Industrial Product Elimination Decisions: Some Complex Issues

Industrial product management benefits from efforts to distinguish more clearly between product elimination and product replacement problems. Two basic approaches to the product elimination problem are contained in literature: the theoretical/normative approach to modelling the decision process, and the empirical approach based in observation, description and analysis, of how firms actually detect and eliminate or replace weak products. Several authors have commented about the difficulty of reconciling apparent differences in the two approaches. Reports an intensive involvement in an in‐depth case history of a major firm′s behaviour when confronted by a significant product elimination decision. This study attempts to bridge the gap between theory and practice and suggests several propositions that await verification.