Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-128). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Also available as an electronic resource. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-168).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 8, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-168).

Muito se tem estudado a respeito dos aspectos econômicos e mercadológicos dos Shopping Centers, focando-se essencialmente na relação destes empreendimentos com os consumidores finais. Este trabalho pretendeu abordar esta questão sob a ótica do lojista que se instala em um shopping center. E não exatamente um lojista qualquer, mas o pequeno lojista, ou o lojista satélite, como são chamados estes comerciantes nos empreendimentos. Através da hipótese de que por menor que seja o empreendimento comercial, sempre existirão critérios objetivos de escolha de ponto, procurou-se aqui sistematizar esses critérios, através de uma abordagem teórica que pudesse dar sustentação conceitual ao processo de escolha. Dentre as conclusões do trabalho, verificou-se que apesar de nem sempre aparente, o lojista tem uma clara percepção das características do ponto, embora às vezes tenha que optar por aquele ponto onde sua restrição de orçamento assim o permita. / Many researchers have studied economic and merchandising issues regarding shopping centers, focusing essentially on the relationship between the entrepreneurs and the consumers. This work is intended to provide a different approach, focusing on the relationship from the shopper-owner viewpoint, with an emphasis on small businesses. Based upon the hypothesis that even in the smallest commercial business, everyone should develop some technical criteria to assist in choosing their sites, the author tried to organize these methods, using a theoretical approach in order to support the site study process. Among the conclusions, it was verified that even when the owner cannot use the concepts to choose a site in a shopping center (e.g., because of a restricted budget), he/she has a clear idea about the quality and characteristics of the site locations.

The chondroitin sulphate proteoglycan (CSPG) versican forms complexes with hyaluronan (HA), which are essential in a range of functions including cellular proliferation and migration. Four isoforms of versican result from alternative splicing. Furthermore, biological roles have been identified for the proteolytic cleavage product of versican which contains the N-terminal G1 hyaluronan binding domain. All of these versican forms have different tightly regulated tissue expression profiles. Consequently, impaired regulation is associated with a number of disease pathologies. For example the largest variants (V0/V1) have been shown to be negative indicators of disease outcome in a number of malignant cancers and are a marker of disease progression in atherosclerosis. Interestingly, the smaller versican isoform V3 which lacks CS chains has been demonstrated to have the potential to reverse disease associated phenotypes. The motivation for carrying out the work in this thesis was to try and gain a better understanding of how versican functions on a molecular scale. In this regard, the first aim was to investigate the structure of the hyaluronan binding region of versican using a construct called VG1. The structure of VG1 was analysed in the presence and absence of hyaluronan oligomers. This revealed an insight into the multi-modular structure of the versican hyaluronan binding region and demonstrated that on binding to HA, VG1 under goes a conformational change. Furthermore, the interaction between VG1 and longer lengths of hyaluronan (pHA) was investigated. This demonstrated that when VG1 binds to pHA it is does so with positive cooperativity, packing very close to neighbouring VG1 molecules along a chain of HA. One consequence of this interaction was to reorganise pHA into a helical conformation, an organisation that was confirmed by a number of solution phase techniques. The effect of this reorganisation of pHA by VG1 on HA/CD44 interactions was also assessed. Previously the interaction between CD44 (a cell surface hyaluronan receptor) and long chains of HA (>30 kDa) was shown to be irreversible; however we demonstrate that VG1 can reverse this. Furthermore, a TSG-6 enhanced CD44/interaction was also completely reversed by the addition of VG1. This provides an indication that a functional hierarchy of hyaluronan binding proteins may exist which could have important implications in understanding the function of hyaluronan complexes. Currently, we do not know whether intact versican molecules could interact with HA in the same way as VG1. However, preliminary data suggests that the CS-containing variants (i.e. V0, V1 and V2) would not, whereas V3 and versican fragments could. This work provides an exciting mechanistic insight into the function of versican variants and their breakdown products.

No description available.

Beyond simple shopping needs, nowadays consumers are continuously looking for the consumption of new experiences. This contemporary consumer request also unveils inside shopping centers, which as scholars recognize, are shifting functionality towards becoming centers for customer engagement.Following this trend, marketers are continuously looking into new ways to increase offer attractivity and consequently spur customer engagement. Rituals represent a possible new lens to study consumer behaviour inside the mall landscape and disclose new hidden consumers' processes for value creation.By conducting a pre-study with two mall managers, we sensed their perspective of the mall and individuated the challenges of shopping centers future development and new consumer shopping trends. In a second phase, we focused on analysing the consumer perspective and utilization of the mall by observing their shopping rituals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 consumers constituting of both Young Professionals and families.In conclusion, different types of rituals were individualized and analysed. By applying rituals to the shopping behaviour of consumers inside shopping malls yielded several insights that resulted to be useful for managers and a valuable contribution to academic research. The results show that mall visitors consume specific rituals inside shopping malls depending on both the target groups (young professionals or families) of consumers as well as the mall experience type (seductive, functional, interactive museum or social). Young Professionals tended to be more spontaneous and socially oriented. However, families tended to shop for functional reasons and often have a planned script of their shopping ritual that they follow throughout their shopping journey at a shopping mall.

No description available.

This thesis is a historical examination of the shopping space Gallerian in Stockholm, which opened in October of 1976. The text analyzes how Gallerian’s affective environment was staged. I show how the developers sought to use Gallerian to shape the space of the inner city to increasingly provide for movements through which spontaneous consumption arose as a natural affective response. By analyzing this ambition, I point to the relevance of studying this specific form of consumption space, an indoor street, as a space that differs from a department store or a shopping center outside of the city. The indoor street was motivated by historical actors precisely because it offered possibilities of affect-governance that a department store or a shopping center outside of the city could not. Furthermore, the text examines the affective culture created in the interior space of Gallerian. I show how escalators, vegetation embellishments and air- and temperature regulation became relevant in Gallerian’s ambition to create a certain affective pull into its space. This affective pull is similar to what Walter Benjamin examined in 19th Century Paris, but, as shown in the thesis, the affective pull of Gallerian was aiming to capture a broader crowd of flaneurs. Gallerian was marketed as an enabler of an inclusive and democratic flaneurship. Gallerian also worked on dissociating itself from consumption, by incorporating symbols and places into the shopping space which read as non-commercial, and by framing the space as a non-commercial experience in public discourse. I argue that Gallerian’s affective environment provided for a consumer subjectivity that was potential, by staging an indoor street that naturalized shopping as part of the walk-about through the city as well as providing an interior environment with a certain affective pull. Lastly, I analyze how Gallerian achieved symbolic meaning as a place in the city. It became a “thing- world”, in Adorno’s and Benjamin’s sense, in that it was filled with desire for commodities, but also through a voyeuristic experience of other people as a conjurer of fantasies. I also argue that Gallerian, as a lived place-based experience, became a place where historical consciousness could be conjured and a longing for a city of the past could be enacted in the space.

No description available.