The recent explosion of digital data has led the business world to a new era towards a more evidence-based decision making. Companies nowadays collect, store and analyze huge amount of data and the terms such Big Data Analytics are used to define those practices. This paper investigates how Big Data Analytics (BDA) can be perceived and used as a driver for companies’ Competitive Advantage (CA). It thus contributes in the debate about the potential role of IT assets as a source of CA, through a Resource-Based View approach, by introducing a new phenomenon such as BDA in that traditional theoretical background. A conceptual model developed by Wade and Nevo (2010) is used as guidance, where the concept of synergy developed between IT assets and other organizational resources is seen as crucial in order to create such a CA. We focus our attention on the Food Retail industry and specifically investigate two case studies, ICA Sverige AB and Masoutis S.A. The evidence shows that, although this process is at an embryonic stage, the companies perceive the implementation of BDA as a key driver for the creation of CA. Efforts are put in place in order to develop successful implementation of BDA within the company as a strategic tool for several departments, however, some hurdles have been spotted which might impede that practice.

The purpose is to gain a deeper understanding concerning the changes tocommunication and how these changes are perceived from customers and retail companies.Furthermore the intention is to see if these experiences affect the relationship between customer and company through Facebook. This study is based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative approach.Data has been collected with surveys and interviews from two Swedish retail companies and 17 of their customers also participated. The result is based upon the answers from only two Swedish retailcompanies and their customers. Because of the few components involved the findings cannotbe generalized. The findings are that both companies and customers agree regarding the importanceof a company Facebookpage. They also believe the significance of a company beingconstantly active as well. Though they disagree about the main purpose with the company Facebookpage since the customers and companies’ expectations differ. Both parties believethat the company Facebookpage has the possibility to improve the relation however it seemsto depend on personal experiences and opinions when applying to reality-cases. / Syftet med den studie är att få en djupare förståelse för hur den förändrade kommunikationsmöjligheten via Facebook upplevs av kunder och företag inom dagligvaruhandeln. Vidare är syftet att också få en djupare förståelse för hur dessa upplevelserpåverkar relationen mellan kund och företag inom dagligvaruhandeln. Studien bygger på både en kvantitativ och kvalitativ undersökningsmetod. Undersökningen har genomförts med både enkät och intervjuer, på två företag och 17 kunder. Resultatet är endast baserat på två svenska dagligvaruhandelsföretag och desskunder. Studien går inte att generalisera eftersom det är för få komponenter som undersökts. Både kunder och företag är överens om att företag ska ha Facebooksidor, och det ärviktigt att företagen är aktiva på dessa. Däremot är de inte överens om vad huvudsyftet med Facebooksidorna faktiskt är, företagen respektive kunderna har olika önskemål. Båda tror att Facebooksidan kan bidra till en ökad relation men om det i praktiken gör det, varierar pågrund av personliga upplevelser och åsikter. Resultatet är endast baserat på två svenska dagligvaruhandelsföretag och dess kunder. Studien går inte att generalisera eftersom det är för få komponenter som undersökts.

During recent years, technology has played a crucial role in shaping the retail industry. Digitalisation and e-commerce are seen as the future of retailing. However, big online retailers have shown increasing interest in offline shopping by heavily investing in brick and mortar stores. The strategy of a retailer making use of both offline and online channels is called omnichannel strategy. This study investigates why online retailers are investing in physical stores and what is the impact of this decision on their customer base. The study uses a two-step research. First, a case study on the Swedish retailer NetOnNet is conducted to confirm the theoretical framework and build the research model. Then, a quantitative research with questionnaire is used to investigate the impact of an omni-channel strategy on the consumers’ attitudes towards the retailer. The results show that awareness and control are the factors most affected by an omni-channel strategy. Instead, having both an online and offline presence does not have a relevant impact on the factors trust, perceived risk and personalisation.

The year 2000 saw many dot-com companies created and many existing companies going into E-commerce. However, with many companies failing, it is clear that companies need to follow a well thought out strategy for E-commerce. The main research aim was to assist companies towards a successful E-commerce strategy. This research was sponsored by NSB Retail which offers software solutions to high street retailers. Published literature on E-commerce was studied to determine success and failure factors in establishing a viable E-commerce business and lessons that can be learned from this. As a result of the studies of E-commerce company experiences a strategy formulation framework was created to help companies carry out feasibility study and form a strategy for implementing E-commerce. At the heart of this framework were twenty key questions for managers considering entering E-commerce and twelve critical success factors needed for sustained E-commerce success. This strategy formulation framework was tested by applying the initial stages in a feasibility study for an established, traditional retail company to determine whether it should move into E-commerce. The later stages of the framework were then retrospectively applied to successful and unsuccessful E-commerce companies. The case studies were also used to investigate whether traditional business and marketing theory could still be applied to an E-commerce company. To further test the concepts behind the strategy formulation framework, a series of papers were submitted to peer reviewed conferences and journals. Feedback from the reviews of these papers and from the audiences at the conferences was very positive and showed that the experiences of experts in the E-commerce field generally agreed with the findings. Investigations from the research has also revealed there is a shortage of case study material for training E-commerce workers. Three case studies used in this research were published in an MBA course book to be used by Ball State and other universities. It is concluded that this research has made a valuable contribution for companies contemplating an investment in E-commerce, and further work is identified to continue to assist companies to form a strategy for E-commerce implementation in the future.

近年來行動網路及數位商務的蓬勃發展，促使O2O(Online to Offline/ Offline to Online)模式的興起。如何有效的結合實體通路與電子商務平台，以發展線上及線下之O2O模式，已成為提升產業競爭力的重要關鍵。 銷售商品不只透過實體店面進行販售，網路的普及化造就了網路銷售平台的架設，大型的購物平台對於零售業產生巨大的影響，因此企業不得不將實體及網路做整合。在傳統的電子商務，不外乎為 B2B、B2C、C2C 等型態，這些模式均屬於單方面虛擬店面的交易。隨著智慧型手機的普及，行動商務已是企業不可忽視的商機。 在現今的社會裡，網際網路帶動了電子商務的流行趨勢，也引導企業走向資訊化行銷的經營模式。利用虛實整合的策略，可以在真實世界與網路虛擬世界間，搭起一座溝通的橋樑，由傳統企業擴展電子商務的市場。在網際網路新世紀中，唯有把實體與虛擬作良好的整合，才能建立並維持競爭優勢。 當企業將實體及網路零售做整合時，實體店面增加了網路上的通路宣傳資源，方便追蹤消費者每筆消費紀錄，對企業來說能夠更輕鬆掌握消費者數據，可以提升對消費者的營銷效果及維護。本論文研究探討對於線上線下的整合，是否有利整體績效呈現，運用對O2O的文獻回顧探討線上線下的整合如何提升營運績效與競爭力。 / In recent years, the vigorous development of the action network and digital commerce has prompted the rise of the O2O model (Online to Offline/ Offline to Online). How to effectively combine physical access and e-commerce platform to develop the model O2O of online and offline has become an important key to enhance the competitiveness of the industry. Sales goods are there are nothing more than pattern sold through physical stores, but the popularization of Internet has created the network sales platform. Large shopping platforms have a huge impact on the retail industry, so enterprises have to integrate entities and networks. In the traditional e-commerce, not only for B2B, B2C, C2C, and so on, these patterns belong to the unilateral virtual store transaction. With the popularity of smart phone, mobile commerce is a business is a business opportunity to be reckoned with in enterprises. In today's society, the Internet has led to the trend of e-commerce, and also leads to the business model of information marketing. The strategy of virtual reality integration can set up a bridge of communication between the real world and the virtual world of the Internet, and expand the market of e-commerce by traditional enterprises. In the new century of the Internet, the competition advantage can be established and maintained only if the entity and the virtual are well integrated. When enterprises integrate entities and online retailers, the physical stores increase the channel publicity resources on the Internet, which is easy to track consumers' consumption records, and can easily grasp the consumer data, and enhance the effectiveness of consumer marketing and maintenance. This paper investigates whether the integration of online and offline whether beneficial to the overall performance or not, and uses literature reviews of O2O to explore how online-offline integration can improve operational performance and competitiveness.

Nowadays the world is on the verge of another significant migration of value, the value for corporate world is shifting from providing services to staging experiences for customers. Since it is vital to understand the main characteristics and components of the impending environment, this research is carried out. It is aimed at determining the main elements of the experience economy that could add value to products and the way modern retail companies apply these instruments within their strategies. The purpose of this paper is sufficiently fulfilled by qualitative analysis of three companies from the clothing industry - Benetton Group, Nike, Louis Vuitton. In the paper co-creation, gamification and digitalization are identified as the main instruments of the experience economy that could lead to greater value of the products and additionally contribute to other companies’ brand performance criteria as brand loyalty and brand awareness. Furthermore, the study provides discrepancies between retail companies from the clothing industry in terms of implementing experience economy instruments depending on their market segment, strategy and specialization.

The overall research objective is motivated by two simultaneous developments. On the one hand, due to globalization and fast changing markets, organizations face increasing pressure to stay competitive and to survive in these fast changing environments. To innovate, organizations rely on recruiting and developing their workforce. As the individual is the source of innovation, an ever increasing emphasis is placed upon individual innovativeness and in particular in the investigation of sources of individual innovativeness. Leaders are essential in the promotion of employees´ innovativeness and leadership is proposed as one of the most influential predictors of individual innovativeness. In the view of innovation pressure and demographic changes, it is important for organizations to shed light on their young professionals, especially on their young professionals’ innovativeness, as they are the future workforce. This is especially important for leaders who aim to support the innovativeness of their young professionals. Nevertheless, the importance of young professionals’ innovativeness in the retail industry is still underestimated. Hence, organizations and especially leaders may benefit greatly from being aware of their young professionals’ innovativeness as one possibility to face the challenges of innovation pressure.:I Part I: Introduction 1 Motivation and relevance 2 Overall resource-based perspective 3 Research gaps and questions 4 Overall structure of the dissertation II Part II: Foundations 1 Structure of part II 2 Individual innovativeness 3 Leadership supporting individual innovativeness 4 Summary of part II III Part III: Empirical studies 1 & 2 1 Structure of part III 2 Overall research context 3 Overall research design 4 Study 1: Individual innovativeness of yps 5 Study 2: Leadership supporting yps’ innovativeness IV Part IV: Discussion 1 Structure of part IV 2 Discussion of study 1: Individual innovativeness of yps 3 Discussion of study 2: Leadership supporting yps’ 4 Summary of overall empirical findings V Part V: Conclusion 1 Summary of parts 2 Implications for management 3 Limitations and avenues for further research 4 Conclusion References Annexes Annex A: Related to Part II: Individual innovativeness Annex B: Related to Part II: Leadership supporting individual innovativeness Annex C: Related to Part III: Empirical study 1&2

Most companies' desire is to create customer relationships and the working methods have changed as a result of the increased e-commerce. Because of digitalization, the retailing field has changed dramatically. Consequently, physical stores are facing competition from online companies. Previous literature has stated that physical stores now have to focus on what happens inside the store in order to generate a pleasant experience. The research question focused on examining how Elgiganten, the largest consumer electronic store in Sweden, use customer experience and customer value in order to influence store attractiveness. This was carried out by using a qualitative approach, an exploratory nature and by conducting in-depth interviews with consumers and the company's head managers. The main findings of this study suggest that customers can not take advantage of some services when buying through e-commerce. This ability to provide service is an important part of the handling of competition from e-commerce. The retailers need to find the right balance between engagement and emotions in the physical retail environment in order to appeal to the consumers’ desires of trust & reliability in order to create an attractive experience point. By means of this, the thesis emphasised the imperative of creating experience in offline retailing.

Employee turnover affects retail organizations in the form of lower productivity, decreased profitability, and reduced sustainability. In 2014, organizations lost over $11 billion in tangible and intangible assets as the result of employee turnover. High employee turnover rates have an adverse effect on productivity, which lead to unsustainable business practices. The number of retail employees who quit their jobs each month increased from 432,000 in December 2016 to 464,000 in January 2017, which indicates that some managers lack strategies to reduce employee turnover. Using the transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore effective strategies used by retail store managers from El Paso, Texas to decrease employee turnover. Participants were purposefully selected because of their experience implementing effective employee turnover reduction strategies; they reduced employee turnover from 24% in 2012 to 15% in 2016. Data were collected via face-to-face semistructured interviews with 10 managers and the review of organizational documents on employee turnover. Data were analyzed using inductive coding of phrases, word frequency searches, and theme interpretation. Three themes emerged: supportive leadership reduced employee turnover, managing personnel scheduling decreased employee turnover, and competitive compensation reduced employee turnover. Reducing employee turnover contributes to social change by providing retail store managers with valuable insight that can lead to enhanced sustainability, improved organizational growth, and increased profitability, which might promote prosperity for local families and the community.

Introduction: Since the start of the digital age back in the 70s, digital technology has become a main tool for us humans to work, communicate, and enjoy ourselves on a day-to-day basis. The major push that set this new chapter of human life was due to the first military-manufactured computers of the time. The usage and development since then have grown exponentially all across our lives, affecting everything from hospital visits in Hong Kong to a late-night shopping experience in Stockholm. This leads us to today, where businesses are taking technological advances every day to keep their customers happy and satisfied, but also setting the bar higher and higher between their competitors. Some store owners have even figured out that physical human presence is not even needed in physical stores. The benefit is that the upkeep costs drop and almost no employees are needed; this is beneficial for small store locations in sparsely populated areas. In Sweden, it has become a huge problem that small towns and villages slowly die due to high upkeep costs for store owners. With these unmanned stores, the trend could change to the possessive. However, it is also pressured by the very technology-demanding Generation Z. Setting pressure on this retail sector to keep up and find the right way to proceed with their businesses in a way that fits Generation Z’s demand long term.  Purpose: This specific study will try to explain how different enhancers and inhibitors affect consumer acceptance according to Generation Z for this store concept in Sweden. The researchers of this thesis believe that this study is needed because of the vast growth of unmanned stores and the lack of research it has, especially in Scandinavia. Methodology: In order to answer the research question, nine different hypotheses were created with different inhibitors and enhancers derived from previous research. Furthermore, a combination of online and face-to-face questionnaires was conducted, whereby 133 valid respondents were collected. The data was then analyzed with the help of a multiple regression analysis. Conclusion:  From this research, it can be concluded that for the investigated enhancers: high levels of technology readiness, usefulness, and enjoyment were all factors affecting Gen Z´s acceptance of unmanned convenience stores. Furthermore, that lack of human interaction affects Gen Z´s resistance towards unmanned convenience stores. These results can be used for future research and for companies targeting Gen Z to shop at unmanned convenience stores.