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A socio-material perspective on challenges in bakery food innovation : how to overcome barriers of new product acceptance in work context

Molendijk, L. (2021) A socio-material perspective on challenges in bakery food innovation : how to overcome barriers of new product acceptance in work context.

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Abstract:Changes implemented by businesses often encounter resistance from the change receiver. Many change models can be found in the change management literature that appoint possible factors and barriers for resistance to change. Yet, despite the evidence that technology has recently acquired a substantial role in change management and organizational studies, scarce research on change processes has explored how technology itself could be a crucial factor for resistance to change. Therefore, a sociomaterial perspective accounting for the role of technology has been adopted in this thesis to help explain barriers during change processes, focused on new product acceptance in a business-to-business environment. 15 interviews with Dutch bakers were conducted to gather new and in-depth insights regarding resistance to change. In line with the business-to-consumer literature, eight ‘resistance to change’ barriers, which could also be applied to the business-to-business environment, were found, including a novel factor, namely time. Findings suggest that technology does not play a leading role in the bakery sector, perhaps due to the fact the participants were from a generation using less technology (generation X) and the bakery sector has in general, until now, a limited adoption of technology. Future research with a similar focus could investigate whether these results can be corroborated or confuted among other business-to-business sectors.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:01 general works, 02 science and culture in general, 70 social sciences in general
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/87942
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