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Future & Simple produced documentary wins Award

A documentary produced by Future and Simple, AGSM Professor Timothy Devinney, AGSM Dr Giana Eckhardt, and Professor Russell Belk from the University of Utah, "Why Don't Consumers Behave Ethically?", has received the "Best Film Award" in the Association for Consumer Research Asia Pacific 2006 Conference.

This documentary reveals how consumers in different countries react to alternative situations relating to their behavior and that of their country and cultural peers. Watch and listen as individuals map out their own logic and beliefs about ethical conflicts as wide ranging as the seemingly innocuous day-to-day purchasing of bath soaps, and the environmental and animal rights issues hidden therein, to their reactions to the labor practices of major brand manufacturers such as Nike, to the supposedly victimless crime of purchasing counterfeit goods.

New research shows future demand for space tourism

New research reveals growing interest in the potential of space tourism as a competitor to traditional forms of adventure holiday. In contrast to earlier work, this research reveals not just who may be a potential space tourist but also the nature of the adventure offerings that appeal most to budding space tourists.

The research was conducted by Professor Timothy Devinney, Director of AGSM’s Centre for Corporate Change (CCC), Professor Jordan Louviere, Director of the Centre for the Study of Choice (CENSOC) at The University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) Professor Geoffrey Crouch from the School of Business at Latrobe University (Latrobe) with the survey instrument developed and hosted by Future and Simple, as part of the Future Choice Initiative.

Professor Timothy Devinney said: “Companies like Virgin Galactic, a space tourism venture backed by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, have already begun work to shape a space travel market. But it is early days. “Making space tourism into a success story will require a complex mixture of marketing savvy and good luck. Space tourism operators must address issues of cost, time and risk. They also need to consider variables influencing customer perceptions and demand such as spacecraft type, duration of flight, weightlessness and launch location.

“Marketing research is crucial if commercial space tourism experiences are to be designed on the basis of a sound understanding of consumer choice behaviour.

“However, a major challenge is the conduct of sound, reliable, state-of-the-art research for a product with no history, numerous potential product configurations and little consumer understanding of the benefits and risks.

“The results of this study show how one can deal with these challenges and obtain a good first approximation of space tourism’s potential based on sound consumer assessment,” says Professor Devinney.

The study reveals that:

Potential consumers exhibit price sensitivity. At a price of $50,000 approximately 20 percent of people would opt for a sub-orbital space flight. Above $200,000 this number is halved to 10 percent.
Potential consumers prefer American and Australian operators to those from Japan, Germany, the UK and Russia.
Potential consumers are affected strongly by the safety record of an operator.
The vertical rocket launch is the preferred mode. A rocket plane is the least preferred mode of reaching space.
Males and younger individuals are more likely to take a space tourism adventure.
Orbital space tourists are far more “thrill seeking” than other space tourists. Some space tourism adventures are simply not stimulating enough for these individuals.

Download the study results

Console Application wins "Most Promising Research" Award at 2005 Secrets of Australian IT Innovation competition

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, today announced the winners of the 2005 Secrets of Australian IT Innovation Competition. Now in its fourth year, the competition attracted 117 applications from all States and Territories. Entries were accepted in seven categories – business industrial software solutions, communication applications, security, commerce, health, learning and entertainment.

Future Factor

A new research project aims to take the guesswork out of predicting what technology people will take up in the future. Con Nats and Debra Maynard report.

Imagine if we could accurately predict what new technologies would meet the future needs of consumers and markets. It is a challenge that has dogged technology producers for decades because traditional market research techniques are limited in dealing with the unpredictability of the future. Yet as our societies become more technologically driven, billions of research and development dollars increasingly ride on getting the future right.

Consider the more than $250 billion spent by some of the world’s biggest phone companies on third-generation (3G) wireless licences for mobile phones since 1999, with little return in sight. Even with cashed-up Hutchison Telecoms “pressing ahead when others have closed their eyes to opportunity” – according to Hutchison’s stakeholder relations director, Steve Wright – many telcos are taking a wait-and-see approach with so much still invested in second-generation networks.

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