The share of organic sales in grocery stores has decreased and in 2021 the share decreased by 0.5 percent from the year before, where total sales amounted to 6.3 percent. In recent years, nudge theory has become more topical, especially in the subject of ecological- and environmental economics. However, research has not focused as much on the ethical perspective and how nudging has been applied to the real environment which the researchers for this study considered worth studying closer. Nudge theory is used as a policy tool that should subconsciously influence or guide customers to make decisions that will benefit them in the long run, without depriving them of the freedom to make their own choices or limit the number of options. Nudges can also be shaped in an unethical way by consciously using nudge theory to negative consequences. The purpose of this study was to examine the types of nudges used in grocery stores to increase the purchase of organic products. This study also examines what the employees in each grocery store considers about their own design of nudges and determines which nudges promote better behavior or manipulation based on an assessed ethical perspective.  Based on theories and previous research, the categories environment, price, and supply have been designed to observe green nudges within each store. The categories were later used to compile observations on inventory. An interview guide has also been conducted to examine the employees' views from an ethical assessed perspective. Results indicated that there are multiple nudges in the shape of placement, information, measures, reminder of choice, maximization of supplies based on what fits in the cartons and refrigerator, not an equal distribution between ecological and conventional products, price in combination with campaigns and that the number of supplies is controlled by what sells the best. Lastly in conclusion both study questions were answered with what types of nudges and that ethics depends on the purpose of the nudge. Further, some nudges were not seen as wrongdoing based on employees and the company's values but are wrong according to nudge theory. Regardless, ecological behavior is promoted on most designated nudges and is confirmed by employees in each store. / Andelen ekologisk försäljning i matbutiker har minskat och under år 2021 minskade andelen med 0,5 procent från året innan där den totala försäljningen uppgick till 6,3 procent. Under de senaste åren har nudge theory blivit mer aktuellt inom ekologisk- och miljöekonomi. Däremot har forskningen inte fokuserat lika mycket på etiska perspektivet och hur nudging har applicerats på den verkliga miljön, vilket denna studie studerar närmare. Nudge theory används som ett policyverktyg som ska påverka eller styra kunder undermedvetet till att fatta beslut som ska gynna dessa kunder på lång sikt, utan att ta ifrån dem friheten att göra egna val eller begränsa antalet alternativ. Nudges kan däremot formas på ett oetiskt sätt genom att medvetet använda sig av nudge theory till negativa konsekvenser. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka typer av nudges som används för att öka köp av ekologiska produkter. Studien undersöker även vad anställda i varje matbutik anser om deras egen utformning av nudges och avgöra vilka nudges som främjar ett bättre beteende eller manipulerar utifrån ett bedömt etiskt perspektiv.  Utifrån teorierna och tidigare forskning har kategorierna miljö, pris och antal utformats för att observera gröna nudges inom avdelningarna frukt och grönt samt mejeri, i respektive butik. Kategorierna användes senare för att sammanställa observationer av inventering. En intervjuguide har även genomförts för att granska de anställdas synpunkter utifrån ett etiskt bedömt perspektiv. Resultat visade på att det finns flera nudges i form av placering, informering, åtgärder, påminnelse av val, maximering av utbud utifrån vad som får plats i kartong och kyl, inte en jämn fördelning av ekologiska och konventionella varor, pris i kombination med kampanjer samt att antalet drivs av vad som säljs bäst. Avslutningsvis kunde båda frågeställningarna besvaras med vilka typer av nudges som återfanns i den fysiska miljön och att etiken beror framför allt på syftet på nudgen. Ytterligare i resultat och analys förs en diskussion att vissa nudges inte anses vara fel utifrån anställdas egna samt butikens värderingar, men anses vara det enligt nudge theory. Oavsett främjas ekologiskt beteende på majoriteten av utpekade nudges och bekräftas av anställda i vardera butik.

Abstract  Background: E-commerce and omni-channel retailing strategies have emerged with digitalization. Digital channels have affected many parts of the daily life for consumers and as a result the consumer’s decision-making processes have become more complex. Born natives are a generation of consumers that have grown up having access to digital technology and their behaviors form a unique phenomenon as consumers within the omni-channel environment. At the same time, continuous growth in the Swedish furniture industry has allowed for new retailing strategies to emerge. The sample of born natives born during the 1990’s provides a unique insight in how these consumers behave and interact in the Swedish omni-channel furniture retailing environment.  Research question: How does the omni-channel retailing environment affect decision-making Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how digital native consumers who now comprise a larger consumer segment on the furniture market perceive the omni-channel environment in addition to how the digital omni-channel environment affects their decision- making process when it comes to furniture purchases in terms of perceived risks, purposes, and consumer benefits.  Methodology: This study is of qualitative nature which approaches the research problem and purpose with a relativistic philosophical stance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to provide relevant data by individual consumers, and which have been analyzed with a hermeneutical approach. An inductive approach was adopted to explore the phenomenon.  Conclusion: Consumers perform multiple different actions and adopt different behaviors when operating in the furniture omni-channel retailing environment. Risk aversion, identity building, entertainment and channel selection are all aspects of furniture shopping that are impacted by digital natives operating in the omni-channel retailing environment.

M. Tech. (Marketing Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Supermarket store brands are affordable alternatives towards the customers’ intended brands. For many years, marketers and retailers of store brands have positioned this brand as a cheap or low-cost brand that could be afforded by most customers. This positioning has catapulted the popularity of store brands. However, on the downward side, most consumers associate cheap or low cost with low quality. The low-cost and low-quality association and perception has been a major impediment towards the real success of store brands. Store brands have long since moved from competing on price, to competing on quality. The shift of focus by marketers and retailers of store brands from price to quality puts store brands on an equal footing with national brands and, consequently, a fierce competitor. This study investigated the influence of consumer-based brand equity elements, namely brand awareness, brand association, brand loyalty and perceived quality on brand preference and purchase intention of store brands. This study restricted its scope to the food brands. Investigating store brands within a South African context is particularly important since store brands are produced and owned by local retailers as opposed to national brands. The literature suggests that store brands are more profitable to retailers compared to their counterparts and serve as a point of differentiation from one retailer to another. A quantitative research design was employed in this study and a non-probability convenience sampling technique was adopted. The target population comprised students from a tertiary institution within the Vaal triangle, namely Vaal University of Technology. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed to the participants, of which 361 participated in the study. To ensure reliability of the scales, pre-testing and piloting of the questionnaire preceded the main survey. Results from correlation and regression analysis revealed that brand equity elements, namely brand awareness, brand association, brand loyalty and perceived quality explain 68.4 percent of the variance in brand preference. This result suggests that consumer-based brand equity elements significantly contribute towards building consumer brand preference towards the store brands. In addition, amongst all the variables, brand loyalty made the strongest contribution towards explaining brand preference (β= 0.342). Moreover, brand preference explains 65.3 percent of the variance in purchase intention. These results suggest that brand preference strongly contributes towards building purchase intention of store brands. Based on the results of this study, recommendations for retailers of store brands are provided as follows:  Retailers of store brands should implement greater awareness programmes for store brands and create positive word-of-mouth through superior product quality.  Retailers of store brands should strengthen store brands’ brand associations to improve the image of store brands.  Retailers of store brands should pay special attention to creating brand loyalty of store brands through implementing store brands’ loyalty programmes. Limitations, future research opportunities and contributions of this study are discussed in the study.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how retail employees experience the organizational conditions in the workplace in order to be able to perform emotional work in relation to customers. The study is conducted through six qualitative semi-structured interviews with retail employees who are employed in different companies in the retail industry in Sweden. Based on the perspective of Arlie Hochschild's sociology of emotions and the concept of social support, the empirical material has been analyzed. The study's research questions are the following: ● How do retail employees relate to emotional labor? ● How are the organizational conditions at the workplace perceived for performing emotional labor? The result of the study shows that in their work role, retail employees manage and influence both their own and the customers' emotions in order to achieve customer trust. The varying expectations of expressed emotions in different situations can be described through Hochschild's concept of emotion rules and take place on the basis of both informal and formal emotion rules. Retail employees are constantly exposed to managing a distance between perceived and expressed emotions at work, which can be explained through two more of Hochschild's concepts: surface acting and deep acting. To manage emotional work, retail employees express the importance of social support from the environment. On the other hand, the study shows that social support from managers and supervisors was lacking in all interviewees' workplaces, which affects the perception of the organizational conditions for performing work. Time constraints, staff shortages and unreasonable demands from management are perceived as factors that affect the ability to perform emotional labor and risk resulting in unwanted emotions with negative attributes. In contrast to previous research, the results of this study show that retail employees' approach to emotional labor is influenced by more factors than interaction with the customer. / Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en ökad förståelse för hur butiksmedarbetare inom handelsbranschen upplever de organisatoriska förutsättningarna på arbetsplatsen för att kunna utföra det emotionella arbetet i relation till kunder. Studien utförs genom sex kvalitativa semistrukturerade forskningsintervjuer med butiksmedarbetare som förvärvsarbetar på olika företag inom handelsbranschen i Sverige. Utifrån Arlie Hochschilds emotionssociologiska perspektiv och begreppet socialt stöd har det empiriska materialet analyserats. Studiens frågeställningar är följande: ● Hur förhåller sig butiksmedarbetare till det emotionella arbetet? ● Hur upplevs de organisatoriska förutsättningarna på arbetsplatsen för att utföra det emotionella arbetet? Studiens resultat visar att butiksmedarbetare i sin yrkesroll hanterar och påverkar både sina individuella och kunders känslor i syfte att uppnå ett kundförtroende. De varierande förväntningar på uttryckta känslor i olika situationer kan beskrivas genom Hochschilds begrepp känsloregler och sker utifrån både informella och formella känsloregler. Butiksmedarbetare utsätts ständigt för hantering av en distans mellan upplevda och uttrycka känslor i arbetet, vilket kan förklaras genom ytterligare två av Hochschilds begrepp: ytagerande och djupagerande. För att hantera det emotionella arbetet är socialt stöd från omgivningen betydelsefullt för butiksmedarbetarna. Däremot visar studien att det sociala stödet från chef och ledning är bristande på samtliga intervjupersoners arbetsplatser, vilket påverkar upplevelsen av de organisatoriska förutsättningarna för att utföra arbetet. Tidsbrist, personalbrist och orimliga krav från ledningen upplevs vara faktorer som påverkar möjligheten till att utföra det emotionella arbetet och riskerar att resultera i oönskade känslor med negativt attribut. Till skillnad från tidigare forskning visar studiens resultat att butiksmedarbetares förhållningssätt till det emotionella arbetet påverkas av fler faktorer än interaktion med kund.

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Retail is changing. E-commerce is increasing its percentage of total sales while physical storesare closing. This affects how real estate companies work with retail spaces to minimizevacancies, and short-term leasing, also called pop-up stores, is one way to do so. Pop-ups haveexisted in different forms for a very long time. Seasonal stores and farmers markets are twoexamples. The modern-day pop-up, assessed and discussed in this study, is the one not alwaysused for sales purposes but also marketing purposes. This study aims to see how modern-daypop-ups can fill the void left by rapidly closing retail stores.The study was carried out by reviewing existing literature about pop-ups and how they work,followed by semi-structured interviews with real estate companies and consultants throughoutthe property industry. Emphasis was put on bottlenecks and problems with implementing shortterm leasing and how market platforms can aid real estate companies with this.The study shows that real estate companies and the industry as a whole are aware of the statusof traditional retail and that they have started to use short-term leasing to a greater extent thanbefore. The real estate companies were positive towards using short-term leases as a tool tominimize vacancies. However, it also shows some problems with implementing short-termleases from a real estate company's perspective. The main obstacles found during the studywere transparency issues regarding vacant spaces, how short-term leases can negatively affectproperty values, and the time-consuming aspect of signing short-term contracts. Concludingthat market platforms can solve certain problems regarding short-term leases, but others haveto be solved by the real estate industry itself. / Detaljhandeln genomgår en förändring. För varje år som går ökar e-handelns andelav detaljhandelns försäljning och antalet butiksvakanser blir allt större. Detta påverkar hurfastighetsbolag jobbar med sina butiksytor för att minimera det ökade antalet vakanser. Etttillvägagångssätt är att arbeta med korttidsuthyrningar, så kallade pop-up butiker. Pop-upbutiker har funnits väldigt länge och i olika former, så som säsongsbutiker och lanthandel. Denmoderna typen av pop-up butiker som kommer tas upp och diskuteras i denna uppsats är dockden som inte alltid är till för att maximera försäljning utan också för att använda imarknadsföringssyfte. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur moderna pop-up butiker kanhjälpa till att fylla det vakuum som lämnats av ett ökat antal vakanta butikslokaler.Uppsatsen skrevs genom en litteraturstudie av existerande litteratur om pop-up butiker samtsemistrukturerade intervjuer med fastighetsbolag och konsulter inom fastighetsbranschen. Härlades stor vikt vid de flaskhalsar och problem som uppstår i samband med implementering avkorttidsuthyrning samt hur marknadsplattformar kan hjälpa fastighetsägare att lösa dessa.Studien visade att fastighetsägare har börjat använda sig av korttidsuthyrningar i en störreutsträckning än tidigare. Fastighetsägarna var positiva till att använda sig av korttidsuthyrningarsom ett verktyg för att minska vakanser. Det visade sig också att det finns problem medimplementering av korttidsuthyrningar från ett fastighetsägarperspektiv. De största problemensom studien visade på var transparens av tomma lokaler, hur korttidsuthyrningar kan påverkafastighetsvärden negativt samt tidsåtgången för att skriva ett korttidskontrakt. Vissa problemkan lösas av marknadsplattformar för korttidsuthyrning medans andra behöver lösas avfastighetsbranschen i sin helhet.

<p><strong>Introduction</strong></p> <p>Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that is becoming more prevalent. Airway hyperresponsivness, a key feature of asthma, involves increased narrowing of the airways in response to bronchoconstricting agents. Airway smooth muscle (ASM) functioning is largely responsible for hyperresponsiveness yet the mechanisms behind excitation-contraction coupling are not fully understood. Src tyrosine kinase contributes to contraction in other smooth muscle types. Furthermore, STIM1, Orai1, IPLA₂b and RyRs play a role in ASM excitation-contraction coupling.</p> <p><strong>Aim</strong></p> <p>We sought to determine whether Src activity is involved in serotonin (5-HT)- and acetylcholine (ACh)-induced ASM contraction. We also examined whether the gene expression of molecules involved in sarcoplasmic reticulum emptying and refilling is altered during airway hyperresponsiveness.</p> <p><strong>Methods</strong></p> <p>Bovine tracheal ASM strips were pre-treated with the non-specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein (10^-4M), src kinase family inhibitors PP1 (10^-5M) and PP2 (10^-5M) or vehicle and challenged with either 5-HT or ACh to determine the involvment of Src in contraction. Western blotting was used to examine Src activity following 5-HT or ACh treatment. Female BALB/c mice were exposed to an intranasal injection of [1.7mg/ml] HDM extract or saline. Real time, reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to examine gene expression.</p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p><strong>Results</strong></p> <p>Genistein, PP1 and PP2 significantly reduced 5-HT-induced ASM contractions and Src activity was significantly increased in response to 5-HT. ACh-induced contractions were significantly reduced by genistein, but not PP1 and PP2. However, Src activity was significantly increased by ACh. RyR3 mRNA expression was significantly increased, Orai1 was significantly decreased, and STIM1, IPLA₂b, RyR1 and RyR2 were unchanged by the house dust mite treatment.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>These data suggets 5-HT-induced ASM contraction involves Src activity. However, ACh-induced ASM contractions might not require Src. The changes in RyR3 and Orai1 expression might alter Ca²⁺-handling in such a way as to potentiate airway hyperresponsiveness but further investigation is required.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

In this demo, we present MorphStore, an in-memory column store with a novel compression-aware query processing concept. Basically, compression using lightweight integer compression algorithms already plays an important role in existing in-memory column stores, but mainly for base data. The continuous handling of compression from the base data to the intermediate results during query processing has already been discussed, but not investigated in detail since the computational effort for compression as well as decompression is often assumed to exceed the benefits of a reduced transfer cost between CPU and main memory. However, this argument increasingly loses its validity as we are going to show in our demo. Generally, our novel compression-aware query processing concept is characterized by the fact that we are able to speed up the query execution by morphing compressed intermediate results from one scheme to another scheme to dynamically adapt to the changing data characteristics during query processing. Our morphing decisions are made using a cost-based approach.