| Brands and new products are two marketing assets valuable to a firm. To date, research has empirically demonstrated how strong brands can help new products succeed, but more knowledge is needed regarding how new products affect the brand. In particular, this dissertation involves two essays that provide a finer grain understanding of when and how new products impact brand-specific performance.;The dissertation's first essay examines how one particular type of innovation, namely green (i.e., environmentally-friendly) new products can change brand attitude. Firms are increasingly seeking ways to effectively respond to consumers' mounting interest in environmental sustainability. As firms begin placing vast resources behind these efforts, it becomes crucial to understand the implications of introducing green new products. A key challenge is how to articulate the value of these environmentally-friendly new products to consumers. After estimating a three-stage least squares model based on new product introductions from 75 brands across a four-year time period (2009-12), I find that green new product introductions can indeed improve brand attitude. However, the quantity of green messages, their source credibility, and product type influences the extent to which green new products change brand attitude.;The second essay focuses on the effect of key product portfolio management actions on brand sales growth and pricing power. Managing innovation across a brand's product portfolio includes four critical actions: (1) new product introduction activity, (2) product deletion activity, (3) attribute variety expansion, and (4) product launch cadence. When taking such strategic actions, managers must consider whether diverging from the category's normal behavior will be effective. From a theoretical perspective, competitive dynamics and institutional theory point to contrasting repercussions from diverging actions. Results from a panel data set of 2,931 brand-year observations, consisting of innovation actions taken by 277 brands in ten fast-moving consumer goods categories over an eleven-year time period (2001-11), demonstrate that both theoretical perspectives are relevant, but the extent to which divergence is rewarded or penalized depends on the type of innovation action, a brand's category environment, and its resources. |
