In this comparative study, the design elements and visual merchandising approaches employed in window displays by high-end and fast-fashion retailers are investigated. The study utilizes a visual content analysis method with standardized evaluation criteria to analyze the window displays of six high-end and six fast-fashion stores located in Paris. By adopting an analytical framework adapted mainly from Morgan (2015) and Diamond and Diamond (2007), the research aims to uncover shared patterns and distinguishing factors in the approaches of these two sectors. The findings reveal clear differences in purpose, layout, visual weight, focal points, color schemes, and prop usage between highend and fast-fashion retailers. These insights offer valuable practical implications for enhancing the visual appeal of window displays in the highly competitive retail landscape

This study has investigated the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction and Word of Mouth in the grocery retail industry. The purpose of the study was to measure the dimensions of service quality and see its effect on customer satisfaction and Word of Mouth. The research question was created to investigate the aforementioned effect, expectations vs performance, How does service quality affect customer satisfaction and Word of Mouth? In order to compare expectations and perceived performance the service quality model, SERVQUAL was used. The thesis is a quantitative study and the data was collected through an online questionnaire where 106 respondents participated. The data was analyzed, both through measuring the gap score between expectations and perceived performance and also regressions were made to test the relationship of the variables. The findings of this study shows that service quality does affect both customer satisfaction and Word of Mouth. However the effect of service quality showed to affect customer satisfaction and Word of Mouth differently, where customer satisfaction had a higher explanatory power than Word of Mouth. Furthermore, the expectations exceeded the perceived performance of service quality in all the dimensions. This created a negative overall comparison gap between the expectations and performance. The comparison gap was fairly low and according to the theory it showed both customer satisfaction and positive Word of Mouth in the grocery retail industry in Luleå. The arithmetic mean which was collected from the questionnaire showed a high value of customer satisfaction and Word of Mouth even though a negative overall gap. However, it could be seen that only a few of the SERVQUAL dimensions could show a significant relationship, two with customer satisfaction and one Word of Mouth. / Denna studie har undersökt tjänstekvalitetens effekt på kundnöjdhet och Word of Mouth inom dagligvaruhandeln. Syftet med studien var att mäta dimensionerna av tjänstekvalitet och se dess påverkan på kundnöjdhet och Word of Mouth. Forskningsfrågan skapades för att undersöka den ovan nämnda effekten, förväntningar mot upplevd prestation, Hur påverkar tjänstekvaliteten kundnöjdhet och Word of Mouth? För att jämföra förväntningar och upplevd prestation användes tjänstekvalitetens modellen SERVQUAL. Uppsatsen är en kvantitativ studie och datan samlades in genom ett online-enkät där 106 respondenter deltog. Datan analyserades, både genom att mäta gapet mellan förväntningar och upplevd prestation samt även genom regressioner som skapades för att testa sambandet mellan variablerna. Resultaten för denna studie visar att tjänstekvaliteten påverkar både kundnöjdhet och Word of Mouth. Effekten av tjänstekvaliteten visade sig dock påverka kundnöjdheten och Word of Mouth på olika sätt, där kundnöjdhet hade en högre förklaringskraft än Word of Mouth. Dessutom var förväntningarna högre än den upplevda prestationen av tjänstekvaliteten i alla SERVQUAL-dimensioner. Detta skapade ett negativt jämförelse gap mellan förväntningarna och upplevde prestation. Jämförelse gapet var ganska lågt och enligt teorin visade det sig ge både kundnöjdhet och positiv Word of Mouth inom dagligvaruhandeln i Luleå. Medelvärdet som samlades in från enkäten visade ett högt värde av kundnöjdhet och Word of Mouth även om det totala jämförelse gapet var negativt. Det kunde dock ses att endast ett fåtal av SERVQUAL-dimensionerna kunde visa på en singifikant relation, två med kundnöjdhet och en Word of Mouth.

Our world is rapidly being redefined by digitalization and disruptive innovations such as changing customer preferences, demographical shifts, and by putting tremendous environmental pressure including scarce resources and a contribution to climate change. Change under these circumstances often brings traditional business models to lose their competitive edge and in the end fail. Previous research of the specific term successful models is vague with ambiguous definitions of the conceptualization of a sustainable business model. More alarming is the limited research addressing the sustainable innovation process thus explaining the existing organizational management problems, where today, firms are operating blindfolded without any academic- or empirical guidance. Fashion as a part of the world’s economy is undoubtedly considered as one of the areas that urgently requires the adoption of more sustainable business models, bringing all actors within the fashion retail industry into a challenging position. The thesis aims to contribute with theoretical knowledge and empirical evidence to bridge this gap by addressing following purpose: explore and improve the understanding of how traditional clothing retailers within the fashion retail industry innovate their current sustainable business models. The thesis is anchored in an exploratory case study at a traditional fashion retail company focusing on children apparel, namely Polarn O. Pyret. Finding shows that the case company simultaneously performs sustainability practices within their existing model, suggesting that a comparative approach can be appropriate when innovating already commercialized sustainable business models. Furthermore, empirical findings explicitly show five factors that differentiate the conventional concept with the sustainability concept of a business model. Thenceforth, the innovation process is explored from this context involving both advantages and challenges. Hence, the process occurs simultaneously, it is recommended to perform a variety of sustainability practices, to spread out the level of complexity and thereby optimize the utilization of resources. The thesis highlights an existing Pilot Prototype when implementing sustainability practices into the current model. Thereby, risks and uncertainty factors can be mitigated to ensure the implementation of sustainable competitive advantage. The thesis makes up for three contributions. First, a contribution with practical knowledge on how traditional clothing retailers is innovating their sustainable business model. Second, the study contributes with an increased understanding of the innovation process of launching successfully developed- or refined models. Third, the thesis makes an analytical contribution by the conceptual framework of references, forming a consolidation of the ambiguous conceptualization settled in a specific context. / Vår värld omdefinieras drastiskt av digitalisering och innovationer som skapar nya kundpreferenser, demografiska förändringar samt att genom en enorm miljöpress inklusive knappa resurser, bidra till klimatförändringarna. Förändringar under dessa omständigheter får ofta traditionella affärsmodeller att tappa sin konkurrenskraft och i slutändan misslyckas. Tidigare forskning av den specifika termen framgångsrika modeller är vag med tvetydiga definitioner av konceptualiseringen av en hållbar affärsmodell. Mer alarmerande är den begränsade forskningen som studerar den hållbara innovationsprocessen och därmed förklarar de befintliga problem för organisationsledningar, där företag idag arbetar utan någon akademisk- eller empirisk vägledning. Mode som en del av världens ekonomi betraktas utan tvekan som ett av de områden som brådskande kräver mer hållbara affärsmodeller, vilket sätter alla aktörer inom modebranschen i en utmanande position. Examensarbetet syftar till att bidra med teoretisk kunskap och empiriskt bevis för att överbrygga detta gap, genom att ta itu med följande syfte: utforska och förbättra förståelsen för hur traditionella klädförsäljare inom modebranschen utvecklar sina nuvarande hållbara affärsmodeller. Examensarbetet är förankrad i en undersökande fallstudie hos ett traditionellt klädesbolag, nämligen Polarn O. Pyret. Resultat visar att fallföretaget samtidigt utför hållbarhetspraxis inom sin befintliga modell, vilket indikerar att en jämförande strategi kan vara lämplig när man utvecklar redan kommersialiserade hållbara affärsmodeller. Vidare visar empiriska fynd fem faktorer som skiljer det konventionella konceptet med det hållbara för en affärsmodell. Från den här kontexten utforskas innovationsprocessen som involverar både fördelar och utmaningar. Då utvecklingen sker simultant rekommenderas det att utföra olika typer av hållbarhetspraxis för att sprida ut komplexitetsnivån och därmed få jämnfördelade resurser och samtidigt få konkurrenskraft. Examensarbetet belyser en befintlig akademisk pilotprototyp vid implementering av hållbarhetspraxis i den nuvarande modellen, därmed kan risker och osäkerhetsfaktorer mildras/överkommas för att säkerställa hållbara konkurrensfördelar. Examensarbetet bidrar till forskningen på tre sätt. Först och främst bidrar resultatet med kunskap om hur traditionella klädesbolag utvecklar sina befintliga hållbara affärsmodeller. För det andra bidrar studien till en ökad förståelse av innovationsprocessen för att lansera framgångsrika nya- eller förfinade modeller. Slutligen ger examensarbetet ett analytiskt bidrag genom den konceptuella referensramen för att skapa en konsolidering av den tvetydiga konceptualiseringen satt i ett specifikt sammanhang.

Titel: Kunden har alltid makt – En studie av Customer Empowerments inverkan på företag inom retailbranschen.    Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi    Författare: Jacob Cedergren och Christin Rampeltin Molin    Handledare: Anna Ljung och Akmal Hyder   Datum: 2021– januari      Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera företagens uppfattning av Customer Empowerment och dess inverkan på företag inom retailbranschen.   Metod: Vi har valt att använda oss av ett induktivt tillvägagångssätt. Det empiriska materialet har inhämtats genom en kvalitativ intervjuundersökning, med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Företagsrepresentanter inom retailbranschen har utgjort studiens urval, då vi anser att deras kundkontakt och möte slutkunden är viktigt för att kunna besvara studiens frågeställningar.   Resultat & slutsats: Studien visar att respondenterna uppfattar att de idag styrs av kunden och kundens behov. Intervjupersonerna beskriver att internet har ökat kundens inflytande och makt, på grund av tillgången till en obegränsad mängd information. Respondenterna beskriver en maktförskjutning från företag till kund. Studien visar att begreppet Customer Empowerment, CE, har förändrats från en företagsinitierad strategi för att skapa kundengagemang och nöjdhet, till en okontrollerbar kundmakt, vilket innebär att kunden har övertagit flera av företagens roller. Ett koncept vi har valt att namnge omvända roller då kunderna, enligt respondenterna, styr och innehar makt över företagen medan företagen försöker anpassa sig efter kundens behov och önskemål.    Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar då den beskriver begreppet Customer Empowerment, CE, och dess inverkan på retailföretag, utifrån företagens perspektiv. Tidigare forskning av begreppet CE har framhållit dess fördelar. Denna studie beskriver att kunden idag inte bara erbjuds inflytande utan även har övertagit makt och kontroll från företagen. Denna maktförändring leder till negativa effekter, vilket beskrivs i två teoretiska figurer. Det praktiska bidraget är att studien beskriver de negativa effekterna som kundens makt kan inneha på företag, inom retailbranschen.    Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Denna studie bygger på 10 intervjupersoner, från retailbranschen, vilket gör att studiens generaliserbarhet endast speglar en del av retailbranschen samt en liten del av svenska företag. Det vore intressant att undersöka företagens syn på CE inom andra branscher, exempelvis inom B2B- branschen.    Nyckelord: Customer Empowerment, Kundmakt, Kundfokus, Kundorientering, Retail, Retailbransch / Title: The customer always has power - a study of how Customer Empowerment affects companies in the retail industry.   Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration    Author: Jacob Cedergren and Christin Rampeltin Molin   Supervisor: Anna Ljung and Akmal Hyder    Date: 2021 - January     Aim: The study aims to investigate and describe companies' perceptions of Customer Empowerment, CE, and its impact on companies in the retail industry.   Method: We have chosen to use an inductive approach. The empirical material has been obtained through a qualitative interview survey with semi-structured interviews. Company representatives in the retail industry have made up our selection, as we believe that their customer contact and meeting the end customer are essential to answer the study's questions.   Result & Conclusions: The study shows that the respondents perceive that they are governed by the customer and the customer's needs. The interviewees describe that the internet has increased the customer's influence and power due to the unlimited amount of information. The respondents describe a shift in power from the company to the customer. The study shows that CE's concept has changed from a company-initiated strategy to create customer engagement and satisfaction, to an uncontrollable customer power, which means that the customer has taken over several of the companies' roles. This concept we have chosen to name reverse roles, as the customers, according to the respondents, control and hold power over the companies while the companies try to adapt to the customer's needs and wishes.   Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes as it describes Customer Empowerment, CE, and its impact on retail companies, from the companies' perspective. Previous research on the concept of CE has highlighted its benefits. This study describes that the customer today is offered influence and has also taken over the companies' power. This change in control leads to adverse effects, which are described in two theoretical figures. The practical contribution is that the study describes the damaging effects of the customer's power on companies in the retail industry.   Suggestions for future research: This study is based on ten interviewees, from the retail industry, which means that the study's generalizability only reflects a part of the Swedish companies. It would be interesting to investigate whether this view of customer power is also valid in other industries or, for example, in the B2B industry.   Key words: Customer Empowerment, Customer Power, Customer Focus, Customer Orientation, Retail, Retail Industry

This research study acquired a consumer response centred approach to visual merchandising stimuli, in an attempt to holistically consider this area of the retail industry. Consumers‟ perceptions towards visual merchandising displays and the effect these displays have on consumer behaviour were exposed. The primary research question that pended from the preliminary literature was to determine the effect of visual merchandising displays on consumer perceptions. Explorative research was performed and qualitative data were collected by means of focus groups and naïve sketches. The data was analysed by means of a thematic analysis process. Perceptions of visual merchandising displays that were identified were subliminal in creating an interest and desire to further peruse the merchandise and aesthetically to beautify the store. Consumers expressed that the impact that visual merchandising displays had on their buying decisions depended on their personal preferences. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Purpose: The increasing importance given to sustainability issues by governments, companies, consumers, suppliers, researchers, students and the authors of this paper in addition to the scarce empirical studies on the topic of sustainable last mile logistics operations in the food retail industry in Sweden provides relevance to the choice of topic. This paper presents an exploratory single-case study on a Swedish food retailer with a strong sustainability-oriented decision-making body, and will seek to understand how they manage to adopt best sustainable practices and which drivers and most responsible for it. Objective: The aim of this study is to present through an empirical study, how food retailers operate their last mile logistics operations according to the triple bottom line approach, contributing to this young field where a profusion of data to confirm the existing theory remains deficient. Furthermore, the focus is placed on the different drivers for food retailers to adopt sustainable practices in their transportation operations from the distribution warehouse to their stores located in urban areas. Approach: A Swedish food retailer that strives for best practices will be studied in order to obtain key empirical data, which will allow the authors to compare theory and empirical data.  The study will focus on the sustainability-oriented operations approach in the Last Mile Logistics of the chosen retailer and observe the different drivers regarding their operations following all aspects of the triple bottom line. A single-case study analysis of a leading company in terms of sustainability-driven operations will provide more insight on how this “category” of food retailers manages to operationalize their environmental-friendly culture and strategy for inbound Last Mile Logistics successfully, without losing their competitive edge and remaining economically sustainable. Findings: After juxtaposing the secondary data issued from the existing theories on sustainable LML in the food retail industry to the primary data obtained from Axfood, a Swedish food retailer, the results have demonstrated that a business cannot neglect economic drivers to be financially sustainable, (cost optimization, enhanced efficiency, etc.) it remains important and cannot be overridden to enable a shift towards optimal sustainability practices in LML operations. However, the drivers that have proven to make the cut in order to succeed in achieving best sustainable practices are; a highly proactive management, stakeholder pressure (particularly consumers and NGOs amongst others) and innovative technology (including those that imply a short-term economic trade-off for long-term greater good to the TBL dimensions). Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainable practices; Last Mile Logistics; Sustainable Last Mile Logistics; Triple Bottom Line; Food Retailers; Food Retail Industry; Drivers.

中國市場具備龐大內需實力，預期2027年將成為世界第一大經濟體，已成為全球注目及亟欲進入以獲取商機之必爭之地。中國零售業自改革開發迄今30年中，連鎖零售企業門市總數由2003年4.7萬家增加至2006年12.4萬家，批發零售貿易業零售總額，由2002年2,973億人民幣增至2007年7,561億人民幣；零售業者對IT系統需求自2000年僅止於足敷前台收款及後台物管相關連結能正常運作，至2005年起開始重視管理層面的有效性考量，至2009年起更甚而重視系統建置於數據擷取後的分析於績效展現及決策運用；零售企業在IT上的平均投資額由2004年的50餘億人民幣增加至2008年100億人民幣。台灣資訊服務產業軟硬體及系統應用整合開發能力均已臻成熟，在同文同種及地理優勢下，此刻正是揮軍中國市場的絕佳時機。 本研究結果顯示，台灣資訊服務業或可參考Ａ公司以「市場定位目標明確性」及「持續動態發展的經營策略」為基礎的經驗，藉由外部資源引進及內化成果紮根的同步展現，建構符合市場發展階段需求之企業優勢。此外；台灣資訊服務產業若能採以專業分工垂直或水平整合形成策略聯盟夥伴關係，掌握市場需求脈動與即時供給具完備性服務內容，當可合力擊退其他國際企業，大規模實質搶攻大陸商機。 / The enormous potential of China domestic market was expected to become the world's largest economies in 2027, the demand has caught the world's attention and desire to explore the great opportunity. After 30 years of development since economy reformation , China retail industry has grow the total number of retailers from 4.7 million in 2003 to 12.4 million in 2006; the total sales revenue of retail business increased from 297.3 billion RMB in 2002 to 756.1 billion RMB in 2007. Whereas in the mean time, retail IT system has expand its function from POS and back office management in 2000 to the efficiency of business management in 2005, and furthermore, IT requirement expand to data capture and analysis for decision supporting system in 2009; along with the increasing demand of information management, the capital investment in IT has increased from 5 billion RMB in 2004 to 10 billion RMB in 2008. With years of development, Taiwan information service industry now has great opportunity to enter China retail market by leveraging its culture homogeneity and geographical advantages with established core competence in both hardware and system integration. This research explores how company "A" could be a reference for Taiwan information industry. Company "A" build up its core competences thru "market positioning" and "dynamic business strategy", with the integration of external resources and internal talents in different development stages. Pursuant to the reference, if Taiwan information services industry could establish vertical integration or horizontal strategic alliance or partnerships, and keep the same pace with market demands and provide total solutions in timing basis, Taiwan information service industry should be able to compete with international major players of the industry and be part of the rapid growth of China retail business.

摘要 分類是研究的第一步，服務業理必須基於有意義的分類，才 可能提出規範性的結論。此外，服務業的無形產出，必須透過細緻的 服務傳送系統設計來傳遞給顧客。因此服務業的研究首要工作，在從 抽象的層次中提出對服務業無形特性的有效分類。經由文獻檢討及實 務觀察，本文提出三項服務業的產出分類構面:經濟性、社會性及心 理性利益，稱之為服務核心。以此三構面將台北市的服飾零售業分為 四種類型:經濟心理性、心理性、混雜性及經濟性零售店。各類型零 售店中較績優者，相互之間服務傳送系統的差異非常明顯，顯示績效 的殊途同歸性是明顯的。用一類型零售店組內的比較分析中，以類神 經網路求得影響績效最重要的服務傳送系統項目:經濟心理性最重要 的活動與商品無直接的關連;心理性零售店最重要的是人員專業性與 商品風格與品味;經濟性零售店的服務傳送系統則是愈簡單愈好。文 末並提出相關的討論是建議。 / ABSTRACT keywords: service industry, service core, service delivery system, retail industry， neural network Classification is the first step for research. Normative suggestions cannot be provided unless meaningful classification is available in service management. Meanwhile, intangible output in service organizations usually is transferred to customers through delicate service delivery system. Therefore the primary task in service management research is to devise efficacious, theoretical classifications to govern inherent intangibility in service management. Through literature review and field study, this paper proposed three classifying dimensions for fashion retailing, which were termed service cores consisting of economic , social , and psychological benefits. Based on these three dimensions, four types of retailing firms were derived with clustering analysis: eco-psychological, psychological, and economic types. Between groups, better performers were extracted to compare with each other， which demonstrated the significances of equifinality towards performance and differences between these four retailing types. Within groups, neural network analysis was employed to determine important factors in service delivery system. In eco-psychological type, important factors were irrelevant to merchandises. Professional salespersons and special merchandise were critical to psychological stores. Better economic stores were all rated low in most delivery activities. Relevant suggestions and discussions were given to conclude the findings.

產品服務系統的概念是在八十年代被提出,當時基於國際化導致各國產業日趨競爭,企業因而積極尋求更多的途徑來創造成長,而當時許多企業,如: IBM、Xerox 等,由原本的產品銷售事業逐漸 跨足服務的提供,這帶給這些企業許多市場競爭優勢,進而促使更 多不同產業的企業開始應用類似的策略實施。 有鑑於國內產業目前積極地推廣產品服務系統,以創造各個領域的產業升級,因此本研究以產品服務系統的供應鏈管理做為討論的核心,希望了解企業在產品服務系統的落實中,應如何應對這商 業模式的變化。對此,本研究採用個案研究法,首先透過文獻探討 以整理出研究的分析模型,再配合產品服務系統實施成功的國內傢 俱零售廠商做為研究個案,以進行調查。其中,分析模型主要由三個面向所構成,分別為下游供應網絡、焦點企業與上游供應網絡 , 並且在下游供應網絡的環節重點討論企業與顧客的互動模式,在焦 點企業的部分探討企業內部的管理措施,而在上游供應網絡探究企業與供應商的合作模式。 本研究發現產品服務系統的採行會直接地改變企業與顧客之間的互動關係,這促使企業必須與顧客進行密切的溝通,同時還需要積極獲取顧客的資訊。而由企業內部角度來看,則需要創造服務能力,調整績效管理模式,以及培養服務導向的組織文化。最後,企 業應與供應商應建立作業連結、資訊共享管道與誘因同盟,使彼此促成長期的合作關係,並讓整合方案能夠更效率地傳遞給顧客。 本研究透過實際案例的深入探討,了解到企業在執行產品服務系統的過程中,對於供應鏈採行了何種管理因應,其結果不但擴充 了“產品服務系統供應鏈”的理論探討,同時能夠也提供給未來相關領域的研究者與其他相關企業發展的參考。 / The concept of Product Service System (PPS) has been expanded since 1980s, when the globalization boosted the competition of various industries. Therefore, companies were longed to explore new business model to facilitate their performance within the market and at that period several companies (including IBM, Xerox) successfully obtained outstanding competitive advantages through providing service, which is derived from their product business, and formed the idea of PPS and Servitization. And so, more and more companies involve in PPS, hence PPS have already applied in numerous industries nowadays. Previously, Taiwan’s local market put a lot of emphasis on PPS, in order to promote upgrade in various industries. Therefore, this paper is aim to discover implementational insight of PSS in the perspective of supply chain management (SCM) and realize how should company responds, when facing the change of business model. In this case, this paper utilize case study methodology with analysis model, which is contrived by desk research on PPS supply chain related paper, and execute in-depth analysis on case study of local furniture retailer, which possess successfully experience in PPS. In this research, the analysis model is consisted with three major dimensions, that is upstream supply network, focal company and downstream supply network. In the aspect of upstream supply network will focus on the discussion of customer interaction, but when it comes to the aspect of focal company will put emphasis on inner management and last would be the dimension of downstream supply network with understanding of supplier relationship management in the background of PPS. The research results indicate that the application of PPS would bring direct change on the interrelationship of customer and focal company, this would cause the company to have frequent communication with customer and shall obtain customer information during interaction. And in the viewpoint of focal company, it should alter the performance evaluation model and acquire new ability of service and service-oriented culture. Last but the least, focal company should establish comprehensive operational linkages, information sharing methods and incentive alignment with supplier to deliver integrated solution to the customer efficiently. With in-depth case study, this paper unveils the SCM detail information of Servitization and the result is not only contributive toward the academic research of PPS, but also provides valuable insight for industry with further expansion on PPS.

分類是研究的第一步，服務業的管理必須基於有意義的分類，才可能提出規範性的結論。此外，服務業的無形產出，必須透過細緻的服務傳送系統設計來傳遞給顧客。因此服務業的研究首要工作，在從抽象的層次中提出對服務業無形特性的有效分類。經由文獻檢討及實務觀察，本文提出三項服務業的產出分類構面：經濟性、社會性及心理性利益，稱之為服務核心。以此三構面將台北市的服飾零售業分為四種類型：經濟心理性、心理性、混雜性及經濟性零售店。各類型零售店中較績優者，相互之間服務傳送系統的差異非常明顯，顯示績效的殊途同歸性是明顯的。同一類型零售店組內的比較分析中，以類神經網路求得影響績效最重要的服務傳送系統項目；經濟心理性最重要的活動與商品無直接的關連；心理性零售店最重要的是人員專業性與商品風格與品味；經濟性零售店的服務傳送系統則是愈簡單愈好。文末並提出相關的討論及建議。