This thesis consists of five related essays which explore new approaches to help design successful and profitable new products. The primary focus is the front end of the process where the product development team is seeking improved input from customers and improved ideas for developing products...

Essay One: Explaining the Start and Fizzle of Organizational Change: Co-evolving Process and Content The theme that sustaining efforts to change is difficult appears in many guises throughout the organizations. The tendency for change processes to run out of energy and momentum is widely...

Essay One The Impact of Shortages on Push-Pull Production Systems This paper explores the impact of endogenous customer demand on supply chain instability. It investigates how a semiconductor manufacturer's hybrid push-pull production system responds to customer demand, when inventory...

The recent surge in the globalization of markets in various industries has brought global brands to the attention of consumers worldwide. Just as information connects consumers across geographical borders in seconds, globalization is a common stream among many industries, which leads consumers...

(cont.) that threaten to disappear cause decision makers to invest more effort and money in order to keep these options open, even when the options themselves seem to be of little interest. The last experiment provides initial evidence that the mechanism underlying the tendency to keep doors...

The long-run effect of banner advertisements is among the most complex topic in the internet world. Media spending on online marketing has grown from $3 billion in 1999 to $9 billion in 2004. Forecasts (Jupiter Research 2005) expect this growth to double in the next five years. The proportion of...

Technology transitions require the formation of a self-sustaining market through alignment of consumers' interests, producers' capabilities, infrastructure development, and regulations. In this research I develop a broad behavioral dynamic model of the prospective transition to alternative fuel...