Dans la plupart des environnements de vente, le consommateur peut facilement manipuler les produits et ainsi vivre des expériences tactiles. Cependant, cette liberté de toucher les produits n’est pas sans conséquences. En effet, si le consommateur aime toucher les produits, il est réticent à ce le produit qu’il touche ait été manipulé au préalable par d’autres personnes. Ce paradoxe est un enjeu pour les praticiens. Comment permettre aux clients de toucher les produits tout en garantissant qu’ils soient dépourvus de contacts antérieurs avec autrui ? Cette thèse s’intéresse au phénomène de contamination perçue des produits. Elle a pour objectif de mettre en évidence les variables agissant sur la contamination perçue et sur les réponses à l’égard des produits perçus comme contaminés. Une étude première qualitative explore la vision que les consommateurs ont de la contamination perçue des produits ; une seconde étude qualitative s’intéresse au point de vue des manageurs. Cette phase qualitative sert de base au développement d’une échelle de contamination perçue. Puis, trois collectes de données quantitatives sont menées afin de comparer l’impact de deux facteurs de contamination. Les résultats montrent que le consommateur est plus sensible lorsqu’un produit présente un résidu suggérant qu’il a été touché que lorsqu’il voit un contaminateur manipuler ce produit. Ils mettent également en évidence que l’imagerie mentale est un mécanisme sous-jacent explicatif de la contamination perçue mais que le besoin de toucher n’a pas d’effet sur le phénomène. / In most retail environments the customer is able to handle products, feel their weight and try them, in other words the customer has a tactile experience. However, this freedom to touch products has a downside. Indeed, even if the consumer likes to touch products, he refuses the same product if it has been handled by other customers. This ambivalence concerning touch is a major problem for managers in retail outlets. How is it possible to allow consumers to touch products while guaranteeing that they are devoid of previous contact with others? This dissertation focuses on the concept of product contamination. It aims to understand the variables that reflect the impact of perceived contamination on consumer responses. A first qualitative study examines the vision of consumers on product contamination. A second qualitative study focuses on managers’ point of view. These studies are then used as a basis for the development of a perceived contamination scale. Lastly, three quantitative studies compare the impact of two contamination’s cues. The results suggest that the consumer is more sensitive when a product contains a cue that it has been touched, as compared to their reaction to seeing someone touch a product. These findings show that mental imagery is an underlying mechanism contrary to need for touch.

Purpose: To examine whether there is an interest in a public showroom for Swedish consumers and fashion e-retailers and how it could benefit them. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative interviews with two Swedish fashion e-retailers were conducted in order to understand if there was an interest in a public showroom amongst the chosen companies. A survey with 200 participants was carried out with students from the Swedish School of Textiles, to get an understanding of their e-shopping behavior. Findings: It was found that there is an interest in implementing a public showroom. According to the survey results, a majority were in favor of trying on a product before purchasing it. The fashion e-retailers that were interviewed thought that it would be of interest if it would function more as a temporary pop-up solution. Practical implications: The findings are of relevance for fashion e-retailers that are potentially interested in an additional marketing and communication channel for their internal brands. Originality/value: As there was no research regarding Swedish fashion e-retailers attitude towards a public showroom, this thesis contributes with new findings to the academics. Furthermore, it can be used as a guideline to fashion e-retailers in the event of opening of a public showroom. / Program: Master Programme in Fashion Management

Consumers seem to become more demanding in their buying behaviour within the fashionmarket. The society refers to individualism, personality and creativity, which affect people’s wayof dressing themselves. Many companies have started to work with aspects that create aconsumer experience to meet the customers’ new demands. Some fashion companies have evenshown a tendency to apply the entertainment industry in their concept, which generates in aphenomenon that can be called fashiontainment. This paper aims to revise the Swedish fashioncompany Indiska. The mission of the company is “We will offer a unique mix of fashion andhome furnishing with inspiration from India that pleases a lot of people”. Indiska has latelydeveloped a couple of new marketing strategies that include making their target market wider toalso attract the females of the younger generation. This thesis aim to investigate how Indiska cancombinate Indian culture and Swedish fashion in their communication to attract the youngerfemales of the fashion market. The study will also investigate how the company may developtheir marketing strategies and marketing channels to create a customer experience for theirchosen target market. The empirical and theoretical part of the study has been designed inpurpose to answer the given problems. The thesis will be in Swedish.This thesis is created from a hermeneutic point of view and from an inductive reasoning method.We have collected empiric data by field studies in India and by observation of Indiska’s stores inSweden. We have also done a number of qualitative interviews with key persons within thecompany. In the theoretical chapter we describe the consumer behaviour and marketingstrategies, as well as branding and theory of experience. Indiska has for a long time offered astore concept, which doesn’t place them within the ordinary segment because of their nichestrategies. The stores communicate directly to the customer and the purpose is to create anillusion of India. By maintaining and developing these strategies according to the room ofexperience model Indiska may satisfied the consumers’ demands of experience seeking. Theconclusion of our essay, is that Indiskas new concept “Bohemian Modern”, seems to meet theyounger generations’ needs and demands of differentiation. By combining Scandinaviansimplicity with Indian culture, Indiska seems to be a company that accomplish the demands ofthe younger generations. Indiska already has knowledge in the four different dimensions ofexperience that they may profit from in order to attain a fashiontainment concept. / Program: Textilekonomutbildningen

Mobile commerce is becoming an important component of modern business especially in the retail sector thanks to the fast diffusion of smartphones. This new shopping technique enables consumers to shop wherever and whenever they choose. It also helps retailers to grow their business in omni-channel – many major UK retailers including the “Big Four Grocers” (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons) have adjusted their digital and category strategies in response to mobile customers. Despite the growing body of literature on mobile commerce, little research has been conducted to provide a comprehensive list of factors that affect the mobile grocery shoppers’ decision-making and their loyalty. In addition, some of the studies had issues relating to inappropriate sampling techniques, which led to unrepresentative findings. This thesis will explore the factors that drive consumers’ intention to use smartphones for grocery shopping, and to identify the key elements that drive consumer loyalty to the mobile grocery provider. Building on an extensive literature review, the key determinants of mobile commerce adoption were analysed with a consideration of issues around online grocery shopping, diffusion of innovation, and customer satisfaction. The key research methods and approaches were compared along with an analysis of the research methods used by the existing literatures, and concluded that a mixed-method approach was the most appropriate way to meet the aim and objectives of this study. Following the research design, the author undertook 32 interviews with shoppers from various backgrounds, 12 of which had previous experience of using a smartphone for grocery shopping. Content analysis was carried out to produce 13 themes relating to the mobile grocery shopping acceptance. Based on the result from the thematic analysis and existing literature, a questionnaire was designed and launched. Three hundred valid responses were collected, including 150 purchasers and 150 non-purchasers. Statistical techniques such as factor analysis and multiple-regression analysis were used to analyse the survey data. Results from the quantitative study suggested there were 7 factors affecting shoppers’ decision to use smartphones for grocery shopping, while purchaser and non-purchaser models showed a different pattern. In parallel, the study also identified factors affecting mobile grocery shopping satisfaction and customer loyalty. Drawing together these findings, the thesis helps grocers to understand their mobile channel customer in a wider angle. It also provides managerial applications to improve both customer experience and digital strategy.

Intellectual Capital (IC) is the intellectual capability of an organization; it drives the usage of other productive resources and adds value to the business structure. Although the expanding literature on IC has enhanced our understanding, the effects of IC with relation to consumers have not been explored in the marketing literature. Thus, this study fills this void by approaching the notion of IC from a customer perspective. Customer value also has attracted extensive attention in recent years. However, the lack of agreement among scholars with respect to the conceptualization of customer value has resulted in inconsistent empirical measures. Furthermore, despite extensive research focus on IC and customer value separately, there is a void in the literature as far as investigating the relationship between the two is concerned. Thus, this study also empirically investigates the predictive relationships among the various dimensions of IC and perceived customer value. This dissertation delineates three dimensions of IC (i.e., Human Capital, Structural Capital, and Relational Capital) available to a retail store in creating value for customers. This study tests the psychometric properties of scale items for measuring these three resources in an apparel retailing context. It also tests the effects of IC on customer value using both a student sample and a consumer sample. This study makes several important contributions to the literature and has the potential to improve marketing practices. First, this study revisits the conceptualization of IC in relation to consumer’s perception and to value creation in an apparel retailing context. Second, this study investigates the multidimensional nature of IC and the relative influence of different dimensions on customer value. Lastly, marketing practitioners and retail managers can learn, based on these results, that the types of resources and their utilization affect the perception by consumers of the value of retail stores.

Od poloviny devadesátých let min. století se ve vnitřním obchodě při jeho liberalizaci vytvořil trend intenzivní koncentrace, čemuž významně přispěl vstup zahraničního kapitálu. V tomto kontextu zaujaly patřičné místo na vnitřním trhu v obchodních strukturách a sítích přímé zahraniční investice nadnárodních společností. Internacionalizace retailingu pokročila natolik, že je určující pro rozvoj odvětví, nicméně vyváženost rozvoje obchodu současně vyžaduje podporu malého a středního podnikání

The thesis is focused on retail marketing and its main goal is to analyse consumer's attitudes to the various retailing formats. First part is dedicated to some theoretical terms of retailing, stores typology, consumer behaviour, segmentation and specifics of retail marketing. Next part analyses available information from public researches, articles and MML database to reveal present situation and trends on retail market. In the last part is executed own primary research with aim to discover consumer behaviour and attitudes to the retailing formats and its perception.

This master thesis is focused on czech organic food and it role in current czech retailing. Organic food is nowadays widely discussed but czech local organic food is unjustly neglected. In the theoretical part of the master thesis, terms such as retailing and organic farming are defined, it also alyses czech retail market and czech organic food market. Analytical part, on the other hand, uses these termes in the actual analysis of the czech organic food market. Using data collected from 5 different retailers (Globus, Tesco, Interspar, Penny Market a Albet) I conducted a country of origin analysis. Last part of the thesis sums up recommendations to improve the position of czech local product, aimed at czech farmers, consumers and oficial organizations.

A internacionalização de empresas é fator fundamental para o desenvolvimento de um país. Embora este seja um processo de pequenas proporções no Brasil, ele está em fase de crescimento. Dentre as empresas que estão se expandindo internacionalmente, estão as franquias. O Brasil é o terceiro maior mercado mundial de franquias, que possui, ainda, a particularidade de ser composto, predominantemente, por empresas nacionais. Este estudo teve por objetivo caracterizar o processo de internacionalização de franquias brasileiras que, por ser um fenômeno recente, é carente de pesquisas. Optou-se pela realização de um estudo quantitativo exploratório que possibilitasse identificar o perfil de franquias nacionais que atuam no exterior, os fatores organizacionais associados à internacionalização, os motivos, destinos e métodos de entrada empregados, bem como as barreiras que dificultam a expansão de outras redes. Foram utilizadas técnicas de estatística descritiva, multivariada e não-paramétrica. Os resultados demonstraram que o total de lojas no Brasil, o tempo de atuação no sistema de franquias e a dispersão geográfica no mercado doméstico são fatores que impactam na atitude da empresa diante da internacionalização. Percebeu-se, ainda, uma postura pró- ativa das empresas que se internacionalizaram, sendo México e Portugal os destinos preferidos e máster-franquia o método mais utilizado pelas organizações. As principais barreiras à internacionalização foram falta de conhecimento sobre o mercado internacional e dificuldades de operação no exterior e de controle sobre a rede, sendo que as empresas não internacionalizadas atribuíram importância muito maior às barreiras do que as já internacionalizadas. Espera-se que as conclusões obtidas possam auxiliar no desenvolvimento das franquias que já atuam no exterior e incentivar a expansão de tantas outras. / The internationalization of companies is very important to the development of a country. Although this is a process of small ratios in Brazil, it is increasing. Amongst the companies which are expanding overseas, there are the franchising ones. Brazil is one of the three biggest world-wide markets of franchising, which has the particularity of being composed, predominantly, by national companies. The objective of this study was to characterize internationalization of brazilian franchisors. As it is a recent phenomenon, it is devoid of researches. It was opted to accomplish an exploratory quantitative study, which allowed to identify the profile of national franchising companies that operate overseas, the organizational characteristics associated to internationalization, the motives, destinations and methods of entrance, as well as the barriers that inhibit the internationalization of others companies. Techniques of descriptive, multivariate and nonparametric statistics were used. The results demonstrated that number of stores, experience with franchising and geographic dispersion in the domestic market are factors that have impact on the attitude towards internationalization. It was also possible to observe a pro-active position of companies that had internationalized, being Mexico and Portugal the preferred destinations and master-franchising the most used method. The main barriers to internationalization were lack of knowledge about the international market and difficulties to operate overseas and to control the franchisees. It is also important to mention that companies that operate only in the domestic market gave much more importance to barriers than internationalized ones. It is expected the conclusions can help the development of franchising companies operating overseas and stimulate the expansion of many others.

<p>The out-of-town retail establishments are part of the dramatic structural changes in the retailing of food and groceries. There are however strong indications suggesting these establishments result in negative externalities concerning areas such as pollution and urban environment. The purpose of this study is to describe and, from an economic perspective, analyse the Swedish political regulations and planning policies concerning the out-of-town supermarkets. The analysis establishes that the current regulations regarding out-of-town retailing do not, due to the occurrence of market failures, produce an optimal situation. It might therefore be necessary to change the planning policies in a more restrictive direction. Unfortunately, information regarding consumer preferences, necessary for an effective institutional regulation, are not available. Further research is thus needed to obtain this information.</p>