Market segmentation is becoming very familiar and essential to every marketer in the process of designing and implementing an effective target-marketing strategy. It is confirmed in the grocery retail industry about the importance of appropriate market segmentation. In this industry, customer purchasing behavior needs to be acknowledged not only in specific products, but also the interaction among the whole range of products. Therefore, the motivation for this thesis is to discover a segmentation based on this purchasing behavior among whole range of products, which is called purchasing pattern. The Purchasing pattern is interpreted by purchasing portfolios, which include list of categories that a certain customer purchases and also consumption behavior on these categories.This thesis is acknowledged from related theories to design a theoretical model of market segmentation based on purchasing portfolios. Then, data mining techniques are applied to process a practical database in order to test the theory’s hypotheses, as well as illustrate for the model.As a result, the availability of segmentation is verified from a technical view and the practical significance of segmentation is confirmed from a marketing view. The result from data mining has shown four segments from the analysis of purchasing portfolios. These four segments cover most of the market, and remain over time. The segmentation is assessed from marketing view to be appropriate for practical application.Furthermore, there are three segments that are selected to be analyzed further. They represent three distinct purchasing behaviors. Three specific purchasing portfolios are built for each segment, which can be used to direct for marketing strategy.

Thesis. 1980. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Includes bibliographies. / Ph.D.

The concept of "customer perceived value" has been evolving as an essential area within the marketing discipline for decades. Knowing what shapes consumer perception towards a product or service is vital for businesses (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001), especially for fashion products whose trends are ever-changing. Nevertheless, in the technology era, fashion consumers tend to use the spectrum of media platforms to search for information, to compare prices and exchange experiences amongst a common group. According to McKinsey and Company (2014), up to 35% of fashion consumers rely on online recommendations prior to making a purchasing decision. Given the challenges in this area of business, the aim of this study is to develop the multidimensional scale to measure consumer social media involvement. The measurement scale has been tested in the conceptual models by investigating the moderating effect of social media involvement influencing the relationships of customer perceived value and purchasing intention. The proposed scale is also examined within the customer perceived value dimensions against the key consequences. Moreover, the concept of brand love is incorporated within this study. Sometimes, people purchase brand not product itself and brand love construct is recently new concept and limited studies investigated into this area. Therefore, this study focuses on the moderating effect of social media involvement and brand love towards customer perceived value and purchasing intention for fast-fashion products. A quantitative research method was undertaken to collect research data. The self administered questionnaires were completed by Thai consumers at three particular department stores located in central Bangkok. The data analysis was then performed based on the returned, completed questionnaires of 630 respondents. Both exploratory and confirmatory analysis techniques were used to validate the measurement scale of the study. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test the hypotheses of both direct and indirect relationships. The quantitative results show customer perceived value from multiple dimensions (social, emotional, price and quality) towards fast fashion products. It was found that there is a direct causal relationship between the customer perceived value and purchasing intention, influenced by the level of social media involvement and brand love. An individual who has a high level of social media involvement and brand love tends to perceive a greater consumption experience which lead to preceding the positive outcomes. Therefore, fashion retailers should consider these dimensions and maintain a favourable relationship to enhance the consumer perception experience. Moreover, utilising the advantages from social media to connect with customers should not be neglected. However, the results showed that not all dimensions were found to have a positive effect on consumer purchasing intention towards fast fashion products equally; hence, the fashion marketers should deliberately evaluate each dimension of desired customer perceived value prior to applying a particular strategic plan. Moreover, the findings of this study are of the greatest importance to consumer behaviour especially in the area of involvement by extending the further knowledge. Social media involvement measurement scale has been developed from the limitation of exising studies by incorporated multi-facet dimensions (affective, cognitive and behavioural involvement) in the way to capture the complex nature of involvement variables. Furthermore, the model framework demonstrated the motive force behind behavioural intention by investigating the moderating role of social media involvement and brand love within the fast fashion products.

Chan Ying Leung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Importance of Reverse Auctions --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- A Research Gap in Existing Literatures --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Research Focus --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Contributions of This Thesis --- p.5 / Chapter 1.5 --- Organization of This Thesis --- p.5 / Chapter 2 --- Background and Literature Review --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Review of Reverse Auctions --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Benefits of Reverse Auctions to Buyers --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Types of Reverse Auctions --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Implementation of the Entry-fee Reverse Auction --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2 --- Linkage between the Entry-fee Reverse Auction and the Multi- period Inventory Replenishment Model --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Multi-period Inventory Replenishment Model with TOQC --- p.17 / Chapter 3 --- The Basic Models --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1 --- Strategic Sourcing Methodology - The Entry-fee Reverse Auc- tion --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Numerical Example --- p.26 / Chapter 3.2 --- Operational Procurement Methodology ´ؤ The Multi-period Inventory Replenishment Model with TOQC --- p.29 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Numerical Example --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3 --- Chapter Summary --- p.34 / Chapter 4 --- Modifications Required for Integrating the Entry-fee Reverse Auction and the Multi-period Replenishment Model with TOQC --- p.36 / Chapter 4.1 --- Formulation of the Buyer's Expected Profit Function in the Multi-period Setting --- p.37 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Existence of Optimal TOQC --- p.38 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Convexity of the Last-period Optimality Equation --- p.39 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Convexity of the Two-period Problem --- p.41 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Convexity of the N-period Problem --- p.44 / Chapter 4.3 --- The Computability of the Optimal TOQC --- p.47 / Chapter 4.4 --- Chapter Summary --- p.47 / Chapter 5 --- The Revised Model --- p.48 / Chapter 5.1 --- The Entry-fee Reverse Auction in the Multi-period Setting with TOQC --- p.48 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Numerical Example --- p.55 / Chapter 5.2 --- Chapter Summary --- p.59 / Chapter 6 --- Numerical Analysis --- p.60 / Chapter 6.1 --- Comparison between the Fixed-quantity Reverse Auction and the Entry-fee Reverse Auction --- p.60 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Number of Supplier --- p.63 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Retail Price --- p.65 / Chapter 6.1.3 --- Coefficient of Variation for Demand Distribution . --- p.66 / Chapter 6.1.4 --- Average Improvement --- p.67 / Chapter 6.2 --- Duration of the Entry-fee Reverse Auction Cycle --- p.68 / Chapter 6.3 --- Chapter Summary --- p.76 / Chapter 7 --- Factors of Success for Holding the Entry-fee Reverse Auction --- p.77 / Chapter 7.1 --- Internal Organizational Infrastructure of the Buyer --- p.77 / Chapter 7.2 --- Supplier's Qualifications and Control --- p.78 / Chapter 7.3 --- Attractions of the Entry-fee Reverse Auction for Suppliers . . --- p.78 / Chapter 7.4 --- Procedural Fairness --- p.81 / Chapter 7.5 --- Total Cost Analysis --- p.81 / Chapter 7.6 --- Chapter Summary --- p.82 / Chapter 8 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.83 / Bibliography --- p.85 / Chapter A --- Order Statistics --- p.90 / Chapter B --- Conditional Order Statistics --- p.92 / Chapter C --- Virtual Marginal Cost of Procurement --- p.93

In the first model, we study the optimal procurement strategy in a two-period framework when both the spot market and the forward contract are considered. The forward contract is agreed upon in the first period, and is then delivered in the second period, when the spot market is also available. This is followed by production and demand. The objective of the buyer is to minimize his expected cost. We study the problem for two scenarios: the buyer cannot and can sell to the spot market. Through our analysis, when the buyer can not sell to the spot market, there exists a threshold forward price, under which the buyer will enter into the forward contract. This threshold is lower than the expected spot price. Furthermore, we analytically show that the optimal order quantities via forward contract increase in the mean of the spot price, but decrease in the variability of the spot price. However, the buyer only speculates using the forward contract when he can sell to spot market. / In the second model, we consider a problem in which a buyer makes procurement decisions when he faces periodic random demand and two supply sources, one is a long-term contract supplier and the other is a spot market. When he procures from the contract supplier, a fixed unit price is charged and a predetermined minimum quantity for each period must be committed, and when he procures from the spot market, a stochastic spot price plus a fixed setup cost is charged. The spot price is only realized at the beginning of each period. We show that the optimal policy consists three different (s, S) type policies. More important, we identify certain conditions under which there exist monotone properties between the policy parameters and the current spot price for a general Markov spot price process. Then, we can divide the price space into three regions, each of which corresponds to a specific policy, for each period. We also conduct numerical analysis to gain more insights into how the spot market impacts the buyer's performance. We find the buyers benefits from a more volatile market. / The last model extends the second model by incorporating an important feature that is widely seen; i.e., the procurement from the contract supplier should fulfill a total order quantity commitment (TOQC). The TOQC requires the buyer to procure no less than the predetermined commitment during the contract period, which we call the planning horizon. Thus, in each period, the buyer trades off between the possible lower cost now (by procuring from the spot market) and the reduced cost in the future (by reducing the remaining commitment). Two types of commitment contracts are considered: a minimal TOQC contract and a definite quantity contract. Our analysis characterizes an optimal procurement policy which depends on the spot price in each period and an optimal virtual remaining commitment level. Such a structured policy can be viewed as a combination of some policies of base-stock type, each of which can be computed through an equivalent system without any commitment. Moreover, some of these equivalent systems are of simple multiple-period newsvendor type. This greatly simplifies the computation of the optimal policies. We also numerically analyze how the TOQC and the spot market affects the buyer's performance. / This research develops mathematical models for inventory and procurement management in the presence of spot markets. More specifically, we consider those models by incorporating different types of supply contracts. Particular attention is paid to the quantity flexible contracts. This research is an attempt to understand how firms should adopt their operating policies in the presence of fluctuating commodity prices. In this thesis, we mainly consider the following three models. / Xue, Weili. / Adviser: Youhua Chen. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-11, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-134). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.

The thesis investigates contemporary sexual cultures through the lens of British women's experiences of buying and using sexual commodities. Sexual consumer culture offers women a comprehensive programme of what Foucault calls ‘technologies of the self': a language, set of knowledge, and field of expertise through which the sexual self learns to articulate itself in order to become intelligible. Consuming and using sexual products to achieve ‘better' sex and construct a knowledgeable and ‘confident' sexual identity form a key part of the neoliberal project of the sexual self. Sex shopping culture reproduces a ‘postfeminist sensibility' (Gill, 2007), representing a ‘double entanglement' (McRobbie, 2009) with feminism by inciting and requiring women to construct and perform their sexualities through a narrow depoliticised discourse of sexual ‘choice', ‘empowerment', and consumerism. The thesis draws upon data from 22 one-to-one semi-structured interviews and 7 accompanied shopping trips to sex shops. A central contention of the analysis is that women use a diverse range of discursive, embodied and everyday strategies in order to ‘make do' with the kinds of femininity and female sexuality that sex shop culture represents (de Certeau, 1998). The thesis investigates three key spheres of social and everyday life at which sexual consumer culture is negotiated: spaces (the location, layout and experience of sex shops); bodies (the forms of bodily ‘becoming' offered by wearing lingerie in sexual contexts); and objects (using sex toys and the enabling and disabling of possibilities for sexual pleasures and practices). Each section demonstrates the constraints, anxieties and potential pleasures of constructing sexual identities in and through neoliberal and postfeminist consumer culture, whilst at the same time exploring the potential for contradiction, negotiation and resistance evidenced in the multiple ways in which women take up the sexual identities and practices offered by sex shopping.

M.. Tech. (Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology / Store choice has become an area of concern for a retailer, with no clear verdict as to what drives customers in the selection of a store. Shopping at the right store with the right social reputation may be essential for many customers. Therefore, the dynamic store choice decision can be conceptualised as a problem of deciding where and when to shop. The primary objective of this study was to determine the influence of perceived social risk and buying behaviour on apparel retail store choice among Generation Y female students within the Sedibeng district. This study focused on perceived social risk, as the literature shows that publically consumed products are the ones with a high level of social risk and the consumer’s need for social acceptance with regards to brand and store choices. This study also looked at the buying behaviour of apparel by Generation Y female students within the Sedibeng district because in today’s increasingly complex retail environment, an understanding of consumers’ buying behaviour and their knowledge of products and services is critical for high quality business decisions. In addition, an understanding of consumers’ buying behaviour will assist retailers to segment their client base and target specific customer groups with strategies designed to meet their retail needs. A quantitative research approach was used for this study and a non-probability convenience sampling procedure was adopted in this study. A structured questionnaire was utilised to survey 400 students from the two universities in the Sedibeng district. The target population for this study was restricted to Generation Y female students within the two universities, namely Vaal University of Technology (VUT) and North West University (NWU). Pre-testing and a pilot study preceded the main survey and reliabilities were measured using the Cronbach alpha coefficients. Out of 400 questionnaires sent to the participants, a total of 370 responses were received and this resulted in a return rate of 92.5 percent for the main study. The statistical analysis of the collected data included descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to test the posited hypothesis. The analysis results of the factor analysis showed that based on the Kaiser-Guttman rule, for each of the constructs (perceived social risk, buying behaviour and retail store choice) only two factors that have intrinsic value greater than one were extracted. For the perceived social risk construct, two factors, which were labelled anxiousness and significant others were extracted and for the buying behaviour construct two factors, which were labelled acceptance and reaction were extracted. Lastly, for the retail store choice construct, two factors, which were labelled word of mouth as well as convenience and physical characteristics of the store were extracted through the exploratory factor analysis technique. According to the results of the structural equation modelling analysis, the tested relationships produced satisfactory results consistent with how they were hypothesised. Specifically, it appeared that there is a direct relationship between perceived social risk and buying behaviour. Buying behaviour also has a positive effect on retail store choice and finally, perceived social risk has a good impact, but there is no significant influence on retail store choice as indicated by the findings. Insights gained from this study will assist marketers of apparel products to increase the patronage levels in their stores by expediting the factors identified in this study. Moreover, these findings may enable apparel retail store managers to comprehensively understand how perceived social risk influences a consumer’s retail store choice and to predict as well as develop a current view of the buying behaviour of female Generation Y consumers, thereby facilitating the evelopment and implementation of more effective marketing strategies in their stores. Implications of the findings are discussed and limitations and future research directions are alluded to.

The thesis is focused on the analysis and subsequent identification of consumer behavior especially in the Russian Federation. It is divided into seven chapters, where the first chapter describes the historical aspects of consumer behavior research and presents the basic trends in behavior of the consumers in modern society. Further, the main factors that influence consumer behavior are identified and stages of purchasing decision process are described. This thesis approaches the concept of perception of advertising and examines consumer behavior in marketing systems. The last chapter focuses on specifics of consumer behavior in the Russian Federation. It identifies different types of consumers in Russia, structure of Russian society and the feaures of the Russian perception of advertising.

Os hospitais prestam serviços para promoverem saúde plena à população, sendo uma das organizações mais complexas de gestão. Apesar da importância socioeconômica há várias carências na área administrativa, controle dos resultados, infraestrutura de suprimentos eficientes, compreensão dos seus processos, custos logísticos entre outros. Estudos apresentam que as organizações são formadas por processos, logo, processos que não agregam valor devem ser eliminados. Neste contexto, a literatura apresenta o Enterprise Knowledge Development (EKD), como um método que viabiliza identificar e compreender de maneira simples e clara os processos organizacionais que agregam ou não valor aos serviços, buscando contribuir para o planejamento e tomada de decisões mais eficientes. Sendo assim, o estudo tem como objetivo principal analisar potenciais melhorias nos processos de compra de Hospital de Ensino Público (HEP) com a utilização da metodologia EKD. Para tanto, o trabalho utilizou uma abordagem qualitativo-exploratória, embasada na revisão de literatura, seguido por estudo de caso em um HEP localizado no interior do Estado de São Paulo. A coleta de dados foi realizada por análise de documentos e entrevista semiestruturada com os funcionários da área de compras baseada na sistemática do EKD. Os resultados da pesquisa contribuíram em apresentar melhor visualização e compreensão dos processos de compra na modalidade de pregão eletrônico no sistema de registro de preços, de forma, a gerar uma reflexão referente às oportunidades de melhorias incrementais. Além de buscar auxiliar no desenvolvimento de uma literatura sistemática que apresente uma linguagem simples e de fácil entendimento, que oriente os gestores a utilizarem métodos e ferramentas de gestão que facilitem a administrar de forma eficiente os recursos disponíveis ao hospital. / Hospitals provide services to promote the full population health, one of the most complex management organizations. Despite the socio-economic importance there are several shortcomings in the administrative area, control the results, efficient supply of infrastructure, understanding of their processes, logistics costs, among others. Studies show that organizations are formed by processes, so processes that do not add value should be eliminated. In this context, the literature presents the Enterprise Knowledge Development (EKD), as a method that enables to identify and understand simple and clear organizational processes that add value to the services or not, seeking to contribute to the planning and decision-making more efficient. Thus, the study aims to analyze improvements in the process of purchasing of Hospital of Public Teaching (HEP) using the methodology EKD. Thus, the study used a qualitative exploratory approach, based on the literature review, followed by a case study in HEP, located within the State of São Paulo. Data collection was performed by analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews with employees of the shopping area based on the systematic EKD. The survey results helped to introduce better visualization and understanding of the purchasing process of the mode of electronic trading in the system of record prices. In order to generate a reflection in relation to opportunities for continuous improvement, and seek help in the development of a literature systematic to present a simple language for easy understanding, that guides managers to use management methods and tools that facilitate managing efficiently the resources available to the hospital.

Zhang, Nianbing. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-118). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Overview --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Motivation --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- The Research Scope and Main Results --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- The Mechanism --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- Statement of Problem --- p.8 / Chapter 1.3.3 --- Main Results --- p.11 / Chapter 1.4 --- Structure of Research --- p.13 / Chapter 2 --- Survey of the Literature --- p.15 / Chapter 2.1 --- Overview --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- E-business --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3 --- Auction --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Introduction --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Auction Theory --- p.20 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Online Auctions --- p.21 / Chapter 2.4 --- Combination of Auction and Other Transaction Methods --- p.24 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Auction with Posted Price --- p.24 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Auction with Negotiation Process --- p.26 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Auction with Noncompetitive Contract --- p.28 / Chapter 3 --- Single Unit Noncompetitive Contract --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Model --- p.29 / Chapter 3.2 --- Strategy of Suppliers in the Auction --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3 --- Strategy of Selected Suppliers --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Selected Supplier of No-Information Case --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Supplier in Information Case --- p.40 / Chapter 3.4 --- Buyer´ةs Consideration --- p.44 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Buyer's Cost in No-Information Case --- p.44 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Buyer's Cost in Information Case --- p.45 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Comparison of Costs in the Two Information Scenarios --- p.47 / Chapter 4 --- Buyer´ةs Strategy: Lower Cost and More Flexibility for Suppliers --- p.49 / Chapter 4.1 --- Is the Noncompetitive Contract Necessary --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- No-Information Case --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Information Case --- p.52 / Chapter 4.2 --- Flexibility of Re-Entrance to Auction --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- No-Information Case --- p.54 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Information Case --- p.58 / Chapter 4.3 --- Flexibility of Making Decision After the Auction --- p.65 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- No-Information Case --- p.66 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Information Case --- p.69 / Chapter 5 --- Multiple Noncompetitive Contracts --- p.73 / Chapter 5.1 --- No-Information Case --- p.74 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Suppliers's Strategy --- p.74 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Buyer´ةs Consideration --- p.76 / Chapter 5.2 --- Information Case --- p.78 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Supplier's Strategy --- p.78 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Computation of Buyer's Cost --- p.81 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Comparison with the Case of One Noncompetitive Contract --- p.85 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- The Effect of Supplier´ةs Information --- p.89 / Chapter 5.3 --- General Number of Noncompetitive Contract --- p.91 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- No-Information Case --- p.91 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Information Case --- p.94 / Chapter 6 --- Alternative Forms of Contracts --- p.96 / Chapter 6.1 --- SBIB Model --- p.97 / Chapter 6.2 --- SNIB Model --- p.98 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Supplier's Strategy --- p.98 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Buyer´ةs Cost in No-Information Case --- p.100 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Buyer's Cost in Information Case --- p.103 / Chapter 6.2.4 --- Multiple Units Offered --- p.105 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.110