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This paper aims to study the interplay between a risk-averse national brand manufacturer's (NBM) selling mode decision and a risk-neutral e-platform's private brand (PB) introduction decision.

A game theory model is used to solve selling mode decision, that is whether transform the selling mode from the wholesale mode to the marketplace mode, and PB introduction decision, that is, whether introduce the PB.

The results show that for the NBM, under certain condition, the NBM's selling mode decision is not affected by the e-platform's PB introduction decision. High revenue-sharing rate is conducive only when the difference in consumer preference between the PB and the national brand (NB) is small. The NBM's risk aversion will improve the applicability of the marketplace mode. For the e-platform, high PB preference of consumers and risk-averse behavior of the NBM is not conducive to PB introduction. For the supply chain, scenarios that the NB monopolizes the market under the wholesale mode and PB introduction under the marketplace mode should be prevented. PB introduction under the wholesale mode will become the only equilibrium with the increase of risk aversion of the NBM. Finally, the authors extend the scenario that consumers prefer the PB and the e-platform is risk-averse enterprise and find that PB introduction under the wholesale mode is detrimental to the NBM but beneficial to the supply chain. The impact of consumers' PB preference on the e-platform's PB introduction is opposite to the basic model. The impact of the e-platform's risk aversion on game equilibrium is opposite to that of the NBM's risk aversion.

This paper is first to study selling mode decision and PB introduction decision when considering enterprises' risk-averse attitude.

Speed to the market is becoming a key competitive priority in developing countries’ environments even though lack of technology, poor skilled labour and under-developed infrastructure remain daunting challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine the causes and relative importance of delay factors in the introduction of food products to the market in the era of time-based competition.

The study employed a case study approach in understanding the phenomenon in its natural settings and making sense of it through process and participants observations. Again, a two-stage approach (first, interviews and second, questionnaire) was used in collecting data from the respondents who work in a project team for a large food processing firm. The data was analysed using the relative importance index technique.

The results show that the most important causes of delays in new products introduction, especially in the food processing industry, are: high number of projects running concurrently; lack of project management process; lack of consistent project management structure; high workload on project team and delays caused by external laboratory.

This study sought to identify detailed delay factors in the introduction of new products with respect to the food processing industry and more importantly established the relative importance of these delay factors as a decision support system for managers in the food processing industry.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the characteristics of low-volume manufacturing industries influence the product introduction process and factors which can facilitate that process in low-volume manufacturing industries.

A literature review and a multiple-case study were used to achieve the purpose of the paper. The multiple-case study was based on two product development projects in a low-volume manufacturing company.

The main identified characteristics of the product introduction process in low-volume manufacturing industries were a low number of prototypes, absence of conventional production ramp-up, reduced complexity of the process, failure to consider the manufacturability of the products due to an extensive focus on their functionality and increased complexity of resource allocation. It was determined that prior production of similar products could serve as a facilitator of the manufacturing process.

The main limitation of this study is that the identified characteristics and facilitating factors are confined to the internal variables of the studied company. A study of the role of external variables during the product introduction process such as suppliers and customers could be the subject of future studies.

This research will provide practitioners in low-volume manufacturing industries with general insight about the characteristics of the product introduction process and the aspects that should be considered during the process.

Whereas there is a significant body of work about product introduction process in high-volume manufacturing industries, the research on characteristics of the product introduction process in low-volume manufacturing industries is limited.

Responding to the store brand (SB) introduction by the retailer, the manufacturer may adopt the strategic choice of incorporating the fairness concern behavior of the retailer. This paper aims to examine how the manufacturer can counteract the retailer’s SB introduction by strategically choosing to or not to incorporating the retailer’s fairness concern.

This paper considers the SB introduction problem in a two-echelon supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer with fairness concern behavior. This paper resolves the pricing strategies under four strategic scenarios regarding fairness concern incorporation and SB introduction and examine the influences from the fairness concern on pricing strategies and profits. This paper further investigates the strategic choice equilibrium of the manufacturer and retailer on fairness concern and SB introduction decision.

The results show that the retailer can be better off by the introduction of the SB only when the acceptance degree of the SB is high enough. And whether the manufacturer should incorporate the retailer's fairness concern depends on the consumer's acceptance of the SB: Only when the consumer's acceptance is moderate, the manufacturer is able to counteract the SB by strategically not incorporating the retailer’s fairness concern behavior. Otherwise, the manufacturer cannot prevent the retailer from introducing the SB and can be better off by incorporating the retailer’s fairness concern behavior.

This paper contributes to the literature by examining whether the manufacturer can adopt the strategic incorporation of the retailer's fairness concern to counteract the retailer's SB introduction.

Organisations have introduced reliability‐centred maintenance (RCM) with a view to changing their overall way of performing maintenance. Many times, however, these organisations have experienced cumbersome or even failed RCM introduction. This is usually because of managerial and organisational obstacles, which more or less unexpectedly turn up during introduction. This paper focuses on managing the introduction of RCM. By applying process and requirement management principles, obstacles that turn up during introduction can be identified early on. As an example of this, we cite the results of a case study of the introduction of RCM in a Swedish hydropower company.

Asset-intensive organizations rely heavily on physical assets that are often expensive, complex and have a significant impact on organizational performance. Past introductions of critical assets in various industries showed that despite many preparations in maintenance and operations, shortcomings were identified after deployment resulting in unreliable performance. The main purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the factors that determine how asset-intensive organizations can achieve reliable outcomes in critical asset introductions despite random failures as a result of increasing complexity and infant mortalities.

To gain a detailed understanding of the issues and challenges of critical asset introductions, a case study in railways (rolling stock introductions) was conducted and analyzed using qualitative analysis.

The case showed that organizational factors were perceived as decisive factors for a reliable performance of the introduction, while the main focus of the introduction was on the asset and its technical systems. This suggests that more consideration toward organizational factors is needed. Therefore, a critical asset introduction framework was proposed based on 15 identified factors.

Reliable performance is often associated with technical systems only. This empirical study emphasizes the need for a more holistic perspective and the inclusion of organizational factors when introducing critical assets seeking reliable performance. This study demonstrated the application of the affinity diagramming technique in collectively analyzing the data adopting a multidisciplinary orientation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a recent innovation in the uranium market, the Global X Uranium Exchange-Traded Fund (URA), on the trading characteristics of constituent and non-constituent stocks.

The authors analyse bid-ask spread measures, relative effective spreads and adverse selection costs to assess changes in information asymmetry among uranium stocks. The authors also study abnormal returns to assess the impact of URA on the market.

Over a three-month period, following the introduction of URA, the authors find uranium stocks display decreased bid-ask spread measures, driven by reductions in information asymmetry. Relative effective spreads decrease by 36% after the introduction of URA, and adverse selection costs decline by 24% over the same period. Uranium stocks experience a significant positive abnormal return of 5.0% the day after the introduction of URA with subsequent price reversals. These suggest that the introduction of URA prompted uninformed traders to rebalance portfolios and migrate to the less information-sensitive Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), causing temporary deviations in trading characteristics.

The authors demonstrate that the introduction of new financial securities to the market can have a significant impact on the trading characteristics of related equities. As URA is the only ETF in the uranium sector, the authors thereby avoid the influence of multiple ETFs that may have impacted previous studies.

The death penalty has existed in a state of steady decline for the last two decades, during which state legislatures have been at the center of abolition efforts. Successful abolition is, however, very rare in contrast to how often death penalty repeal bills are introduced across state legislatures, year after year. Indeed, abolition is not a sudden event, but may be many years in the making. Research on the early phases of this process, where the groundwork for enacted legislation is laid, is nevertheless limited. This chapter explores patterns of death penalty bill introductions across all active death penalty states from 1999 to 2018, providing not only an overview of legislative activity at state level but also an analysis of potential factors fueling the activity. It argues that individual legislators play a significant role in the current trend of increased legislative support for a restricted, if not entirely abolished, death penalty, evident both in terms of persistency over time and cooperation across party lines. It also problematizes partisan aspects of legislative activity in the context of legislation on capital punishment.

Given that the majority of firms are followers of pioneering firms into new, related product markets, managers of almost all firms can benefit from benchmarking their competitive responses to pioneering new product introductions. This paper examines the competitive responses of firms not only in terms of the time until their responding new product introduction, but also in terms of the firms’ preceding stages of competitive response: awareness, interest, and evaluation. For example, how long does – and should – it take a follower firm to become aware of a pioneering new product introduction? A general conceptual framework and basic methodology is proposed for firms to evaluate and benchmark their competitive responses. Follower firm responses to pioneering new low‐fat food product introductions in North America are examined and illustrate the opportunity for benchmarking firms’ competitive responses.