<p><strong>Bakgrund: </strong>Detaljhandeln har under de senare decennierna genomgått en förändring där större kedjor tar allt mer plats. Den levande debatten om vikten av småföretagandet i Sverige gör att frågan väcks om vad som händer med småföretagen i detaljhandelns utveckling. Samverkan kan vara ett sätt för småföretagen att konkurrera mot de större aktörerna. Småföretagaren beskrivs inte sällan ha en önskan om att arbeta självständigt och en stark vilja om hur det egna företaget ska drivas. Då två av tre småföretag ändå väljer att regelbundet samarbeta med andra företag är det av intresse att undersöka vad småföretagen har för motiv till samverkan.</p><p><strong>Syfte: </strong>Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka varför småföretag väljer att ingå organiserad samverkan. Vi vill därtill utreda vilken påverkan ett organiserat samarbete har på företagen.</p><p><strong>Studiens genomförande:</strong> Genom en telefonintervju, e-postintervjuer samt genom en enkätundersökning till medlemmarna i trädgårdshandelskedjan BoGrönt, har en fallstudie genomförts för att undersöka småföretagens motiv till att ingå organiserad samverkan.</p><p><strong>Resultat: </strong>Resultatet av studien visar att detaljhandelns utveckling har påverkat småföretagens motiv att samverka. Småföretagen har, genom att ingå organiserad samverkan, en förhoppning om att dra nytta av de skalfördelar, det erfarenhetsutbyte och den starkare förhandlingsposition som en större organisation kan skapa.</p> / <p><strong>Background:</strong> The Swedish retail market has during the last decades experienced a big change where the business chains are taking larger market shares. The constant debate about the importance of the small firm makes us wonder what is happening with the small firm in this development of the marketplace. Cooperation is one option for the small firm to be able to compete against the big business chains. The small entrepreneur is not seldom described as a person with a wish to work independently and with a strong opinion about how his or hers business should be run. Despite this description two out of three small firms choose to cooperate which makes it interesting to examine the small firm’s incentive to cooperate?</p><p><strong>Aim: </strong>The aim of this study is to examine why the small firm chooses to engage in organized cooperation. We will also find out what effects the cooperation has on the small firm.</p><p><strong>Completion of the study: </strong>With a telephone interview, e-mail interview and through a survey to the members of the gardening chain BoGrönt we have completed a case study to investigate the small firm’s incentives to cooperate.</p><p><strong>Findings:</strong> The findings of this study conducts that the development of the retail market has affected the small firms incentives to cooperate. The small firm has, by engaging in organized cooperation, a wish to make profits from the economies of scale, the exchange of experiences and the stronger bargaining position that a bigger organization creates.</p>

<p>Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att beskriva dagligvaruhandelns lokalisering och strukturomvandling i Gävleregionen (A-region 56). Att studera dagligvaruhandeln ger en bild av samhällsförändringen över tiden och en föraning av framtida tendenser.</p><p>Metod: Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av data tillhandahållet av Handelns utredningsinstitut (HUI). Dagligvarubutikernas lokalisering visas i geografiska kartor och de olika butikstypernas marknadsandelar studeras för att belysa strukturomvandlingen.</p><p>Resultat & slutsats: Det presenterade resultatet visar ett allt glesare butiksnät med färre och större enheter.</p><p>Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Uppsatsen begränsas till att endast undersöka dagligvaruhandelns lokalisering och strukturomvandlingen i Gävleregionen (A-region 56). En liknande studie över ett större geografiskt område skulle ge en än bättre bild över dagligvaruhandelns utveckling.</p><p>Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsen kan med fördel studeras av intressenter inom samhällsplanering, fastighetsekonomi och handel.</p> / <p>Aim: This paper aims at describing the location and structural change of the daily retail market in the Gävle region (A- region 56). To study the daily retail market gives a picture of the social change over the time and a presentiment of future tendencies.</p><p>Method: The investigation is founded on data supplied by Handelns utredningsinstitut (HUI). The retail location is portrayed in geographic maps and the evolution of the respective market shares of different store size categories are studied in order to elucidate the structural transformation.</p><p>Result & Conclusions: The presented result shows a sparser shop network with fewer and larger units.</p><p>Suggestions for future research: The investigation is limited to the daily retail market location and structural change in the Gävle region (A-region 56). A similar study over a larger geography area would give a better picture over the daily retail markets development.</p><p>Contribution of the thesis: The results are relevant within community planning, real estate economics and trade.</p>

Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att beskriva dagligvaruhandelns lokalisering och strukturomvandling i Gävleregionen (A-region 56). Att studera dagligvaruhandeln ger en bild av samhällsförändringen över tiden och en föraning av framtida tendenser. Metod: Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av data tillhandahållet av Handelns utredningsinstitut (HUI). Dagligvarubutikernas lokalisering visas i geografiska kartor och de olika butikstypernas marknadsandelar studeras för att belysa strukturomvandlingen. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Det presenterade resultatet visar ett allt glesare butiksnät med färre och större enheter. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Uppsatsen begränsas till att endast undersöka dagligvaruhandelns lokalisering och strukturomvandlingen i Gävleregionen (A-region 56). En liknande studie över ett större geografiskt område skulle ge en än bättre bild över dagligvaruhandelns utveckling. Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsen kan med fördel studeras av intressenter inom samhällsplanering, fastighetsekonomi och handel. / Aim: This paper aims at describing the location and structural change of the daily retail market in the Gävle region (A- region 56). To study the daily retail market gives a picture of the social change over the time and a presentiment of future tendencies. Method: The investigation is founded on data supplied by Handelns utredningsinstitut (HUI). The retail location is portrayed in geographic maps and the evolution of the respective market shares of different store size categories are studied in order to elucidate the structural transformation. Result &amp; Conclusions: The presented result shows a sparser shop network with fewer and larger units. Suggestions for future research: The investigation is limited to the daily retail market location and structural change in the Gävle region (A-region 56). A similar study over a larger geography area would give a better picture over the daily retail markets development. Contribution of the thesis: The results are relevant within community planning, real estate economics and trade.

This paper investigated the relationship between e-service quality and consumer loyalty in the context of consumer electronic retail industry in Sweden. E-service quality is found to be a prime determinant of consumer loyalty which is very important for the growth of any business regardless of the industry. On this study, we have selected four most important dimensions of e-service quality which are: Reliability, Responsiveness, Ease of use, and Security. We adopted a quantitative approach for this study and our survey took place in the area of Umea University. We reached a total of 200 respondents who are used to with purchasing electronic products online. After collecting the data we analyzed it with the help of statistical tools and then interpreted the results in connection to our theoretical framework. We found that all the four dimensions of e-service quality have strong relationship with consumer loyalty which means that they have considerable impact on building and maintaining the loyalty of consumers in electronics retail industry. We found out that the consumers give the highest priority to the organization of website contents and security of transaction. If the company present the e-retailing website convincingly and ensure safety of transaction, the consumers are more likely to show loyalty towards that company. We also found that reliability is less important than the three other factors according to multiple regressions analysis result; though all the four factors found to be significant according to simple regression. This study fulfills the lack of industry-specific study on the relationship between e-service quality and loyalty for consumer electronic goods industry. However, the study suggests a number of future research possibilities including reassessment of the e-service quality dimensions, measurement of the impact of social media on the relationship between e-service quality and consumer loyalty and so on.

Bakgrund: Detaljhandeln har under de senare decennierna genomgått en förändring där större kedjor tar allt mer plats. Den levande debatten om vikten av småföretagandet i Sverige gör att frågan väcks om vad som händer med småföretagen i detaljhandelns utveckling. Samverkan kan vara ett sätt för småföretagen att konkurrera mot de större aktörerna. Småföretagaren beskrivs inte sällan ha en önskan om att arbeta självständigt och en stark vilja om hur det egna företaget ska drivas. Då två av tre småföretag ändå väljer att regelbundet samarbeta med andra företag är det av intresse att undersöka vad småföretagen har för motiv till samverkan. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka varför småföretag väljer att ingå organiserad samverkan. Vi vill därtill utreda vilken påverkan ett organiserat samarbete har på företagen. Studiens genomförande: Genom en telefonintervju, e-postintervjuer samt genom en enkätundersökning till medlemmarna i trädgårdshandelskedjan BoGrönt, har en fallstudie genomförts för att undersöka småföretagens motiv till att ingå organiserad samverkan. Resultat: Resultatet av studien visar att detaljhandelns utveckling har påverkat småföretagens motiv att samverka. Småföretagen har, genom att ingå organiserad samverkan, en förhoppning om att dra nytta av de skalfördelar, det erfarenhetsutbyte och den starkare förhandlingsposition som en större organisation kan skapa. / Background: The Swedish retail market has during the last decades experienced a big change where the business chains are taking larger market shares. The constant debate about the importance of the small firm makes us wonder what is happening with the small firm in this development of the marketplace. Cooperation is one option for the small firm to be able to compete against the big business chains. The small entrepreneur is not seldom described as a person with a wish to work independently and with a strong opinion about how his or hers business should be run. Despite this description two out of three small firms choose to cooperate which makes it interesting to examine the small firm’s incentive to cooperate? Aim: The aim of this study is to examine why the small firm chooses to engage in organized cooperation. We will also find out what effects the cooperation has on the small firm. Completion of the study: With a telephone interview, e-mail interview and through a survey to the members of the gardening chain BoGrönt we have completed a case study to investigate the small firm’s incentives to cooperate. Findings: The findings of this study conducts that the development of the retail market has affected the small firms incentives to cooperate. The small firm has, by engaging in organized cooperation, a wish to make profits from the economies of scale, the exchange of experiences and the stronger bargaining position that a bigger organization creates.

Our aim is to examine from the marketing perspective how a food retailer such as AB Vassilopoulos approaches organic private label products sold in its premises under the brand “AB Bio”.

Sweden, together with Norway, Finland and Denmark, have created a multi-national electricity market called NordPool. In this market, producers and retailers of electricity can buy and sell electricity, and the retailers then offers this electricity to end consumers such as households and industries. Previous studies have shown that pricing at the NordPool market is functioning quite well, but no other study has to my knowledge studied if pricing in the retail market to consumers in Sweden is well functioning. If the market is well functioning, with competition and low transaction costs when changing electricity retailer, we would expect that a homogeneous good such as electricity would be sold at the approximately same price, and that price changes would be highly correlated, in this market. Thus, the aim of this study is to test whether the price of Vattenfall, the largest energy firm in the Swedish market, is highly correlated to the price of other firms in the Swedish retail market for electricity. Descriptive statistics indicate that the price offered by Vattenfall is quite similar to the price of other firms in the market. In addition, regression analysis show that the correlation between the price of Vattenfall and other firms is as high as 0.98.

Convenience stores are playing a pivotal role in the contribution to profitability in the fuels retail environment. In order to increase market share that will lead to increased profits it is imperative to provide excellent customer service. Customer experience has been identified as the key construct in the modern retail environment to be addressed, in order to ensure a satisfied customer. It has been noted that customer experience is not measured in the convenience stores, but only at the pump stations and the carwash service points of Sasol garages. Sasol Oil has a fuels retail market share of 9% and it will be beneficial for the company to explore all avenues to increase market share since convenience stores contribute 25% towards the total profit of the company. A literature review was conducted to identify the important controllable elements of the total customer experience and the measuring instruments that can be used to measure these elements, which formed the basis of the empirical study. The measuring instruments discussed in the literature are Servqual, Kano and customised models. One of the dimensions of the total customer experience is service quality and a customised model was chosen as the measuring instrument of choice. Questionnaires were developed, based on the controllable elements of customer experience, and distributed via email and handouts. In total, 260 questionnaires were distributed with a response of 47.7%. Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis were employed to analyse the data. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach alpha. Cronbach alpha values above the minimum requirements and a cumulative variance of only 47% was achieved. Conclusions were drawn from the empirical study and recommendations were made in the final chapter. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Convenience stores are playing a pivotal role in the contribution to profitability in the fuels retail environment. In order to increase market share that will lead to increased profits it is imperative to provide excellent customer service. Customer experience has been identified as the key construct in the modern retail environment to be addressed, in order to ensure a satisfied customer. It has been noted that customer experience is not measured in the convenience stores, but only at the pump stations and the carwash service points of Sasol garages. Sasol Oil has a fuels retail market share of 9% and it will be beneficial for the company to explore all avenues to increase market share since convenience stores contribute 25% towards the total profit of the company. A literature review was conducted to identify the important controllable elements of the total customer experience and the measuring instruments that can be used to measure these elements, which formed the basis of the empirical study. The measuring instruments discussed in the literature are Servqual, Kano and customised models. One of the dimensions of the total customer experience is service quality and a customised model was chosen as the measuring instrument of choice. Questionnaires were developed, based on the controllable elements of customer experience, and distributed via email and handouts. In total, 260 questionnaires were distributed with a response of 47.7%. Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis were employed to analyse the data. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach alpha. Cronbach alpha values above the minimum requirements and a cumulative variance of only 47% was achieved. Conclusions were drawn from the empirical study and recommendations were made in the final chapter. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Esta tese buscou como tema de pesquisa a defesa da concorrência no mercado varejista de combustível líquido, cujo enfoque principal foi o desenvolvimento de um filtro georreferenciado, como ferramenta de auxílio na detecção de indícios de cartel, aplicado ao combustível gasolina comum. O problema de práticas anticoncorrencias em mercados que operem sob livre concorrência tem sido discutido ao longo do tempo tanto pela literatura quanto pelos operadores de política antitruste. No Brasil, a defesa da concorrência, no âmbito administrativo, está sob a responsabilidade do Sistema Brasileiro de Defesa da Concorrência – SBDC, o qual utiliza um filtro nas investigações sobre denúncias de cartel no mercado varejista de combustível líquido, através de averiguação preliminar, a fim de identificar indícios de evidências econômicas sobre a prática de cartel. A tese abordou três pontos principais. O primeiro envolveu a formação de uma base de dados, através das averiguações preliminares disponibilizadas pelo SBDC, com o intuito de analisar os critérios que compõem o filtro. Sugere-se que este filtro seja reavaliado, devido à falta de hierarquia entre os critérios que o compõem, bem como a alteração da periodicidade dos dados. O segundo diz respeito à aplicação, com base na Teoria dos Jogos, de um jogo sequencial de interação estratégica entre o revendedor varejista, o consumidor e o SBDC. O resultado do jogo mostrou que o revendedor ficará desmotivado a formar um cartel se a chance de ser pego e punido realmente existir. Por fim, o terceiro, consistiu na inclusão do georreferenciamento aos filtros utilizados na literatura para detectar cartéis. Isso foi realizado através de uma análise comparativa do filtro atual com o filtro georreferenciado para o município de Porto Alegre, durante o período de março de 2007 a março de 2008. Ambos filtros indicaram indício de cartel. No entanto, o filtro georreferenciado mostrou um melhor refinamento sobre o comportamento dos revendedores, ao indicar indício de cartel na área de maior densidade urbana do município, assim como gerar um ranking dos revendedores. / This thesis research the defense of competition among fuel retail market and had like objective the development of georeference screen to be used like aid tool to detect vestige of cartel. The problem of anticompetition practices had been discussed by the time even in literature like the antitruste authorits. In Brazil, Brazilian System of Competition Defense (SBDC) are responsable about defense of competition, in administration ambict, and in initial investigation used a filter to detect vestiges of cartels. This tool search economic evidences to find out cartel. This proposition studied three points. First we organized data basis considering preliminary inquiry made by SBDC to study the rules that form this screen. We suggest that this screen had to be revisal due lack of hierarchy in your rules such as period data. Second we proposed a strategic interaction in sequential game between gasoline retail market, consumer and SBDC, based in Games Theory. The result of this game showed that gasoline retail market will not be motivated to organize cartel if he knows that this pratice could be detected and punished. Finally we included in filter used in literature the georeferencing through comparision among screen actually used and georeference screen applied to Porto Alegre, in period of march 2007 to march 2008. Both indicate vestiges of cartel. Nevertheless, the georeference one showed best refinement about behaviour gasoline retail market to indicate collusion in areas of higher density population in the city just as form a ranking of retailers.