Figure 1.
Current products New products
Current markets
New Markets
Ansoff Matrix
Source: Innovations Management (2002), 2nd edition
One of Ansoff’s proposals is that growth opportunities exist through offering of improved products to existing markets. This is the subject of my research and I will try to prove that innovation leads to competitive advantage subsequently to growth.
Source: Innovations Management (2002), 2nd edition
- Research Objectives
- To examine if Ansoff’s theory is applicable in Bulgaria
- To examine the relationship between innovation and growth
- To observe customers’ attitude towards such innovative products as the remotely controlled door. I decided to do this as customers’ attitude and opinion is argued to be of vital importance for the success of novel products. If the latter statement is proved to be true a link will be established between customers’ opinion on novel products and company growth through competitive advantage.
- To draw conclusions on how the remotely controlled door could be improved in order to be accepted by more customers.
- To find out if people are aware of the existence of the remotely controlled door now and compare the results with a future research
- Method
- My research will begin by reviewing some grand theories (Ansoff) about innovations and assessing their relevance with the research topic.
- Reviewing already performed researches similar to the one I chose to do.
- The research approach I chose is deductive – first developing a theory and hypothesis and then design a research strategy to test the hypothesis. I chose Ansoff’s theory which argues that growth opportunities exist through offering of improved products to existing markets. The real life example I chose in order to conduct this research is a situation in which a Bulgarian firm is introducing quite a novel product through which it is pursuing a competitive edge and growth as a result of this competitiveness.
The research philosophy I decided to base my research on is the philosophy of positivism. In other words I decided to observe how customers perceive the idea of this innovation and produce a generalization which would either prove or deny the statement that there is relation between customers’ attitude and opinion and the success of novel products.
- The research strategy I chose is the one of conducting a survey by a questionnaire. My goal will be to carry out primary research in the showroom of the company manufacturing the remotely controlled door in order to collect customers’ opinions and thoughts. My research could be viewed as an experiment because one of its goals is to define a theoretical hypothesis about the relationship between two variables: customers’ attitudes towards innovative products and company growth through competitive advantage.
The project could also be perceived as a case study – this case study will closely observe a real firm’s actions aiming at popularizing a completely new to the Bulgarian market products. The conclusions from this case study could easily be applied to similar situations.
The research could also be viewed as a longitudinal study because the results from the introduction of a new product will not appear immediately. The research is designed in way which will allow for it to be repeated (with the necessary changes of course) after a period of time and then compare data in order to get the final result.
Another aspect of this research is its explanatory nature – it has the goal of studying the introduction of a new product on Bulgarian market in order to explain the relationship between customers, innovation and growth.
- In order to conduct the primary research I will use a questionnaire comprised of 13 questions. It will have the goal of collecting information for several purposes:
- Questions from 1-5 will serve for collecting information on how a potential customer for the innovative product will look like. This and information from question No. 7 might be helpful when choosing an advertising strategy for the product.
- The rest of the questions are aimed at the proving or denying that there is a relationship between customers’ opinion and attitude towards a novel product and growth of a company through competitive advantage.
In order for the second goal to be achieved this research should be conducted now (when customers are not very familiar to the product) and in five years (when more people know about the innovation). This so because the answers given now should be compared to answers given after some popularization of the product and also financial statistics from the present moment should be compared to the financial statistics in five years in order to register if the firm has grown or not. After these two comparisons both variables should be considered together and see if there is some relationship between them.
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The population of my research is comprised of all working individuals in Bulgaria because whoever has some income could theoretically become a customer of the firm if he or she visit one of the showrooms throughout the country.
The sample of the research will be comprised of people who had bought one of the firm’s products. Thus the sampling frame will be:
- Individuals who have already purchased one of the firm’s products
- After the individual has become a customer he has to understand the conception of the innovative product.
The conditions mean that these could be customers who have purchased products some time ago but the firm has their contacts and could try to interact with them and convince them to fill the questionnaire. However, a more feasible strategy (which do not in any case exclude previous customers from the frame) would be to start the research with new customers – this means that questionnaires will be given to customers signing contracts at the showroom. After the customer has signed the contract (in other words has purchased the product) the staff could easily demonstrate and explain the concept of the new product and also be able to offer some kind of incentive if the person hesitates to answer.
Part II: Questionnaire
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How old are you? (please tick the appropriate box)
Less than 30 years
30 to less than 40 years
40 to less than 50 years
50 to less than 60 years
60 years or over
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What is your gender?
Male
Female
- What is your education?
Elementary
High school
Bachelor’s degree
Master’s degree
Other (please describe)…………………………………………………
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What is your average family income after taxes and other deductions?
Less than 400 leva
400 to less than 600leva
600to less than 700 leva
700 to less than 900 leva
900 leva or over
- What type of building do you live in?
Block of flats
House in the city
House in the outskirts
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Have you heard about a security door that is remotely controlled by a GSM-device before visiting our showroom?
Yes
No
If your answer to this question is “No” please go directly to question No. 7. If your answer is “Yes” please go to question No. 6
- How did you find out that such a security door exist?
From word of mouth
From the firm’s Internet site
From exhibitions where the firm participated
Other (please describe)………………………………………………..
- How much do you value (in BGN) such a remotely controlled security door?
Less than 1000 leva
1000 to less than 2000 leva
2000 to less than 3000 leva
4000 to less than 5000 leva
6000 leva or over
- If you had the amount you pointed as an answer in the previous question would you buy such a product?
Yes
No
If the answer to this question is “Yes” please go to question No. 10. If your answer is “No” please go to question No. 11
- What would be the main reason for purchasing the remotely controlled security door?
It would increase the level of security significantly
It is a practical product
It is a novel product
It would bring prestige
Other (please describe)…………………………………………………
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What would be the main reason for not purchasing the remotely controlled security door?
It would decrease the level of security significantly
It is an impractical product
It is too expensive
I do not need it
Other (please describe)…………………………………………………
- Where do you believe that such a door could be most practically used?
Office premises
Homes
Public buildings’ entrances
Private buildings’ entrances
Other (please describe)………………………………………………..
- Would you buy a conventional security door from our firm the reason being you knew we were the first to patent a remotely controlled security door?
Yes
No
Note: This questionnaire is anonymous and the data collected from it will be used for research purposes only!
References
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Innovations Management (2002), 2nd edition
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Research Methods for Business Students (2002), 2nd edition