Retail sales of container gardens have increased dramatically in the recent past and rose 8% from 2004 to 2005, to $1.295 billion. The objective of this study was to determine consumer preferences for three attributes of container gardens. A Web-based survey was conducted on 18 Oct. 2006 with 985 respondents. Survey participants invited from an independent garden center’s customer e- mail list were asked to complete a series of questions on a seven point Likert scale. Survey participants also answered questions about past experiences and future purchase intentions with container gardens, as well as demographics. A hierarchical set of levels were used to investigate three attributes of container gardens in a 3 X 3 X 3 factorial conjoint analysis including color harmony, price and care information level provided with the purchase. The surveys were analyzed using conjoint analysis which accounted for 99.8% of the variance in container garden preference. Relative importance decreased from price (70.7%), to care information level (22.9%), to color harmony (6.4%). Survey participants preferred a container garden with a price point of $24.99, extensive information and the complementary color harmony. A significant portion (77.5%) of participants in this study indicated that they would be more likely to purchase a container garden if extensive information was included with the purchase and 84.8% of participants said they would be willing to visit a Website that would provide more information on how to care for and maintain a container garden. Results of this study show that there is a potential to increase the value of a container garden through providing educational material with the purchase.

There are two markable ocean going container liners, Evergreen maritime corporation¡]EMC¡^ and Yang Ming maritime corporation¡]YML¡^, in Taiwan. They are listed in the top20 container liners of the world and operating with good repution in this industry. The Evergreen has launched a global service with both the east and the west bound since 1984, and then it continuously expanded bussiness scale and became the biggest container liner around the world in 1985. At same time, YML created a new service model between the Europe-FarEast-North America by pedulum. Therefore, they are the leaders in the shipping industry. They are also honors to our country. The container has initiated in 1960s. After delveloping for decades, the transportation of the container has become as a maturity industry and been competing violently. There were ten great container liners, Mersk/ P&OCL, NOL/ NYK, K-LINE/ MOL, APL/ OOCL and YML/ HANJIN, forming joint venture in 1991. The main container liners became four big global alliances in 1994. And then they regrouped in 1996 and 1999. These few alliances share most part of the market of the world. The local outstanding liner YML, which just shares 1.7% of the market, organizated a ¡§CKYH¡¨ group with COSCO, K-LINE and HANJIN to enhance competition in 2002. However, the Evergreen still keeps as a main outsider of the alliances. The management models of these two local markable liners, Evergreen and YangMing Line, are different. Evergreen is a private company. Nevertheless, the YangMing Line which used to belong to the government and become privatized in 1996. Anyway, both of them have been operating with competition and performing excellently. What kind of strategies did they use before? What are the strategies they are using now? In this paper the author tried to find the strategies of these two companies and create a model of both development and competition for the shipping industry of the container.

Container terminal plays an important role to serve container vessel¡¦s loading and discharging in seaport. Owing to high sunk cost and resource limited in operating ( e.g. rental, quay and yard cranes, berth window, yard and so on ), container terminals are mostly run by government or conglomerate of joint carriers . Practically, there are many container terminal operation types in the world. Among them, Kaohsiung Harbor Authority ( KHB ) leases out all terminals to several vessel carriers and the terminal lessee serves hers own vessels. In such operation type, Kaohsiung port terminal industries are faced with resource limited and berth window shortage problems. Above all, under the prevailing of global alliance tendency and ports serious competition, the terminal lessees will have the pressures of lack in resource sharing advantage and cost increasing. In such situation, the terminal performance and efficiency will be deteriorated in the long run. Thus, how to seek a better way, even changing the operation type, to enhance Kaohsiung port competitive ability is an imminent problem. Therefore, in order to maintain the Kaohsiung port¡¦s competitive advantage in international seaports, this thesis aims to discuss and evaluate the possibility of joint-venture type in Kaohsiung container terminal. We take Los Angeles¡¦s joint-venture case, which is a success cooperation, as an emulating example. And we act the expert investigation by AHP analysis to process this study. Finally, we expect this conclusion and suggestions can provide an opportunity to relating organizations for further study enabling them to come up with a suitable operation type in Kaohsiung harbor.

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

International container shipping is a complex system of interlocked stakeholders. Obtaining reliable data can be difficult and the data for specific routes and container terminals change over time. Intermodal transportation has increased in importance over the years. A relational database model was developed as a tool for stakeholders interested in analyzing specific paths. The database uses data on transportation time, variance of transportation time, transportation cost and green house gas emissions. The user can specify their own set of locations, movements, containers, items and transportation modes. The total logistics cost of a specific importing strategy can be calculated for any path defined by the user. A Floyd-Warshall algorithm was implemented to allow for the shortest path between locations to be determined, based on the preferences of the user for either cost, time or CO2 emissions. In order to illustrate the capabilities of our model and because of our interest in the port of Halifax, we created a dataset from the distances between important locations within the international container shipping system. Using this dataset, some example calculations indicate that the port of Halifax and the port of Montreal could consider cooperating to form a hub-and-spoke relationship for European imports. In another example, the port of Halifax provides the fastest route for imports using the Suez Canal intending to reach Toronto but the cheapest total logistics cost route involves using the port of NY/NJ. By using both the total logistics cost algorithms and the shortest path algorithms, the examples illustrate how stakeholders in the container transportation industry can analyze various routes, terminals and make informed decisions.

This thesis includes an introduction to my bonsai container design along with a history of bonsai, discussion of the philosophies of key bonsai masters, the details of two bonsai containers based on Japanese courtyard culture and Japanese architectural philosophy. It also documents the design process of all 1:1 scale Bonsai containers and the exhibition space, which includes bonsai planted in each container on the presentation day.

This thesis includes an introduction to my bonsai container design along with a history of bonsai, discussion of the philosophies of key bonsai masters, the details of two bonsai containers based on Japanese courtyard culture and Japanese architectural philosophy. It also documents the design process of all 1:1 scale Bonsai containers and the exhibition space, which includes bonsai planted in each container on the presentation day.

This thesis includes an introduction to my bonsai container design along with a history of bonsai, discussion of the philosophies of key bonsai masters, the details of two bonsai containers based on Japanese courtyard culture and Japanese architectural philosophy. It also documents the design process of all 1:1 scale Bonsai containers and the exhibition space, which includes bonsai planted in each container on the presentation day.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.