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The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms manage the front end of new product development projects where packaging forms a core part of the product itself. Within the fast-moving consumer goods industry, innovation provides opportunities to create packaging that forms an integrated part of the product offering. The authors refer to these as packaging-integrated-products. This study conceptualises three levels of integration and investigates how they impact upon the management of the front end.

The study consisted of a two-phase design. This involved a preliminary study with key informants, followed by a multiple case study design, which examines product development projects with differing extents of packaging integration.

The results identify nine different new product opportunities. The authors also present 11 propositions that reveal the key characteristics of the front end of packaging-integrated development projects, as well as the project management requirements to capture the opportunities they present.

Initial insights into a number of unique front-end project management characteristics required to deliver different project types form an area for further research to better understand product packaging integration. The propositions presented guide the way forward for future studies.

The findings provide marketers with new understanding of three types of new product opportunities presented by packaging integration and demonstrate what is required to capture the opportunities they present in the front end of product development.

The paper contributes to extant studies of packaging development in the marketing literature, which have previously failed to capture the high levels of integration between packaging and the product. The authors present a new conceptual approach to understanding integration and subsequently uncover how the opportunities it presents can be captured.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of effectuation when used by small suppliers within key account management (KAM) relationships.

An exploratory longitudinal case study approach was used to examine a single small supplier operating in the snack foods sector of the UK foods industry, as it entered into a new KAM relationship with a major retailer and undertook four new product development projects.

Findings suggest effectuation may positively moderate the ability of a small supplier to enter into a KAM relationship by enabling it to obtain resources and limit risk. However, once within the relationship, the use of effectuation may negatively impact success by increasing the potential for failure to co-create new product development, leading to sub-optimal products, impacting buyer confidence and trust. Furthermore, a failed KAM relationship may impact other customers through attempts to recover revenues by selling these products, which may promote short-term success but, in the long-term, lead to cascading sales failure.

It cannot be claimed that the findings of just one case study represent all small suppliers or KAM relationships. Furthermore, the case presented specifically concerns buyer-supplier relationships within the food sector.

This study appears to suggest caution be exercised when applying effectuation to enter into a KAM relationship, as reliance on effectual means to garner required resources may lead to the production of sub-optimal products, which are rejected by the customer. Additionally, a large customer considering entering into a KAM relationship with a small supplier should take care to ensure their chosen partner has all resources needed to successfully deliver as required or be prepared to provide sufficient support to avoid the production of sub-optimal products.

Findings suggest the use of effectuation within a KAM relationship has the potential to develop a dark side within business-to-business buyer-supplier relationships through unintentional breaches of trust by the selling party.

The purpose of this paper is to explore older people’s food consumption experiences. Specifically, the paper seeks to provide understanding on the influence of food intake on consumer vulnerability and how this manifests within people’s lives.

The study adopts an interpretive, exploratory approach, using in-depth interviews with 20 older consumers in the UK. Thematic analysis is conducted, establishing patterns and contradictions with the data.

The findings demonstrate how biological, psychological and social age-related changes can contribute to reduced food intake in later life. The loss of control over one’s consumption experiences as a result of inappropriate portion sizes acts as a source of both immediate and future vulnerability. Resultant food wastage can serve as an immediate reminder of negative associates with ageing, while the accumulative effect of sustained under-consumption contributes to increased frailty. As a result, consumer vulnerability can pervade other contexts of an individual’s life.

The research reveals opportunities for firms to use packaging development to reduce experiences of consumer vulnerability through reduced apportionment of packaged food products. However, this needs to be considered within a multi-demographic marketplace.

This paper contributes to literature by providing a unique lens with which to understand consumer vulnerability. The findings offer a developmental perspective on the experience of consumer vulnerability, revealing the stages of proximate, immediate, intermediate and ultimate vulnerability. This perspective has the potential to offer more detailed, nuanced insights into vulnerability in other contexts beyond food consumption.

Reality television is a dynamic, profit-making platform that occupies prime-time slots on the television almost all over the world. Despite its immense popularity and influence, it has received little attention in the extant literature and almost none in terms of its impact on celebrity repositioning. This study aims at examining the relationship between the film stars as brands and the impact of the platform of reality television in repositioning these celebrities in the Indian context.

Through extensive literature review and qualitative interviews, the paper expounds that reality television provides an opportunity to celebrities to successfully reposition themselves at crucial junctures in their career. The framework to study this repositioning has been adopted from the work of Chris Simms and Paul Trott (2007) who created it to study the brand repositioning of various consumer goods.

The literature establishes celebrities as brands. This study provides evidence that brand repositioning through reality television is possible for these celebrity brands. The symbolic and functional repositioning of these celebrities is presented through thematic content analysis.

The study provides a useful framework to understand celebrity brand repositioning through reality TV. It can also be replicated to understand the repositioning of a wide variety of celebrities other than film-stars such as sportspersons, social media influencers and politicians.

The paper contributes to the need of expanding the corpus of Indian reality television and explains how Indian celebrities reposition themselves through reality television.

The purpose of the study described in this paper was to explore with property and facilities managers to what degree they are able to achieve a good return for their organisations on PFM, and what might facilitate or inhibit that.

Semi‐structured interviews were held with 12 managers with significant experience of property and facilities management (PFM). A variety of industry sectors, and the public sector, were represented in the sample. Within these interviews, the researchers were able to explore the opinions of respondents and the qualitative data gathered provided interesting insight on the research topic.

This research identifies that in practice it is extremely difficult for companies to achieve a wide spectrum of added value from property and facilities. Property management may have a lower profile in organisations than it deserves, with a concentration on cost rather than opportunity. A sense of resignation may be created by long leases, which are still “the norm” in the UK. The literature review and primary research show dissatisfaction with long leases and a strong preference for more flexible arrangements with landlords. Flexibility is inextricably linked to the expectation of better return on property investment. The demand for flexibility is felt most acutely in economic recession, which causes organisations to consolidate space and manage property and facilities at a micro level.

This research was based on a relatively small sample size (12), collected from volunteer respondents in the south of the UK. On the basis of the findings, there is scope for further research on a larger scale, perhaps involving structured samples, quantitative data collection methods, and comparisons of the UK with a country where PFM choice is wider, such as the USA or Australia. Development of an economic model of the impact of flexibility on return on investment might be possible.

This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of how PFM is typically managed in the UK and how property and facilities managers would like to see it improve in the future.

This paper has identified an apparent suppressed demand for more flexibility in the property market in the UK. This could be of use to PFM suppliers in designing future offerings, and to the companies who use PFM services in articulating their requirements to suppliers.

The purpose of this study is to: contribute to existing models of new product development (NPD) and provide new understanding of how a new product’s packaging is managed and integrated into the NPD process of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms and build on prior research, suggesting that firms lack a pipeline of new packaging innovations by uncovering the factors that influence this pipeline issue.

A grounded theory methodology was adopted. Research was conducted through a total of 37 interviews with key informants in the UK FMCG industry, packaging industry and associated firms.

Three distinct levels of packaging development were revealed: skin deep, body modification and format change. The emphasis within many firms is primarily on changes to packaging at the level of the label (skin deep) or aesthetic design (body modification), whilst technological and format changes are overlooked. The factors that contribute to the level at which development is undertaken are identified.

Existing literature has largely examined packaging at the level of skin-deep and body modification. The development of new packaging technology has been overlooked. This study’s propositions guide the way forward for further research.

For firms, the development of new formats and genuine packaging innovation may be being overlooked. There is a need for them to re-examine their activities to ensure that they are addressing all three levels.

This theory-building study has generated a new typology which, alongside the unique framework, reveals the factors influencing the level of emphasis within firms.

A questionnaire‐based survey was conducted to establish the current market requirements for lamb and those likely in the future. Two questionnaires were produced and sent to the largest lamb abattoirs and retailers in the UK. Current markets generally require a carcass of weight 16‐21kg, conformation E‐R and fat score 2 or 3L. The forecast for future requirements was not clear, but some respondents expressed a desire to narrow the specification ranges given and also to increasingly use carcasses heavier than 21kg to supply bone‐less lamb. A two market scenario, one for medium sized lambs to supply bone‐in cuts and the other for heavier, lean carcasses to supply the boneless lamb, may develop in the long term. The results of this study form a useful basis on which to decide on suitable objectives for genetic improvement programs for sheep breeds, which can be used to help lamb producers meet the requirements of current and likely future markets.

Presents 35 abstracts from the 2001 Employment Research Unit Annual conference held at Cardiff Business School in September 2001. Attempts to explore the theme of changing politics of employment relations beyond and within the nation state, against a background of concern in the developed economies at the erosion of relatively advanced conditions of work and social welfare through increasing competition and international agitation for more effective global labour standards. Divides this concept into two areas, addressing the erosion of employment standards through processes of restructuring and examining attempts by governments, trade unions and agencies to re‐create effective systems of regulation. Gives case examples from areas such as India, Wales, London, Ireland, South Africa, Europe and Japan. Covers subjects such as the Disability Discrimination Act, minimum wage, training, contract workers and managing change.

The purpose of this paper is to look back on 150 years of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and reflect on the recent challenges to organised labour.

Places unions in their current context and discusses how they have responded to the challenge of declining membership.

With declining membership levels and the lack of a “silver bullet” solution, unions continue to face many challenges, although there is some light at the end of the organising tunnel.

This paper introduces the special issue which reflects on 150 years of the TUC.