The plans for a shopping mall under construction on a 192-acre site in Lansing Township, Ingham County, Michigan, United States were used as the basis of a design exploration into ways for improving the environmental and social sustainability of conventional malls. The exploration focused on four themes, specifically: Native plant materials; stormwater management^experiential qualities; and biodiversity. Literature on the use of these four themes to achieve sustainability goals was reviewed, and design precedents and projects that employed native plant materials, stormwater management, place experiential qualities, and biodiversity to improve environmental and social sustainability were examined. The literature on plant species native to the Ingham County area was researched to determine which species are suitable as landscape plant materials for shopping mall environments. A variety of interventions were proposed for managing stormwater runoff on the site, with an emphasis on soil infiltration as a management technique. Interventions were proposed to provide a pleasurable and comfortable experience for mall visitors, most notably summer shade for people and parked cars, ease of navigation and movement through the site for pedestrians and vehicles, and aesthetically pleasing plantings and architecture. Planted areas were designed to provide food and cover for wildlife common in the Ingham County area. The layout of the buildings and parking lots was designed to facilitate the future transformation of the shopping mall into a residential neighborhood, as a means of recycling developed land and limiting urban sprawl. Many of the interventions proposed were designed with the intention of revealing natural processes operating in the landscape, in the manner of the Eco-Revelatory design movement. This exploration demonstrated that it is possible to redesign a conventional shopping mall to make it a greater social asset to the community and less of an environmental liability. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

The thesis deals with mystery shopping and its use in practice. The goal of thesis is to identify and analyze the possibilities to use this method as a tool for the effective control of sales staff. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter contains information about retailing and its division. The second chapter deals with mystery shopping including: introduction of the method and its history, MS technics, internationally valid standards for MS and characteristic of the mystery shopper. The last chapter focuses on practical research which was carried out in cooperation with O'Neill company.

abstract: Over the past decade, advancements in neural networks have been instrumental in achieving remarkable breakthroughs in the field of computer vision. One of the applications is in creating assistive technology to improve the lives of visually impaired people by making the world around them more accessible. A lot of research in convolutional neural networks has led to human-level performance in different vision tasks including image classification, object detection, instance segmentation, semantic segmentation, panoptic segmentation and scene text recognition. All the before mentioned tasks, individually or in combination, have been used to create assistive technologies to improve accessibility for the blind. This dissertation outlines various applications to improve accessibility and independence for visually impaired people during shopping by helping them identify products in retail stores. The dissertation includes the following contributions; (i) A dataset containing images of breakfast-cereal products and a classifier using a deep neural (ResNet) network; (ii) A dataset for training a text detection and scene-text recognition model; (iii) A model for text detection and scene-text recognition to identify product images using a user-controlled camera; (iv) A dataset of twenty thousand products with product information and related images that can be used to train and test a system designed to identify products. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2020

The time lost to society due to the increasing delays associated with shopping access or service is staggering. Using Clinton's minimum wage of $5.l51hr, we're "losing" almost $1.92 billion in "discretionary time" each week. With the establishment of the IVDS (Interactive Video and Data Services) spectrum allocation by the FCC, some needed relief for this "wasteful hemorrhage" is in sight. In October, 1993, the FCC allocated the 218·219 MHz band to IVDS which is a two-way "interactive super highway" that extends consumer television to provide new transaction and information services; initially, the primary focus is on home-shopping. The problem for the FCC is to promote competition within the IVDS industry, while the problem facing IVDS operators is that of providing a minimum complexity, reliable, and cost effective system. These problems of competition, cost effectiveness, reliability, and complexity are the focus for this study. Within the context of IVDS, at least two (2) system approaches have already been proposed; a duplex system based on TDMA and a simplex system "loosely" based on SSMA (CDMA). A third alternative is a "cellular overlay" approach, which is proposed as part of this study. This third approach utilizes the existing "cellular" infrastructure and relies on a high level of synergy between the cellular operators and the lTV operators. Its ties to the existing cellular network form the basis for superior reliability and cost effectiveness performance when compared to the alternatives. The study reviews the "existing" duplex and simplex proposals, and compares them with the "overlay" alternative. The basic overlay concept and a description of key system viability elements are presented. The fundamental systematics considered are: capacity; LCC (life cycle cost); availability; multiple access; and cost effectiveness. Since the purpose of this study is to present a viable alternative concept to existing proposals, a relevant subset of the DoD early concept exploration/definition (C/E) phase was considered: need (mission need statement); FCC requirements drivers; system concept feasibility and functionality; LCe (life cycle cost factors); and initial "type A spec" input. This is a key subset of the supraset making up the Systems Engineering Process. Using the system availability and life cycle cost estimates, it is concluded that the proposals rank, in order of most to least effective, Cellular Overlay, IRSinc, and E-on, respectively. Based on "economies of scope and scale" which exist between cellular and IVDS, the synergy between IVDS and cellular could translate to a savings of 38-48% relative to the cost for a standalone IVDS infrastructure. / Master of Science

The shopping mall branch has estimated that the turnover of e-commerce will double within the upcoming ten years (NSCS, 2013). The growth can thus stop for shopping malls and there is a risk that some shopping malls end up being "dead-malls", completely losing their turnover. The thesis starts off with presenting the background for the factors of trade, i.e. e-commerce and shopping malls. This is followed by a presentation of which integration possibilities there are in Sweden today and by examples from the British market. Thereafter follows a section on integration possibilities that shopping malls can use in order to integrate e-commerce instead of regarding it as a threat. This can be done in several ways, e.g. by virtual shopping malls, portals, click and collect, check and reserve, showrooms or a virtual shopping wall. The thesis also considers the question of how one can evaluate integration possibilities efficiently. E-commerce will have an impact on shopping malls and some of these consequences are taken up and discussed. The consequences are amongst others a change in shopping space, rental contracts, tenant mix, the shopping mall visit experience, service, image, multi-channel strategy, lower in-shop prices etc. Then, some of the latest trends are revealed, gathered from a workshop that we organized together with WSP. That workshop was taken part in by some experienced guests within the shopping mall branch, e.g. JLL, Vasakronan, ElinderSten Arkitekter, NCSC and Centrumutveckling. The Thesis is concluded with a vision of how a typical shopping mall will look like in 2025. / Köpcentrumbranschen har uppskattat att näthandelns omsättning kommer att fördubblas inom de tio kommande åren (NCSC,2013). Tillväxten kan då komma att stanna upp för köpcentrumen och det finns en risk för att vissa köpcentrum kommer att bli "dead-malls" och tappa sin omsättning. Arbetet börjar med en litteraturstudie och bakgrundsavsnitt om handelns faktorer samt historia och fakta om e-handeln och köpcentrummet. Detta följs utav en kartläggning av vilka integrationsmöjligheter som finns i Sverige idag och exempel på hur det kan se ut i England. Efter det kommer ett avsnitt om integrationsmöjligheter som köpcentrumen kan använda sig av för att integrera e-handeln till köpcentrumen istället för att se e-handeln som ett hot. Detta kan göras på flera sätt, några utav dessa integrationsmöjligheter är till exempel, ett Virtuellt köpcentrum, en Portal, "Click and Collect", "Check and reserve", ett Showroom och en "Virtual shopping wall". Arbetet behandlar även hur man skulle kunna bedöma integrationsmöjligheternas lönsamhet. E-handeln kommer att påverka köpcentrum och några utav dessa konsekvenser tas upp och kartläggs. Konsekvenserna är bland annat en förändring av butiksytan, hyresavtalen, hyresgästmixen, betydelse av upplevelsen i ett köpcentrum, servicen, imagen, Multi-kanal-strategin och ett lägre pris i butiken mm. Några trendspaningar redovisas ifrån en Workshop som vi anordnade tillsammans med WSP. Denna Work shop gästades av erfarna inom köpcentrumsområdet ifrån Jones Lang Lasalle, Vasakronan, ElinderSten Arkitekter, Nordic Council of Shopping Centers och Centrumutveckling. Arbetet avslutas med en Vision om hur ett typiskt köpcentrum kommer att se ut 2025 och ett kapitel innehållande slutsatser och tips för vidare studier inom området.

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Mystery shopping is used in a variety of service industries to measure service performance, as a training tool for employees, and to ensure the safety and security of the product offered. The persons performing this activity, mystery shoppers, experience various motivations, some of which are similar to employees and/or volunteers. These motivations can be intrinsic, where the performance of the activity is a reward itself, or extrinsic, meaning performance of the activity is a method for attaining a reward. The dominance of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation can shift within the individual, which is termed motivation crowding. Individuals can crowd in when intrinsic motivations are supplemented and supported by extrinsic motivations, or crowd out if extrinsic motivations become the dominant factor, devaluing the activity and reducing intrinsic motivation. This study examines the motivations of mystery shoppers and examines whether the tenets of motivation crowding are supported using a mixed methods research design. The objectives for the study were to identify, classify, and measure mystery shopping motivations using motivational theory to test for the presence of motivation crowding, as reflected in the initial two hypotheses: H1: There are salient dimensions of motivation influencing individual participation in mystery shopping activities. H2: Mystery shoppers experience motivation "crowding in" after initial performance of mystery shopping activities, with intrinsic motivations increasing. To address the first hypothesis, the study began with a qualitative research approach utilizing semi-structured interviews with current mystery shoppers. Through qualitative analysis, 14 constructs of mystery shopper motivations were identified. The constructs were then utilized to develop the Mystery Shopper Motivation Scale, following the eight-step scale development process defined by DeVellis (2003). The scale was then refined through pre-testing and pilot testing, and was used in a survey administration to 323 current mystery shoppers. Through factor analysis, the motivations identified were quantitatively supported, and then dependent t-tests indicated the presence of motivation crowding affecting mystery shoppers. However, unanticipated increases in extrinsic motivations prompted further analysis of motivations based on mystery shopping experience levels, resulting in the addition of a third hypothesis: H3: The direction of motivation crowding is dependent on the mystery shopper's level of experience. H3a: Mystery shoppers who have performed less than 10 mystery shops will crowd in, with an increase in intrinsic motivations and a decrease in extrinsic motivations. H3b: Mystery shoppers who have performed between 10-24 mystery shops will crowd in, with an increase in both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and intrinsic motivations remaining the dominant factor. H3c: Mystery shoppers who have performed 25 or more mystery shops will crowd in, with an increase in both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, but extrinsic motivations becoming the dominant factor. Results supported motivation crowding as dependent on the experience level of the mystery shopper, prompting the categorization of three distinct mystery shopping phases of activity: the novelty phase, the exploratory phase, and the career phase. Empirical results of the survey were then compared to a subsequent round of qualitative analysis of mystery shopper online forums. Recommendations for future research include longitudinal studies of novelty phase mystery shoppers, examination of the effects motivation crowding may have on mystery shopper behavioral intentions, and incorporation of the perceived costs associated with mystery shopping.

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