MG T4131/4151 Dissertation Proposal
Example A: Draft title: Innovation in Chinese Pharmaceutical manufacturing industry: Investigation into FK Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
1. Introduction
According to the previous studies, innovation has great contribution to business success and competitiveness of organizations. Literatures indicated that more innovative firms perform better. For many companies competitive advantage is gained and maintained through innovation. However, according to some literature review, the gap between the Chinese and global pharmaceutical sectors has widened留學(xué)生dissertation研究in recent years. The lag attributes to the lack of innovation in the Chinese pharmaceutical company.

In this paper, the investigation into a Chinese medium pharmaceutical company—FK Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. where I had worked for ten years will be done to explore why Chinese pharmaceutical companies lack of innovation? What are the innovation issues in a medium Chinese pharmaceutical company? How can a medium Chinese pharmaceutical company become more innovative?

2. Background
In the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, the firms whose the original value of production uses fixed asset exceed 500 million Yuan RMB and above are called large firms, otherwise are called medium or small firms. According to this criteria, FK Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd is a large company, which is one of the top 100 pharmaceutical enterprises in China in terms of total value of asset, it is located in [....], founded in [...]. In 2002 it was reformed into a corporation with a variety of shareholders. Over more than 40 years FK is steadily growing. It started from a single product to its current product ranges more than 15 products. Though FK developed a lot in the past years, the more and more competitive markets make it face many difficulties in its business. The core product faces the higher competition than ever before in the market. Improving the innovation ability, develop new products is a crucial issue for its substantial and continuous development. However, today, as most of the Chinese pharmaceutical companies, the improvement of innovation is the big challenge of FK.
3. Literature review
3.1 The definition of innovation:
According to West and Farr (1990), innovation refers to intentional introduction and application of ideas, processes, products and designed which can significantly contribute to the benefits of group, organisation or society.
The definition of innovation described by Organization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) is "innovation consists of all those scientific, technical, commercial and financial steps necessary for the successful development and marketing of new or improved manufactured products, the commercial use of new or improved processes or equipment or the introduction of a new approach to a social service. R&D is only one of these steps" (OECD, 1981, pp. 15-16 cited in Simmie, J., 2007).#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

3.2 The importance of innovation
Deakins & Freel (2006) suggest that innovation makes a contribution to business success or firm's competitiveness. Many innovative firms perform better than those less innovative firms (Tidd, J. et al, 2001).
According to a new report given by the National Research Center for Science and Technology for Development, the gap between the Chinese and global pharmaceutical sectors has widened in recent years (Li, Z.J., 2008). The lag is attributed to the lack of innovation in Chinese pharmaceutical companies.

3.3 The lack of innovation in Chinese pharmaceutical companies and the external factors of the innovation of Chinese pharmaceutical companies
According to the previous literature (Li, Z.J., 2006), there are two main external factors contributed to the lack of innovation in Chinese pharmaceutical companies.
They are:
(1). Incomplete government incentives.
(2). A lack of collaboration between drug companies and domestic research institutes
or foreign research institutes.
The internal factors which influenced innovation of pharmaceutical companies in China tend to be:
(1). The absence of effective intellectual property rights in the society.
(2). New products development
Bstieler (2005) identified that time-efficient was an important element for the execution of technical development activities, which plays vital role in the organizing project team, and compressing project.
George and Jones (2008) strongly suggested that it is very important to minimize new product development time, describing the principles and the problems of the new product development, which is a useful guide for the NPD.
3.4 The organizational culture and innovation
Ahmed (1998) claims that the most innovative companies of the future will be those which have created appropriate cultures and climates. Culture is a primary determinant of innovation.

Organisational culture can support innovation. It can resist innovation as well. What kind of culture can support product innovation process and how culture influences innovation are well discussed in the previous research. (Jassawalla, & Sashittal, 2002, Russell, R. D., 1989). The relationship of organizational culture and innovation and the determinants of organizational culture are illustrated and discussed by Martins and Terblanche (2003).

3.5 Incremental innovation and radical innovation:
Incremental innovation can be seen as an improvement to the existing product/ service or process. Incremental innovation only contributes a minor change to technology or to business model (or to both) (Goffin, K., et a1.,2005).
Radial innovation refers to innovations based on new technology, new business model or creating new market those completely change the existed ones (Goffin, K, et a1.,2005). Other previous paper interpreted radical innovation in more detail: "A radical innovation is a product, process, or service with either unprecedented performance features or familiar features that offer significant improvements in performance or cost that transform existing markets or create new ones" (Leifer R., et al, 2001). Radical innovation can make significant contribution to the development of firms and the society as well.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

To survive in today's highly competitive market, products, services and processes need never ending changes. The never ending changes tend to base on incremental changes of products and services, those are very visible, and the added-value can be immediately tested by customers. The incremental changes of products and services tend to delight the customers by speed and quality (Six Sigma Magazine cited in Prescott, E. B., 2006).

However, Hamel claimed that in today's diverse and complex business environment, radical innovation is the only way to lead to organization's significant growth (Hame G, 2003 in Ganesan S., 2003).

Actually, both incremental innovation and radical innovation are important for the development of firms. A successful innovative company should learn to balance well between incremental innovation and radical innovation and can overcome the barriers of radical innovation.

3.6 The role of patent in innovation
Patent is a critical issue for innovation. Patent law plays an important role in the protection of property rights to a well-functioning competitive economy (Goffin, 2005) However, it can hinder innovation to some extent. Researchers (Moser, 2004, Mann, 2004) suggest that in many countries patent protection could in fact slow innovation. To obtain a patent, an invention (that is, a product, process, machine, or composition of matter) must be novel, nonobvious, and useful. However, a patent gives the inventor a right to exclude others from making, using, or selling it. In some countries, for instance in the United States, the protection of one patent lasts twenty years (Federal Trade Commission, 2003).

4. Research Questions

4.1 The importance of Government incentives in organizational innovation
4.2 How to spend up new product development time and how to accelerate innovation by outsourcing
4.3 The role of patent in innovation
4.4 Radical innovation and incremental innovation. How FK can barance radical innovation and incremental innovation?
4.5 Human resource management and organizational innovation
4.6 How social culture and environmental culture influence organizational innovation

5. Contribution:
FK is the company where I had been working there for almost ten years before I came to UK. I am interested in doing adept investigation into FK's innovation issue and giving some good suggestion for its future development based on the analysis by using theory and concept of management. FK is a typical pharmaceutical company in China. By investigating into the innovation issues of FK and analysing them by using innovation management theory, concepts, model and classification, it is helpful for Chinese pharmaceutical company to overcome the innovation barriers and pursue further development.

6. Methodology

6.1 The research method
This project focuses on innovation in large Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturing company. Both desk research and field research will be involved in the research methods. Desk research will focus on examining the literature collected via the University website, Internet and through industrial statistics and journals. Field research will focus on studying the company's annual report, collecting data via the company's website, carrying out interviews with selected managers.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

6.2 The concept of interview
A in depth interview will be conducted to collect primary data, discovering the situations in Pharmaceutical industry, and trying to find out why Chinese Pharmaceutical companies lack of innovation and how they can improve.

Interviews can be highly formalized and structured. It also can be informal or unstructured conversations (Saundes, et al, 2007).

According to Guion, (2006), "An in-depth interview is an open-ended, discovery-oriented method that is well suited for describing both program processes and outcomes from the perspective of the target audience or key stakeholder." The aim of the interview is to deeply explore the respondent's point of view, feelings and perspectives. In this sense, in-depth interviews yield primary data

The credibility and validity of the information gathered by in depth interview are depended on the interviewers' opinion. It is better to interview with CEO or Senior Manager who is very familiar with company's situation. The interviewer's bias could influence the credibility and validity of the data collected. If it is possible to interview with more than three people and each one says basically the same thing, then the weight of evidence would be that the information is credible and valid. I am not sure if I can interview more than three high managers. I will try to do that and try to improve the credibility and validity of the information gathered.

6.3 Interviews:
6.3.1 The president of FK Company
6.3.2 The General engineer of FK Company
6.3.3 The engineer of R&D department of FK Company
6.3.4 The manager of financial department
6.3.5 The manager of marketing department

7. Timetable of Key Activities

References:

http://www.ttc-switch.com/Thesis_Writing/Ahmed, P.K., (1998), Culture and climate for innovation, European Journal of Innovation Management, Volume 1, Number 1, 1998, pp30-43

Bstieler, L., (2005), 'The Moderating Effect of Environmental Uncertainty on New Product Development and Time Efficiency', the Journal of Product Innovation Management

Deakins D & Freel M (2006), Entrepreneurship and Small Firms, McGraw-Hill

Federal Trade Commission, (2003), 'To Promote Innovation: the Proper Balance of Competition and Patent Law and Policy', A report by the Federal Trade Commission, October 2003

George, J. M & Jones, G. R. (2006), Contemporary Management, 4th edn, McGraw Hill, New York.

Goffin, K. & Mitchell, R., (2005), Innovation Management-Strategy And Implementation Using The Pentathlon Framework, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, p8, 14, 52

Guion, L.A., (2006), 'Conducting an In-depth Interview', Available at:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FY393

Hamel, G, (2003), 'Leader to Leader, No: 27' cited in Ganesan S., (2003), 'Gillette: Managing Product Innovation', ECCH Collection, ICFAI Knowledge Center, Hyderabad, India#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

Jassawalla A.R. & Sashittal, H.C., (2002), 'Cultures that support product innovation process Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 16. No. 3

http://www.ttc-switch.com/Thesis_Writing/Leifer Richard, O'connor Gina Colarelli & Rice Mark, (2001), 'Implementing radical innovation in mature firms: The rule of hubs', Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 15, No 3