Justin Timberlake †The 20/20 Experience free essay sample

RB music has been extremely lacking in passion and originality lately. When I hear the hopped-up club beats of Chris Brown or the remarkably similar Usher songs, I feel as if the genre has forgotten about creativity, and is just focused on making money and producing music people can dance to. â€Å"The 20/20 Experience† is the first RB album in a long time that feels new and fresh. Justin Timberlake reaches for the stratosphere and ends up in this star in what might be his magnum opus. Justin leaves behind all the pop stylings of â€Å"Justified† and â€Å"FutureSex/LoveSounds,† instead going for a more grown-up style of old-fashioned Motown soul. However, he stays modern by embracing electronic instruments even more than he did on his biggest hit, â€Å"SexyBack.† His soaring falsetto sounds beautiful and rich against both the lush violins and chugging hip-hop beats. â€Å"20/20† opens with the best song on the album, â€Å"Pusher Love Girl. We will write a custom essay sample on Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page † It starts with Motown-style background vocals and piano, and ends with beautiful electronica similar to Portishead. Following that is â€Å"Suit Tie,† the biggest pop track on the album and the one youve probably heard before. Its fun to dance to and has a hot hook, and Jay-Z has a great cameo, but its not nearly as artistically brilliant as the rest of the album. Timberlake is a newlywed, having married actress Jessica Biel last October, so its no surprise that most titles here are love songs. â€Å"Mirrors† is a beautiful, though long, love song with heaps of violin and synthesizers. It follows in the RB love song tradition of greats such as Marvin Gaye. The beautiful strings remind me of one of Timberlakes most ambitious songs to date, â€Å"What Goes Around †¦ Comes Around† from â€Å"FutureSex/LoveSounds.† Songs like â€Å"Dont Hold the Wall† and â€Å"Blue Ocean Floor† show Timberlake pushing his creative limits far past club favorites like â€Å"SexyBack† and â€Å"Rock Your Body,† incorporating elements of jazz, trance, and even Radiohead-like indie rock, with his brave use of the theremin on several songs. While some do run a little long, such as â€Å"Strawberry Bubblegum,† an eight-minute song about how his girlfriend smells like, well, bubblegum, Timberlakes charm shines through on every track. If you are a die-hard JT fan, an old-fashioned soul lover, or an indie-rock adventurer like me, I suggest you buy this album immediately. Justin Timberlake proves himself to be a true talent who can last for the ages. Its really nice to see him becoming a master music craftsman again. But, then again, you cant call it a comeback if hes been there for years.

Free Essays on Intelligence And I.Q

INTELLIGENCE & I.Q TESTING In this essay I will be examining the question â€Å"Are I.Q tests an accurate measure of intelligence?† In order to do this I must first define the world intelligence and second examine the context of an I.Q test. Defining the word intelligence is in itself a complex task, does being intelligent mean a person has the potential to learn and apply their knowledge, to solve problems or to merely think rationally and deal with situations effectively?. And if so are these qualities learnt or are we born with them. Psychologists have many conflicting views on the subject and the debate over its true meaning is still continuing. What influences our intelligence is also inconclusive. Some psychologists believe it may be due to environmental factors whilst others believe it is genetics and even health that are the main influence. My own view is that all the factors play a part in our intellect. I believe that we are first influenced by our genetic make up but the environment in which we develop influences the extent to which our given ability is used, good parenting with stimulation and encouragement and a good social environment which opportunities must surely play a key role, but there is no clear conclusion and the definitions will vary depending on what you read. So to try and put forward some kind of summary, if at all possible, may be to say that intelligence is the ability to respond to a given situation in an appropriate and accurate way, whether the reason for response be due to innate or learnt factors. Does an IQ test measure this ability? I.Q tests were first proposed in 1904 by Alfred Binet as a means of assessing problems associated with subnormal children in schools. Binet was to devise a test to measure the intellect of these children whilst relying on no particular intelligence theory. He was only interested in testing a child’s ability against children of the same age. He tried to ... Free Essays on Intelligence And I.Q Free Essays on Intelligence And I.Q INTELLIGENCE & I.Q TESTING In this essay I will be examining the question â€Å"Are I.Q tests an accurate measure of intelligence?† In order to do this I must first define the world intelligence and second examine the context of an I.Q test. Defining the word intelligence is in itself a complex task, does being intelligent mean a person has the potential to learn and apply their knowledge, to solve problems or to merely think rationally and deal with situations effectively?. And if so are these qualities learnt or are we born with them. Psychologists have many conflicting views on the subject and the debate over its true meaning is still continuing. What influences our intelligence is also inconclusive. Some psychologists believe it may be due to environmental factors whilst others believe it is genetics and even health that are the main influence. My own view is that all the factors play a part in our intellect. I believe that we are first influenced by our genetic make up but the environment in which we develop influences the extent to which our given ability is used, good parenting with stimulation and encouragement and a good social environment which opportunities must surely play a key role, but there is no clear conclusion and the definitions will vary depending on what you read. So to try and put forward some kind of summary, if at all possible, may be to say that intelligence is the ability to respond to a given situation in an appropriate and accurate way, whether the reason for response be due to innate or learnt factors. Does an IQ test measure this ability? I.Q tests were first proposed in 1904 by Alfred Binet as a means of assessing problems associated with subnormal children in schools. Binet was to devise a test to measure the intellect of these children whilst relying on no particular intelligence theory. He was only interested in testing a child’s ability against children of the same age. He tried to ...

The Netflix Financial Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Netflix Financial Statement - Essay Example Netflix needs to develop some new business strategies in order to survive in this rapidly changing movie industry. The firm can emerge as a reputable provider of DVDs by maintaining its brand identity and differentiating itself from its competitors present in the market. Meanwhile, the streaming service of Netflix can be considered as a complementary service to the firm’s DVDs rental business in the coming years. Although the movie watching market or the video market is mature the streaming market has not yet fully emerged. This means that Netflix cannot just rely on its strategies of the past but must try developing a hybrid strategy that will help in addressing the future market demands and customer’s expectations. An emerging market offers new companies an easy entry pass. Therefore Netflix must make sure that all of its strategies should be focused on the new and emerging market practices. The differentiation strategy is where the company concentrates all of its efforts in developing a single product and then incorporating unique and different attributes for meeting the needs and addressing the demands of its customers. When a firm adds value and uniqueness to their products for attracting customer, it is likely that the customer will be willing to pay the much higher price for such products and services. Same is the case with Netflix. The firm entered the online business and targeted the online renting of DVDs. This strategy can be achieved by Netflix by using the recently developed or the upcoming marketing technologies which have not been yet incorporated by other companies in their business. Netflix introduced an integrated search engine in its newly launched website enabling the customers to search and access the products of their choice. The management of Netflix must reflect ingenuity and talent while marketing their products by employing the already establishe d and available supply chain technology and infrastructure.

BUSINESS FUNCTIONS & PROCESSES Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

BUSINESS FUNCTIONS & PROCESSES - Assignment Example These functions within an automotive industry based organisation include automobile design development, formulation of effective marketing and advertisement strategies and implementing them accordingly (Ing. Punzenberger COPA-DATA GmbH, 2010). In the similar context, operations management within the automotive industry can be described as all the functions and activities associated with effective utilisation of raw materials for carrying out the manufacturing and the maintenance processes. This includes keeping record of all the fixed cost and variable costs associated with the daily production process. Operations management is also at times referred as the parent process of production management. Within this parent process, all other management processes such as inventory management, human resource management, and production management exist (Slideshare Inc., 2014). The concept has gained importance due to the increasing competitiveness in the current marketing scenario. Adding to this, this concept has proved its effectiveness and values provision to the automotive industry. The value part can be described in relation to that of quality, quantity, time factor and profitability. As already described above, production management within the automotive industry is all about manufacturing the demanded quantity of cars with set quality standards within specified period of time to make its availability in the market certain. It also ensures that the manufacturing process gets carried out in a timely fashion and effective selling strategies get formulated through which high profitability can be attained by the companies (Ing. Punzenberger COPA-DATA GmbH, 2010). In contrast to production management, which focuses on profitability earning, the operations management provides value to the manufacturing companies in terms of cost cutting. As

Labor Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Labor Management - Essay Example Workers become members of unions seeing the past record, strength of the union and the reputation of its leaders in the organization. Union security often works to the advantage of the organization as well, because in such a situation the management holds discussions with a representative body of the workers and comes out with requisite policies. In addition, the management also gets a feel of the shortcomings prevailing in the organization. Ensuring the basic minimum wage standards: Law of the land stipulates some minimum wage for different types of jobs. But at times, some companies try to maximize their profits by cutting on the salaries and perks of their workers. The individual worker finds it difficult to raise his/her voice against such practices fearing adverse reaction from the management. But when such instances are taken up by the management, it helps in resolving the issues without any adverse impact on the individual worker. Protection of the basic human rights of workers: While working in difficult situations like coal factories, steel furnaces, chemical and fertilizer industry, colder places etc. the workers are supposed to have some protective equipment or shorter working hours in the harmful conditions. In case the management tries to compromise on these aspects, unions try to highlight it with the management or at other appropriate forums. Collective Bargaining Agreements: Quite often the wage stan... fixed by the management in consultation with the workers representatives by way of mutual agreements termed as Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA). Protection against discriminatory policies: If there are any effort by the management to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age etc. the union will take up the matter with the management. Providing an informal forum to discuss problems concerning personal issues or official matters: Union meetings, conferences and conventions provide opportunities for interaction amongst the members, union representatives and the management. Quite often, it proves a very useful forum for coming out with remedial measures and taking feedback. (3) Identify actions by Government that have tended to strengthened or weakened union security in the private sector. Unions are not always liked by the government and the management, for a variety of reasons. Therefore the tug of war continues between the management and union representatives. Some actions of the government in the recent past which have resulted into strengthening the unions are; i. Enacting laws protecting the rights of workers ii. Fixing minimum wage standards and working hours iii. Taking cognizance of the hazardous situations in which workers of some industries have to operate and stipulating the requirements for adequate safety precautions. One of the key actions initiated by the governments which have resulted into weakening of the union movement is the excessive emphasis on outsourcing and contractual employment, which at times makes the workers ineligible for the membership of unions. Off-shoring and outsourcing implies that works are done by people in other countries, which again results in attrition in the organizations, thus weakening the unions. B. (1) Discuss

The Operational Management Of The Hsbc Marketing Essay

The Operational Management Of The Hsbc Marketing Essay This paper aims to explain the operational management of the HSBC and how to develop and apply the concept of operational management, which refers to the operational routines that shape the way the firms strategic path is developed over time. There are total four task of analysis in this paper. The first task is to analysis the orientation of it organization and how this orientation affects the ability to deliver the key operational components for its survival such as speed, quality and flexibility. The second task is to identify the key changes within the organization. The third task, is to argue the case for or against to maintaining its orientation in the organization. At the last task is to discuss the important of new product development and how the operation can input in the development hence to reduce the risk of failure of products and services in the market. Outside the stakeholders are taking an increasing interest in the activity of the organization. Mainly look to the outer circle what the organizations has actually done such as: good or bad, in terms of its products and services, in terms of its impact on the environment and on local communities, or how it treats and develops its workforce. Out of the various stakeholders, the financial analysts who are predominantly focused as well as past financial performance on quality of management as an indicator of likely future performance. Flexibility- HSBC continues to enhance certain products development which the core to the companys customer group offering and some products will be managed or coordinated globally. These products include the HSBC cards, which exploits the experience and platforms provided by the Insurance, Cash Management, Household, for scale and international reach, Asset Management, Custody and Funds Administration, and Retirement Benefits. Quality- Besides that, improving the products, HSBC will ensure the customers that the company has the best capabilities, and will be able to offer a comprehensive service to their product expertise globally. Developing and improving their product is important because always aside from the trust of the consumers of the bank, this is also a good source of their profit for with good products and services, the HSBC can attract more customers and maintain old ones, and in turn, determine their success in the market, and maintain their reputation being the worlds local bank. Dependability- Through improving and developing their products and their services, the HSBC can deliver growth by enhancing their revenue generation culture, and this involves four aspects. These aspects including strengthening use of marketing as a key management tool of the business lines, rewarding revenue performance and penalizing mediocrity, focusing investment on businesses and geographies with largest growth potential, and benchmarking growth targets and achievement rigorously against peer group. Growth can continuously be achieved if these aspects will be implemented effectively and efficiency in the market. 1.3.2 The marketing strategic of HSBC HSBC launch the managing for growth program, which is a strategic plan that provides the company with a blueprint for growth and development the company business. The strategy builds on the companys strengths and addresses the areas where further improvement is considered both attractive and attainable. Its core values are integral to its strategy, and communicating them to their customers, shareholders and staffs is deemed as intrinsic to the plan. These values comprise an emphasis on long-term, high productivity through teamwork, ethical client relationship, a confident and ambitious sense of excellence, being international in outlook and character; prudence; creativity and customer focused marketing. The key marketing and business strategy for HSBC is as follows: Brand: make HSBC and its hexagon symbol one of the worlds leading brands for customer experience and corporate social responsibility. Personal Financial Services: drive growth in key markets and through appropriate channels to make HSBC the strongest global player in personal financial services. Consumer Finance: extend the reach of this business to existing customers through a wider product range and penetrate new markets Commercial Banking: make the most of HSBCs international customer base through effective relationship management and improved product offerings in all the Groups markets. Corporate, Investment Banking and Markets: accelerate growth by enhancing capital markets and advisory capabilities focused on client service in defined sectors where HSBC has critical relevance and strength. Private Banking: serve the Groups highest value personal clients around the world. People: attract, develop and motivate HSBCs people, rewarding success and rejecting mediocrity. TSR: fulfil HSBCs TSR target by achieving strong competitive performances in earnings per share growth and efficiency. 1.3.3 The marketing strategic perspective of HSBC The basis for HSBC to develop their strategies is aim to maintain their global competitiveness and reputation. The marketing strategic of HSBC delivery the following key operational components of: Speed- In order to effectiveness the fast product or service delivery and client relationships, the HR team would retain their individual specialist responsibilities and knowledge base on each business area would have a specific individual in the team to act as their client relationship manager (CRM). This is a simple change given that each team member based on their expertise, developed deeper relationships with certain business areas than others. The CRM give the team an up to date overview of all activities in several business area, the businesses challenges, needs and wishes at any point in time. This created a situation that often occurs in small HR teams with competent and enthusiastic members, namely over utilization by specific business areas and a focus on operational delivery. This is again a product of the way the business and team have grown. Team members keen to deliver good quality development to the business have jump at the opportunity to create a positive relationshi p where a need have to identify. Quality- HSBC is to maintain their position as the worlds local bank, which enables them to approach each country uniquely, blending local knowledge with a worldwide operation platform. This is a good approach for each of these regions are distinct from each other, having different culture and beliefs, making it difficult to implement a single project for all client around the world. The difference in this approach is to addressing the different needs of their customers, which is a good basis from the improvement of customer service at the business organization, and their aim is to find good solutions and techniques in the development and improvement of their rendered products and services. Dependability- Different geographies will provide different products or services to different customers. HSBC will concentrate activities on geographies where growth and critical mass and located. Such activities include global outsourcing strategy, which was also implemented by the company in several countries including in Philippines. The company was able to establish itself in call centers to provide their services in relation to sales and checking of accounts. Outsourcing contributes is to aim of HSBC to focus on the needs of their customers, for these all call centres are responsible for providing their customers with an information regarding their accounts. Call centres agents are also take responsible for answering the queries of customers regarding the company. Flexibility- Usually design or innovate new products or services to their customers, provide various products or flexibility services to fit different customers needs and ability to change the timing of delivery of its product and services to customers. 1.3.4 Comparison of orientation affect operational performance objective in HSBC Operational performance objectives Definition Product orientation Marketing orientation Quality Quality is consistent conformance to customer expectation. By providing high quality product and error free transaction of services to customers. Finding what customers want and expect by using research such as: survey, focus group for interview and other techniques that integrated customers voice. And research must reveal what the customers view of quality and whether customers are getting it. Speed The elapsed time between customers requesting products and services and their receiving them. Provide fast delivering products or fast transaction services to customers. Fast decision to change to improve customers satisfaction. Dependability Delivery or making available, products or services when they were promised to the customers. Different part of countries might deliver different type products or services. Different part of countries might have their own marketing strategy to its customers needs. Flexibility The degree to which an operations process can change what it does, how it is doing it or when it is doing it. Ability to introduce new or modified products and services to customers. -Ability to produce a wide range or mix of products and services. -Ability to change the level of output or activity to produce different quantities or volume of products and services over time. Ability to change the timing of delivery of its product and services. Cost One major operations objective, especially where companies compete with prices is cost. Low price is a universal attractive objective to customers, which can be achieved by producing goods at lower costs. Offer a reasonable price for a product and services that customers can afford to paid. In order to gain competitive advantage, the cost will be identifying through market condition and competitors performance. Task 2 2.0 Market Orientation Market orientation is generally regarded as the implementation of the marketing concept. The marketing concept is a philosophy of doing business, which puts the customers needs at the central of the organisation. In terms of the HSBC bank, the marketing concept starts with the customers needs as the top function of banking purpose. The HSBC must identify these needs and then decide which ones it should try to satisfy. The opportunity to meet bank objectives will occur through the banks efforts to determine customers satisfaction. 2.1 Key features of market Orientation According to Narver and Slater (1990) market orientation composed of three behavioral characteristics: Customer Orientation: understanding the potential customer needs in order to create an added value for him on a continuance basis. Competitor Orientation: knowing the strength and weaknesses as well as capabilities and strategies of key competitors. Inter Functional Coordination: coordinating use of the firm resources for creating high added value to target customers. Figure 1: Narver and Slaters view on market orientation. Source: Narver and Slater (1990). 2.1.1 Customer orientation The vital of this characteristic is to demonstration the understanding and commitment that results in enhanced value to the clients. The key behaviours of a customer approach include such as: providing services of values, researching customer needs, concentrating on needs, committing to customers, focusing on customers satisfaction; reporting and measuring satisfaction, and augmenting existing services. In order to focus customer orientation, HSBC should analyse the behaviour of their customers and using research such as survey, group focus interview and other technique that integrated customers voice to their expectation. 2.1.2 Competitor orientation This characteristic meets with the most resistance, who believe that competition amongst banks is unhealthy and counterproductive. But competition needs to be defined more broadly to include generic competition. Competition, from the viewpoint of the customer, is whatever will directly or indirectly satisfy a need. To understand the market, the HSBC must recognise that there is competition and that it is advantageous to benchmark the bank against other quantity programs and facilities that are offered by other banks as well evaluate the offerings from other generic competition. Key behaviours are open discussion of competitors; evaluating competitor behaviour; assessing competitor strategies; and examining opportunities for improvement. 2.1.3 Inter-functional Coordination The key indicator of this characteristic is the total commitment of all members to a marketing philosophy and the integration of marketing activities to provide value to the customer. Typical behaviours in HSBC should include those aspects: teams and departments working together to meet up customers needs, teams and departments sharing market information, teams and departments are integrating strategies, all sections working together to offer great value to customers, and the teams willing to share the resources. 2.1.4 Long-term Growth Focus HSBC normally regard a five year cycle as long term, claiming that the environment is too uncertain to plan beyond this time frame. Despite this, research indicates that organisations should develop a strategic plans, or strategic intentions, that go well beyond a five year cycle. Behaviours associated with this aspect include: adopting a long term focus in matters of expansion or survival, attempting to service all customers (shareholders, suppliers, staff and so on)in the long run, aiming for effective organisational performance in the marketplace, implementing and identify new value added services, and identifying the overcoming deficiencies in banking services. Task 3 3.0 Where Industry Life Cycle comes from? The industry life cycle imitates the human life cycle. The stages of industry lifecycle include fragmentation, shake out, maturity and decline. (Kotler, 2003) 3.1 Current industry life cycle in UK retail banking Figure 2: the banking industry life cycle (Source: from FSA website)1987 2009 Growth in UK bank has increased dramatically, and the rate of return on equity substantially exceeds the cost capital. UK banking has been a high growth, high return business and leading UK banks show some of the highest market capitalization in the EU. In the past twenty years the proportion of UK households with a bank account has risen dramatically (from 60% in 1980 to 94% in 2009). The number of service that a bank sells to a typical customer has also increased dramatically. In 2009, a bank typically cross-sells the current-account customer to a variety of other services, including likes mortgage, credit cards, personal loans, life and general insurance, car insurance and investment product such as mutual trust and unit trust. Besides that, technology has enabled banks to perform their retail business more efficiency. Advances in communication and information technology have driven down the cost of processing and made it feasible to perform this processing remotely from the banks branches. The introduction of cash machine, internet and phone banking has driven the cost per transaction. So did the consolidation of banking enterprises via merger and acquisition. Together, the expansion in revenue and the reduction in unit cost have lead to dramatic increase in profits from UK retail banking. 3.3 The reason to maintain its orientation in HSBC It enables continuous learning and knowledge accumulation through continuous collection of information about customers and competitors and using information to create superior customer value and competitive advantage. Will confuse customers if bank keep changing its orientation. High risk to change its orientation most of them might face failure in changing a new orientation. Changing may be costly and wasteful of resources such as time to re-training staff into new orientations, RD costs, switching costs, increase advertisement cost and marketing cost. Changing orientation will affect the organization in culture, management, leadership and operational. The operational efficiency and effectiveness is improved if orientation maintained. 3.3.1 The important of maintain marketing orientation and product orientation in HSBC Marketing Orientation Product orientation Is an organizational culture that most effectively and efficiency creates the necessary behaviours for the creation of superior value for buyer and thus, continuous superior performance business (Narver and Slater, 1990). The important to maintain marketing orientation because it usually focus the following advantages aspects: Increased profit through improved customer satisfaction. New opportunities occur due to greater understanding of markets, customers and competitors. Tapping into the knowledge of employees and directors more effectively. Improved understanding of customer requirement. Product and service development strategies greatly improved. Increase level of employee satisfaction Systems to raise both customer retention and customer acquisition. Development of a learning culture. Besides that, marketing orientation can facilitate the HSBC to compete by following sustainable competitive advantage: Creating a link between customer wants and organizational strengths Consider the competition from the customer perspective Creating and maintaining superior value through effective application of the marketing mix. A product orientation leads to marketing myopia (Levitt 1960), by focusing on the product rather than the customers needs. The advantages to maintain product orientation are as follows: Quality should be guaranteed. The product is consistent (any changes are progressive). Future activities are more predictable. 3.4 The reasons against maintaining its orientation in HSBC The environment (such as technologies) keeps changing, and maintaining the orientation may keep the bank off-track with competition. Operations need adjustment to keep with the changes. To attract new customers and sustainable competitive advantage. Where, organization will faced lost confidence or lost attractive by customers with current orientation. Customers have become more demanding to improved services such as: Shorter waiting time, 24/7 services, reduced lending rates, shorter loan approval period, etc. Bank may have to adjust its operations to take note of the changes. To improve reputation- by changing new orientation might help organization to improve well known reputation. To keep growth of product or services in its all market. Task 4 4.0 The new product development process The new product development process (NPD process) can be defined as a disciplined and unambiguous set of tasks and steps that describe the normal means by which an organization repetitively converts embryonic into saleable products or services. Two commonly used NPD process models are described as follows: A five-stage framework linking new product development opportunity to design, testing, information, and profit management. The stage-gate system that recognize the importance of cross-functional teams, parallel processing in activities, and up-front predevelopment activities in the NPD process. Testing Introduction Profit management Design Opportunity identification Stage 1 Preliminary assessment Stage 2 Business case preparation Stage 5 Full Production/ market launch Stage 4 Testing and validation Stage 3 Development Figure3: Two commonly used NPD process Models Primarily (Source: World Class Theory and Practice (International Edition) 4.1 The importance of new product development NPD is typically important for an organization. The importance for ongoing innovation is discussed by Lancaster and Massingham (1993,p. 128) is today, most organizations must either innovate or go out of business. Clearly, then, innovation and the new product development which such innovation gives rise to is not just desirable but is essential to long-term market and competitive success. 4.1.1 Sources of Competitive Advantage HSBC innovate and develop new products or services are because the new products or services offer them unique opportunities for competitive advantage. For example: HSBC was the first bank to launch TV banking and has returned to profitability. The early movers also have the advantage of taking a leading role in setting HSBCs standards for the emerging product categories. 4.1.2 Market Share Gain New product introduced in the marketplace provide additional first mover advantages to the organizations. By developing new products, HSBC can quickly capture a big share of the market before competitive products are introduced. For example HSBC creation of a joint-venture with Merrill-Lynch to create a new Internet based global banking service. 4.1.3 Higher profitability During the early stages, a new product faces less competition than a product in a mature; therefore, its profitability tends to be higher. As the market becomes saturated with several competitive products, prices start falling and profit margin decrease. This general trend is observed in HSBC. 4.1.4 Enhancement corporate image and Brand Name The development of innovative and creative new products will create HSBC in very powerful source of goodwill and creates a positive of corporate image. It is not easy to assign a monetary value to the goodwill associated with enhance corporate image results from new product development. At the same time, brand equity measures used in marketing show that organizations with more successful new product development efforts command higher respect from customers, which leads to enhanced long-term profitability. 4.1.5 Operating Cost and Capacity Utilization HSBC constantly innovate also identify better approaches for producing products. The product development effort is often closely linked with process development. Therefore, over a period of time, production cost is reduced, leading to enhance profitability. Furthermore, new products provide the opportunity for enhance sales, as the demand or older products decreases over time. Therefore, HSBC can continue to operate at a similar capacity id it continues to innovate and introduce new products. 4.2 The operational input into the development of TV banking in HSBC Research found that different development presents different strategic and operations types of actions in HSBC. An example to development TV banking in HSBC, this project involved the development of a new technological capability to manage transactions by TV remote control. Figure 4: The initiative development characteristics Initiative Exploration vs. exploitation The major issue of the initiative Capital investment Decision making style successful Life span (years) TV banking Exploration Technology Medium Top-down Yes 3 The operational inputs into the development are base on 3 stages such as follows: 4.2.1 The First Stage Idea Generation Primarily focus on the initial stage of the initiative and examine the factors that shape the idea as it emerges. This section has two main themes. The first themes is focuses on the origin of each of the initiatives; and the second themes is focuses on the way in which the initiative gains initial approval. In HSBC the major source of initiatives came from senior managers who were following an idea of their departmental mission. The other factors in Harts (1992) categorization were not found to be significant. They are the ways in which the initiatives initials ideas were spark: The investment in TV banking: The first contact came when the other party in the venture approached the bank. At primary, the decision was not to invest in the firm, since the project did not fit the banks requirements. Six months later SKY and BT approached the Head of Strategy, who took the lead. Since the other party changed their requirement for a bank partner, it was possible for the bank to accept the offer. According to Burgelman (1983) the ideas for initiatives in his research cases came from the line managers and was based on technological development possibilities. But my opinion reveals different sources. In my opinion the idea for each initiative emerged from the senior level of management, based on a view of the departmental mission. In order to development TV banking in HSBC, the first step was to organise an informal meeting between a senior member of the top team and the initiator. Without this initial approval, the initiator cannot continue with this project. The development of TV banking projects was presented to the GM of Marketing, who decided to adopt the idea, and the department will began to plan the project in detail. The beginning of the working project involved collaboration with different departments. After finished the concept creation part of the project the marketing department started to think about implementation. And the next steps, the marketing department will took it to implementation planning. 4.2.2 The second stage- Concept development In the second stage, the initiatives basic concept that was permitted by one of the top team is developed into a concrete plan. This plan will be executed in the third stage of development- the implementation stage. This section is discussing two main issues: The development of the concept The preparation for implementation During this stage the bank forms two-layer management style for concept development and implementation. In this management structure, each project has a steering committee and an operational committee that collaborate on the concepts development of the concept and implementation. Looking to the concept development, the process is separated into two parts: Focuses on forming the concept-The initial work on the initiatives concept the study is done by the initiator by using external and internal sources. In the TV banking project the project manager began to form organizational support for the project only after the investment decision and a six-month period of planning and studying the projects needs in the SDU offices. Then, the whole implementations design was conducted by the Marketing Department. Focuses on extending the concept and developing the role of each department in the development of the initiative- By explore the implications for the perceived success of initiatives. In the TV banking project, the planners included more scope for benefits then were initially thought possible. 4.2.3 The Third Stage-Implementation In the third stage of the development is implemented. The main concern of this section is to look at the administrative system through which implementation is achieved. The bank has to develop a particular system through which it conducts its projects. This involves two-layer management structure. The first layer of the management structure is the steering committee, which is headed by the project sponsor, who is usually a senior general manager in the department responsible for the project. The other members of the steering committee are managers from project-related departments. The second management body is the working committee. Figure 4 portrays the structure of development TV banking. The solid line arrow represents the chain of command for the project, and the black down arrow indicates that the steering committee consists of the managers or their department representatives in the working group. When the project is particularly complex, as in the TV banking project, the project itself is divided into many sub-projects, and each may having its own operations committee. However, the whole project has one coordinating operations committee. The project manager, who heads the co-ordination committee, reports to the project sponsor on the development of this committee. Thus, the whole project has one steering committee and one coordinating operations committee. Normally, the steering committee meets once a month (but this can vary according to need) and the operation committee meets once a week. The steering committee includes in the management level of the department, while the operation committee includes in the members of staff who actually conduct the project. The steering committee needs to solve and support the operation committee in all the problems it faces. These could be external or internal in the firm. External in the firm such as: the choice of technologies and the market. Whereas, internal in the firm they could be such as: internal communication and negotiation to priorities objectives between departments. The project sponsor The steering Group The project manager The working Group Figure 5: The two layered management structure 4.3 Step to reduce Failure on new development In order to reduce the risk of failure of products or services in the market, HSBC can utilize marketing research. At the heart of any product success by truly understanding of consumer wants and needs, and how HSBC new product could fill those needs in a meaningful way. There are four steps to follows: Step one: Market understanding HSBC can use tools such as qualitative research, category assessment, and segmentation to understand the competitive landscape, why consumers buy certain products, how they use those products, and what unmet needs they may have. Step 2: Apply that insight in concept development Here HSBC can use brainstorming, concept testing, and volumetric forecasting to generate new product ideas, identify areas for improvement, and determine which products are most promising. Step 3: Building on that knowledge, HSBC can move to product development In this step HSBC can use marketing research tools such as product testing, packaging research, pricing research, and claim substantiation help them to understand how their product performs in real-world conditions, how it compares to competing products, and what competitive claims HSBC can make. Step 4: After product launch, HSBC move to product management. HSBC can use tools such as customer satisfaction research, tracking research and promotion assessment to determine key metrics related to competitor comparisons, product awareness, consumer usage, and optimum marketing approaches. While theres no sure-fire way to ensure product success, marketing research is cruci

Views on Laura Schlessinger :: essays research papers

Laura Schlessinger Pages 34-37 The Facts 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is the first delusion mentioned by Schlessinger? What importance does it have to the main point of the essay? The first delusion that she stated was that you can tell if something is going to happen, by checking it against a checklist. Throughout the essay she shows how some of the people don’t fit into the category. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Schlessinger rejects the notion that a single cause, such as being picked on in school, can turn a teen into a murderer. She suggests a much simpler case. What is it? Schlessinger suggests that some people are evil, and that is why you can’t make a checklist for it. 3. What, according to the author, are the attractions of evil? IN other words, why are people drawn to it so easily? The main reason that the author suggests is that you get results right away. Also you Get the sensation that you are in control and have the power. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One might think that evil would be shunned and avoided, but not so. In fact, according to Schlessinger, how is evil often treated? Laura says that evil is either condoned or even rewarded by our general public in society. 5. What are some of the shortcomings of our criminal justice system, according to the author? What other social systems are no better? The author says that the justice system is not hard enough on the kids. She also says that parents look over things too much. Page 2 The Strategies. 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In paragraph 5, what question does the author pose? How does she answer the question? The author poses the question by saying if everyone is evil then why aren’t their more people killing each other. She answers this question by stating while all the kids aren’t killing everyone there is more swearing, stealing, and early age sexual acts. So while she states that they aren’t all murderers she states that they are a lot worse then before. The Issues 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Assigning blame for teenage violence is a complicated issue, made murky by society’s contradictory opinions. Where do you lay the blame for the seemingly increasing amount of teenage violence in out country? I think that while there is an increase in the murders that are being committed, I don’t think that it is at a point where they should be getting so much media attention.

International Diversification and the Market Value of New Product

Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of International Management International diversi? cation and the market value of new product introduction Chi-Feng Wang a,1, Li-Yu Chen b,? , Shao-Chi Chang c,2 a b c Department of Business Administration, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Department of Management, Fo Guang University, Taiwan Institute of International Business, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 11 January 2011Received in revised form 31 March 2011 Accepted 31 March 2011 Available online 2 May 2011 Keywords: International diversi? cation New product introduction Technological capability Marketing capability Event study abstract Although previous studies on international diversification are plentiful, they mainly focus on the effect of international diversification on overall firm performance, and the results are mixed. This study extends this line of research and explores the impact of international diversification on new product performance.Specifically, we ask if international diversification explains the stock market reactions to new product introduction (NPI) announcements. We find an inverted-U-shaped relationship between international diversification and the announcement returns of NPIs, revealing that the market value of NPIs initially improves and then declines with increasing international diversification. The results also show that intangible assets, such as technological and marketing capabilities, positively moderate the relationship between international diversification and the market value of NPIs.Our study not only highlights the importance of considering both sides of international diversification in affecting investors' assessments of corporate new product strategies, but also shows the possibility of internal capabilities in changing the fixed relationship between international diversification and the market value of new products.  © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction According to the theory of foreign direct investment (FDI) (Caves, 1996; Dunning, 1988; Hymer, 1976) and portfolio theory (Jacquillat and Solnik, 1978; Lessard, 1973, 1976; Solnik, 1974), international diversi? ation will lead to higher ? rm value. However, existing studies examining the impact of international diversi? cation on ? rm performance have yielded inconclusive results. The results on the relationship between international diversi? cation and ? rm performance has been found to be positive (Delios and Beamish, 1999; Grant, 1987; Rugman et al. , 2008), negative (Collins, 1990; Zaheer and Mosakowski, 1997), U-shaped (Capar and Kotabe, 2003; Gaur and Kumar, 2009; Lu and Beamish, 2001), inverted-U-shaped (Brock et al. , 2006; Garbe and Richter, 2009; Gomes and Ramaswamy, 1999; Hitt et al. 1997) and horizontal-S-shaped (Contractor et al. , 2003; Lu and Beamish, 2004; Ruigrok et al. , 2007). To better understand the in? uence of international diversi? cation, we extend this line of research by studying the impact of international diversi? cation on new product performance. Speci? cally, we test if international diversi? cation explains the stock ? Corresponding author at: Present address: Department of Management, Fo Guang University, No. 160, Linwei Rd. , Jiaosi, Yilan County 26247, Taiwan. Tel. : + 886 3 9871000 23816. E-mail addresses: [email  protected] net. tw (C. -F. Wang), [email  protected] fgu. edu. w (L. -Y. Chen), [email  protected] ncku. edu. tw (S. -C. Chang). 1 Present address: Department of Business Administration, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, No. 123, University Road, Section 3, Douliou, Yunlin 64002, Taiwan. Tel. : + 886 5 5342601Ãâ€"5245. 2 Present address: Institute of International Business, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, 701, Tainan, Taiwan. Tel. : + 886 6 2757575Ãâ€"53506. 1075-4253/ $ – see front matter  © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. intman. 2011. 03. 002 334 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 arket responses to new product introduction (NPI) announcements. NPIs are an important dimension of innovation output. 3 Firms with the ability to introduce new products are signaled as those with the opportunity for differentiation and future earnings (Chaney et al. , 1991; Kleinschmidt and Cooper, 1991; Subramaniam and Venkatraman, 2001). In order to improve the performance of NPIs, many ? rms are engaged in international diversi? cation activities (Kogut and Zander, 1993; Peng and Wang, 2000). Previous studies have documented that international diversi? cation comes with both bene? s and costs (Contractor et al. , 2003; Lu and Beamish, 2004; Ruigrok et al. , 2007). We suggest that these bene? ts and costs might create both opportunities and challenges for ? rms to develop new products, and hence in? uence investors' assessment of the new products introduced by ? rms. International diversi? cation may have positive effects on NPIs. For example, it allows ? rms to reach outside their domestic boundaries, providing them with more opportunities to gain new ideas in terms of the types of new products that can be developed (Hitt et al. , 1997). Internationally diversi? ed ? ms also have better access to the resources resident in foreign countries that may be necessary for producing these new products (Craig and Douglas, 2000; Peng and Wang, 2000). Furthermore, international diversi? cation creates the bene? t of economies of scale by ef? ciently leveraging the initial investments on new products over a broader market base (Subramaniam and Venkatraman, 2001). In spite of the bene? cial effects of international diversi? cation, we suggest that international diversi? cation may also entail disadvantages when it comes to introducing new products. For instance, cross-nationa l distances increase the dif? ulty for internationally diversi? ed ? rms to transfer technological knowledge between countries. Differential environmental settings among countries might also constrain the ? rm's ability to absorb and apply resources towards new product development. In such cases, new products are expected to be less worthwhile for introducing ? rms with international diversi? cation activities. In addition to investigating the direct impact of international diversi? cation on the stock market reactions to NPI announcements, we postulate that investors' assessments of the value of new products may depend on a ? m's internal capabilities. Extending previous research documenting the importance of technological and marketing capabilities in determining new product success (e. g. , Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1987; Yeoh and Roth, 1999), we argue that both marketing and technological capabilities assist in enhancing the bene? ts of international diversi? cation while simulta neously restricting its drawbacks with regard to the introduction of new products. We test our hypotheses by measuring the stock market responses to NPI announcements using the event-study methodology framework.The events of NPI announcements are collected for the period 1997–2005. Under the assumption of the ef? cient markets hypothesis (Fama, 1970), NPI announcements bring unanticipated information into ? nancial markets that may change the market value assessments of the announcing ? rms. In response to the new information, changes in stock prices occur, which represent investors' revision of their expectation with regard to the net present value of a ? rm's risk-adjusted expected cash ? ow generated by the new products, or stated differently, the investors' expectation of the wealth impact of NPIs.This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 provides the theoretical background and develops the hypotheses. Section 3 introduces the sample and methodology. The empirical res ults are presented in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 contains the discussion and concluding remarks of this study. 2. Theoretical background and hypotheses International diversi? cation has been suggested by FDI theory and portfolio theory to provide ? rms with bene? ts ranging from the ability to realize scale economies (Grant, 1987; Porter, 1986), the possibility to spread investment risks over different countries (Kim et al. 1993), the potential to arbitrage factor cost differentials across multiple locations (Kogut, 1985) and the opportunity to access resources resident in foreign countries (Hitt et al. , 1997). However, there is considerable theoretical evidence that international diversi? cation comes with both bene? ts and costs. We suggest that that these bene? ts and costs that accompany foreign expansion may create both opportunities and challenges for ? rms in terms of developing new products, and thereby affect the stock market reactions to NPI announcements.In this secti on, we review various theoretical domains in order to identify the channels through which international diversi? cation might in? uence value creation for ? rms in the context of NPIs. 2. 1. Effects of international diversi? cation International diversi? cation provides several advantages towards developing new products. First, international diversi? cation offers opportunities for ? rms to gain new and diverse ideas from a variety of perspectives (Hitt et al. , 1997). Being exposed to heterogeneous customers, technology, cultures, and competitive practices, internationally diversi? d ? rms are able to learn from the experience in foreign operations to ? nd new solutions to bettering product design and improving the quality of manufacturing know-how (Craig and Douglas, 2000). For example, the launch of a new cordless telephone by Sanyo, which had been adjusted to better meet the phone use habits of American consumers (Barkema and Vermeulen, 1998), consequently expanded the company's sales in the U. S. market. 3 Prior studies have used several ways to measure the performance of innovation, which includes R intensity (Hill and Snell, 1988; Hitt et al. 1997), number of NPIs (Cardinal and Opler, 1995; Hitt et al. , 1996) and number of patents (Francis and Smith, 1995). Though they have provided valuable insights, the measures they developed have some limitations in capturing the true value of innovation (Chaney et al. , 1991; Schankerman and Pakes, 1986). For example, R intensity is more related to the input value of innovation but does not directly measure the output value of innovation. Furthermore, numbers of NPIs or patents only measure the quantity of inventive output without considering the quality of innovation.As well, patent counts often represent a very noisy measure of the underlying value of innovation because most patents are not worth anything. The measure used in our study allows us to directly measure the wealth effect of innovation, rather than on ly considering the quantity of inventive output as has been done in prior studies. C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 335 International diversi? cation also allows ? rms to gain access to resources that may only be available in foreign markets but not frequently obtainable in the home countries to develop new products (Peng and Wang, 2000).By tapping into the technological skills and knowledge that originates from other countries, multinational ? rms may be able to successfully increase their technological strength in developing new products (Hitt et al. , 1997; Kotabe, 1990; Peng and Wang, 2000; Subramaniam and Venkatraman, 2001). Moreover, international diversi? cation provides a ? rm with a wider national network, which helps increase its ability to effectively leverage technological resources and rationalize production processes. These economies of scale can enable the ? m to obtain higher returns from new product innovations (Bartl ett and Ghoshal, 1989; Kogut, 1985). Furthermore, the broader market outlets available to new products create higher returns on the sunk costs of innovative spending (Subramaniam and Venkatraman, 2001), while cash ? ows generated from large-scale foreign operations provide ? rms with the resources needed for extra investment in new product development (Kobrin, 1991; Kotabe, 1990). Notwithstanding the above bene? ts, international diversi? cation can bring challenges to the development of new products. The ? rst challenge comes from the dif? ulty in transferring technological knowledge between countries. The more countries within which the ? rm operates, the larger geographic distance the technological know-how has to be transferred, and the less effective the ? rm will be in developing new products. Furthermore, with increasing diversi? cation, the differences in cultural, economic and technological settings among the countries increase. These differences reduce the effectiveness in assimilating and applying the technological knowledge that is critical for new product development (Chang and Wang, 2007; Hitt et al. 1997); while knowledge diversity can create greater learning value (Inkpen, 2000), differences in knowledge does not guarantee successful learning (Bowman and Helfat, 2001; Chang and Singh, 2000; Szulanski and Winter, 2002). In addition, arguments from the economic law of diminishing returns suggest that the higher degree of international diversi? cation a ? rm is involved in, the more likely it is to be entering markets whose marginal contributions are relatively minor (Contractor et al. , 2003). Beyond a certain point, after already having expanded into the most advantageous markets, the ? m is left with minor or peripheral foreign markets whose resources for and cash ? ow from new product development will exhibit diminishing returns. By drawing on various theoretical perspectives, the above discussions suggest that international diversi? cation no t only create opportunities but also impose barriers to the value creation provided by new product innovation. With moderate levels of international diversi? cation, ? rms can capitalize on valuable bene? ts of knowledge learning, resource access and production ef? ciency in producing new products.At the same time, economic pro? ts rise as the ? xed costs of new product development are spread across more markets (Kogut, 1985; Porter, 1986). However, ? rms that expand internationally beyond an optimal level may ? nd that the costs of international diversi? cation eventually exceed the bene? ts. Firms at this stage often enter countries that are more geographically and culturally dissimilar, which increases the dif? culties of transferring technological knowledge between countries. The value of new product innovation may also exhibit diminishing returns when international diversi? ation is increased beyond the optimal level. Based on the above, this study proposes a non-linear and inv erted-U-shaped relationship between international diversi? cation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements, suggesting that the market value of NPIs is expected to improve with increasing international diversi? cation at lower levels of international diversi? cation and then decline with increasing international diversi? cation at higher levels of international diversi? cation. For these reasons, we propose our ? rst hypothesis as follows: Hypothesis 1.The relationship between international diversi? cation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements is inverted-U-shaped, with a positive slope at lower levels of international diversi? cation and negative at higher levels of international diversi? cation. We utilize event-study methodology to capture the valuation effect of corporate new product strategies. This approach not only permits direct investigation of changes in announcing ? rms' shareholder value, but is also suited to conduct cross-sectional analysis of the strategies underlying the value creation or destruction (Reuer, 2001).Applying event-study methodology to NPIs also facilitates comparisons with previous studies on other corporate major strategic events. 4 2. 2. Interaction effects of intangible assets and international diversi? cation Although our theoretical framework should hold for all ? rms, the effect of international diversi? cation on new product performance may depend on ? rms' intangible assets. Scholars in international business have shown that multinational ? rms with greater marketing and technological capabilities may receive higher returns from international expansion (Kotabe et al. , 2002; Lu andBeamish, 2004). Other researchers also document the importance of marketing and technological capabilities in the success of new products (e. g. , Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1987; Danneels, 2002; Krasnikov and Jayachandran, 2008; Moorman and Slotegraaf, 1999; Yeoh and Roth, 1999). We make advances in linking these two stre ams of study by investigating the moderating effect 4 Previous studies have used event-study methodology to test the wealth effect of major corporate events, such as diversi? cation (Doukas and Lang, 2003; Hoskisson et al. , 1991), divestitures (Benou et al. , 2008), alliances (Das et al. 1998; Kale et al. , 2002), regulatory change (Bowman and Navissi, 2003), NPIs (Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008; Kelm et al. , 1995), R expenditures (Szewczyk et al. , 1996), and patents (Austin, 1993). 336 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 of internal capabilities on the association between international diversi? cation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements. We suggest that internationally diversi? ed ? rms that have greater marketing and technological capabilities are more able to extract the bene? ts and reduce the costs of international diversi? ation, resulting in higher returns from NPI announcements. Each moderating effect is disc ussed independently below. Marketing capability is related to a ? rm's ability to acquire external knowledge through the processes of gathering, interpreting, and using market information (Day, 1994). Though international diversi? cation gives ? rms opportunities to access new knowledge, ? rms that do not have ability to identify customers' needs and to understand the factors that in? uence consumer choice behavior will not be able to achieve better targeting and positioning of its products.Therefore, ? rms that have invested in developing their marketing capability are more able to integrate the information on consumer needs in diverse markets into new product designs, and thus generate higher returns from the new products (Dutta et al. , 1999). In addition, marketing capability is re? ected in a ? rm's ability to differentiate its products from those of competitors (Kotabe et al. , 2002). A higher level of product differentiation allows a ? rm to charge higher prices for its new p roducts (Day, 1994; Yeoh and Roth, 1999). Furthermore, ? ms that spend more money on advertising and promoting their products are more likely to build successful brands, which are essential to building awareness, reducing the perceived risk that consumers associate with new products, and ? nally increasing the adoption rate of new products introduced (Chandy and Tellis, 2000; Dowling and Staelin, 1994; Sorescu et al. , 2003). This is particularly important for ? rms that are completely new to foreign customers (Helsen et al. , 1993; Srivastava et al. , 1998). Consequently, we expect that NPIs are expected to be more worthwhile for internationally diversi? d ? rms with greater marketing capabilities, leading to Hypothesis 2: Hypothesis 2. Marketing capability will positively moderate the relationship between international diversi? cation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements. As mentioned, technological capability is also likely to moderate the effect of international d iversi? cation on new product development. Technology capability might represent a ? rm's ability to absorb external knowledge (Penner-Hahn and Shaver, 2005; Tsai, 2001). A ? rm may be able to access certain new knowledge through international diversi? ation, but without the capacity to absorb such knowledge a ? rm may not enhance its capabilities within new product innovation. Since knowledge gained from international markets is often tacit and socially complex (Zahra and Hayton, 2008), ? rms that have established a capability in a particular research skill are better able to interpret and assess the knowledge in that area. Technological capability also refers to a ? rm's ability to apply knowledge gained from foreign markets to commercial ends (Krasnikov and Jayachandran, 2008; Moorman and Slotegraaf, 1999).Kotabe et al. (2002) have stated that ? rms with greater technological capabilities are more capable of ? nding better product design solutions. The technical risks in developi ng new products are more likely to be reduced for such ? rms (Kelm et al. , 1995). Furthermore, ? rms with greater technological capability are more able to lower production costs by improving manufacturing processes. Moreover, technological capability helps ? rms to speed up the product development process and satisfy the market more quickly (Rabino and Moskowitz, 1981). Thus, ? ms that have greater technological capabilities are more likely to enhance their revenues in international markets by providing those markets with new products of better quality. Meanwhile, ? rms that leverage their technological capabilities in the greater scope of the global market may enjoy the bene? ts of economies of scale inherent in the innovation process. As a result, we expect that NPIs are more worthwhile for internationally diversi? ed ? rms with greater technological capabilities, leading to Hypothesis 3: Hypothesis 3. Technological capability will positively moderate the relationship between in ternational diversi? ation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements. 3. Sample and methodology 3. 1. Sample design We test our hypotheses using a sample of NPI announcement events. We collect the sample data on ? rms listed on either the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) from the Dow Jones News Retrieval Service (DJNRS) database, which provides news-service articles and selected stories from the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones News Wire, and Barron's. We use the words and phrases commonly used to describe NPIs as keys for a database search routine.Examples are â€Å"introduce,† â€Å"new product,† â€Å"unveil,† â€Å"launch,† â€Å"received approval,† â€Å"to market,† â€Å"test market,† â€Å"begin selling,† along with other pertinent words and phrases. When a repeat NPI announcement from a ? rm is found in a different publication, the announcement that has the earliest date is ch osen as it is the earliest date when the information about the NPI is publicly available (Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008; Kelm et al. , 1995). The sample period is from January 1997 to December 2005. Four criteria are used when selecting ? rms for our sample: (1) the announcing ? rms should not have other announcements ? e days before and after the initial announcement date in order to avoid any confounding events that could distort the measurement of the valuation effects; (2) daily stock return information must be available from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), with a minimum of 50 daily returns in the estimation period; (3) companies' ? nancial information must be available from the COMPUSTAT ? les; and (4) since we want to test the effect of international diversi? cation, only those ? rms with foreign sales data available from the COMPUSTAT ? les are included. C. -F. Wang et al. Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 337 Following these procedures, we collect a ? nal sample comprising 3061 new product announcements made by 531 ? rms in 57 industries based on the two-digit Standard Industrial Classi? cation (SIC) codes. 5 Table 1 reports the distribution of the sample by year and industry. Our data shows no obvious cluster by time period. In 2004, there are 530 announcements, accounting for 17. 32% of the total. Observations are nearly evenly distributed through the remaining years. However, our sample shows certain levels of concentration in speci? c industries.The largest concentration comes from electrical equipment (33. 61%), computer equipment (18. 09%), electro-medical instruments (9. 38%), and business services (e. g. , computer programming and the software industry) (7. 19%). These three broad categories constitute nearly 70% of the total sample. As suggested by Chaney et al. (1991), this result is expected since neither the investment opportunities nor their valuation should be random across industries. 3. 2. Measuring the stock market responses to new product announcements We employ the event study methodology to examine the stock price responses to the announcements of NPIs. This approach has been widely used in the management, accounting, economics and ? nance disciplines to examine the impact of ? rm-speci? c events on ? rm value. The event study approach suggests that, in an ef? cient capital market, the market will adjust and result in returns different from those that are normally expected if the NPI announcement has unexpected information content (Hoskisson et al. , 1991). We use the market model suggested by Brown and Warner (1985) to estimate the abnormal returns to NPI announcements. This model captures a ? rm's stock price change after adjusting for general market-wide factors and the ? m's systematic risk (Bowman, 1983; Brown, 1989; Brown and Warner, 1980, 1985). The abnormal return for ? rm i on day t, ARit, is computed by: ARit = Rit ? E? Rit = It ? 1 ? ; where Rit is ? rm i's actual returns on day t, and It ? 1 represents the information set available to the market about the ? rm at time t ? 1. The expected return for ? rm i on day t is estimated by: E? Rit = It ? 1 ? = ? i + ? i Rmt where Rmt is the return for the market portfolio on day t, ? i is the intercept, and ? i measures the risk or sensitivity of the ? rm's returns relative to the market portfolio. We de? e Day 0 (t = 0) as the initial announcement date. We use the value-weighted CRSP Index as the proxy for the market portfolio. The parameters ? i and ? i are estimated using data for the period of 200 to 60 days before the initial announcement date. The two-day cumulative abnormal returns, CAR (? 1, 0), are estimated by summing the daily abnormal returns over the window period of days ? 1 and 0. The equally weighted cross-sectional average abnormal returns on ? event day t, ARt , is further calculated by: 1N ? ARt = ? ARit ; N i=1 where N is the total number of sample NPIs. The cumulati ve average abnormal return over the period (? , 0) is similarly de? ned. 3. 3. Measuring international diversi? cation We use the entropy index to estimate international diversi? cation. 7 The entropy measure of international diversi? cation is de? ned as ? [Pi* ln(1/Pi)], where Pi is the percentage of sales in geographic segment i, and ln(1/Pi) is the weight of each geographic segment. This measure thus considers both the number of geographic segments in which a ? rm operates and the relative importance of sales contributed by each geographic segment. 5 For the industry classi? cation, we follow Hitt et al. (1997) and use the our-digit SIC codes as the indicator of the industry or business segment that a ? rm operates. Therefore, two variables in this study, namely product diversi? cation and industry R&D intensity, are estimated basing on the four-digit SIC codes. However, for the sake of brevity, we report the sample distribution by industry on the basis of the two-digit SIC code s. 6 Other performance measures of new product strategies that are most commonly used in previous studies include return on assets, return on sales, return on equity, return on investment and pro? t margin (e. g. , Li and Atuahene-Gima, 2001; Moorman, 1995).However, these accounting measures have several limitations in measuring new product performance (Chang and Wang, 2007; Kalyanaram et al. , 1995; Pauwels et al. , 2004). For example, the differences in accounting policies across ? rms make performance comparisons dif? cult. These measures are also not risk-adjusted as they do not consider business risks associated with individual ? rms when measuring performance, and they are based on historical accounting data and thus may not adequately re? ect future expected revenue streams resulting from the new products. More importantly, these measures re? ect aggregate ? m performance, making it more dif? cult to directly link them to the effect of speci? c new product introductions. Due to these limitations we employ an event study methodology in order to examine stock price responses to announcements of NPIs. This method captures the ? rm's stock price change after adjusting for the ? rm's systematic risk (Bowman, 1983; Brown, 1989; Brown and Warner, 1980, 1985), as well as re? ects investors' expectations of a ? rm's future cash ? ow related to this new product (Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008; Chen et al. , 2002; Kelm et al. , 1995). 7 Previous studies have used several proxies of international diversi? ation. The most commonly used measures are the ratio of foreign sales to total sales (Grant, 1987; Tallman and Li, 1996), the ratio of foreign assets to total assets (Daniels and Bracker, 1989; Ramaswamy, 1995), numbers of foreign countries in which a ? rm has subsidiaries (Delios and Beamish, 1999; Tallman and Li, 1996) or a composite index encompassing these three dimensions (Gomes and Ramaswamy, 1999; Sullivan, 1994). However, these measures only capture the extent but not the distribution of international diversi? cation. In this study, we follow Hitt et al. (1997) and use the entropy measure of international diversi? ation to account for the extent of sales in global markets and their weighting. C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 338 Table 1 Distribution of new product introduction. Panel A. Sample distribution by year Year Number of announcements Percent of sample (%) 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Total 354 279 370 313 232 247 391 530 345 3061 11. 56 9. 11 12. 08 10. 22 7. 58 8. 07 12. 77 17. 32 11. 30 100. 00 Panel B. Sample distribution by industry Two-digit SIC code Industry group 01 12 13 15 16 17 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 33 34 Agricultural production cropsCoal mining Oil and gas extraction Building construction: general contractors Heavy construction other than building construction contractors Construction: special trade contractors Food and kindred produc ts Tobacco products Textile mill products Apparel, ? nished prdcts from fabrics and similar materials Lumber and wood products, except furniture Furniture and ? xtures Paper and allied products Printing, publishing, and allied industries Chemicals and allied products Petroleum re? ning and related industries Rubber and miscellaneous plastics products Leather and leather products Primary metal industriesFabricated metal products, except machinery and transportation equipment Industrial and commercial machinery and computer equipment Electronic and other electrical equipment and components, except computer equipment Transportation equipment Measuring, analyzing, and controlling instruments; photographic, medical and optical goods Miscellaneous manufacturing industries Railroad transportation Motor freight transportation and warehousing Transportation by air Pipelines, except natural gas Transportation services Communications Electric, gas, and sanitary services Wholesale trade: durabl e goods Wholesale trade: non-durable goodsBuilding materials, hardware, garden supply, and mobile home dealers General merchandise stores Food stores Apparel and accessory stores Home furniture, furnishings, and equipment stores Eating and drinking places Miscellaneous retail Depository institutions Non-depository credit institutions Security and commodity brokers, dealers, exchanges, and services Insurance carriers Insurance agents, brokers, and service Real estate Holding and other investment of? ces Hotels, rooming houses, camps, and other lodging places Personal services 35 36 37 38 39 40 42 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 67 0 72 Number of announcements Percent of sample (%) 1 1 8 1 1 1 28 4 2 2 3 6 13 76 118 2 9 2 23 21 0. 03 0. 03 0. 26 0. 03 0. 03 0. 03 0. 91 0. 13 0. 07 0. 07 0. 10 0. 20 0. 42 2. 48 3. 85 0. 07 0. 29 0. 07 0. 75 0. 69 554 1029 18. 09 33. 61 72 287 2. 35 9. 38 41 4 2 144 1 1 120 20 19 10 2 3 3 8 6 14 13 2 18 17 34 5 3 9 6 6 1. 34 0. 13 0. 07 4. 70 0. 03 0. 03 3. 92 0. 65 0. 62 0. 33 0. 07 0. 10 0. 10 0. 26 0. 20 0. 46 0. 42 0. 07 0. 59 0. 56 1. 11 0. 16 0. 10 0. 29 0. 20 0. 20 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 339 Table 1 (continued) Panel B. Sample distribution by industryTwo-digit SIC code Industry group 73 78 79 80 82 87 Business services Motion pictures Amusement and recreation services Health services Educational services Engineering, accounting, research, management, and related services Nonclassi? able establishments 99 Total Number of announcements Percent of sample (%) 220 13 4 2 1 10 7. 19 0. 42 0. 13 0. 07 0. 03 0. 33 36 3061 1. 18 100. 00 As data is not available at the country level, we use sales of regional markets to measure international diversity (as used by e. g. , Hirsch and Lev, 1971; Hitt et al. , 1997; Miller and Pras, 1980). Following Hitt et al. 1997), we group foreign markets into four regions based on economic and political conditions: Africa, Asia and the Paci? c, Europe, and the Americas. Although not perfect, this approach allows us to focus on between-market heterogeneity (Kim et al. , 1989). The international market sales data are from the COMPUSTAT geographic segment tapes for the ? scal year preceding the announcements. 8 3. 4. Measuring intangible assets We measure marketing capability as the average marketing intensity (the ratio of advertisement expenditures to net sales) for the three ? scal years prior to the announcements. 9 We suggest that ? ms who invest more in marketing activities are considered to have superior marketing capabilities. We measure technological capability as the average R&D intensity (the ratio of R&D expenditures to net sales) for the three ? scal years prior to the announcements. We suggest that ? rms outspending their competitors in R&D are considered to have greater technological capabilities. We scale the measures of ? rm capabilities by ? rm size in order to ensure that the capability measure does not merely re? ect higher levels of ? nancial resources of large-scaled ? rms (following Moorman and Slotegraaf, 1999). 3. 5. Other variablesOther potential variables that could affect the value of NPIs are controlled. The ? rst is ? rm size, measured by the natural logarithm of total sales of the announcing ? rm for the ? scal year preceding the announcement (following Kotabe et al. , 2002; Lu and Beamish, 2004). We next control for a ? rm's leverage ratio, measured as the ratio of total debt to total assets for the ? scal year prior to the announcement (following Chen et al. , 2002; Chen, 2008). We also control for the degree of product diversi? cation for the ? scal year preceding the announcement. Product diversi? cation is measured by the entropy index (? Pi * ln(1/Pi)], where Pi is the percentage of ? rm sales in business segment i, and ln(1/Pi) is the weight of each segment). Following Hitt et al. (1997), we de? ne business segments as those having the same four-digit SIC codes. The product-speci? c effects are also controlled. This is necessary as some researchers have suggested that high-newness products are expected to create better opportunities for product differentiation and competitive advantage (Kleinschmidt and Cooper, 1991; Meyer and Roberts, 1986), and as such, high-newness products should receive a larger market value than updates of existing products.Furthermore, scholars have argued that ? rms introducing multiple products are more competitive in the product market and seize more market share than those announcing single products. This implies that ? rms announcing multipleproducts announcers may appropriate much of the bene? ts associated with new products, and are thus expected to experience a larger increase in market value than those announcing a single product (Acs and Audretsch, 1988; Hendricks and Singhal, 1997). Moreover, researchers have documented that the ? rst to introduce a new product in the marketplac e usually enjoys ? st-mover advantages stemming from the creation of entry barriers and switching costs, and from high consumer recognition and preference to the ? rst product (Jovanovic and MacDonald, 1994; Lee et al. , 2000). Therefore, ? rst-moving ? rms are predicted to gain a higher announcement return at the time of NPIs than followers do. The aforementioned ? rms that introduce high-newness and multiple products or ? rms that are the ? rst to introduce new products are suggested to obtain sustained competitive advantage. This argument corresponds to Williamson (1999) that ? ms getting ahead of their competitors by providing multiple and new technology, products and business solutions have more opportunities to ensure lasting sales growth. We identify these product announcement types by using structural content analysis on the news content (as in Chaney et al. , 1991; Lee et al. , 2000; Firth and Narayanan, 1996). Based on the analysis of the news content, we create three dumm y variables: NEWNESS, MULTIPLE and TIME. 8 The main reason for using data one year before the announcements is to capture the most recent impact of a ? m's attributes on the market reactions to new product introductions. Several independent variables are measured by the data one year preceding the announcements, including international diversi? cation, ? rm size, debt-to-asset ratio, product diversi? cation and two industry sector dummy variables. 9 Since the values of advertising and R&D expenditures tend to ? uctuate substantially from year to year, we use the 3-year average values of advertising intensity, R&D intensity and industry R&D intensity to reduce the chance that a random and extreme value in one year disproportionately in? ences our measure of intangible assets. 340 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 NEWNESS equals one if the product is highly innovative, and zero if it is an update or an enhancement of an existing product (as in Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008). MULTIPLE equals one for multiple-products announced simultaneously by a ? rm, and zero for single announcements (as in Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, et al. , 2002). TIME equals one if the announcing ? rm is the ? rst mover, and zero otherwise (as in Lee et al. , 2000; Chen, 2008).Finally, we consider two industry-related factors. The ? rst is the technological opportunity of the industry in which the announcing ? rms operate. Chaney et al. (1991) asserted that the valuation effect of NPIs is higher for ? rms in more technologically based industries, as they are considered to have more innovation opportunities and greater potential for future growth. In contrast, Kelm et al. (1995) found that investors respond positively to new product announcements by ? rms in less-technology-intensive industries because new product announcements by these ? rms are relatively nexpected by investors. Technological opportunities at the industry level are measure d by the average industry R&D intensity (the average values of R&D expenditures divided by net sales for all ? rms in the same four-digit SIC industry) for the three ? scal years prior to the announcements (following Chan et al. , 1990; Kelm et al. , 1995). In addition, we control for the industry-speci? c effect with two dummy variables: MANUFACTURING and SERVICE. MANUFACTURING equals one for announcing ? rms in manufacturing industries, and zero otherwise. SERVICE equals one for announcing ? ms in service industries, and zero otherwise. This is done as several studies have argued that the effect of internationality on performance for manufacturing ? rms is different from that for service ? rms (Capar and Kotabe, 2003; Contractor et al. , 2003). We therefore separate the sample ? rms into service, manufacturing and other industries according to 2-digit SIC codes and apply two industry dummies to control for the industry-speci? c effects. Table 2 presents the means, standard deviati ons, and correlations for all variables for the sample of NPI announcements. 4. Empirical resultsTable 3 provides estimates of abnormal returns around the announcement date and the surrounding days. The results show that innovations such as NPIs are perceived by investors as value-increasing activities. For the two-day announcement period cumulative abnormal returns, CAR (? 1, 0), the new product announcers experience a positive cumulative average abnormal return of 0. 194%, signi? cant at the 1% con? dence level. No signi? cant abnormal returns are observed preceding and following the announcement period. As a result, we use CAR (? 1, 0) as the dependent variable in the following regression analysis.Our results are consistent with prior studies (e. g. , Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008; Chen et al. , 2002; Kelm et al. , 1995). Table 4 reports the regression results with the dependent variable CAR (? 1, 0). We present the results without centering the variables in the ? rst ? ve mod els, and results with centering the variables on their means in the latter ? ve models. 10 Models 1 and 6 are baseline models that include only the control variables and two measures of intangible assets. Among the control variables, leverage ratio is found to be positively associated with CAR (? 1, 0), though insigni? cant in some models.This result suggests that higher levels of debt lower the expected costs of free cash ? ow (Jensen, 1986), and new products announced by ? rms with a higher leverage ratio are therefore perceived as more worthwhile. Of the two ? rm-speci? c assets variables, both R&D and advertising intensities have a signi? cant and positive impact in most models. Moreover, industry R&D intensity is found to be signi? cantly negatively associated with CAR (? 1, 0). This result suggests that investors respond positively to new product announcements by ? rms in less technology-intensive industries because new product announcements by these ? ms are relatively unexpe cted by investors (Kelm et al. , 1995). Other control variables are not found to have signi? cant explanatory power in terms of the variation in announcement abnormal returns. In model 2 (7), we test the impact of international diversi? cation on the stock market reactions to NPI announcements by including the linear and squared terms of international diversi? cation. We ? nd our Hypothesis 1 is strongly supported, as CAR (? 1, 0) is positively related to the linear term of international diversi? cation and then negatively associated to the squared term of international diversi? cation.This result suggests an inverted-U-shaped relationship between international diversi? cation and the market value of NPIs. Models 3 (8), 4 (9) and 5 (10) test the moderating effects of intangible assets by including the interaction term of international diversi? cation and advertising intensity and the interaction term of international diversi? cation and R&D intensity. 11 Model 3 (8) tests the intera ction effect between international diversi? cation and marketing capability. The statistically signi? cant and positive coef? cient of the interaction term suggests that the market value of NPIs increases when internationally diversi? d ? rms have greater marketing capacities. Thus, Hypothesis 2 is supported. Model 4 (9) tests the interaction effect between international diversi? cation and technological capability. We also ? nd a statistically signi? cant and positive coef? cient of the interaction term. Thus, Hypothesis 3 is supported. To test the robustness of these ? ndings, we simultaneously include the interaction of international diversi? cation and advertising intensity and the interaction of international diversi? cation and R&D intensity in model 5 (10). Results remain unchanged to those in models 3 (8) and 4 (9).It is noted that the â€Å"main effects† between international diversi? cation and the abnormal returns of NPIs remain robust in all models with the additi on of the interaction terms. To gain further insights into our ? ndings, we construct Figs. 1 and 2 by drawing on the results of models 3 and 4. We use CAR (? 1, 0) as the measurement of market value of NPIs. When illustrating the impact of advertising intensity (R&D intensity) and 10 Since some variables are constructed from other variables, we follow Aiken and West (1991) by subtracting each variable from its mean value in the sample to minimize their collinearity. 11To test the robustness of our conclusion, we re-examine the regression analysis by incorporating the interaction of quadratic terms of international diversi? cation and intangible asset proxies. Our conclusions remain unchanged. Variables a Mean s. d. Min Max 1. Two-day announcementperiod abnormal return(%)a 2. International diversi? cation 3. Advertising intensity 4. R&D intensity 5. Product diversi? cation 6. Firm size b 7. Debt-to-asset ratio 8. Newness 9. Multiple 10. Time 11. Industry R&D intensity 12. Service in dustry 13. Manufacturing industry 0. 194 0. 037 ? 0. 242 0. 230 0. 653 0. 012 0. 081 0. 816 8. 541 0. 00 0. 827 0. 302 0. 359 0. 236 0. 236 0. 748 0. 424 0. 022 0. 148 0. 659 1. 860 0. 149 0. 379 0. 459 0. 480 0. 390 0. 425 0. 434 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 ? 0. 781 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 1. 382 0. 317 4. 696 2. 533 12. 060 1. 099 1. 000 1. 000 1. 000 2. 334 1. 000 1. 000 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1. 000 ? 0. 033* 1. 000 0. 102*** ? 0. 071*** 1. 000 ? 0. 004 ? 0. 042** ? 0. 016 1. 000 0. 149*** 0. 092*** ? 0. 158*** 0. 399*** 1. 000 ? 0. 111*** 0. 001 ? 0. 090*** 0. 052*** 0. 075*** 1. 000 0. 036** ? 0. 002 0. 010 ? 0. 003 0. 027 ? 0. 021 1. 000 9 0. 076*** 0. 050*** 0. 015 ? 0. 024 0. 016 ? 0. 100*** 0. 33* 1. 000 The two-day period (? 1,0) abnormal return is estimated by summing up abnormal returns from the day before (day ? 1) to the announcement date (day 0). Firm size is measured by the natural logarithm of net sales. ***p b 0. 01, **pb0. 05, *pb0. 1. b 10 11 12 13 0. 045** ? 0. 022 0. 056*** 0. 039** 0. 024 ? 0. 050*** 0. 170*** ? 0. 040** 1. 000 0. 257*** ? 0. 083*** 0. 252*** ? 0. 042** ? 0. 188*** ? 0. 098*** 0. 031* 0. 039** 0. 055*** 1. 000 ? 0. 382*** 0. 000 ? 0. 137*** ? 0. 206*** ? 0. 020 0. 199*** ? 0. 007 ? 0. 147*** ? 0. 064*** ? 0. 151*** 1. 000 0. 342*** 0. 017 0. 143*** 0. 151*** ? 0. 017 ? 0. 222*** . 009 0. 147*** 0. 068*** 0. 166*** ? 0. 960*** 1. 000 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 Table 2 Descriptive statistics and correlations. 341 342 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 Table 3 Abnormal returns for new product introduction announcements. Event day Mean AR (%) t-statistic ? 10 ?9 ?8 ?7 ?6 ?5 ?4 ?3 ?2 ?1 0 [? 1,0] +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 + 10 ? 0. 023 ? 0. 005 0. 025 ? 0. 016 ? 0. 025 ? 0. 005 0. 047 0. 001 ? 0. 039 0. 093 0. 101 0. 194 ? 0. 038 0. 058 0. 081 ? 0. 056 0. 027 ? 0. 073 ? 0. 055 0. 053 ? 0. 025 ? 0. 054 ? 0. 4 50 0. 092 0. 471 ? 0. 309 ? 0. 477 ? 0. 099 0. 888 0. 003 ? 0. 731 1. 918* 2. 038** 2. 885*** ? 0. 756 1. 086 1. 329 ? 1. 138 0. 529 ? 1. 403 ? 1. 078 1. 118 ? 0. 471 ? 0. 972 (0. 653) (0. 927) (0. 638) (0. 758) (0. 633) (0. 921) (0. 375) (0. 998) (0. 465) (0. 055) (0. 042) (0. 004) (0. 450) (0. 278) (0. 184) (0. 255) (0. 597) (0. 161) (0. 281) (0. 264) (0. 638) (0. 331) ***p b 0. 01, **p b 0. 05. Values in parentheses are p-values. international diversi? cation on CAR (? 1, 0), we hold other control variables at the average level. If the control variables are dummy ones, we substitute these variables with their modes. 2 Both ? gures provide supportive evidence for our hypotheses. First, the relationship between international diversi? cation and the market value of NPIs is found to be inverted-U-shaped, with the slope positive at lower levels of international diversi? cation but negative at higher levels of international diversi? cation. For example, in Fig. 1, for ? rms with no mar keting capability, at the initial stage, there is a positive impact on the market value of NPIs with an increase of 0. 62% in CAR (? 1, 0) when the level of international diversi? cation increases from zero to 0. 8. Beyond this threshold of 0. , a higher level of international diversi? cation is associated with a decreasing CAR (? 1, 0). In Fig. 2, for ? rms with no technological capability, there is a positive impact on the market value of NPIs with an increase of 0. 63% in CAR (? 1, 0) when the level of international diversi? cation increases from zero to 0. 8. Beyond this point, more international diversi? cation results in lower market values of NPIs. In addition, these graphs illustrate the performance differences across ? rms with different levels of intangible assets. For example, in Fig. 1, for a ? rm with a degree of international diversi? cation of 0. and a level of marketing capability of 0. 3, there is an expected CAR (? 1, 0) that is almost 0. 89% higher than that for a ? rm at the same level of international diversi? cation but with the marketing capability of 0. 1; at a degree of international diversi? cation of 1. 2, there is an expected improvement in CAR (? 1, 0) of 3. 25% when the level of marketing capability increases from 0. 1 to 0. 3. The same procedure can be used to explain the moderating effect of technological capability. In Fig. 2, for a ? rm with a level of international diversi? cation of 0. 4 and a level of technology capability of 1. , there is an expected CAR (? 1, 0) that is 2. 09% higher than that for a ? rm at the same level of international diversi? cation but with the technological capability of 0. 4; at a degree of international diversi? cation of 1. 2, there is an expected improvement in CAR (? 1, 0) of 4. 92% when the technology capability of a ? rm increases from 0. 4 to 1. 6. 5. Discussion and conclusions This paper examines the importance of international diversi? cation in explaining the stock market reactions to NP I announcements. Using NPI announcements from the period 1997–2005, we found an inverted-U-shaped relationship between international diversi? ation and the market value of NPIs, with a slope positive at lower levels of international diversi? cation but negative at higher levels of international diversi? cation. This relationship is moderated by the intangible assets possessed by internationally diversi? ed ? rms. We ? nd that announcing ? rms with greater technological and/or marketing capabilities achieve higher abnormal returns from NPIs. The main effects of the international diversi? cation variables still hold after the inclusion of these moderating factors. In view of recent research having suggested a sigmoid performance effect of internationalization (Contractor et al. 2003; Lu and Beamish, 2004), we test our hypotheses in the framework of an S-shaped relationship by simultaneously adding linear, squared and cubed terms of international diversi? cation in the regressio n. However, our sample does not reveal the S-shaped association between international diversi? cation and the market value of NPI. 12 The equations for the graphs presented in Figs. 1 and 2 are as follows, respectively: CAR (? 1, 0) = ? 0. 0037 + 0. 0157 * ID ? 0. 0099 * ID2 ? 0. 0147 * AD + 0. 1476 * ID * AD and CAR (? 1, 0) = ? 0. 0049 + 0. 0168 * ID ? 0. 0112 * ID2 + 0. 0056 * RD + 0. 295 * ID * RD, where ID = international diversi? cation; ID2 = International diversi? cation squared; AD = advertising intensity; RD = R&D intensity. C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 343 Table 4 Regression analysis of new product introduction on international diversi? cation. Un-centered results Centered results Independent variables Model 1 Model 2 Intercept ? 0. 0005 (? 0. 072) ? 0. 0042 ? 0. 0017 ? 0. 0037 ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 591) (? 0. 233) (? 0. 525) (? 0. 122) 0. 0178 0. 0157 0. 0168 0. 0143 (3. 156)*** (2. 737)*** (2. 967)*** (2. 486)** ? 0. 0099 ? 0. 0099 ? 0. 0112 0. 0113 (? 2. 188)** (? 2. 175)** (? 2. 434)** (? 2. 455)** International diversi? cation International diversi? cation squared International diversi? cation ? Advertising intensity International diversi? cation ? R&D intensity Firm size a Debt-to-asset ratio Product diversi? cation Advertising intensity R&D intensity Newness Multiple Time Industry R&D intensity Service Manufacturing Adjusted R2 F value Number of observations a Model 3 Model 4 0. 1476 (2. 236)** ? 0. 0001 ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 336) (? 0. 484) 0. 0072 0. 0071 (1. 531) (1. 516) ? 0. 0001 0. 0000 (? 0. 069) (0. 037) 0. 0667 ? 0. 0147 (2. 100)** (? 0. 04) 0. 0090 0. 0087 (1. 878)* (1. 832)* ? 0. 0003 ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 182) (? 0. 138) 0. 0016 0. 0016 (1. 085) (1. 055) ? 0. 0007 ? 0. 0006 (? 0. 466) (? 0. 407) ? 0. 0034 ? 0. 0032 (? 1. 804)* (? 1. 686)* 0. 0020 ? 0. 0007 (0. 032) (? 1. 121) ? 0. 0005 ? 0. 0015 (? 0. 079) (? 0. 252) 0. 0051 0. 0064 2. 20*** 2. 41*** 3061 3061 Model 6 0. 0036 (0. 637) 0. 1629 (2. 458)** 0. 0295 0. 0003 (0. 676) 0. 0073 (1. 569) ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 744) 0. 0527 (1. 673)* 0. 0093 (1. 941)* ? 0. 0004 (? 0. 195) 0. 0017 (1. 141) ? 0. 0006 (? 0. 389) ? 0. 0018 (? 0. 977) ? 0. 0030 (? 0. 519) ? 0. 0012 (? 0. 218) 0. 0005 1. 15 3061 Model 5Model 7 Model 8 Model 9 0. 0022 0. 0032 0. 0030 0. 0042 (0. 392) (0. 567) (0. 517) (0. 726) 0. 0178 0. 0174 0. 0192 0. 0189 (3. 156)*** (3. 081)*** (3. 375)*** (3. 326)*** ? 0. 0099 ? 0. 0099 ? 0. 0112 ? 0. 0113 (? 2. 188)** (? 2. 175)** (? 2. 434)** (? 2. 455)** 0. 1476 (2. 236)** 0. 0333 (1. 978)** (2. 225)** ? 0. 0001 ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 257) (? 0. 410) 0. 0085 0. 0086 (1. 803)* (1. 824)* ? 0. 0001 0. 0000 (? 0. 102) (0. 012) 0. 0709 ? 0. 0185 (2. 226)** (? 0. 383) 0. 0056 0. 0049 (1. 107) (0. 971) ? 0. 0002 ? 0. 0001 (? 0. 109) (? 0. 051) 0. 0018 0. 0018 (1. 221) (1. 2061) ? 0. 0009 ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 641) (? 0. 99) ? 0. 0046 ? 0. 0046 (? 2. 341)** (? 2. 302)** ? 0. 0005 ? 0. 0016 (? 0. 082) (? 0. 265) ? 0. 0015 ? 0. 0027 (? 0. 252) (? 0. 463) 0. 0060 0. 0077 2. 33*** 2. 58*** 3061 3061 0. 1629 (2. 458)** 0. 0295 0. 0003 (0. 676) 0. 0073 (1. 569) ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 744) 0. 0527 (1. 673)* 0. 0093 (1. 941)* ? 0. 0004 (? 0. 195) 0. 0017 (1. 141) ? 0. 0006 (? 0. 389) ? 0. 0018 (? 0. 977) ? 0. 0003 (? 0. 519) ? 0. 0012 (? 0. 218) 0. 0005 1. 15 3061 Model 10 (1. 978)** ? 0. 0001 ? 0. 0002 ? 0. 0001 (? 0. 336) (? 0. 484) (? 0. 257) 0. 0072 0. 0071 0. 0085 (1. 531) (1. 516) (1. 803)* ? 0. 0001 0. 0000 ? 0. 0001 (? 0. 069) (0. 37) (? 0. 102) 0. 0667 0. 0817 0. 0709 (2. 100)** (2. 517)** (2. 226)** 0. 0090 0. 0087 0. 0249 (1. 878)* (1. 832)* (2. 659)*** ? 0. 0003 ? 0. 0002 ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 182) (? 0. 138) (? 0. 109) 0. 0016 0. 0016 0. 0018 (1. 085) (1. 055) (1. 221) ? 0. 0007 ? 0. 0006 ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 466) (? 0. 407) (? 0. 641) ? 0. 0034 ? 0. 0032 ? 0. 0046 (? 1. 804)* (? 1. 686)* (? 2. 341)** 0. 0020 ? 0. 0007 ? 0. 0005 (0. 032) (? 1. 121) (? 0. 082) ? 0. 0005 ? 0. 0015 ? 0. 0015 (? 0. 079) (? 0. 252) (? 0. 252) 0. 0051 0. 00 64 0. 0060 2. 20*** 2. 41*** 2. 33*** 3061 3061 3061 0. 0333 (2. 225)** ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 410) 0. 0086 (1. 824)*