aid of design thinking process. Inadequate awareness and education about hygienic menstrual practices is one such major but less discussed social problem among the various gender-specific issues. Despite the modern days advancement with digital tools and social media, social taboos, misbeliefs and unwarranted phobias pertaining to the phenomenon are widely prevalent in several sections of the society. The different phases of design thinking: Empathy, Define, Ideate and Prototype were employed for understanding the insights and different dimensions of the challenge. The different stakeholders of the challenge, possible ideas and solutions were generated through the process. Finally an organized solution in the form of designing an informative website and tool-kit containing the key menstrual products and their demonstration was implemented as part of solution. The stakeholders were educated about menstruation, hygienic menstrual practices and their myths were busted as part of the exercise. The student team gained an immersive experience of identifying and addressing a social challenge using design thinking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the bioinspired total synthesis of secologanin-related natural products, which are important in drug discovery. Secologanin is a key intermediate in the biosynthesis of over 3000 monoterpenoid indole alkaloids and hetero-oligomeric iridoid glycosides. The authors present the development of practical synthetic protocols for the synthesis of secologanin and its derivatives, as well as the total syntheses of various natural products derived from secologanin. They hope that these syntheses will contribute to the efficient preparation of a library of natural products for drug discovery. The authors successfully synthesized a range of complex natural products, including glycosylated monoterpenoid indole alkaloids, pentacyclic alkaloids, and hetero-oligomeric iridoid glycosides, using bioinspired transformations. They also highlight the potential reactivity of secologanin and its role in the construction of diverse natural product libraries. [Extracted from the article]

In the emerging era of the Metaverse in which virtual reality (VR) is used for various purposes such as product demonstration, marketing, and online commerce, it becomes essential to reproduce colors accurately not only for gaming but also for brand recognition and product representation. In this regard, this study investigated the optimal color space to minimize the difference between the intended colors for the VR device and the colors selected on the designers' monitor during the development process. To this end, this study conducted measurements and provided technical demonstrations to highlight the color differences between three different color spaces of sRGB, AdobeRGB, and DCI-P3. Through this approach, we discovered that designing the VR content using the DCI-P3 color gamut yields the most ideal results currently available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart home manufacturers widely produce Wireless Lamp Socket and Power Plug devices, which offer various features ranging from basic on/off control to more complex functionalities such as monitoring energy consumption, power losses, and harmonics. However, these devices tend to be expensive, as indicated by market surveys. To address this issue, the current study aimed to develop low-cost wireless control nodes for smart homes that operate using relays. The two nodes consisted of lamp socket and power plug built with lowcost electronic components, including a Wi-Fi built-in Microcontroller ESP8266 (Wemos D1 mini model) as the backbone to create ESP-Mesh wireless network and to provide control ports for high/low logic, a relay module, an AC-to-DC converter module, and terminals (E27 screw for lamp socket node and C-type plug for the power plug node). This paper primarily focuses on the hardware aspects. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the nodes, the following tests are conducted: (1) product demonstration to assess the product functions, (2) power measurement in idle and active conditions, (3) ESP-Mesh connection testing, and (4) RSSI measurement. Functional testing is done using a smartphone with the UPISmartHome version 2.0 Android application, which successfully controlled the nodes wirelessly. In idle conditions, power plug and lamp socket nodes consume 426.36 mWatt and 418.275 mWatt of power, respectively. Further, in active conditions, power plug and lamp socket nodes consume 435.704 mWatt and 440.583 mWatt of power, respectively. RSSI testing results show that both nodes can be controlled within an optimal range of 60 meters (with reference to RSSI below -85 dBm) without the Internet, utilizing the ESP-Mesh feature of ESP8266. This range is deemed reasonable for smart homes of 21, 36, or 45 square meters. Both nodes could be controlled under the ESP-Mesh network that gets build. We also present the comparison with other products of competitors in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestreaming commerce has become a shopping option following the outbreak of COVID-19, and many sellers have adopted livestreaming marketing to increase their sales and market share. Although livestreaming marketing offers many opportunities, sellers face the challenge of identifying an effective product demonstration format to attract more viewers and increase engagement behaviors during livestreaming sessions. Based on social capital and signaling theories, this study evaluates the relationships among social capital acquisition, social endorsement, and consumer engagement constructs across three different livestreaming marketing product demonstration formats. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) multivariate analysis shows that social capital acquisition and endorsement positively affect consumer engagement across all livestreaming formats. A cross-case assessment based on Henseler's bootstrap-based multigroup analysis reveals that although the preference for the interview livestreaming marketing format is lower, it is more efficient in attracting consumer engagement than the tutorial and behind-the-scenes livestreaming marketing formats. This study is thus the first in the scientific literature to examine consumer engagement's antecedents across different livestreaming marketing formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sheet metal channels with variable sections or local features have been widely used in automobile and construction industries, and novel forming techniques, such as flexible roll forming process, flexibly reconfigurable roll forming process, Deakin's flexible forming facility, and chain-die forming recently have been developed to manufacture those channels. In this paper, the feasibility of chain-die forming technique to manufacture channels with variable sections is systematically investigated through experiment and finite element simulation by taking 6 types of channel products as demonstration, including three variable-width and three variable-depth profiles. The forming process of the channels shows a combination of roll forming and stamping, and this roll-stamp mode has great potential in manufacturing a wide variety of channels with variable cross-sections. The formability for roll-stamp forming variable-depth channels is evaluated through finite element simulation and forming limit diagram. The roll-stamp mode can be discomposed into roll forming longitudinally and stamping vertically, and can achieve a reduction in forming load by the maximum of 33.9% compared with the conventional stamping in forming the flange step product. The forming direction sensitivity of the variable-width feature is discussed from the aspect of web arch height development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how livestream fashion shopping is associated with brick-and-mortar shopping, focusing on product uncertainty, and examines livestreaming's role in reducing product uncertainty and promoting consumers' purchase intention by adopting the Uncertainty reduction theory (URT). The study identifies the three product information sources (i.e., product demonstration, interaction with the seller, and other viewers' reviews) that consumers use in livestream shopping via uncertainty-reducing strategies. PLS results (n = 292) indicate that consumers who rely on salespeople's assistance as a product information source in brick-and-mortar shopping showed a positive perception of the two product information sources—interaction with the seller and other viewers' reviews—in livestream shopping. The seller's product demonstration played a significant role in reducing product uncertainty and subsequently affected purchase intention, while the other two information sources (i.e., interaction with the seller and other viewers' reviews) affected the purchase intention directly. The findings extend the URT to improve our understanding of consumer information attainment in the livestream shopping context and exemplify a promising future for livestream fashion shopping by investigating its features that can potentially substitute for the brick-and-mortar shopping experience. Future studies can include motivational factors (i.e., service and/or technical barriers) in the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the demonstration of a regional high-resolution level-3 (L3) altimeter data unification and altimeter combination system (DUACS) developed with support from the French space agency (CNES). Deduced from full-rate (20 Hz to 40 Hz) level-2 (L2) altimeter measurements, this product provides sea level anomalies (SLA) and other essential physical variables at a spatial resolution of one sample every ~1 km over the North Atlantic Ocean. This allows us to resolve wavelengths from ~35 km to ~55 km depending on the altimeter considered. This was made possible by recent advances in radar altimeter processing for both synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and low-resolution-mode (LRM) measurements, as well as improvements made to different stages of the DUACS processing chain. Firstly, the new adaptive and low-resolution with range migration correction (LR-RMC) processing techniques were considered for Jason and Sentinel-3 (S3A), respectively. They significantly reduce errors at short wavelengths, and the adaptive processing also reduces possible land contamination near the coast. Next, up-to-date geophysical and environmental corrections were selected for this production. This includes specific corrections intended to reduce the measurement noise on LRM measurements and thus enhance the observability at short wavelengths. Compared with the 1 Hz product, the observable wavelengths reached with the demonstration high-resolution product are reduced by up to one third, or up to half in the northeast Atlantic region. The residual noises were optimally filtered from full-rate measurements, taking into consideration the different observing capabilities of the altimeters processed. A specific data recovery strategy was applied, significantly optimizing the data availability, both in the coastal and open ocean areas. This demonstration L3 product is thus better resolved than the conventional 1 Hz product, especially near the coast, where it is defined up to ~5 km against ~10 km for the 1 Hz version. Multi-mission cross-calibration processing was also optimized with an improved long-wavelength error (LWE) correction, leading to a better consistency between tracks, with a 9–15% reduction in SLA variance at cross-overs. The new L3 product improves the overall consistency with tide gauge measurements, with a reduction in SLA differences variance by 5 and 17% compared with the 1 Hz product from the S3A and Jason-3 (J3) measurements, respectively. Primarily intended for regional applications, this product can significantly contribute to improving high-resolution numerical model output via data assimilation. It also opens new perspectives for a better understanding of regional sea-surface dynamics, with an improved representation of the coastal currents and a refined spectral content revealing the unbalanced signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science-based, meat science education is often limited outside of universities, creating possibilities to develop Extension activities to educate and impower consumers in principles of meat science. The Indiana BBQ Bootcamp was developed to provide consumers information on meat selection, proper cooking techniques, food safety, and meat seasoning (spice rubs and marinades) through demonstrations and product sampling. Attendees were surveyed before and after the program to report their confidence in their ability to perform basic meat science techniques. Responses to all survey questions showed significant increase in the attendees' confidence demonstrating improvement in their meat science knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer some reflection on the importance of reliable green claims to encourage sustainable production. The role of market is fundamental. Businesses and consumers are both involved in achieving environmental protection objectives. There is the real risk of the phenomenon of so-called green washing or misleading marketing. The problem arises of verifying the reliability of green claims to prevent competitive elements from become distorting factors of competition. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the analysis of a European programme, the author shows how in Italy there is a dangerous lack of consumer protection. For this reason the European and national authorities have provided that green claims must be true, reliable, verifiable and comparable, but it is necessary that consumers be protected, through a certification system that makes it possible to certify the veracity of green claims. The problem is that a number of certification systems have been adopted in Europe which undermine the competitiveness of the market for green products. Findings: This work aims to identify the tools necessary to make green indications more reliable, but above all to create a common methodology on which to base them. In this direction, companies wishing to advertise the ecological characteristics of their products should be required to provide the supporting demonstrations on the basis of a standard methodology assessing their actual environmental impact. Originality/value: This work will examine the problem of green washing and the importance of reliable green claims for environmental protection. To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the original work of the author and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmented Reality techniques allow the user to visualize part of the real world through a display device by incorporating graphical information into the existing physical information. In this sense, it is important to know how the physical presence of the user in the augmented reality experience can affect the perception and evaluation of the product. To this end, this work presents a theoretical framework that explains how users perceive and evaluate the benefits and quality of augmentation with augmented reality through their physical presence, compared to visualizing the same experience through a video. The application was developed for the exhibition and sale of ceramic molds. Users viewed graphical information about the mold, placed between them and the screen while seeing themselves in the television as if it was a mirror. The experiments showed that the integration of the product into the environment and the spatial presence of the users had a positive effect on the perceived value in terms of usefulness and enjoyment, improved comfort in the purchase decision, and reinforced the overall opinion of the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellites have provided decades of valuable cloud observations, but the data from conventional passive radiometers are biased toward information from at or near cloud top. Tied with the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Cloud Calibration/Validation research, we developed a statistical Cloud Base Height (CBH) algorithm using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) A-Train satellite data. This retrieval, which is currently part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Enterprise Cloud Algorithms, provides key information needed to display clouds in a manner that goes beyond the typical top-down plan view. The goal of this study is to provide users with high-quality three-dimensional (3D) cloud structure information which can maximize the benefits and performance of JPSS cloud products. In support of the JPSS Proving Ground Aviation Initiative, we introduced Cloud Vertical Cross-sections (CVCs) along flight routes over Alaska where satellite data are extremely helpful in filling significant observational gaps. Valuable feedback and insights from interactions with aviation users allowed us to explore a new approach to provide satellite-based 3D cloud data. The CVC is obtained from multiple cloud retrieval products with supplementary data such as temperatures, Pilot Reports (PIREPs), and terrain information. We continue to improve the product demonstrations based on user feedback, extending the domain to the contiguous United States with the addition of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). Concurrently, we have refined the underlying science algorithms for improved nighttime and multilayered cloud retrievals by utilizing Day/Night Band (DNB) data and exploring machine learning approaches. The products are evaluated using multiple satellite data sources and surface measurements. This paper presents our accomplishments and continuing efforts in both scientific and user-engagement improvements since the beginning of the VIIRS era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monolithic integrated photovoltaic‐driven electrochemical (PV‐EC) artificial photosynthesis is reported for unassisted CO2 reduction. The PV‐EC structures employ triple junction photoelectrodes with a front mounted semitransparent catalyst layer as a photocathode. The catalyst layer is comprised of an array of microscale triangular metallic prisms that redirect incoming light toward open areas of the photoelectrode to reduce shadow losses. Full wave electromagnetic simulations of the prism array (PA) structure guide optimization of geometries and length scales. An integrated device is constructed with Ag catalyst prisms covering 35% of the surface area. The experimental device has close to 80% of the transmittance with a catalytic surface area equivalent 144% of the glass substrate area. Experimentally this photocathode demonstrates a direct solar‐to‐CO conversion efficiency of 5.9% with 50 h stability. Selective electrodeposition of Cu catalysts onto the surface of the Ag triangular prisms allows CO2 conversion to higher value products enabling demonstration of a solar‐to‐C2+ product efficiency of 3.1%. This design featuring structures that have a semitransparent catalyst layer on a PV‐EC cell is a general solution to light loss by shadowing for front surface mounted metal catalysts, and opens a route for the development of artificial photosynthesis based on this scalable design approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document titled "Introduction to EPPO Standards on Efficacy evaluation of plant protection products" provides an overview of the EPPO Standards for the Efficacy Evaluation of Plant Protection Products. These standards are intended to be used by National Plant Protection Organizations and agrochemical companies for the registration of plant protection products. The standards describe the conduct of field and glasshouse trials to assess the efficacy of these products against specific pests. They provide guidelines on experimental conditions, application of treatments, mode of assessment, recording and measurements, and reporting of results. The EPPO Standards are reviewed and amended periodically to incorporate scientific advancements. [Extracted from the article]

We analyze information design games between two designers with opposite preferences and a single agent. Before the agent makes a decision, designers repeatedly disclose public information about persistent state parameters. Disclosure continues until no designer wishes to reveal further information. We consider environments with general constraints on feasible information disclosure policies. Our main results characterize equilibrium payoffs and strategies of this long information design game and compare them with the equilibrium outcomes of games where designers move only at a single predetermined period. When information disclosure policies are unconstrained, we show that at equilibrium in the long game, information is revealed right away in a single period; otherwise, the number of periods in which information is disclosed might be unbounded. As an application, we study a competition in product demonstration and show that more information is revealed if each designer could disclose information at a predetermined period. The format that provides the buyer with most information is the sequential game where the last mover is the ex ante favorite seller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The given document is an index of authors and their respective session pages for a publication on display technology. It includes a list of names and page numbers, allowing readers to easily locate specific authors and their work within the publication. The index features authors with diverse names, reflecting a range of cultural perspectives. This resource can be valuable for library patrons conducting research on display technology topics. [Extracted from the article]

An accurate assessment of the stocking rate is crucial for maintaining the stable function and the sustainable use of the alpine grassland ecosystem. A new scenario design method to evaluate the reasonable stocking rate is presented in the current work. First, climate change is quantified by potential net primary productivity ( NPP p ) and measured by adopting the Zhou Guangsheng model, and the NPP generated by anthropogenic activities ( NPP h ) is estimated by the distinction between NPP p and actual NPP ( NPP a ) calculated with the application of the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) model. Second, using the NPP h and actual grassland productivity consumed by livestock ( NPP ac ), the reasonable stocking rate is obtained. Finally, the driving factors of NPP change in alpine grassland and the reasonable stocking rate are clarified in Qinghai Province during 2005–2018. The results reveal that the temperature of alpine grassland in Qinghai Province has a slight upward trend from 2005 to 2018, and precipitation displays a downward trend. The overall NPP p of alpine grassland demonstrated a downward trend, and precipitation is regarded as the major influencing factor. In addition, the overall NPP h of alpine grassland exhibited a downward trend. The NPP a demonstrated an overall upward trend, where 58.32% of the regional NPP a is in a state of growth, and 41.68% of the regional NPP a is in a state of degradation. According to contribution analysis, anthropogenic activities provided the primary driving factor to promote the restoration of alpine grassland in Qinghai Province. Moreover, the stocking rate must be reduced in 60.77% of the alpine grasslands in Qinghai Province, mostly situated in the eastern and southwestern parts of Qinghai Province, and the other areas must not increase future stocking rates. The current study can theoretically and technically support the construction of Qinghai as the green organic agricultural and livestock product demonstration province and the creation of an ecological civilization highland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probability distributions are key components of many learning from demonstration (LfD) approaches, with the spaces chosen to represent tasks playing a central role. Although the robot configuration is defined by its joint angles, end-effector poses are often best explained within several task spaces. In many approaches, distributions within relevant task spaces are learned independently and only combined at the control level. This simplification implies several problems that are addressed in this work. We show that the fusion of models in different task spaces can be expressed as products of experts (PoE), where the probabilities of the models are multiplied and renormalized so that it becomes a proper distribution of joint angles. Multiple experiments are presented to show that learning the different models jointly in the PoE framework significantly improves the quality of the final model. The proposed approach particularly stands out when the robot has to learn hierarchical objectives that arise when a task requires the prioritization of several sub-tasks (e.g. in a humanoid robot, keeping balance has a higher priority than reaching for an object). Since training the model jointly usually relies on contrastive divergence, which requires costly approximations that can affect performance, we propose an alternative strategy using variational inference and mixture model approximations. In particular, we show that the proposed approach can be extended to PoE with a nullspace structure (PoENS), where the model is able to recover secondary tasks that are masked by the resolution of tasks of higher-importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Social media influencers have emerged as a promising factor in influencing a consumer's purchasing behaviour. As a result, to benefit from influencer marketing, it is required to investigate the field. This study focuses solely on the impact of a social influencer's product review video on a customer's purchasing decision. Objectives: The primary objective of the study is to determine the relationship between product review video and customer buying behaviour after watching the review. The secondary objectives are to find what factors they consider while taking buying decision from the video review. Methods:Convenience sampling technique is adopted for the study because the population is diversified, the questionnaire was framed with mixed type of questions. The data collected by questionnaire are examined for results by using SPSS software. Results:The primary objective of the study is proved from the correlation table that video review given by Social influencer with clear demonstration of a product influences the consumer while making a purchase decision. The secondary objectives are understandable from the frequency table the factors which the consumer expects from a product review video are demonstration, handling, components, and appearance of a product respectively. Conclusions: The digital reliability is increasingly found in the present years; moreover, the upcoming generation is much familiar to the digital marketing. The reach of digital marketing is remarkable that nowadays we always check for online price and advertisement of the related product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the effect that leaving space between products has on consumers' estimation of product size. We theorize and empirically confirm that when space is left between products (i.e., the display is interspaced), consumers are better able to distinguish the product from the environment, which results in more attention being devoted to the product, and, in turn, larger estimation of the product's size. Furthermore, we demonstrate downstream outcomes (i.e., consumer choices, purchase intentions) of the effect of interspatial product display on product size estimates; that is consumers react more favorably to products that are displayed in an interspatial product display when their product usage goals require large-sized products. Meanwhile, non-interspatial product displays are preferred when consumers holding a consumption goal geared to a small product size. Finally, we validate and solidify these novel interspace effects in both advertising and retailing contexts via a series of six studies including five different product types (e.g., shampoo, food, water bottle). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade shows are a popular venue for firms to demonstrate their portfolio of market-ready new products as well as product concepts under different stages of development. Utilizing auto shows as a context, the authors investigate the effects of concept and product demonstrations on the demonstrating firm's value. Event study results show that abnormal returns follow an inverted U-shaped effect of product development stages: that is, previously demonstrated concepts approaching potential launch have the strongest positive effect, followed by early-stage concepts demonstrated for the first time to the world (i.e., debuts), and then market-ready new products. Trade show locations mediate these effects. The effects of early-stage debut demonstrations appear only when concepts are presented in trade shows located in the home country of the demonstrating firm. However, the effects of displaying previously demonstrated concepts, which have survived product development hurdles, are present in venues within as well as outside the firm's home country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the effects of three different online product presentation formats, namely, a noninteractive video presentation and two virtual product experience (VPE) presentations (full interaction and restricted interaction), on engaging users in online product experience as well as enticing users to try products offline. The experimental results show that restricted interaction, which deprives users of part of the interactive product experience, is more enticing than both the noninteractive and fully interactive design for users with more product-class knowledge. In addition, restricted interaction is generally as good as full interaction in engaging users. Both engagement and enticement positively affect users’ purchase intentions. This study contributes to the information systems literature by extending the theory in curiosity formation to the interaction design context and advocating designs for enticement. It contributes to design practice by revealing that less interactive and less costly presentations can be more effective in attracting consumers toward the products. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a direct marketing technique, direct selling is used by both big global corporation and small and medium enterprises to reach their respective customers without the cost of intermediary services of wholesale and retail chains. Before the emergence of the internet, direct selling mostly relied on catalogue sales and interpersonal interaction between sales representatives and prospects in-person or over the telephone. Many companies applied this technique to market different types of goods and services, such as cookware, nutritionals, cosmetics and insurance. Some direct selling companies also offered individuals and small-scale entrepreneurs an opportunity to became part of their sales force network comprising of numerous locally focused sales representatives or sales consultants. Based on face-to-face discussions and product demonstrations, these sales representatives establish strong relationships with prospects and loyal customers. With the emergence of the internet, direct post and print catalogues became obsolete and replaced by direct emails and webshops. Furthermore, communication with prospects and regular customers reached another level with the usage of various social media platforms, which resulted with the birth of the social selling concept. While being explorative in its nature, this paper aims to shed some light on the Avon's direct selling business model in the context of the Croatian market. As one of the pioneers of direct selling in the US, Avon became a global player thanks to its welldeveloped sales force network. Avon entered the Croatian market in 1997 and managed to develop a network of around 15.000 sales representatives in the following years. Like in the rest of the world, the Avon's business model in Croatia is mainly based on door-to-door sales supported with multiple iterations of product catalogues. With the recruitment of millennials, Avon also put some focus on social selling but lacks to fully utilise the potential of various social media platforms. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic had a catalytic impact on further digitalization of Avon's direct selling business model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a qualitative study of Agile Stage‐Gate Management (ASGM),: a hybrid new product development methodology that combines Agile and Stage‐Gate Management (SGM) approaches for the coordination of new product development. When applied to software projects, Agile is expected to deliver reduced development times, improved resource utilization, and greater financial success. We examine whether ASGM practitioners realize similar outcomes in a sample of global firms developing complex electro‐mechanical products (e.g., automobile components, railway propulsion systems, and medical devices). Our grounded theory approach articulates an understanding of ASGM through extensive interviews of experienced professionals. Our thematic analysis supports many expected benefits (i.e., speed to market, innovation enabling), but also does not encourage others, and reveals new pitfalls that deserve recognition (i.e., resource inefficiency). ASGM is not a panacea for all product development. Overall, physical product firms adopting this method can expect reduced development times and higher levels of innovation but will expend more resources to complete development projects, but a dichotomy exists. Physical product developers using ASGM experience a negative impact on project resource efficiency due to the need for dedicated resources, frequent product demonstrations, and duplicative management structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]