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Article
Publication date: 25 February 2020

Dale A. Cake, Vikas Agrawal, George Gresham, Douglas Johansen and Anthony Di Benedetto

The purpose of this paper is to develop a radical innovation launch model that shows the relationship of the market, entrepreneurial and learning orientations with each other…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a radical innovation launch model that shows the relationship of the market, entrepreneurial and learning orientations with each other, with radical innovation launch marketing capabilities and the subsequent effect on radical innovation launch success. It will provide practitioners with best practices and add to current marketing theory.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was done, resulting in a usable sample of 176 radical innovation launch practitioners from a cross-section of US companies, namely, small to large, business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms offering a variety of products and services. A partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used to test construct relationships and the effect on each other.

Findings

An organizational learning orientation has a direct effect on the market and entrepreneurial orientations. Learning and marketing orientations are critical links to having radical innovation launch marketing capabilities. While an entrepreneurial orientation has a direct effect on radical innovation launch success, proper, dynamic marketing capabilities are a significant driver. Over 40% of the variance in radical innovation launch success is directly or indirectly affected by the three studied strategic orientations and radical innovation launch marketing capabilities.

Research limitations/implications

This study was conducted only in the USA. A cross-cultural study could be undertaken. Type and size of firm, type of external environment, radical innovation department structure, transformational leadership strength and competitive intensity effect could be studied. New, up-to-date adaptable marketing capabilities should be researched and validated.

Practical implications

For radical innovation launch success, it is critical that a firm develop the market, entrepreneurial and learning orientations and have specific, dynamic marketing capabilities in place. Existing managers should be trained, or new talent hired, to give the firm the capability to develop unique, radical innovation launch strategic, brand identity and new target market plans, to select and manage new downstream partners, and to have quick, customer launch feedback mechanisms in place.

Originality/value

An empirical study of the effect of all three strategic orientations on radical innovation launch marketing capabilities and subsequent radical innovation launch success has not been previously addressed.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 35 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1941

The body design of the lorry was then modified to be of the “cupboard” type, with the refrigerant in the storage chamber for the goods. A revolutionary step was taken by the…

Abstract

The body design of the lorry was then modified to be of the “cupboard” type, with the refrigerant in the storage chamber for the goods. A revolutionary step was taken by the introduction of solid carbon dioxide as refrigerant. This material is made by supercooling liquid carbon dioxide by its own evaporation until a “snow” is formed and then compressing this “snow” to a specific gravity of 1·5. The solid block so formed has a greater refrigerating effect per pound than ice, and a much lower temperature (=108° F.). It evaporates without passing through the liquid stage and on account of this property it has been called “Dry‐Ice” in America and “Dri‐Kold” in England. It is clean in use, but relatively expensive (about 2d. a lb.), and its low working temperature is a disadvantage, as it makes difficulties in controlling the temperature of the refrigerated space. Its use has eliminated all corrosion and enabled the insulation design and body building design to be simplified and made more efficient. The presence of carbon dioxide gas in the refrigerated space is often a disadvantage; when this occurs the solid carbon dioxide has to be held in a separate container and the heat from the refrigerated chamber led to it by conductor plates, or by a secondary refrigerant, or by a moving air stream. The high price of solid carbon dioxide and the difficulty of controlling the temperature with it have led many engineers to seek other solutions of the problem of refrigerating vehicles. The use of a small compressor outfit, which has its own motive power (either internal combustion engine or electric motor) or is driven from the axle of the vehicle, has been developed and has a following. The small size of these units causes inefficiency and uneconomical running, and the possibility of breakdown, with consequent loss of refrigerating power and spoiling of the load, is a nightmare to the operator. Most recently of all a return has been made to the eutectic tank method. This method suffered from the necessity of removing the tanks on the return of the empty vehicle and replacing them by a fresh set which had been freezing in a special equipment. This took time and two sets of tanks were needed besides the freezing equipment. Now the tanks are fixed in the vehicle; they have internal pipes which, when the vehicle is docked, are connected to a main refrigerating system, and flooded with liquid ammonia. This ammonia is evaporated by the compressor and freezes the eutectic solution which in turn refrigerates the vehicle when it is on the road. The system has the advantage of a stable, readily‐controlled temperature, absence of all mess, and the reliability and cheap running costs of a fixed large capacity refrigerating plant. The amount of eutectic used is such as to provide about 36 hours refrigeration on the road, so that no breakdown can result in the loss of the load. Mr. Milner Gray, in a section of his lecture in 1939 to the Royal Society of Arts on “The History and Development of Packaging” has already pointed out how social and economic changes in recent years have affected the distribution of foodstuffs. Smaller families and residences, and the increased pace of living have made popular the packaged food unit, which is easily purchased, handled and stored. The lecture dealt with the subject from the point of view of the designer of artistic packages, but the food manufacturer is obviously concerned with the effect of the package itself on the food it contains. It is a matter of commercial necessity for the large food factories of to‐day (with sales areas covering the whole of the United Kingdom) to ensure that their products shall reach all their customers in a satisfactory condition. The period which elapses between the goods leaving the factory and their reaching the customer varies, but the package must be such that the quality of the foodstuff is maintained for the desired period or “life” of the goods. A packaged foodstuff may be made or marred by its wrappings. Generally speaking, the main causes of spoiling in manufactured foodstuffs are mechanical damage, temperature effects, insect infestation, putrefaction, moisture‐exchange (dependent upon weather conditions), flavour contamination, and chemical changes such as development of rancidity and metallic contamination. The package can be constructed to give reasonable protection against all these factors, and a few illustrations will be given of how this is done. A package must necessarily be strong enough to prevent physical distortion of the product wrapped, but the question of functional designing of packages is not germane to the present lecture: the general principles of the strength of bulk containers was explained in lectures to the Royal Society of Arts by Mr. Chaplin and his colleagues from the Container Testing Laboratory at Princes Risborough. Prevention of insect infestation from outside sources is, of course, simply a matter of proper closure and choice of materials. Prevention of putrefaction, or spoiling by micro‐organisms is one of the chief purposes of a food wrapping, and bound up with the question of prevention of access to the food of putrefying organisms is that of prevention of infection of the food by organisms which might not themselves spoil it but which are harmful to human beings if eaten with the food. Medical Officers of Health have been concerned with the latter aspect for many years, and the present public demand for milk in individual containers, such as cartons or bottles, and for the large quantities of bread sold in sealed wrappers is no doubt due largely to their education of public opinion. Wrapped bread is usually sold in a sealed waxed paper packing, which, in addition to keeping the bread clean, also delays drying of crumb through moisture loss. The baker must, however, guard against the actual spoiling of his bread through wrapping. If the bread is packed too warm, mould growth in or on it may be promoted by the high moisture content of the atmosphere inside the waxed wrapper which is impermeable to moisture vapour. This impermeability has other effects, which will be considered later. Various proposals have been made to prevent mould growth on foods inside wrappers by impregnating the latter with compounds which volatilise slowly and inhibit the development of moulds and micro‐organisms. Compounds of the type of chloramine T (liberating chlorine in a damp atmosphere) have been patented for treating bread wrappers, while iodine, diphenyl and many other compounds have been proposed for treating wrappers to be placed round fruit. Some years ago a wrapper marketed to prevent meat spoiling was found to depend on the liberation of formaldehyde. Wrappers of these types cannot, however, be used on account of the danger of infringement of the Foods and Drugs Regulations if the foodstuff should absorb any of the volatile compound. The loss or gain of moisture by manufactured foodstuffs are two very important causes of food spoiling. Sponge cakes, under ordinary conditions of storage, soon become dry and unpalatable, while boiled sweets and toffee can be kept in good condition for a considerable time by the use of a suitably selected wrapper. Different types of wrappers allow the passage of moisture vapour at different rates, but for practical purposes they can be considered as either permeable or practically impermeable to moisture vapour. The rate of passage of moisture vapour through a wrapper has not necessarily any connection with the “airtightness.”

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 43 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1937

Mr. H H. Bagnall, B.Sc., F.I.C., Public Analyst for the City of Birmingham, comments in his annual report on the work done at the City laboratory and on the still apparent need…

Abstract

Mr. H H. Bagnall, B.Sc., F.I.C., Public Analyst for the City of Birmingham, comments in his annual report on the work done at the City laboratory and on the still apparent need for standards and definitions of food, and of legislation to enforce their application in manufacture or in shops. Of the 5,472 samples taken in the city under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts 4 per cent. were found to be adulterated, but he observes that misdescription of articles of food is much more common than actual adulteration. The number of samples taken during the year was larger, and the variety greater, than in any previous year. About 140 different varieties of foods and drugs were examined, and few, if any, foods were not sampled. It was reassuring to learn that the Minister of Health was considering the introduction of legislation on the lines of the recommendations submitted in 1934 by the Departmental Committee which enquired into the working of the law as to the composition and description of articles of food other than milk. Ice‐cream was a case in point. In fifty‐one samples taken, the fat content varied between less than 2 per cent. and 19 per cent. Roughly, the samples were of two classes. Those containing less than 4 per cent. were bought mainly from carts in the streets of parks, and were probably the products of smaller makers; those with more than 8 per cent. were manufactured on a large scale by a few well‐known firms. “It is obvious something is wrong here,” Mr. Bagnall reports. “Apart from any question of price, ice cream is, or should be, a valuable article of food, and the purchaser should have some means of knowing what to expect when he asks for it. At the moment he may get a substance which approximates to frozen custard (not made with eggs !) or he may get a really first‐class product containing a considerable amount of cream. The position is similar with respect to a number of other products, particularly compounded articles; and the beneficial effect of legislation in such matters is clearly shown in the case of condensed and dried milks. This kind of governmental interference with manufacture used to be thought of as grandmotherly legislation; but, when one remembers the sort of statement, bearing no relation to the contents, that used to appear on tins of condensed milk, one cannot but feel that there may be some virtue in these departures from laisser‐faire methods. At any rate, no one would wish to return to the old haphazard days when condensed milk was simply what the manufacturers chose to make it. It is curious that the law is far more careful that the composition of feeding stuffs sold for the use of cattle should be made known to the purchaser than that articles sold for human consumption should be sold under a guarantee of quality. If I buy, say, cotton cake for feeding cows, the vendor is bound to give me an invoice stating the amounts of oil, protein and fibre contained in it, and severe penalties are entailed if false statements are made. If I buy an infant's food, however, there is no compulsion on the part of the maker to give particulars regarding its composition. In fact, the label may contain statements entirely at variance with the analysis, but which, nevertheless, are of too vague a character to become the subjects of police court proceedings. It is surely as important that the mother of a child should know something of the composition of the food she uses as that a farmer should know the food value of his cattle cakes, and it is to be hoped that legislation on such matters may not be unduly delayed. The misdescription of articles of food is a much more common thing than adulteration. Under modern conditions of inspection and sampling, it simply does not pay manufacturers and retailers to risk the cruder forms of adulteration and substitution, but the wide use of advertising as an aid to sales, often leads to the use of exaggerated statements regarding the quality and food value of articles of diet. We are all familiar with the extraordinary claims put forward on behalf of particular foods of well‐known composition which seek to show that they possess unique properties not shared by other similar foods. It is often impossible for the food analyst to check such statements, and the public is deceived into thinking that a superior article is being obtained. Often it is only in the advertisements relating to the article in question that one finds these exaggerated statements, and when a tin or packet is bought it is found that the label gives a much milder description of the contents. Under the present law only statements appearing on the label can be made the subject of legal proceedings. It is desirable that false claims appearing in advertisements should also be brought within the scope of food and drug legislation.” During the year a number of samples of pasteurised milk were examined by the “phosphatase test.” Of 112 samples, fifty‐eight were efficiently pasteurised; in thirty‐six cases some technical error had occurred during the process, such as imperfect temperature or time control, or a small admission of raw milk; and in the remaining eighteen cases there was evidence of gross negligence. The samples were taken at selected times and places thought likely to yield abnormal figures, so that too much weight should not be given to the fact that about 48 per cent. of the samples did not pass the test.”

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 39 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1945

The Hebrews of old were promised a land “flowing with milk and honey,” a description which, in the opinion of the biblical writer, expressed every desirable quality. Many…

Abstract

The Hebrews of old were promised a land “flowing with milk and honey,” a description which, in the opinion of the biblical writer, expressed every desirable quality. Many excellent persons consider that we are the Lost Ten Tribes. If that be so we have little reason in certain respects to congratulate ourselves on change of habitat; with regard to milk the opinion of the British Medical Association is worth consulting, as well as a perusal of current police court proceedings. With regard to honey there is well known classical as well as scriptural authority which is justification for the belief that honey as a naturally formed substance is a wholesome food. This belief, fortified to some extent by experience, is undoubtedly held by the ordinary purchaser and consumer of honey. Whether at breakfast or at tea in dining room or nursery—especially the latter—he expects to get a liquid with a characteristic taste and smell primarily obtained by bees from the nectaries of flowers. Like all foods it is a complex with chemical constituents and physical properties varying between certain limits. It has a dietetic value of its own. There is no substitute for it. The mel depuratum of the British Pharmacopœia is also assumed to be genuine honey, not materially changed in nature, substance, or quality by the treatment it receives as a preliminary to its introduction as a constituent of various pharmaceutical preparations. It may be reasonably assumed that this conception of what honey is or should be is held by members of the medical profession, by pharmacists, and by students of dietetics alike. It is impossible to imagine that any of these would seriously think that any artificial product could adequately replace honey. Yet so‐called honey substitutes have been on the market for years past and are still sold. With some vague implication—usually expressed in small print on a label—that it is not the genuine thing. This as a rule conveys little or nothing to the mind of the housewife who, buying it in a closed glass container, is guided by the colour and also influenced by the price of her purchase. Taste and smell being excluded under the conditions of the ordinary “over the counter purchase,” she is left to discover its other virtues when it appears on the family meal table. The Ministry of Food seems to give an implied sanction to this form of commercial enterprise by defining the term “imitation honey” (The Sugar and Preserves (Rationing) Order, 1945) as meaning “any manufactured product, whether containing honey or not, which is made up to resemble honey in appearance, consistency and flavour.” It is unfortunate that imitation honey should be officially acknowledged as a legitimate trade product, for it is surely no more a substitute for the genuine product of the hive than is a faked half‐crown for the real thing. The sale of imitation “honey,” which may contain no honey at all, is a matter in which the demands of public health and fair dealing should receive priority over trade expediency. Nor is it easy to see how the delicate and characteristic flavour of honey is to be successfully imitated. It has been said that food manufacture is more and more assuming the character of a branch of industrial chemistry. Imitation honey is surely an exemplification of that statement if for the moment it be regarded as a food. We are, however, by no means inclined to think of it as anything of the kind. It may not be positively harmful, but in our submission a genuine food consumed under ordinary circumstances by the normal person is and must be positively good. The alleged value of this stuff cannot be expressed in terms of merely negative qualities. On the contrary, it is pretty effectively damned by them. It is in fact mere gut lumber of no dietetic value. In addition to this, it would seem to have a fairly wide and perhaps an increasing sale. At the present time everyone who can do so is being very rightly urged to grow more food in personal and in national interests. There seem to be few indications that the present state of things will be bettered in the near future. Allotment holders and smallholders are being increasingly recognised as important contributors, within their limits, to the national food supply. Honey is a food. It should form a cheap and wholesome addition to the ordinary meal. Bee‐keeping is not only well within the range of the small‐holder's activities, but seems in many ways to be peculiarly adapted thereto. Many organisations, official and otherwise, exist with the avowed object of instructing allotment holders and smallholders how to keep bees, and encouraging them to do so. A ready market will be a measure of their success. We believe that such a market exists and that it would grow if people were assured that a supply of home‐made honey at a reasonable cost could be had. The interests of neither producer nor consumer are served by a market in process of being glutted by imitations masquerading as substitutes for the real thing.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 47 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1961

The recent publication of Cysticercosis—an Analysis and Follow‐up of 450 Cases, by Drs. Dixon and Lipscombe (M.R.C. Special Report, Series No. 299) which is believed to contain…

Abstract

The recent publication of Cysticercosis—an Analysis and Follow‐up of 450 Cases, by Drs. Dixon and Lipscombe (M.R.C. Special Report, Series No. 299) which is believed to contain information relating to all human infestations with C. Cellulosœ in this country up to 1957, prompts one to look at another picture of cysticercosis, viz., C. bovis in cattle. Almost all the cases of human cysticercosis followed up in the report were among British service personnel who had served in India and other eastern sectors, but chiefly India. Since no British troops have served in this area for the past 13 years, human cysticercosis, always a rare disease, is becoming even rarer.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 63 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 17 April 2009

George J. Besseris

The aim of this paper is to examine product formulation screening at the industrial level in terms of multi‐trait improvement by considering several pertinent controlling factors.

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to examine product formulation screening at the industrial level in terms of multi‐trait improvement by considering several pertinent controlling factors.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts Taguchi's orthogonal arrays (OAs) for sufficient and economical sampling in a mixture problem. Robustness of testing data is instilled in this method by employing a two‐stage analysis where controlling components are investigated together while the slack variable is tested independently. Multi‐responses collapse to a single master response has been incurred according to the Super Ranking concept. Order statistics are employed to provide statistical significance. The slack variable influence is tested by regression and nonparametric correlation.

Findings

Synergy among Taguchi methodology, super ranking and nonparametric testing was seamless to offer practical resolution to product component activeness. The concurrent modulation of two key product traits due to five constituents in the industrial production of muffin‐cake is invoked. The slack variable, rich cream, is strongly active while the influence of added amount of water is barely evident.

Research limitations/implications

The method presented is suitable only for situations where industrial mixtures are investigated. The case study demonstrates prediction capabilities up to quadratic effects for five nominated effects. However, the statistical processor selected here may be adapted to any number of factor settings dictated by the OA sampling plan.

Practical implications

By using a case study from food engineering, the industrial production of a muffin‐cake is examined focusing on a total of five controlling mixture components and two responses. This demonstration emphasizes the dramatic savings in time and effort that are gained by the proposed method due to reduction of experimental effort while gaining on analysis robustness.

Originality/value

This work interconnects Taguchi methodology with powerful nonparametric tests of Kruskal‐Wallis for the difficult problem of non‐linear analysis of mixtures for saturated, unreplicated fractional factorial designs in search of multi‐factor activeness in multi‐response cases employing simple and practical tools.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1959

This is the age of research. What was once a highly selective privilege in just a few professions that could be counted on one's fingers has since the last war become a feature of…

Abstract

This is the age of research. What was once a highly selective privilege in just a few professions that could be counted on one's fingers has since the last war become a feature of every conceivable branch of science and trade, to which millions in money are devoted. The connection often seems remote, if not a little spurious. Perhaps it may be due to the enormous emphasis on the teaching of science and technology in recent years, but we see what Sir William Dale calls “these turnspits of modern science” ready to undertake, and various official bodies to finance by grants, research into almost anything. The amount spent, for example, on cancer research through the years and all over the world, which incidentally has produced very little in the way of real advancement towards a cure, must be phenomenal, but it is now probably dwarfed by the colossal sums available for trade and market research. We even see research by opposing groups, one endeavouring to prove, the other to refute some particular hypothesis. Much of it appears to lack realism or to be of any great practical value and at too high a theoretical level, including masses of statistics, without which the younger generation of scientists appears to think research valueless, if not impossible.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 61 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1945

The following are portions of a paper, bearing the title as above, which was read before the Royal Society of Arts on April 18th, 1945, by Sir Edward V. Appleton, LL.D., F.R.S.…

Abstract

The following are portions of a paper, bearing the title as above, which was read before the Royal Society of Arts on April 18th, 1945, by Sir Edward V. Appleton, LL.D., F.R.S., the Secretary of the Department; Sir Henry Dale, P.R.S., presiding.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 47 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1975

The findings of the Steering Group on Food Freshness in relation to the compulsory date marking of food contained in their Report, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, has brought…

Abstract

The findings of the Steering Group on Food Freshness in relation to the compulsory date marking of food contained in their Report, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, has brought within measurable distance the Regulations which were, in any case, promised for1975. The Group consider that the extension of voluntary open date marking systems will not be sufficiently rapid (or sufficiently comprehensive) to avoid the need or justify the delay in introducing legislation.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 77 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1957

According to our favourite but unreliable history book, James I slobbered at the mouth and was “a bad king”, but it is somewhat doubtful whether this is a fair summing up of this…

Abstract

According to our favourite but unreliable history book, James I slobbered at the mouth and was “a bad king”, but it is somewhat doubtful whether this is a fair summing up of this frequently foolish monarch. He had his points, and he certainly had opinions he did not hesitate to voice. On the smoking of tobacco he wrote: “It is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs …” and much more besides, to the same effect, but he was quite unsuccessful in checking the growth of a habit (pleasant or pernicious, as you prefer) that during the last half‐century has reached dimensions far exceeding anything dreamed of by the wisest fool in Christendom. Right up to the present time, however, there has persisted in various places and among various classes of people, the feeling that there was something inherently near‐evil in tobacco smoking and there have long been organized movements to discourage the habit, although the grounds for these activities have often been rather vague. Smoking was said to stunt a boy's growth, it was a waste of money, and anyway it was something done purely for pleasure and must therefore by Victorian standards be “wrong”, or at least not quite proper.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 59 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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