Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1962. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-83).

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

M.Com. (Financial Management) / The growth in the retail sector has forced property management teams to start focusing on financial benchmarking of formats when expanding operations. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the profitability of three different retail formats, with specific focus on the occupancy cost components. Size was identified as an important determinant of rent and this relationship is also investigated. Data from a large South African retailer, with stores in various formats was obtained. The profitability was calculated - using an adjusted profitability model - for three retail formats; large shopping centres, small shopping centres and stand-alone outlets. All data, including size details were obtained for a period of five years. The expectation of a negative relationship between store size and rent was rejected for individual stores as well as format groupings. The profitability analyses delivered mixed results between „rand value‟ and „percentage to sales‟ outcomes, but concluded that large shopping centres were the least profitable of the retail formats under review.

M.Com. (Business Management) / The objective of this study is to provide a programme for the management of small ventures. This model must provide guidelines to large companies to successfully establish an environment that will support intrapreneurial activity. It must further provide guidelines to potential intrapreneurs on how to become intrapreneurs and how to execute a small venture project. The programme was set up by doing a literature study to determine the characteristics of potential intrapreneurs as well as define the concept small venture. The steps in such a programme for the management of small ventures, as well as potential problems were then deterrnined.. The contribution of the programme is to provide a vehicle for large South African companies for increased growth and competitiveness.

The proliferation of forecourt convenience shops in South Africa spawned an entirely new model within an existing fuel sales business model. Conversely South Africa’s regulated fuel industry was stunned by a near merger of Sasol and Engen, which led to petrol stations looking for new ways to attract business. The forecourt convenience shops are not price regulated and hence have become a strategic revenue generator for petrol station operators. These factors made the study of consumer motivations in forecourt convenience retailing necessary.Specific research hypotheses were formulated, based on a literature review, in order to prove or disprove the researcher’s viewpoint and fully appreciate consumer motivations. A survey of 115 convenience shop patrons was undertaken, the data was analysed statistically and hypotheses were then either rejected or failed to be rejected.Petrol brands play no role in consumer motivations, while forecourt shops independently play a role in why people shop. Age plays no role in motivations, whereas gender does, as more men shop at forecourt shops than do women. White people buy more from these outlets than non-whites. Hygiene factors and motivators do not lead to greater spending, but motivators alone lead to repatronage. Total customer experience leads people to shop more often. Price plays no role in customers’ intentions to repatronise the stores. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Retail is a labour intensive industry and strategically, retail productivity can be used to differentiate retail stores and provides the foundation to develop strategies for growth and diversification in retail stores (Dubelaar, Bhargava and Ferrarin, 2002). This study used historical data to identify the drivers of retail productivity, measured as units per man-hour worked. Prior literature has suggested that sales mix, retail gross, basket size, shrinkage, services, managers’ experience, staff compliment, work force flexibility, number of people employed and the number of units sold could contribute to retail productivity. Of all these variables all except shrinkage and the number of store managers’ years experience proven to be significant. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Please read the abstract (Summary) in the section, 00front of this document / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Marketing Management / MCom / Unrestricted

The understanding of consumer spatial behaviour, and of the forces influencing the spatial organisation of urban retail activity, can be advanced through an analysis of the processes operating at the consumer-store interface. Such an analysis can contribute to the development of models of consumer spatial behaviour which combine predictive accuracy and theoretical adequacy. A review of the literature indicates that this combination has not characterised the models previously developed in the course of retail geographic research. A model formulated in the field of consumer behaviour theory serves as the conceptual framework for analysing the process whereby a consumer forms preferences for particular stores. This process involves complex interactions at the consumer-store interface between two basic variable sets comprising consumer characteristics and store characteristics. In essence, preferences are formed as the outcome of the consumer comparing perceived store characteristics with a set of predetermined evaluative criteria. These preferences relate to the set of store characteristics which the consumer interprets as sources of satisfaction in the course of shopping experience. The measurement of consumer attitudes towards salient store characteristics provides the basis for operationalising the conceptual model of store preference formation. An empirical study was conducted to identify the structure of consumer preferences for clothing stores and to derive consumer groups consisting of individuals with relatively similar attitude profiles. Unstructured interviews with consumers served to determine a set of salient attitudinal items. These items were then incorporated within a modified Likert attitude scaling instrument, which was administered to a convenience sample group comprising undergraduate students and their parents. The data obtained was factor analysed to identify attitudinal dimensions. Ten factors were extracted which indicated that concepts such as "boutiqueness", "cheapness", "security", "convenience", "exclusiveness" and "reliability" were appropriate to describe the structure of the clothing store preferences of the sample group. Factor scores were computed for each of the respondents and a hierarchical grouping technique was used to derive six consumer groups. Interpretation of the "representative group profiles' showed that the groups could be equated with recognisable shopper types, including the 'teenage boutique' shopper, the 'bargain store' shopper, and the high class 'specialty store' shopper. The findings of this empirical study require further validation and extension in the course of additional research; nevertheless, they indicate the potential utility of attitude measurement as a basis for explaining the spatial preferences of consumers in the retail environment. This is a step towards the development of models which can adequately explain and accurately predict consumer spatial behaviour. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

A research project was undertaken to thoroughly examine the underlying difficulties in the retail operation of the U.B.C. Bookstore and to resolve the question of optimal store location. Merchandising policy was examined and analyzed on the basis of data obtained from interviews with the store's management staff. At the same time three possible store sites were evaluated by collecting data relevant to the operation of a distance decay simulation model which was used to estimate the value of the sites in terms of total sales. The existing site was found to be the most suitable while the problems in retail management were diagnosed as more far-reaching than simply the function of space limitations. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Contractual arrangements have been the subject of a substantial body of economic research. In particular, economists have sought an explanation for the existence of share contracts. Under this kind of contract, two or more parties share in the output of the production process. These contracts present a problem to economists because they imply more than one residual claimant. Thus incentives are diluted and inefficiency is expected to result. But this type of contract has existed for centuries and continues to be used today. Why is that if they are inefficient? The answer is that under conditions of uncertainty and imperfect information, share contracts can be preferable to fixed-wage (vertical integration) or fixed-rent (market transaction) agreements. In fact, many explanations for the existence of share contracts and their coexistence with fixed-wage and rental arrangements are found in the theoretical literature. While the theoretical literature on the subject of share contracts has flourished over the last decade, empirical analyses of these models has lagged behind. This thesis aims to rectify the situation somewhat. More precisely, recent advances in the theoretical literature are applied to the analysis of franchise contracts. An empirical model of franchising based on profit-maximizing behavior is developed which makes it possible to examine whether the factors theorists have suggested as potential explanations for share contracts are relevant when it comes to explaining what one observes in the context of franchising, and whether their effects are consistent with predictions from the various theories. Both the contract mix, i.e. franchisors' decisions concerning the proportion of stores they want to operate and franchise, and the terms of the franchise contract, fixed and variable fees, are examined. In order to carry out the analysis, data on a cross-section of 548 individual franchisors in 1986 were gathered. These franchisors are involved in a variety of business activities in the U.S., such as Fast-food Restaurants, Business Aids and Services, Construction and Maintenance, and Non-food Retailing. Censoring problems arise from the fact that a number of franchisors in the sample franchise all of their outlets. Also, some firms require no variable or no fixed fee. For these reasons, the maximum likelihood Tobit estimator is used. Empirical work in an area such as this, where theories rely on concepts that are not easily quantifiable, can hardly provide unambiguous answers about the validity of the theories. Nevertheless, the following results emerge from the empirical analysis. First, the effect of risk, measured either by the proportion of discontinued outlets or by the variance of sales in the sector, is found to be the opposite of what pure risk-sharing and one-sided hidden-action models would predict. Second, firms resort to franchising more often when monitoring downstream operators becomes costlier, and use it proportionately less when the value of the inputs they themselves provide increases. This is consistent with two-sided hidden-action models. Results with respect to capital-market-imperfection arguments are rather inconclusive. It appears that franchising relaxes some form of constraint franchisors face in trying to expand their operations, since they use it more when they are growing faster, but whether this is a financial constraint remains unclear. The explanatory power of the model is greater with respect to the proportion of franchised stores than it is for any of the two fees. Thus, in response to changes in the exogenous variables considered here, franchisors, who have a choice between modifying the terms of their franchise contract or changing the proportion of stores they want to franchise, tend to do mostly the latter. Contrary to what one would have expected on a theoretical basis, the observed royalty rates and franchise fees are not negatively correlated in this data set. Combined with the fact that the model is less satisfactory relative to the fees, this suggests that there are considerations in the determination of the royalty rate and the franchise fee that have not been taken into account in the theories. One possibility in the case of the fixed fee is that it may include the price of services provided by the franchisors. It also appears that franchisors use input sales as another means to extract rent from franchisees. This may contribute to the lack of correlation between the two fees. Finally, the equation for the franchise fee was derived under the assumption that all remaining surplus at the downstream level, given the royalty rate, should be extracted through the franchise fee. The lack of relationship between the fees could be an indication that this assumption is incorrect, and that there are in fact rents left at the downstream level. This would be consistent with the existence of queues of potential franchisees in many franchise chains. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate