This thesis examines the dichotomy of Richmond’s suburban and urban environments within a market environment. In our quest to make our lives more convenient, we have moved outside of cities, increased commutes and cut ourselves off from one another. Ultimately we have lowered our standards of quality in food, products and services by allowing big retailers and chain restaurants to determine a new standard of living. The goal of this works is to create a food hall and market environment that will act as a catalyst to improve the quality of life of Richmonders as well as to draw residents from the suburbs back into the city and revitalize the run down urban areas. The market and food hall will showcase the best that Richmond has to offer. It will support local farmers and business, integrate and encourage community by connecting people, encourage a slower pace of life and act as a center of revenue for the neighborhood and city of Richmond.

Background: Online marketplaces constitute one of the most successful business innovations of the Web 2.0. Nonetheless so far no branding theory has been connected to the topic of two-sided online marketplaces. This might be due to the high complexity and reciprocity of their value creation which however needs to be in order to apply any marketing and branding strategies.   Purpose:       Therefore, the purpose is to understand and clarify the value creation processes of two-sided online marketplaces and develop branding theory based on the findings thereof.   Method:        Within this thesis we conducted qualitative research.  The study is built on semi-structured interviews with 15 respondents that have used various two-sided online marketplaces either as sellers and buyers.   Conclusion: In order to understand the various variables of two-sided online marketplaces business model, we have identified, conceptualized and extended an integrative model to manage and brand their value. With the knowledge resulting from our literature review we built a model illustrating all pillars which influence value creation and thus brand perception and extended this model with the results of our own research. We have identified that while user behavior and preferences generally remain heterogeneous, commonalities such as social influences and convenience stick out most often for both user sides. Both pillars have barely been covered by research, which solely focused on network effects, price allocation and trust.

A produção do agronegócio brasileiro se faz competitiva em escala. No mercado mundial vendemos commodities e compramos produtos processados de maior valor agregado, despendendo recursos naturais e verba pública para gerar pouca riqueza para o país. É sabido que, nos últimos anos vem ocorrendo incremento da atividade aquícola nacional, mas apesar disso, a produção de pescado ainda apresenta cadeias produtivas pouco organizadas. Neste trabalho sugere-se o pirarucu como espécie de pescado apta a apresentar cadeia produtiva de produtos competitivos no mercado nacional de pescado de maior valor agregado. Foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas em 22 atores da cadeia produtiva do pirarucu cultivado, resultando em mais de 13 horas de diálogo para compreensão de quem são os atores, quais são os gargalos e quais são as potencialidades de um produto de alto valor agregado à base de pirarucu. Objetivando responder se partes nobres do peixe podem ser competitivas enquanto produto premium, as respostas foram categorizadas em: atores da cadeia produtiva, gargalos na produção, gargalos no mercado, potencialidades intrínsecas e potencialidades extrínsecas do produto. A conclusão alcançada foi que produtos de pirarucu (como filé e lombo congelados e embalados em pequenas porções) são produtos nobres e podem se tornar competitivos no nicho de mercado de pescado premium, caso seus gargalos sejam superados, uma vez que apresentam potencialidades intrínsecas e extrínsecas de grande valor para o consumidor. / Brazilian agribusiness is competitive in scale. We sell commodities and buy processed value added products, spending natural resources and public money doing this. In recent years there has a increase in the national aquaculture activity, but despite this, fish production still presents disorganized supply chain. In this work suggested that pirarucu is a fish capable to have competitive products in the national premium fish market. Were conducted semi-structured interviews in 22 players of the cultivated pirarucu supply chain production, resulting in more than 13 hours of dialogue to understand who the players are, what the constraints are, and what the potentialities are. In order to answer the question of whether the premium fish can be competitive as a product, the answers were categorized as: players, constraints in the production, constraints in the market, intrinsic potentialities and extrinsic potentialities. The conclusion reached was that pirarucu products (such as frozen fillet and loin) are premium products and can become competitive in the niche market of value-added fish, if their constraints are overcome, since they have intrinsic potentialities and extrinsic values to the consumer.

This thesis considers the question of socio-cultural encounters and conviviality in the context of urban retail marketplaces. It elaborates on the concept of 'conviviality' through two case studies in Greater Manchester, UK. With a focus on town centre marketplaces, this thesis considers what underpins conviviality across three elements: physical and spatial ordering, socio-cultural structure, and management and local governance. In the study of the first element, the role of the built environment and physical dimensions of place is considered in shaping encounter. The social domains of encounter are studied in more depth to explore the second element. And the final element is studied to understand the role of management bodies in shaping and mediating encounter. Marketplaces as a type of micro-public have always been much more than places of economic exchange. As flexible spatial and temporal assemblages, they can provide and provoke vivid and inclusive public spaces. However, their role in the urban fabric has been challenged by the forces of changing shopping habits, a declining economic situation of the high street, and changing urban demographics and cultural composition. While a growing body of literature explores the changing position of marketplaces, there is a gap in the exploration of their social composition, and their capacity to provide a socio-spatial expression of multicultural conviviality. The findings of this research highlight that marketplaces are sites of plural, heterogeneous and distributed practices, identities and cultures that accommodate casual relationships. Based on empirical findings in Bolton and Tommyfield (Oldham) marketplaces, this research concludes that social encounters as means of fulfilling the need for urban social experience should be mediated as well as acknowledged. Therefore, the aim of conviviality and socio-cultural understanding would not be achieved without; first, understanding the mundane practices and social encounters of marketplaces and then, inculcation and facilitation of them by the relevant authorities. This study argues that it is important to maintain the role of marketplaces in the urban public realm, as they have the spatial and social potential to contribute to the social regeneration of cities and communities. This research makes an original contribution to knowledge in terms of (1) developing wider theoretical debates about social encounter and diversity, (2) highlighting the changing role of marketplaces within the wider realm of public spaces and local governance and (3) contributing to the development of a new methodological approach to study social encounters in urban micro-publics.

Submitted by Elba Lopes (elba.lopes@fecap.br) on 2018-06-04T20:05:13Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Fabrizio Aguiar de Souza Scommegna.pdf: 287416 bytes, checksum: e17218bb03b78e9e9454efa303f5f345 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-04T20:05:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Fabrizio Aguiar de Souza Scommegna.pdf: 287416 bytes, checksum: e17218bb03b78e9e9454efa303f5f345 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-23 / Brazilian pension funds have allocated 90% of their investments in fixed income and equity. The insertion of alternative investments, such as commodities, can improve the risk / return relationship since it carries zero correlation in comparison with the others. To verify if this new category can be considered as investment in a portfolio with the best risk / return ratio, the Sharpe Ratio was used to compare optimal portfolios that used commodities with others that did not use it. As a robustness test, we applied Ledoit and Wolf (2008), which compares two Sharpe Ratios in non-normal time series. The period considered is 2009 to 2017, we also observed periods of three years. The results showed that fixed income maintains high returns with low volatility and the portfolios resorts it, equities was not relevant for any period analyzed and investments in commodities were considered in the period of high interest of the economy. The Sharpe Ratio of that period was statistically higher than the traditional portfolio. / Os fundos de pens??o brasileiros t??m alocado 90% dos seus recursos em investimentos na classe de ativos de renda fixa e renda vari??vel. A inser????o de investimentos alternativos, como commodities, pode melhorar a rela????o risco/retorno dado que carrega correla????o nula em compara????o com as demais. Para verificar se essa nova categoria pode ser considerada como investimento em uma carteira com a melhor rela????o risco/retorno, fez-se o uso do ??ndice de Sharpe para comparar carteiras ??timas que utilizaram commodities com outras que n??o se utilizaram disso. Como teste de robustez usou-se de Ledoit e Wolf (2008) que compara dois ??ndices de Sharpe em s??ries temporais n??o normais. Al??m de investigar o per??odo de 2009 a 2017, foram observados tamb??m os tri??nios compreendidos nessa ??poca. Os resultados demonstraram que a renda fixa mant??m altos retornos com baixa volatilidade e as carteiras utilizaram bastaste dessa, o segmento de mercado renda vari??vel n??o foi relevante para nenhum per??odo analisado e os investimentos em commodities foram considerados no per??odo de alta de juros da economia. O ??ndice de Sharpe desse per??odo foi estatisticamente maior que a carteira tradicional.

Recent charter school enrollment trends suggest that a growing number of parents have opted to transfer their children from neighborhood public schools into charter schools, despite data indicating public school achievement equal to or above charter schools. This trend encourages school leaders to examine parent choice. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gather perspectives from parents in the study community who chose to enroll their children in charter schools instead of public schools and identify reasons parents chose charter schools. The humanistic theories of Maslow and Rogers, which emphasized the importance of choice, creativity, values, and self-realization as considerations for parent choice, formed the conceptual framework. Qualitative data were collected through an electronic questionnaire from 84 parents who have chosen 1 of 2 charter schools, designed to gather demographic information as well as perceptions about the processes and determinant factors involved in making school enrollment choices. Individual semi-structured interviews using a purposeful sample were conducted with 7 parents to determine their perceptions about choosing charter schools instead of traditional public schools. Data analysis included open coding and identification of emergent themes. The findings suggested criteria that parents considered in addition to standardized accountability measures as part of the school choice process. The resulting project included a professional development seminar for public educators in the local community to understand the public school choice marketplace, a marketing plan for their school, and follow-up implementation coaching. This study may contribute to social change through educators' increased understanding of competition in public education and the development of best practices to improve public schools and student enrollments.

This study was conducted to identify the nature of the content devoted to the 2008 presidential election in the editorial pages of three newspapers. The research sought to discover what percentage of the content was specific to the election, whether this election-centered content focused on the campaign or on specific issues, what issues were covered, and the role in which the author was writing. This study used a comparative quantitative content analysis to examine this content appearing during the final three months of the 2008 campaign in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Dallas Morning News, and the San Francisco Chronicle, three major U.S. metropolitan newspapers with regional focus. The results provided insight into whether a marketplace of ideas exists in the editorial pages of the selected newspapers. Analysis of the election-related material revealed that each newspaper devoted a substantial portion of their editorial pages to the election. However, of that election-centered material, the majority was focused on the campaign, or "horse race," devoting much less to the discussion of substantive policy issues. The exception was the San Francisco Chronicle, which devoted almost 50% of its election-centered material to substantive issues. Only a handful of issues dominated the issue coverage in each newspaper: money, social issues, and defense/foreign policy. The general format for the editorial pages in each newspaper allowed for only a limited amount of diversity with the role in which an author is writing (i.e. the newspaper's own editorial writers vs. letters to the editor written by citizens). The majority of columns, the portion of the editorial pages where a diversity of authors has the potential to exist, were made up by authors identified by only a handful of roles.

The environmental horticulture industry, also known as the “Green Industry”, is the second most important sector in the United States’ agricultural economy in terms of economic output and one of the fastest growing segments of agriculture; however, it has experienced a steady slowdown in growth in the past years. Floriculture and nursery crops average annual growth rate decreased from 13.64% in the 1970s to approximately 2.87% in the 2000s, and the industry is currently considered to be facing a mature market. The Texas A&M Agricultural Program, in an attempt to help Texas’ green industry producers compete effectively in an evolving marketplace, developed the Texas Superstar TM and Earth-Kind TM programs. Both of these programs intend to raise awareness among consumers of Texas-grown plant material while promoting environmental responsibility, and to increase producers’ profitability by providing them with products that can be sold at a price premium. In spite of the considerable investments on research and marketing that have been done in order to assure the release of every new plant, no research has investigated the effectiveness of these branding efforts in terms of consumer’s behavior. This research seeks to evaluate brand awareness and willingness-to-pay on the part of lawn and garden consumers. The discrete choice models used were the logit and probit model on brand awareness and the tobit model on the conditional willingness-to-pay. Results from this study conclude that consumers’ awareness of Texas Superstar TM and Earth-Kind TM in the Texas area is low, but the satisfaction level among aware consumers is high. The presence of awareness was found to increase willingness-to-pay for Texas Superstar TM and Earth-Kind TM by about 10%. Furthermore, profiles of the consumers’ behavioral and demographic characteristics that are more likely to influence brand awareness and willingness-to-pay were identified.

s e-Commerce era has been brought into being, the call of ¡§disintermediation¡¨ comes to vogue, yielding overwhelming impact, in particular upon services provided by insurance brokers, agents and such ¡§production¡¨, ¡§transmission¡¨ oriented digital products. As insurance products and rates get liberalized after Taiwan became a WTO member, the insurance ¡§intermediates¡¨ must reconsider and innovate their business management strategies amidst harsh challenges of ¡§direct marketing¡¨ from insurance companies, ¡§integral and cross selling¡¨ and ¡§online website insurance¡¨ from financial holding houses. Only through such efforts can they cope with internal and external attacks, gain the room to survive and further develop ahead. The present study takes ¡§single research object¡¨¡XHo-An Insurance Agency to look into a variety of transforming strategies when a car dealer invests in large-scale ¡§property insurance agency¡¨. We have conducted the study and assessment by means of ¡§literature reorganization¡¨, ¡§interview¡¨, ¡§traditional strategic analysis theories, tools¡¨, ¡§digital traditional strategic analysis theories, tools¡¨ and ¡§market survey¡¨. With the results yielded out of the study, we first come to Ho-An¡¦s ¡§Generic Strategies¡¨ and ¡§Digital Strategies¡¨ and such orientations to come to the ¡§vision¡¨ of ¡§becoming the agent of agents¡¨. In line with the ¡§vision¡¨, we further three phases of Ho-An¡¦s ¡§integral transformation strategies¡¨ as ¡§virtual integration of insurance companies¡¨, ¡§establishment of transaction alliance¡¨ and ¡§development of multifaceted marketing channels¡¨. The business mode in counterpart with ¡§integral transformation strategies¡¨ is in two categories: ¡§Virtual insurance company alliance transaction center¡¨ and ¡§multifaceted marketing channels¡¨. In turn, we generalize the e-Business Model as: Establish ¡§vertical B To B integration, continual reinforcement of up- and down-stream integration¡¨; ¡§B To C: Look into policyholder-related information¡¨ as well as ¡§Horizontal B To B: Expanding industrial integration force¡¨, inclined to buyer-oriented e-Marketplaces. The very key to Ho-An¡¦s transforming strategies is to broaden the horizon of sales power from the ¡§car dealer¡¦s insurance division¡¨ gradually into ¡§reintermediation¡¨ transforming strategies. In substantial and virtual integration, we will combine the up- and down-stream firms into a whole to become intermediates with integral insurance service functions, positioning themselves with initial marketing powers to bring up added values to clients.

Yoga is an increasingly visible and versatile commodity in the United States health market. Though its origins stretch to pre-Vedic India and its traditional religious purpose is linked to Hinduism, it is evident that yoga has undergone much change since its transmission to U.S. culture. In its popular, widespread incarnation in the United States, yoga is not usually learned at the feet of a guru, but at exercise centers and gyms. These secular locales of yoga's practice help define the "yoga phenomenon" in contemporary America. This phenomenon has resulted in yoga's wide acceptance and high visibility in American popular culture --- especially within the "cultic milieu" as it is expressed in the "spiritual marketplace" and "therapeutic culture." Yoga's apparent transformation from an explicitly Hindu religious practice to one located in cultural environments that appear non-religious on the surface (such as gyms or therapeutic regimens) is a topic of interest in religious studies. Of even greater interest to religious studies, however, is the argument put forward by some scholars that these non-religious environments are actually profoundly religious in character and suggest that yoga's apparent transformation is a manifestation of a new type of religious experience within the United States. This thesis is interested in the various questions surrounding this apparent transformation. The central question here is what happens to yoga in U.S. culture? More specifically, what is yoga's religious status in the context of contemporary U.S. culture and religion, and what forms does yoga take within various environments t hat are devoid of explicit Hindu connections? To engage these questions, this thesis will analyze yoga's religious status in the context of the theories of secularization and the cultic milieu as put forth by Steve Bruce, as well as the concepts of the spiritual marketplace and therapeutic culture as presented by Wade Clark Roof. Data culled from various sources and independent research will also be used in understanding yoga in contemporary U.S. popular religion and culture.