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New product development (NPD), entrepreneurship and strategic management.

Advanced undergraduate, MBA/MSc in Marketing and Management course that cover the topics on NPD.

This case illustrates that commercialization of a new product requires a proper strategic direction to make it a reality. The case fact is positioned in livestock feed industry centered on commercialization of a newly developed urea-molasses mineral block (UMMB) or called Nutriblock. Dr Wan, a Senior Principal Research Officer of Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), developed food supplement for ruminants which contained urea, molasses, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Dr Wan believed that the UMMB was a better quality food supplement compared to products in the markets because it contained 12 raw feed ingredients and an anthelmintic medication. After almost 10 years of research, in 2003, Dr Wan completed his research and, thus, wanted to get a suitable way to commercialize this product. He had two options: commercializing the technology through licensing of intellectual property right (IPR), or to transfer it as a public domain. The Business Development Unit(BDU) was responsible for the former option, whereas Centre for Promotion and Technology Transfer (CPPT) was in charge for the latter. At the beginning of2006, MARDI decided to commercialize the Nutriblock through licensing the IPR to March Avenue Technology Sendirian Berhad (March Avenue), a newly formed company. March Avenue was formed byKarthiir, a lawyer and Ma Irwan, an electrical engineer. The operation was going smoothly for the first two years. However, problem started in 2008 when Karthiir left the company due to some disagreement with Ma Irwan. Since then, March Avenue failed to achieve its sales target that seriously affected its profit level. Moreover, it suffered from internal management problem. The company finally closed down at the end of 2009. By this four year of operation, March Avenue failed to pay any royalty to MARDI. This circumstance forced Dr Wan to think seriously about his next move regarding choosing the right way of commercializing his Nutriblock. MARDI requested him to give his opinion by January 15, 2010 about whether to give another chance to BDU to commercialize this technology through IPR or to go for public domain under CPPT?

Using this case, students can learn that new product development and its commercialization requires proper strategic directions. It illustrates the importance of managing the commercialization of a new product effectively. NPD involves many stages, and it is important to manage every stage properly. This is because a “high-quality product” and/or a “new to the market” product are not enough to succeed in the market. In other words, producing a “product that meets market needs” must be combined with appropriate strategies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Entrepreneurship, Strategic Marketing, Innovation, New Product Development (NPD).

This case is suitable to be used in advanced undergraduate and MBA/MSc.

This case illustrates the challenges related to designing and launching an innovative product in the market. It revolves around the issues pertaining to smart organic fertilizer's (SOF) pre- and post-launch experiences. Haji Sani Kimi, a Senior Research Officer of the Strategic Research Centre at MARDI, had developed a zeolite-based organic fertilizer which he believed to be the first of its kind in Malaysia. He had taken five years to complete his research in developing SOF. Seeing its potential benefits for the land and farmers, the then Director General of MARDI asked Sani to speed up the process of technology transfer to be the first to launch the product in the market. In 2005, MARDI established a five-year agreement with Hicotech Sendirian Berhad to license its intellectual property rights (IPR). Adnan, a successful automobile business entrepreneur, ventured into the organic fertilizer business, as this product was in high demand and extensively used by paddy farmers in Malaysia and was subsidized by the government. However, Hicotech failed to get government contract to supply organic fertilizer under the government subsidy program. As such, it had to compete in the open market which was dominated by already-established Chinese entrepreneurs. At the beginning, SOF was doing well in the market, but, during 2007, Hicotech experienced great financial loss due to its mismanagement of collecting payment from its customers. Hicotech tried to work in partnership with ABH Mega Sendirian Berhad to overcome its financial difficulties. However, due to some disagreements, the collaboration was terminated within a short period of time. From 2005 to the end of 2009, Hicotech was not able to pay any royalties to MARDI and the license of Hicotech was to expire in February 2010. Haji Sani was trying to get a solution to revive SOF in the market. Moreover, he was confused whether to renew the license of SOF IPR with Hicotech or to search for another company.

Using this case, students can learn how a small- and/or medium-scale companies can strategize their new product launch. Based on the given industry scenario, students can realize the potential challenges that are related to launching a new product. Furthermore, this case demonstrates that producing a high-quality product is not enough to succeed in the market; the right strategy also plays an important role in making it successful. Last, it can be also learned that proper managerial control and financial support are two important factors that contributes in any business success. Overall, strategic marketing/management students will learn the importance of adopting proper strategy, while the students who are undertaking the new product development course benefit by seeing the practical situation of a new product launch, its rise and its fall.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Entrepreneurship, Strategic Marketing, Innovation, New product development (NPD).

This case is suitable to be used in advanced undergraduate, and MBA/MSc.

This case illustrates the challenges related to commercializing an innovative product, the coconut dehusking machine in the Malaysian market. It revolves around the issues pertaining to the pre and post-lunch activities and bottleneck of the coconut dehusking and defibering (CDD) machine which was developed by Md Akhir in July 2003. Md Akhir, the senior research officer at Mechanization and Automation Research Centre, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), believed that it was the first coconut dehusker in Malaysia. During 2000, farmers used to dehusk coconut manually, as there was no readily available machine to help them. Thus, Md Akhir felt the necessity to innovate such a machine that could help the farmers to dehusk efficiently in comparatively less effort and time. From 2003 to 2005, he presented his innovation in several national and international exhibitions and received accolades for such innovative product. In 2005, MARDI signed the memorandum of agreement of five years to license the CDD with Phytofolia Sendirian Berhad without having Md Akhir’s consent. Phytofolia was a comparatively new company owned by two entrepreneurs – Azmin Samin and Abd Hamid. During 2007, Phytofolia changed the specification of the CDD without informing to Md Akhir. Furthermore, two machines were sold to a company in Papua New Guinea, but no feedback was sought about the performance of the modified CDD. The price of CDD was set very high and thus the local farmers refused to buy it. In 2009, Hamid left Phytofolia due to disagreement with his business partner. He collaborated with Mr Sigiarno a venture capitalist from Indonesia and offer MARDI RM200,000 up-front to buy the IP of the CDD. At the end of the contract, Phytofolia failed to pay the royalty to MARDI and the contract ended in 2010. By seeing the fall of memorandum of agreement, MARDI asked Md Akhir to decide the next step whether to sign new agreement with Phytofolia, to sign agreement with Hamid’s newly formed company Kelapa Gading, to giving up commercialization and provide this machine to the farmers free of cost or to create a start-up company, fabricate and market the CDD. Md Akhir was really confused about which way to go!

Using this case, students can learn how a small and/or medium scale company can strategize its new product launch. Based on the given industry scenario, students can realize the potential challenges that are related to launching a new product. Furthermore, this case demonstrates that producing a high-quality product is not enough to succeed in the market; right strategy also plays an important role in making it successful. Finally, it can be also learned that proper marketing strategy, good coordination and communication with support companies as well as internal harmony are three important factors that contributes in any business success. Overall, entrepreneurship students will learn how to use the opportunity and manage the innovation. On the other hand, strategic marketing students will learn the importance of adopting proper strategy, while the students who are undertaking the new product development course will be benefited by seeing the practical situation of a new product launch, its rise and its fall.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

Marketing Management, Consumer Behavior.

This case is suitable to be used in advanced undergraduate and MBA/MSc level.

This case illustrates the challenges related to creating awareness toward green environment in Malaysia. It revolves around the issues pertaining food losses and waste along the supply chain from farms to table. Food losses and waste are of the important manifestations of the inefficiencies that plague our food systems. Statistics by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that around 1.3 billion tons of food is lost and wasted every year in the world. In Malaysia, the estimated food loss is around 400,000 tons in 2015 and is increasing every year. The amount of food loss could feed around 370,000 people in a year. It is recognized that household and individual behaviors have a great impact on the environment. The individual and household behavior contributed to ecological imbalance. Personal consumption and behavior create large-scale problems such as climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and natural resources depletion. Green behavior relates to activities that minimizes harm to the environment. These include minimizing energy use, utilizing efficient technologies, and reducing food waste and food loss. There is increasing policy interest on managing green behavior to ensure sustainable living and environment in Malaysia. Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry (MOA) aims to embark a Green Initiative that focuses on the management of food loss and food waste. The Minister has directed The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) to lead the project. The Director General of MARDI requested Dr Ain Hanim, the director of Corporate Communication Centre to come out with a proposal. This proposal will be discussed at the management meeting at the middle of March, so that the Director General could present it at the Ministry’s management meeting. Taking account the whole picture, Dr Ain Hanim is now contemplating whether to propose a strategic planning that focuses on either (1) to run nationwide awareness campaign on food loss and waste (FLW), (2) to conduct impactful studies on current Malaysian Save Food (MYSaveFood) awareness campaign, or (3) to implement new policies on reducing FLW, food rescue, and food safety. Different strategy requires different amount of budget and also creates different level of impacts. She is in dilemma on which options should be the best for Malaysia.

The objective of this case is as follows:

• to introduce students about the MySaveFood awareness programs in order to develop their understanding about the need for saving foods;

• to expose students to the green concepts such as food loss and food waste; and

• to train students on identifying factors and strategies that can lead to find a solution in regard to implement green activities.

to introduce students about the MySaveFood awareness programs in order to develop their understanding about the need for saving foods;

to expose students to the green concepts such as food loss and food waste; and

to train students on identifying factors and strategies that can lead to find a solution in regard to implement green activities.

It is evident that most consumers are polygamous and are loyal to several brands within a particular product or service category. This circumstance is coined as “multi-brand loyalty” (MBL). The present research tries to shade light on consumers' motivation to become a multi-brand loyal by answering the research question: “why consumers become multi-brand loyal within a particular service category?” The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Four focus group discussions and 13 in-depth interviews were carried out to gain deeper insights regarding the drivers of MBL.

The findings of this study suggest that “financial benefits”, “need for privacy”, “competitor's attractive promotional campaign”, “public self-consciousness” and “availability of cheap handset and SIM card” are the most frequently cited reasons that can make mobile phone service users multi-brand loyal. In addition, the study reveals heterogeneity among consumers, i.e. along with “multi-brand loyals”, “sole-brand loyals”, “switchers” and “cross-buyers” also exist in the Malaysian mobile phone service market.

These insights put forth the importance for managers of mobile phone service industry to be more cautious in formulating their retention strategies. Moreover, they will be aware of the complicated loyalty pattern of their consumers which will eventually guide them to consider different strategic moves for each different loyalty segments.

Although the existence of MBL has been proven empirically, little attention is given to understand consumers' motive to become a multi-brand loyal, particularly in the context of services. Therefore, taking this opportunity into account, the present study fills this gap by providing an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon.