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Proposes that, inorder to optimize concept definition, organizations should manage it as a distinct and separate entity, running concurrently with development activities. In order to manage core technical competences continuously, and to balance the organization′s portfolio of products, maintains that concept definition should be an ongoing activity. Uses current literature to support these contentions; and offers a new model of the early development process. Discusses composition, responsibilities and integration of the major components of the model and concludes with a brief discussion of the organizational impact of this new approach to concept definition.

This paper aims to discuss the knowledge levels, attitudes and behaviours regarding the concept of sustainable development among pre-university programme educators, as well as the potential barriers and opportunities they face in adopting the concept of sustainable development in the teaching of the pre-university level chemistry module at a public university in Malaysia.

A survey was conducted with eight educators of a pre-university programme at a public university located in Selangor, Malaysia. This pre-university programme exposes students to advanced courses in science, which are very much like first-year university courses for candidates who are interested in gaining admission to degree programmes. For this study, the focus was on chemistry educators only. The collected data were analysed through descriptive analysis following which interviews were conducted with the respondents.

In general, the educators have good knowledge and attitudes towards the concept of sustainable development. Moreover, their projected knowledge (K), attitude (A) and behaviour (B) focus more on environmental dimensions, as opposed to other sustainable development dimensions. While the integration of the concept of sustainable development in chemistry teaching is restricted by a few barriers, such as content-based learning, lack of guidebooks related to sustainable development and an overcrowded curriculum, positive responses from the chemistry educators indicate that there are opportunities to implement sustainable chemistry concepts in the pre-university chemistry module.

The present study was conducted with several limitations; the data were obtained from a small sample size at an institute located within a public university. The respondents of this research consisted of only three existing chemistry educators and five administrators who are also educators. Further studies about sustainable chemistry teaching should include samples from other public and private universities.

This paper is instrumental in assisting the Ministry of Education, administrators, as well as educators within the pre-university sector to shift their goals towards sustainable chemistry teaching to achieve success in education for sustainable development.

The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.

The concept of sustainability has become increasingly essential to property development, especially in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of sustainability practices among listed property companies in Malaysia.

Using content analysis, company websites and annual reports, the level of sustainable practices among property companies in Malaysia will be examined and assessed. The paper will also rigorously assess the sustainability strategies employed by using an attributes scorecard, which takes into account several attributes concerning sustainability issues.

The findings have showed sustainable property development concept among listed property companies can be categorised as low level, although this is increasing.

Given the increasing significance of sustainability issues – especially in property development – this paper provides a more informed investment decision strategies regarding the implementation of the sustainability concept in property portfolio; a consideration that has increasingly come into focus amongst international property actors.

In this paper, we first develop the concepts of authentic leaders, authentic leadership, and authentic leader development. We suggest a definition of authentic leaders, which is based on the leader’s self-concept: his or her self-knowledge, self-concept clarity, self-concordance, and person-role merger, and on the extent to which the leader’s self-concept is expressed in his or her behavior. Following, we offer a life-story approach to the development of authentic leaders. We argue that authentic leadership rests heavily on the self-relevant meanings the leader attaches to his or her life experiences, and these meanings are captured in the leader’s life-story. We suggest that self-knowledge, self-concept clarity, and person-role merger are derived from the life-story. Therefore, the construction of a life-story is a major element in the development of authentic leaders. We further argue that the life-story provides followers with a major source of information on which to base their judgments about the leader’s authenticity. We conclude by drawing some practical implications from this approach and presenting suggestions for further research.

Concept development, evaluation and testing in the new (food) product development situation are reviewed. An analysis is made of why, how and when to concept test, based on previous authors' work and various pre‐product launch situations. Emphasis is made of concept testing's validity and its use as an aid in successful product development. The use of concept testing during the reformulation of existing products is considered in depth — an area which has previously lacked adequate appraisal. The flexibility of concept testing is highlighted in particular case study examples, reflecting a feeling that concept testing should not be isolated within the new product development process.

This study aims to investigate how configurations of boundary objects (BOs) support innovation teams in developing innovative product concepts. Specifically, it explores the effectiveness of different artefact configurations in facilitating collaboration and bridging knowledge boundaries during the concept development process.

The research is based on data from ten undergraduate innovation teams working with an industry partner in a creative industry. Six categories of BOs are identified, which serve as tools for collaboration. The study applies fsQCA (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) to analyse the configurations employed by the teams to bridge knowledge boundaries and support the development of innovative product concepts.

The findings of the study reveal two distinct groups of configurations: product envisioning and product design. The configurations within the “product envisioning” group support the activities of visioning and pivoting, enabling teams to innovate the product concept by altering the product vision. On the other hand, the configurations within the “product design” group facilitate experimenting, modelling and prototyping, allowing teams to design the attributes of the innovative product concept while maintaining the product vision.

This research contributes to the field of innovation by providing insights into the role of BOs and their configurations in supporting innovation teams during concept development. The results suggest that configurations of “product envisioning” support bridging semantic knowledge boundaries, while configurations within “product design” bridge pragmatic knowledge boundaries. This understanding contributes to the broader field of knowledge integration and innovation in design contexts.

This paper aims to analyze learning in organizational transformations by focusing on concept-level tensions faced in two young companies, which were searching for a reorientation of activity with a production network between innovative product development and efficient mass production.

An intervention-based research project was carried out with two manufacturing companies. The data originate from workshops, whose aim was to identify learning needs based on the discussion of practices of networked production. Concept-level learning is analyzed by examining the dynamic relationships between production concepts and product concepts.

The most influential concept-level tension stemmed from the co-existence of two production concepts, product development and mass production, which manifested as ambiguity about proper actions in the production network. Other focal tensions were identified between the production and product concepts and within the companies’ network relationships. The dominance of the mass production concept restricted the envisioning of new modes of collaboration and mutual learning in the production network.

The workshop participants did not include representatives from the case companies’ production network. Nevertheless, researchers brought the network partners’ conceptions into the workshop discussion through the presented mirror data.

Companies striving to develop novel production concepts that call for continuous collaboration with customers and suppliers need forums for mutual learning to create solutions to concept-level tensions.

Companies may develop two production concepts over lengthy periods. The tensions that manifest due to incoherent guiding logics may be overcome by engaging in incremental and expansive concept-level learning, directed at the identification of relationships between production and product concepts.

This paper intends to offer a comparison between the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social business (SB) and rationalizes the application of both the ideas as potential ways of accomplishingsustainable development. It follows an axiomatic and theoretical approach to frame the relationship of CSR and social business with the fastest growing concept of sustainable development. The objective of this research is to shed some light on i. the basic differences of the theories, ii. underlying assumptions of both theories regarding sustainable development, and iii. the effectiveness or contribution of each concept in attaining sustainable development. This is basically a conceptual paper based on extensive literature review and followed by some qualitative research techniques such as case studies, in-depth interviews with CSR and social business experts and CEOs of corporate houses and social business enterprises as well as focus group discussions with beneficiaries and community representatives of both fields.Narrative analysis method is adopted to analyze obtained data. Result indicates that both CSR and social business can be significant ways to achieve sustainable development by means of eliminating poverty, unemployment and inequality, preventing environmental degradation and the like as both concepts are intended tosolve social problems. This research proposes that a combination of these two concepts is more likely to offer sustainable solutions to social problems.