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Can instances of empirical success/failure yield an established sequence of ordered procedures (Protocol): management of technology protocol (MOTEP) to improve the probability of corporate/country survival/success?Design/methodology/approach – The long established technology of Japanese Mitsubishi engines used by Proton, Malaysia’s national car‐maker, since September 1985, is due to be supplanted at the beginning of February, 2004 by the emerging technology of the all‐Malaysian Gen2 engine. Can Chacko’s MOTEP suggest how Proton should pro‐actively target Gen2 sales?Findings – MOTEP determined first year sales of Gen2 cars formally using the form of the sales curve of the established technology. It was projected substantively based on the system performance characteristics (SPC) which attracted customers to Gen2. The theory of concomitant coalitions (CONCOL) shows us how Proton can cooperate with their competitor, Perodua, on R&D for system performance characteristics‐improving technology while competing with Perodua in the market. How much R&D is justified? How should it be allocated? How can Proton and Perodua both enjoy R&D breakthroughs in the immediate instead of in the distant future?Originality/value – The paper selects from among the 12 MOTEP steps those which develop for Proton a systematic approach to anticipate, acquire and adopt high technology on a sustained basis to increase the probability of corporate/country survival/success, and illustrates it with respect to pro‐actively promoting the sales of emerging technology‐based Gen2 car sales.

Briefly reviews previous literature by the author before presenting an original 12 step system integration protocol designed to ensure the success of companies or countries in their efforts to develop and market new products. Looks at the issues from different strategic levels such as corporate, international, military and economic. Presents 31 case studies, including the success of Japan in microchips to the failure of Xerox to sell its invention of the Alto personal computer 3 years before Apple: from the success in DNA and Superconductor research to the success of Sunbeam in inventing and marketing food processors: and from the daring invention and production of atomic energy for survival to the successes of sewing machine inventor Howe in co‐operating on patents to compete in markets. Includes 306 questions and answers in order to qualify concepts introduced.

Remanufacturing is the only end-of-life (EOL) treatment process that results in as-new functional and aesthetic quality and warranty. However, applying mental model theory, the purpose of this paper is to argue that the conception of remanufacturing as an EOL process activates an operational mental model (OMM) that connects to resource reuse, environmental concern and cost savings and is thus opposed to a strategic mental model (SMM) that associates remanufacturing with quality improvements and potential price increases.

The authors support the argument by empirically assessing consumers’ multi-attribute decision process for cars with remanufactured or new engines among 202 car buyers in China. The authors conduct a conjoint analysis and use the results as input to simulate market shares for various markets on which these cars compete.

The results suggest that consumers on average attribute reduced utility to remanufactured engines, thus in line with the OMM. However, the authors identify a segment accounting for about 30 per cent of the market with preference for remanufactured engines. The fact that this segment has reduced environmental concern supports the SMM idea that remanufactured products can be bought for their quality.

A single-country (China) single-brand (Volkswagen) study is used to support the conceptualised mental models. While this strengthens the internal validity of the results, future research could improve the external validity by using more representative sampling in a wider array of empirical contexts. Moreover, future work could test the theory more explicitly.

By selling cars with remanufactured engines to customers with a SMM that values the at least equal performance of remanufactured products, firms can enhance their profit from remanufactured products. In addition, promoting SMM enables sustainable business models for the sharing economy.

As a community, the authors need to more effectively reflect on shaping mental models that disconnect remanufacturing from analogies that convey inferior quality and performance associations. Firms can overcome reduced utility perceptions not only by providing discounts, i.e. sharing the economic benefits of remanufacturing, but even more by increasing the warranty, thus sharing remanufacturing’s performance benefit and reducing consumers’ risk, a mechanism widely acknowledged in product diffusion but neglected in remanufacturing so far.

Electric cars represent the most energy efficient technical option available for passenger cars, compared to conventional combustion engine cars and vehicles based on fuel cells. However, this requires an efficient charging infrastructure and low carbon electricity production as well. Combustion engine cars which were converted to electric cars decreased lifecycle CO₂-equivalent emissions per passenger-km travelled down to one third of before, when powered by green electricity. However, through an analysis of 78 scientific reports published since 2010 for life cycle impacts from 18 aggregated impact categories, this chapter finds that the results are mixed. Taken together, however, the reduced environmental impacts of electric cars appear advantageous over combustion engine cars, with further room for improvement as impacts generated during the production phase are addressed. When it comes to battery components, Cobalt (Co) stands out as critical. Assessing the impact of electric cars on the local air quality, they are not ‘zero emission vehicles’. They emit fine dust due to tyre and brake abrasion and to dust resuspension from the street. These remaining emissions could be easily removed by adding an active filtration system to the undercarriage of electric vehicles. If electric cars are operated with electricity from fossil power plants nearby, the emissions of these plants need to be modelled with respect to possibly worsening the local air quality.

To provide in‐depth insights into one specific product recovery operation (remanufacturing) in the automotive sector, taking the example of original equipment manufacturers (OEM).

The research was undertaken within the engine remanufacturing facilities of a major European car manufacturer. The main data collection methods were open‐ended, non‐directive interviews and process observation. In addition, secondary data (internal company reports and documentation) were collected. Overall, a total of 64 interviews were conducted within the engine remanufacturing plant.

The case study revealed that the remanufacturing processes included challenges that have been traditionally investigated within “conventional” operations and supply chain management, such as high inventory levels or process through‐put times. It was also found that product take‐back and recovery in the automotive sector do not necessarily stem from a company's mission statement that includes (sustainable) responsibility, but are based on other motives. These motivations include the long‐term supply of spare parts, for example.

The findings are limited to one specific European car manufacturer and may therefore not necessarily apply to the independent automotive remanufacturing sector or to other OEM remanufacturers.

The case study gives an in‐depth insight into the issues within automotive product take‐back and recovery, the types of obstacles that may occur as well as how these may be overcome in the real world.

The findings provide new, real‐world insights for academia, but also feedback to industry by providing an in‐depth account of current automotive remanufacturing practices undertaken by the OEM.

THE general shape of the hull is one of lower fineness ratio (5.5) than has been employed in previous rigid airships and it has no parallel portion. It approximates closely to a shape (known as U 721) evolved by the National Physical Laboratory during the war and found to have a remarkably low drag coefficient—little more than 2 per cent. of the resistance of a circular plate of the same diameter as the maximum diameter of the form. The drag coefficient of the bare hull of R 33 (which is typical of the best of the older shapes) in the wind tunnel is 0.0115, that of R 101 is 0.00725 with polygonal cross‐section of 30 sides.

This chapter explains how electric driving has been transforming car mobility in The Netherlands since 1990, highlighting the role of a specific Dutch policy mix as direct factor, and the conditions through which this policy mix came about as indirect factors. The analysis is based on triangulation of findings from three methods: (1) discourse analysis of national newspapers and online blogs to understand the changing meanings of car mobility as well as changing stakeholder competences; (2) interview analysis with Dutch stakeholders to understand policy effects as well as their changing competences; and (3) analysis of relevant documents that provide the numbers of vehicles sold, implemented infrastructures and policy instruments. The study describes market changes in terms of ‘reconfiguring’ (entangled) practices of Dutch motorists, vehicle manufacturers and policy-makers, constituted by the (changing) relations between meanings, materialities, competences and policy incentives. The analysis finds a gradual reconfiguration of car mobility in three stages: The hegemony of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) mobility (1990–2008), Surge in Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) mobility (2009–2015), and Surge in full-electric mobility (2016–2020). The analysis shows that the specific Dutch policy incentives were critical to orchestrating the co-evolution of ICE-based and electric mobility towards low-carbon alternatives, that is, towards more electrification. The policy mix was adapted in three successive steps, in which inconsistencies towards electric mobility (e-mobility) were solved, entailing three distinct reconfiguration pathways in each period. The relatively strong policy incentives for e-mobility in The Netherlands can be explained by the absence of an established car industry as well as particular air quality challenges in cities (triggering local support for the provision of charging infrastructure). The conclusion includes policy recommendations for countries that seek to promote e-mobility, although further research should clarify how contextual differences require specific elements in the policy mix.

The declared aim of this paper is to explore the possible effects of the need for energy conservation (and in particular the need for economy in the use of oil‐based fuels) on road vehicle development in the UK over the next few decades. In the absence of the author, his colleague, R J Francis, also of Harwell, presented this paper at the conference held by the Institute of Management Services in London, September 1980. He stressed the fact that the views here are those of ETSU, and may not necessarily be regarded in any way as “government policy”. ETSU is the Energy Technology Support Unit, which is based at Harwell, and was established in 1974 to formulate and manage research, development and demonstration programmes in the technology of renewable energy sources and conservation under contract to the Department of Energy. There are approximately 45 professional staff at ETSU (mainly scientists and engineers) working in three main areas: strategic planning of research and development, management of R&D on the renewable energy sources, and research, development and demonstration in energy conservation. When introducing this paper, Richard Francis said that it set out to establish the need for conservation in general, as well as to explain how this is to be achieved in practice. This subject, he commented, leads on to the special task of improving fuel economy and achieving wider fuel flexibility within road transport, which itself has wide implications for road vehicle technology. This paper reviews all the more realistic alternatives, and then attempts to identify those which seem most promising and also to quantify the impact they might have in reducing our dependence on oil‐based fuels.