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There are several reasons why new products must be developed faster than before. This article reviews this changing imperative and describes several specific techniques that can help shorten new product development durations.

Proposes a new product implementation process which is designed to reduce the risk inherent in new product introductions in consumer markets. Defines the stages of this process as idea generation, idea screening, conceptual development and testing, business analysis, product development, test market, and product introduction. Concludes that this process differs from previous models in suggesting a team be created to manage the development, speeding up the tasks in each stage.

New product concept screening, i.e., selecting a few viable innovative concepts from numerous candidates, involves high stakes and is complicated and resource intensive. Over the years, there has been heated debate about the relative merit of monadic (sequential) tests vs that of preference-based paired comparisons. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study proposes the Generalizability Theory as a framework to assess and compare the performance of traditional monadic test with the Adaptive Concept Screening (ACS) in terms of their testing results and psychometric quality.

Using 50 yogurt concepts and two independent groups of respondents, the results indicate that ACS requires a significant smaller sample of respondents to achieve a necessary minimum G coefficient for decision making. Moreover, ACS offers a more discriminating and reliable solution for early stage concept screening as manifested by a higher G coefficient and greater percentage of variance due to the selected concepts given the same sampling design.

The results lend strong support to ACS as a more cost-effective method for screening new product concepts and the Generalizability Theory as a systematic framework for assessing concept testing methods.

This study adopts the Generalizability Theory framework to assess the validity of new product concept screening method.

As with post‐World War II economic policies, boom or bust are terms which can be applied to the birth rate. For those of us who are baby boomers, used to our place in the demographic spotlight as a focus for endless “what do young people want?” media features, the realization that marketing attention is switching to a new baby bust generation comes as something of a shock. After record births between 1946 and 1964, the rate decreased dramatically between the years 1965 and 1980. This new generation is entering the workforce en masse (albeit a smaller mass than in previous years) about now. Their new‐found spending power is having an impact in consumer markets causing marketers to ask the question “what do young people want?” and causing baby boomers everywhere to realize that, once again, a generation gap has opened up.

This chapter examines whether Type 1 and Type 2 models of Multi-Level Governance (MLG) are suitable frameworks for analysing the operation of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) as significant new partnerships at the sub-national level of governance in England. In doing so it bridges some gaps in knowledge, largely absent from MLG literature, by demonstrating how actors in economic development attempt to solve governance problems through co-operation rather than central steering and control.

The approach follows Stubbs (2005) who called for more political anthropological or ethnographic analyses, and the chapter draws on primary interview data and secondary documentary evidence from two LEPs in the north east of England.

Some advocates of MLG believe that governance should serve citizen needs but it is clear from the contents of this chapter that MLG has a number of weaknesses in this respect, as well as neglecting power relationships and misinterpretations of the concept of territory. The conclusion shows that LEPs as multi-agency partnerships need to be accountable and it is essential to adopt models that facilitate a clearer understanding of new spaces of interactions and multiple accountabilities. Using a stakeholder analysis fills some gaps in understanding of how partnerships work and who they are accountable to, as well as assessing how public services delivery models operate within a multi-level governance setting. All 39 LEPs have varying levels of trust between partners, as well as responding to multiple accountabilities. Neither Type I nor Type II MLG is sufficient on its own as an explanatory framework for analysing LEPs, but each does offer a useful entrée into this important field of enquiry.

The MLG concept is a helpful starting point, but its utility is governed by how it is augmented with other, more appropriate models of analysis. LEPs are a challenge to the dynamics of public accountability as they involve private actors at the heart of public service delivery; they are also interesting examples of persistent contestation between actors with different mind sets on outcomes and on legitimacy, accountability and representativeness. Stakeholder analysis allows a deeper appreciation of the interactions in space and multiple accountabilities of actors in LEPs.

LEPs in England are the preferred instrument for driving economic growth in regions and sub-regions. The findings help to explain more fully some of the intricate power and trust relationships in these partnerships. The chapter also examines multiple accountabilities and how actors connect within territories.

Critically the findings show an absence of real citizen engagement or expression of public opinions and feedback loops to citizens/publics/individuals/other organisations within such diffuse partnership arrangements. In an era of Localism it is essential for partnerships to be accountable to a wider group of societal stakeholders

The chapter takes a novel approach to analysing LEPs and builds on some existing work on MLG to obtain a deeper analysis of some of the complex inter-relationships and connections between actors on LEPs.

Purpose – This chapter engages critically with the ideas of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSI) in order to examine their utility for the purposes of realizing more socially just and environmentally sustainable social and economic practices.

Methodology/approach – The chapter develops Marx's understanding of the twin pressures of class struggle and inter-capitalist competition in setting the limits of agency for corporate actors. It is thus theoretical and discursive in nature.

Findings – The findings of the chapter suggest that the scope for corporate agency in relation to responsibility/irresponsibility is severely limited by inter-capitalist competition and capitalist social relations. It therefore argues that those interested in social justice and environmental sustainability should focus on these structural pressures rather than theorizing corporate agency.

Social implications – The research suggests that the focus of academic and government attention should be on resolving the contradictions and exploitative social relations inherent in capitalism. Without this emphasis activism, corporate agency and government action will not eradicate the types of problem that advocates of CSR/CSI are concerned about.

Originality/value of paper – The value of the paper is that it contests and engages critically with the utility of the notion of CSR and the emergent concept of CSI. It asks proponents of these concepts to think seriously about the structural pressures and constraints within which business and policy makers act.

The aim of the paper is to evidence the development of scientific management through the lens of postmodernism.

The four principles of scientific management are deconstructed through a postmodern lens. Current management practices are analyzed for indicators of development in scientific management.

The principles of scientific management are found within current management examples; measurement of knowledge production; empowerment; total quality management; teamwork. Scientific management, when deconstructed through the lens of postmodernism, is discovered to have developed over time.

The limitation to this study is a precise definition for postmodernism and postmodern management against which to “prove” any findings. The implication is to extend research on the development of scientific management in postmodern management.

A practical implication for management practitioners is to apply a tenet of postmodernism to management i.e. there are a myriad of managerial approaches that work.

The paper's contribution is that the principles of scientific management originated in modern times and are developed in postmodern management.

Historically, Scottish education policymaking has been implemented independently of central educational policy makers, with policymakers negotiating with a variety of interest groups and elected policy makers. The paper discusses Scotland’s research policy; the purpose of research and its possible link to teaching and learning, the function of a research policy and a critical discussion of the theory of policy networks and policy communities to establish the key players who “really” shape and set Scotland’s research policy. The paper draws on documentary evidence to support recommendations on how to enhance the policy‐making process to ensure a greater representation and more effective implementation at the “grass roots” level of Scottish researchers and their academic managers.