An empirical investigation of the factors affecting formality, sophistication and structure of product elimination programs in manufacturing firms

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation was to identify those internal factors (or variables) that were common to those manufacturing firms which had established effective product elimination programs and those firms which did not have product elimination programs. The internal factors examined in this study were: organizational factors, information factors, product factors, performance factor, size factor, product elimination program factors, and benefit factors. This objective was achieved by examining the firms that had established product elimination programs and firms that did not have product elimination programs. The effectiveness of their product elimination program was represented by the formality, sophistication and structure of these programs. The relationships between the internal factors and the formality, sophistication and structure were tested based on responses from a sample of 1,000 largest manufacturing firms in the U.S. The analysis indicated that firms with product elimination programs and firms whose product elimination programs were formal, sophisticated or structured, all emphasized return on investment and market share objectives much more strongly than firms without product elimination programs. Firms with product elimination programs and firms with formal, sophisticated or structured programs all seemed to have much greater emphasis on periodic marketing audit programs and marketing information systems to aid product elimination decisions when compared to firms without product elimination programs. Firms with product elimination programs also tended to have more information about their products regarding variable costs, prices, investment costs, and net profits when compared with firms that did not have product elimination programs. Firms with product elimination programs also seemed to perceive more benefits in elimination of products than firms without product elimination programs....