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2010/2011  KAN-SMC_SM55  Knowledge for Product Innovation

English Title
Knowledge for Product Innovation

Course Information

Language English
Point 7,5 ECTS (225 SAT)
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Course Period Autumn
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study Board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course Coordinator
Marcus Schmidt
Main Category of the Course
  • Marketing
Last updated on 29 maj 2012
Marking Scale 7-step scale
Exam Period May/June
Individual oral exam (20 minutes per student including votation) based on a mini-project (10-15 A4 pages), which has been worked out in a group of 3-4 students, cf. the General Degree Regulation § 27 S. (4). There is no supervision for the writing of the mini-project. The report and the oral presentation and discussion of issues and concepts dealt with in the report form one part of the examination. Another part of the examination relates to the student’s overall insight into other aspects of the curriculum not dealt with in the report. The assessment will be made by a teacher engaged within the faculty of the course and by an internal censor, cf. the General Study Degree regulation § 25 (1) no.1. The students are solely responsible for forming groups and for informing the secretary about their groups. The regular exam takes place in January 2011. The make-up/re-exam takes place in March 2011. If a student is ill during the regular oral exam, s/he will be able to re-use the group synopsis at the make-up/re-exam. If the student was ill during the writing of the synopsis and did not contribute to synopsis, the make-up synopsis can be written individually or in groups (provided that other students are taking the make-up/re-exam). If the student did not pass the regular exam a new or revised synopsis, confer advice from the examiner at the regular exam, must be handed in to a new deadline specified by the SMC secretariat
Examination
Oral individual examination is based on a mini-project that has been worked out in a group of 3-4 students. The mini-project and the oral presentation and discussion of models and methods dealt with in the project make up one part of the exam. Another part of the exam deals with the student’s overall insight and understanding about the qualitative and the quantitative paradigm, and about related methods for collecting, analysing and representing data.
Prerequisites for Attending the Exam
Course Content

Aim of the course
Over the years, several studies have supported the notion that ‘marketing as a set of values, knowledge creating processes and assets (brand identities and images, customer relationships and trust etc.) play a key role in product, brand market channel innovation processes. The focus in this course concerns this role in relation to the bringing-in and making-use of end-user knowledge in innovation processes. Accordingly, one objective of the course is to further develop the students’ competencies and skills about qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, analysis and representation. Another and related objective concerns the particular context and decision situation where knowledge about end-users is asked for in innovation processes. Thus, a second objective concerns to develop the students’ abilities to decide on what kind of knowledge and why that is valuable in different stages and decision situations in an innovation process, and implicitly, how to integrate and make us of different types of knowledge about end-users in innovation processes.

Contents
Like the previous courses, the structure of this course is impressed by its propositions and objectives. Thus, the first part of the course deals with the following issues: What represent a qualitative and a quantitative research question and what set’s the two methodologies apart? What qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting, analysing and representing data exists when concerned with knowledge creation about end-users preferences, values and behaviours. In the second and major part of the course our focus is on a selection of qualitative and quantitative analytical models and methods (as for example emphatic design, MEC, cluster and conjoint analysis) for integrating knowledge about and from end-users: in the fuzzy-front-end (ideation), in the testing and in the evaluation of ideas for product, brand and channel innovation. During this part of the course emphasis is put on applying models and methods in relation to a concrete innovation project.

Progression
This course is directly linked to the course ‘Market Creation Management’ in that the course acts as a frame of reference and knowledge base for one empirical part of the SM20 semester project.

Teaching Methods
The course consists of lectures, seminars and case-works.
Literature

Qualitative Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications, 2002, Christine Daymon and Immy Holloway, Routledge.
Product Development and Target Market Segmentation, 2009, Marcus J Schmidt and Svend Hollensen, Pearson.

A selection of influential articles about conjoint analysis and multidimensional scaling:
Buser, Samuel Jackson (1989) “A Counseling Practitioner's Primer to the Use of Multidimensional Scaling.” Journal of Counseling and Development, March, Vol. 67 Issue 7, p420, 4p, 1 diagram; (AN 4969345)
Green, Paul E. and Abba M. Krieger (1999) “Segmenting Markets with Conjoint Analysis. Journal of Marketing, October, Vol. 55 Issue 4, p20-31.
Gustafsson, Anders; Frederik Ekdahl, and Bo Bergman (1999) “Conjoint Analysis: A Useful Tool in the Design Process. Total Quality Management, May, Vol. 10 Issue 3, p327-343.
McCullough, Dick (2002) “A User's Guide to Conjoint Analysis”. Marketing Research, Summer, Vol. 14 Issue 2, p18-23.
Pegels, C. Carl and Chandra Sekar (1989) “Determining Strategic Groups Using Multidimensional Scaling”. Interfaces, May/Jun, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p47-57,
Pullman, Madeleine E.; Kimberly J. Dodson and William L. A. Moore. (1999). “Comparison of Conjoint Methods When There Are Many Attributes.” Marketing Letters, May, Vol. 10 Issue 2, p125-138.
Vriens, Marco (1993) “Solving Marketing Problems with Conjoint Analysis.” Journal of Marketing Management, Jan-Apr, Vol. 10 Issue 1-3, p37-55.