Thesis (DTech. degree in Marketing)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / This study focuses mainly on the marketing orientation of a franchisor in the optometric industry. Aspects such as the needs of franchisees with regard to products and services, prices and promotions, distribution, people and processes were investigated.

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In this thesis, we study the statistical issues in lost sales inventory systems, focusing on the complexity arising from the stochastic demand. We model the demand by the Zero Inflated Poisson (ZIP) distribution. The maximum likelihood estimator of the ZIP parameters taking censoring into account are derived separately for the newsvendor and the (s, S) inventory systems. We also investigate the effect of the estimation errors on the optimal policies and their costs. We observe from a simulation study that the MLE taking censoring into account performed the best in terms of cost as well as policy among various estimates. We then proceed to develop a Bayesian dynamic updating scheme of the ZIP parameters. It is applied to the newsvendor system. We perform a simulation study to investigate the advantage of the Bayesian updating approach over the traditional MLE approach. We conclude that the Bayesian pproach offers a better learning technique when one lacks of good understanding of the demand pattern in the first few periods. Since inventory policy affects the information acquisition and-the demand distribution updating process, how to determine the optimal inventory policy when the demand distribution is yet to be learned is the focus of the latter part of the thesis. We investigate the effect of demand censoring on the optimal policy in newsvendor inventory models with general parametric demand distribution and unknown parameter values. We provide theoretical proof of the conjecture that it is better off to adopt a higher than the myopic optimal policy in the initial periods when demand is learned in a censoring system. We show that the newsvendor problem with observable lost sales reduces to a sequence of single-period problems while the newsvendor problem with unobservable lost sales requires a dynamic analysis. We explore the economic rationality for this observation and illustrate it with numerical examples.

This thesis sets out to examine the nature and extent of retail provision, chiefly in three Cheshire towns, during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Traditionally major developments in retailing have been seen as taking place after 1850 with shops and shopping remaining traditionally organised, and probably of less importance than markets or even hawkers, during the early stages of industrialisation in Britain. Such assumptions have rarely been based on very much evidence and it is hoped that by presenting some of the evidence relating to retailing immediately before and during the early Industrial revolution a clearer picture will emerge. Thus it has been necessary to consider the extent to which shops existed in the eighteenth century, how widespread they were and how important they were in relation to non-shop retailing. The context in which retailing is examined in the thesis is that of three contrasting towns. A local approach is taken because much of the evidence relating to retailing is essentially local and because by looking in depth at a small area retailing can be seen in relation to the general economic development of the area. Two of the towns, Macclesfield and Stockport, grew rapidly from the late eighteenth century as their textile industries developed and they thus provide good examples of towns where the demand for foodstuffs could have been in danger of outstripping the institutions for their supply. Chester by contrast grew much more slowly and had long been a commercial centre serving the needs of a wide area. Thus there was no reason to look for a crisis of retail provision there, but rather to examine how far new retailing institutions were emerging to cater for growing demand for consumer goods and how far the organisation of shops was changing. Furthermore the local approach made possible an examination of the regional pattern of retail provision. The pattern of market towns and their links with one another could be examined and an attempt made to describe the functional roles of the towns in the region, This involved making some tentative suggestions about the geography of shopping centres and trying to construct a hierarchy of service centres. Although it was by no means possible to answer all the questions about retailing that could have been posed, and many questions relating to retailing economics in the eighteenth century will probably always reuain unanswered, the study of markets and shops is of considerable importance. Distribution has too frequently been ignored when economic development and town growth have been under consideration, yet without adequate provision for the distribution of food and consumer goods, urban society can hardly be sustained. The classic period of the industrial revolution is a key period for the growth of towns and for the growth of home demand, and whatever the deficiencies of the data, increased information on these matters is of value. Only by examining distribution and the general growth of services can a fuller picture emerge of the great changes taking place in the economy and society in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The thesis begins by suggesting some of the theoretical linkage a between industrial growth and the development of retailing and then suggesting the impact of different levels of deraand and changes of levels of demand on the organisation of retailing. The local background is then considered, both in terms of the network of trade links fron the three towns chiefly examined and changes in these consequent on industrial developments in the towns, and in terms of local resources for food supply. Trading Institutions such as fairs, and particularly the fairs at Chester, are examined in Chapter 2 and in Chapter 3 Cheshire agriculture, the urban demand for food, including questions of diet, and the mechanism linking supply and demand are considered. A brief survey of the role of middlemen, of private marketing and of the consequences for food supply of improved communications leads on to an examination of the market towns of Cheshire in their role as the traditional distribution points for local surpluses and for the exchange of rural and urban products. The pattern of market towns is considered in Chapter 4 with mention being made of the periodicity of markets, the shape and size of market areas and the extent to which prices imply that there was a relatively perfect market operating in the county. The history of the markets in Macclesfield, Stockport and Chester is examined in Chapter 5 and the extent to which markets were losing wholesale functions while retaining retail functions for the sale of perishable goods is considered. Also discussed is the ability of the markets to cope with rapidly growing demand particularly in years of scarcity, and the occasional market riots are described. Finally, before turning to shops, Chapter 6 attempts to suggest the importance of itinerant trading both in the countryside and the towns in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The examination of the importance of fixed shops begins with a study of the county pattern of service centres and a discussion of the expected shape of shopping catchment areas and their size. Some suggestions are then made about the extent of retail provision in the county as a whole and particularly about the penetration of fixed shops into villages. It is further suggested that Chester had an overwhelmingly dominant position as a shopping centre with Stockport and Macslesfield next in importance in the county. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 turn to Macclesfield, Stockport and Chester for a more detailed examination of the shops in those towns. Firstly the numbers of shops are suggested, together with the chronology of growth in shop numbers, changes in the relative importance of different types of shop and the location pattern of shops. In Chapter 9 some of the general characteristics of shop retailing are analysed and the institutional context of urban and gild regulations in which shops, particularly in Chester, operated is described. The final section of the chapter looks at the risk of bankruptcy facing shopkeepers and by contrast the opportunities of making money from shops. Detailed examination of the different shop trades, including description of stocks held, of the nature of the business done and of the degree of integration or separation between producing and retailing is the subject of Chapter 10. Much of the information for this had to be based on very miscellaneous evidence, only occasionally confirmed by the business records of retailers, but an overall picture of shop retailing nevertheless emerged. The thesis demonstrates firstly the possibility of providing at least some quantitative information on shop numbers from the late eighteenth century, and to a very limited extent from the early eighteenth century. This makes possible comparison of shop provision between towns and over time and can demonstrate the specific role of certain towns as shopping centres in the eighteenth century as well as suggesting rapid growth in shop numbers from about 1780, and even more rapid growth after the first decade or two of the nineteenth century. Although the figures produced have to be treated with caution, they imply that at least initially shop provision may not have kept up with growing demand in the most rapidly growing towns. However, it is equally clear that shops were widespread In the eighteenth century and that general provisions shops wore to be found in substantial numbers in towns before 1800. Secondly a pattern of service centres can be described, including not only market towns but also many villages in which shops were to be found.

This thesis considers consumer perceptions of large stores in Japan. A lack of published English language research concerned with consumer behaviour in Japan was noted, despite strong and growing interest in the Japanese consumer market. Japanese distribution is reviewed as the background to an empirical study of store perceptions in Japan. This review considered Japanese wholesale and retail structures in detail in order to provide information necessary to understand the situation of large retail stores in Japan. The possibility of substantial store 'loyalty' in Japan was considered on the basis of an observed hierarchical structure to store preferences. A review of the literature pertaining to consumer 'loyalty' revealed that genuinely 'loyal' behaviour is likely to be rare. Consumepr reference was considered, and the development of hierarchical preference was identified. - An empirical study was carried out over a one year period in Japan. The study involved a two part survey employing repertory grid interviews and a questionnaire survey. Four regional cities and five consumer types were employed for the survey. This approach proved successful in collecting a large volume of detailed data. The use of repertory grid as a technique for data collection was considered in the light of its use with Japanese consumers in the Japanese language. It was concluded that Japanese consumers have clear and detailed perceptions of the large stores available for their use. Some differences were identified between consumer types and different geographical locations in Japan.

The granting of a range of discretionary powers to the franchisor shows the hierarchical face, besides the market or contractual face, of franchising and similar networks. Dealing with power-related contractual problems within these arrangements is particularly challenging, since they occupy a little explored niche in legal reasoning. In this thesis, I develop an interdisciplinary inquiry on the network concept to assess to which extent it reveals the rationalities underlying the granting of such powers. I study the typical contract law categories of control of the exercise of individual prerogatives available both in civil law and in common law tradition. I discuss to which extent those categories are capable of controlling the exercise of discretionary powers in franchise disputes. I finally turn to public law reasoning on control of power and propose a prudent transplant of some elements of this reasoning into contract law discourse.

Employee turnover is not a new phenomenon. The retail industry has always suffered from high employee turnover rates. High employee turnover is costly to retailers not only because it increases administrative costs in recruiting and training employees but it also reduces the operational capability of the retailer. While most studies had focused their attention on the financial costs of employee turnover, in retailing, the non-financial costs of employee turnover can also be substantial. These non-financial costs include lower morale among remaining employees and losses in expertise and experience. / While there are already many studies on employee turnover, there is a lack of studies of the phenomenon in the retail industry. This study will attempt to close the gap in the literature by studying employee turnover in the retail industry more closely. More importantly, the study will adopt a social constructivist approach to the study of the phenomenon. This approach is not commonly used in employee turnover studies and is likely to add a different perspective to the phenomenon. The aim of the study is to establish the causes of employee turnover in the retail industry and to suggest ways in which retailers can attempt to retain their employees. / The study was conducted with 29 respondents with a major bookstore chain operating in Singapore. The findings suggests that factors that affect employees' decision to quit can be categorised into push and pull factors. Push factors include the level of relationship the employee has with the supervisor and colleagues, the presence of career advancement opportunities and the presence of work-family conflict. Pull factors is the presence of other job opportunities. In addition, a consistent finding in the research show that strong and positive relationships with colleagues can reduce turnover intentions of employees in the retail industry. However, these factors are moderated by personal factors like demographics and personality of the employee. / The study concluded with a discussion of the implications of the research findings and suggests how retailers can adopt policies that can reduce the employee turnover rate. In addition, the study also suggests areas for further research. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2005