Tuesday 24 November 2015

Academic research on the impact of incremental innovation on brand management of global electronic industry: A case study on Samsung Electronics

Title:  The impact of incremental innovation on brand management of global electronic industry:  A case study on Samsung Electronics


CONTENTS

RESEARCH RATIONALE OF THE STUDY. 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. 8




CHAPTER: ONE

INTRODUCTION


The current business world is highly competitive. This high competition is the main barrier for the organizations to be survive and successful in the market. The reason behind it is that the market is highly customer oriented and the customers demand is highly changing which is tough to meet or cope with changing nature of the demand by the organizations (Kotler & Keller, 2012). The organization which is capable to cope with the changing demand can be successful in the market and which is not, becomes extinct from the market as the organization losses the brand image (Gatignon, Michael, Wendy & Anderson, 2002). So, to be sustained and successful in the customer oriented market, an organization should meet the customer demand to have satisfaction of them to manage a superior brand management. The electronics industry within technological market is one of the most volatile industries where the demand of the customers is rapidly changing. To manage the brand within this industry an organization should practice incremental innovation process to make small improvement of their product to meet the changing customer demand to achieve their satisfaction (Kotler & Keller, 2012). This satisfaction will help an electronics organization to manage its brand within this industry. In this proposed research, I will detail significantly how incremental innovation will help organizations to manage their superior brand image which will helps to sustain in the competitive market.  The research will be conducted on one of the major leading electronic organization Samsun Electronic Limited as the fertile ground of the research.



ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS LIMITED


Among all the global electronic industry, Samsung has its strong position which has been established in South Korea. The South Korean multination company is headquartered in Suwon in South Korea and the organization has been the largest global technological company in 2009 for having the largest figure of revenues in the industry. It is a flagship subsidiary for Samsung Group and started its journey in 1969 (Freeze and Chung, 2008). The organization has its business within the 88 countries all over the world and it has a workforce of 370000. The organizational CEO is Kwon Oh-Hyun and the organization produces lithium, semi-conductor, chip, flash memory and hard drives and supplies to the Apple, Sony and Nokia (Albanesius, 2012).  Now the company has become one of the largest Smartphone producers and the maiden addition in their product lines are notepads, tablet computers and tabs. The organization has made 201.103 trillion revenue, 29.049 trillion operating income and the profit of 23.945 trillion (Nussbaum, 2009).

RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES


Aim

The aim of the research is for evaluating the impact of incremental innovation for managing the brand of Samsung Electronics Limited.


Objectives

The specific objectives of the research are like following-

ð      To investigate the current brand position of Samsung Electronics Limited in the world electronic industry

ð      To investigate impact of incremental innovation to manage their brand efficiently

ð      To recommend the way the incremental innovation best be use to strengthen the brand of Samsung.

RESEARCH QUESTION


To conduct the research, the following questions will be followed-


ð      What is the current brand position of Samsung Electronics Limited in the world electronic industry?

ð      What is the impact of incremental innovation to manage their brand efficiently?

ð      In which way incremental innovation best is to strengthen the brand of Samsung?

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

The incremental innovation is the small innovation or change in a product regularly is called as the incremental innovation (Bloomberg Business Week, 2005). The highlighted research is the way in which the incremental innovation can help an organization within electronic industry to sustain in the competition by upholding their brand image.  This is a burning strategic marketing issue for the technological industries like electronic industry. It is believed that the global technology changes within every 36 months. According to the change of the technology, the demand of the customer changes within the electronic industry (Bloomberg Business Week, 2005). To cope with the changes of demand an organization will make the small changes in their product features to meet the customer demand. If the change is continuously made according to the customer demand, a customer gets satisfaction regularly and the continuous satisfaction (Kerin, (2012). The continuous satisfaction makes customers loyal to the brand which leads the superior and successful brand management and ensures the superior growth and productivity within the highly competitive market (Tripsas, 2008). Like, if Samsung makes continuous innovation within their Smartphone, it will be able to meet the changing demand of the customers and customers will be loyal to Samsung for getting continuous satisfaction from the product of the organization (Gatignon, Michael, Wendy & Anderson, 2002). It will help the organization to manage their brand in the electronic market to sustain in the competition. The proposed research will shed light on the incremental innovation to manage brand image in electronic market which help the organization to understand incremental innovation, to apply it for their brand management to sustain in highly competitive electronic market (Tripsas, 2008). The research will basically focus on the relationship between incremental innovation and brand management within electronic industry (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Additionally it will explore different crucial marketing issues like customer satisfaction, nature of the industry, way to sustain in the industry and making growth in the industry. Most importantly, it will disclose the incremental innovation as an effective weapon to sustain and to be successful in the completion within electronic industry.




CHAPTER: TWO


LITERATURE REVIEW



Brand and brand image
Brand is one of the most important parts of the existence of an organization as it conveys the identity of the organization and its image. Normally the brand can be a form of symbol, design, sign, words, names and combination to present an organization and it helps to decide the customers to make the decisions to buy a product and services from an organization. The degree of positive or negative impression of the customers regarding a brand is called as the brand image (Craig and Victor, 2003). The organization has the higher positive brand image; the customers are more attracted to the organizational products and services. The organization which has poor brand image the customers try to avoid the products from the organization. The reason behind it is that the brand and its image determine the degree of feeling of customers regarding the quality, credibility, trust and satisfaction of the customers (Albanesius, 2012).
Innovation
Innovation is the process f creating new ideas, products and management operation which is highly important for all the organizations in the current highly competitive business world as it helps to create the new product and service ideas for satisfying the changing demand of the customers to satisfy them.  The organization which is highly innovative is highly successful as it can achieve the customer satisfaction which is the basic factor to be successful in the global customer oriented market (Schmidt and Ludlow, 2002). In contrast the organization which is inefficient to make proper innovation it falls back to meet the changing demand of the customers and become extinct from the market gradually. Innovation is the way to sustain and successful in the market as t helps the organization to build and maintain the proper branding. There are two types of Innovation process which are incremental innovation and the radical or disruptive innovation (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991).
The incremental innovation is the process to generate small scale innovations within the organizational product lines and their features. When an organization will make small and frequent development and changes within their product features to satisfy the highly changing demand of the customers will be called as the incremental innovation (Joby, 2003).
The radical innovation is the process by which the revolutionary changes are taken place in the business process and product lines within an organization. When the organization will innovate, such think or ideas which will replace the current business process and existing product line in a disruptive manner will be called as the radical innovation (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991).  
There are significant controversies regarding the effectiveness of the two type of innovation process within the organizations. A group of scholars has strongly supported that the incremental innovation is highly effective for the organizations within the current highly changing business world to meet the customer demand (Johnson, 2012). They have explained that the demands of the customers are changing very first and they desire new products or developed products especially in the technological market. In this situation, the disruptive innovation is not possible for the firms to follow to satisfy the customers as it has two major weaknesses which are- the process is highly time consuming and costly (Schmidt and Ludlow, 2002). This is why the process has not the ability to satisfy the continuously changing customer demand. In contrast, in satisfying the continuously changing demand of the customers, the incremental innovation is highly perfect as it is less time consuming and less costing but highly effective to meet changing nature of the customer demand. It helps the organization to develop the existing products according to the changing need of the customers with the ideology of responding quickly (Albanesius, 2012).
When the customers see that they are getting the products they desire in time the customer become loyal to the brand and the continuous practice of incremental innovation offers superior brand management and brand image to the customers that leads the sustainable customer base for the organization and its success. But a large pool of scholars has criticized the incremental innovation as they believe that the incremental innovation is the temporary medication for brand management but in long run it is ineffective as it makes the horses healthier but not make any car (Craig and Victor, 2003). In such situation like innovation of computer this is not appropriate where radical innovation is must. This why; the majority of the scholars has urged that an organization should follow the incremental innovation manage the brand image regarding the current product lines but accordingly the radical innovation will be used to secure the future position of the organization when it require to develop a revolutionary product to be sustain in the market (Joby, 2003).

Model for incremental innovation
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Iterative_development_model_V2.jpg

Figure: Incremental innovation model
Source: en.wikipedia.org

Conceptual Framework
In the customer oriented market it is one of the most important issue for the organizations that the organizations must achieve the maximum customer satisfaction to be successful in the market (Shamoon and Saiqa, 2011). To achieve the customer satisfaction the demand of the customers will be properly met. But the nature of the customer demand is highly changing and to meet the organizations must ensure the continuously changing developing of the product features according to the needs of them which is possible through incremental innovation. This lead the maximised customer satisfaction continuously and help to develop and maintain a strong brand image (Joby, 2003).
An organization can efficiently maintain brand image of the organization through the incremental innovation as this enables the organizations to make the continuous innovation frequently with the limited cost (Shamoon and Saiqa, 2011). To meet the changing demand radical innovation is not effective as it is requires huge time and money which is not possible to manage by the organization (Sorensen, 2012). So, the organizations follows incremental innovation can easily maintain the changing demand of the customers as it is less costing, less time consuming and possible to undertake frequently (Craig and Victor, 2003).
Incremental innovation is the strongest weapon for the brand management as it helps the organizations for making the quick and efficient response to the silly changes of the customer demand. Additionally it is the most effective tool for the organization to keep the customers satisfied by providing developed products (Johnson, 2012). This helps the organization to create a fallings among the customers that they are valuable to the organization and make them loyal to the organization. Incremental innovation helps the organization to meet the changing customer demand perfectly as it initiates continuous and careful observation of the customer needs and their changes (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991)
It is believed that the technological market is changed within 36 months. To cope with the change it is the best weapon for the organization. It helps the organization to define the hidden demand of the customers and produces products (Sorensen, 2012). By the incremental innovation the organizations are helped to manage the superior brand image as it provides the organizations capacity to produce small innovation which is easily adaptable to the customers to give them new test within the existing product. Incremental innovation ensure customer satisfaction manage the brand image through enabling the organizations to produce high quality products for the customers (Schmidt and Ludlow, 2002).








CHAPTER: THREE



METHODOLOGY

Research philosophy
To conduct a research the research philosophy is one of the most important which means the systematic knowledge, reasons, values, mind, language and existence t conduct a research (Murname & Willett, 2011). There are three research philosophies- positivism, realism and Interpretivism. For the proposed research positivism research philosophy will be followed as it will help to generate credible and valid research result by suggesting the approaches to collect reliable, useful and usable data (Creswell, 2012).
Research approach
Different step by step actions taken to complete a research successfully will be called as the research approach. There are two different research approaches to conduct research- inductive and deductive research approaches (Murname & Willett, 2011). For the current research the deductive research approach will be used as it will help to produce the research results within a controlled manner based by designing a theoretical boundary of the research Creswell, 2012).
Research purpose
The major purpose of the research is to develop the clear idea regarding the impact of incremental innovation to manage the brand image of the organizations like Samsung electronics within electronic industry. Additionally, it will suggest Samsung and other organizations within the industry to strengthen their brand management process through incremental innovation. The personal purpose for the research is that to understand research method and to link the theoretical knowledge with the practical ground.
Research strategy
There are three specific research strategies which are qualitative, quantitative and the mixed structured research strategies (Patton, 2002). The mixed structured research strategy will be used in this research as it will help to avoid the significant weaknesses of qualitative (tough measurability of data) and quantitative (inability to generate in-depth data) research strategy to ensure the best and accurate research results (Creswell, 2012).


Research design
In the proposed research both the primary and secondary research data will be used. For the collection of primary data 50 respondents will be generated based on random sampling method from the organizational different level and they will investigated by a mixed structured survey questionnaire with open-ended and close-ended questions (Merriam, 1998). For the collection secondary different secondary data sources like books, journals, websites, newspapers and library material will be used. For the analysis of data different statistical tools will be used like charts, software-excel, SPSS etc (Merriam, 1998).
Research limitation
The major limitation of the research is that there is very limited time given by the institution to complete the research which is really insufficient to conduct the research (Patton, 2002). The other limitation is that the sample size is small but there is no way to manage much higher sample size within the limited time (Creswell, 2009).

TIME SCHEDULE


Chapter
Description
Duration
One
Introduction of the research
05/05/2014-15/05/2014
Two
Literature review of the research
15/05/2014-25/05/2014
Three
Methodology of the research
25/05/2014-05/06/2014
Four
Data analysis
05/06/2014-10/06/2014
Five
Discussion
10/06/2014-15/06/2014
Six
Conclusion and recommendation
15/06/2014-20/06/2014

Documentation and submission
20/06/2014-25/06/2014

 

REFERENCE


1.      Bloomberg Business Week, (2005). Get creative: How to build effective companies. [Available at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_31/b3945401.htm]. Accessed: 20-03-2014.
2.      Gatignon, H., Michael L. T., Wendy S. & Anderson, P., (2002). "A Structural Approach to Assessing Innovation: Construct Development of Innovation Locus, Type, and Characteristics," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(9), pages 1103-1122, September.
3.      Tripsas, M., (2008). "Customer preference discontinuities: a trigger for radical technological change," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2-3), pages 79-97
4.      Kotler, P. & Keller, L. K., (2012). Marketing Management 14e. London: Pearson
5.      Kerin, R.A., (2012). Marketing: The Core. NY: McGaw-Hill Ryerson. p. 31.
6.      Freeze, K.J. and Chung, K.W., (2008). Design Strategy at Samsung Electronics: Becoming a Top-Tier Company.  Boston, USA: Design Management Institute.
7.      Nussbaum, B., (2009). Samsung Beats Apple in the IDEA/Business Week Design Awards. Business Week. Retrieved 10-07-2013.
8.      Albanesius, C. (27 June 2012). “Samsung beats Apple as 2011’s No. 1 Smart Phone maker”. PC Mag. Reverted 2 June 2012.
9.      Craig, L. and Victor, R.B., (June 2003). “Interactive and incremental development: A brief History”. IEEE Computer Society, 36(6): 47-56.
10.   Joby, J., (2003). Fundamentals of customer-focussed management: Competing through services. West post, Conn: Praeger.
11.   Berry, L.L., and Parasuraman, A., (1991). Marketing Services: Competing through Quality. New York: Free Press.
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14.   Sorensen, H.E., (2012). Business Development: a market-oriented perspective. NY: John Willey and Sons.
15.   Shamoon, S. and Saiqa, T., (2011). “Brand Management: What Next?” interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary research in Business. 2.12 (2011). 435-441. 
16.  Albanesius, C., (2012). “Samsung beats Apple as 2011’s No. 1 Smart Phone maker”. PC Mag. Reverted 2 June 2012.
17.   Creswell, J. W., (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
18.   Creswell, J.W., (2012). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
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20.   Murname, R. J., & Willett, J. B. (2011). Methods matter: Improving causal inference in educational and social science research. New York: Oxford University Press.
21.   Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.





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