Background In the context of the deregulation in the pharmaceutical industry in Sweden, many new business chances have been created. The rising numbers of players in the market started up the race for gaining market shares and attracting customers with new products and services. One of the new players, GreenCross AB, introduced MiniApotek, a vending machine of non-prescription medicine, to the Swedish market. The business concept is to provide a new, secured and convenient way of buying non-prescription medicine to the Swedish society. However, there is a gap between the retailer’s business expectation and the customers’ perception of this new service. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to investigation the different factors that affect potential customers’ trial behavior of self-service technology. Specifically, the researchers explore and examine the main factors that directly manipulate customers’ trial at MiniApotek. Method A quantitative approach is applied in this thesis to identify the key factors and explain their strong influence to trial. The empirical data collected from conducting a survey at Stockholm University, was combined with e-mail communication with GreenCross AB. These materials were analyzed in accordance with the three applied theories, the product concept, pre-purchase stage in consumers’ decision making process and model of customers’ trial of self-service technologies. Conclusion The researchers conclude that there is a strong influence of inertia, need for personal interaction, technology anxiety and perceived risk on the trial of potential customers at MiniApotek. It is found that these factors have a negative effect on the adoption process of MiniApotek in Swedish market. Consequently, the authors think GreenCross AB needs to get a better understanding of the real market need and take these factors into great consideration, as well as find a better strategy to improve the company’s business situation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 244-255).

The microbiological quality of raw milk from the perspective of the health of dairy products is one of the most important features. The amount of microorganisms is influenced by storage temperature and time of milk. In the thesis was observed dynamics of total bacteria count (TBC) in raw milk depending on the selected factors (months, seasons, point of collection, the length of storage). To life of microorganisms contributes warm weather. The largest increase in TBC was observed in the months of April and May to 108 thousand /1 Ml. It is necessary to place great emphasis on rapid cooling of milk (max 150 min.) to the desired temperature (8 °C). Increase TBC could be caused by long transportation time of sampling raw milk from a milk vending machine to evaluate the quality and microbiological indicators. In the second part of the thesis are compares the quality and microbiological characteristics of raw milk from selected milk vending machines. When evaluating the samples taken from the farm, average values of TBC were higher (43 thousand/ml) compared to samples collected from the milk vending machines (6 thousand/ml). Reason of higher values from farms could be caused by poor hygiene of the milk and his secondary contaminations. In contrast, the average results from samples taken from the milk vending machines were more than excellent. That´s shows tight control of cooling milk during transportation from the farm to the milk vending machine. Next reason better results is right cooling and to maintain a constant temperature in the grades (from 0.5 to 1 °C). That´s temperature, which prevents the growth of microorganisms.

Since China's shift to market socialism, many marginalized by this process work as informal street vendors where they reappropriate public space in order to survive―a practice at odds with urban authorities' modernizing agenda. In relation to these competing logics concerning public space's use value versus its exchange value, this dissertation examines the practices, experiences, and agency of informal street vendors working in Sanjingwuwei, an ordinary, yet rapidly gentrifying, neighborhood of Nanchang, capital and largest city of southeastern China's Jiangxi Province. After describing the growth of an informal economy in modern China and providing a history of street vending, I describe the everyday practices of vendors and their reappropriation of public space in Nanchang and the Sanjingwuwei neighborhood. I then provide the socio-demographic details of Sanjingwuwei’s vendors and use their voices to demonstrate how city image protection, a burgeoning informal sector, and the globalization of urban space bring challenges to their already precarious work in the streets. The dissertation concludes by linking the practices and agency of Nanchang’s vendors into a theoretical discussion concerning the agency of informal street workers. Despite daily attempts by the local state to remove them, this study shows how Nanchang's street vendors, continue to actively engaging in alternative forms of urban space-making through reappropriating of public space. Therefore, this dissertation shows how vendors challenge the city as a system by downscaling, slowing down, decommodifying, and ultimately, deglobalizing urban space to neighborhood-level through their reappropriation of public space.

Why do governments tolerate the violation of their own laws and regulations, and when do they enforce them? Conventional wisdom is that state weakness erodes enforcement, particularly in the developing world. In contrast, I highlight the understudied political costs of enforcement. Governments choose not to enforce state laws and regulations that the poor tend to violate, a behavior that I call forbearance, when it is in their electoral interest. / Government

City managers and planners in the global South, particularly in African cities are confronted with an unprecedented urbanisation fraught with complexities such as urban sprawl, jobless growth, and informality. Urban planning practice in Ghana has retained colonial legacies that outlaw informality, be it economic, such as, street trading or housing, such as, slums. This has led to the marginalisation of the urban poor, who make up the majority of urban dwellers. Consequently, the masses invent ways to survive in the city and thus reshape the materiality of urban spaces. Most planners and state officials consider the activities of street vendors as a nuisance that mar the beauty of our cities. For this reason, 24% of the Ghanaian labour force who work on the streets are targets of misaligned and officious controls that include but are not limited to evictions. However, when evicted, most generally return to the streets. Building on existing work on urban planning in the global South and feeding into Southern urban theory, the research focuses explicitly on the Accra Mall Enclave (AME) as a microcosm of African cities. It explores how various players – planners/vendors/politicians – interact and navigate the dynamics of daily experiences. The research asks, how are planners navigating the tensions between planning regulations and the reality of street trading around the Accra Mall Enclave (AME)? What are street traders' logics, strategies, and experiences? How are vendors negotiating their interactions with state actors such as police, planners, city guards, toll collectors, etc.? The questions were answered through qualitative research methods; field observations, interviews, and a review of planning regulations and policies. The results of the study contribute to our understanding of how cities are being built in Africa, particularly Accra, Ghana. As a case study, the focus on the AME assisted in exposing the role of planners in this mode of urbanisation, while also uncovering meaning associated with space and place. Findings show that the state is reluctantly, if not unwillingly, coming to terms with vending within the AME. This could however change quickly if politics change, so still precarious. There are no viable alternatives to relocation, and vendors have established significant relationships and tactics that somehow entrench their position howbeit insecure. Besides all these, state officials, when acting in their individual capacity side with the vending profession because the state has not created jobs. Despite this personal understanding, the system, specifically state bureaucracy, generates obstacles, and as a result existing state structures frustrate the planning practice. This is complicated further by politics. Hence, planners themselves feel helpless, marginalised, and trapped. Further, spatial plans do not adequately provide access to the land needed by informal sector actors. The state resorts to occasional evictions when there is an adequate budget for this action. Imaginations of world class cityness dominate perceptions of the space. This is a candid depiction of the do-nothing scenario – the active contribution of the state in the creation of informality within the AME and the city of Accra, Ghana.

No description available.

The purpose of this project was to examine the possibilities of automating pharmacies by developing a vendingmachine-like device. As a result, a prototype was designed, constructed and programmed. The main focus of this prototype is to inspect whether it is possible to minimize the need for staff in pharmacies. In order for the prototype to archive it’s purpose, a various amount of components were used. Those components were connected and controlled using the Arduino Mega. A screen and a keypad were used to facilitate the user interaction with the prototype. Furthermore, three different types of motors were needed to deliver medicine to the user. The final prototype was able to deliver medicine to the user from four different boxes. Various experiments were carried out to ensure that the machine could perform the required tasks and automate medicine delivery process in an effective way. / Syftet med detta projekt ör att studera möjligheten till apoteksautomation genom att utveckla en enhet som liknar en varuautomat. Genom att designa, konstruera och programmera uppförs en prototyp. Huvudfokus för denna prototyp är att kontrollera om det är möjligt att minimera personalbehovet på apoteket. För att prototypen ska uppnå sitt syfte används ett stort antal komponenter. En skärm och ett tangentbord används för att låta användare interagera med prototypen. Dessutom krävs tre olika typer av motorer för att tillhandahålla läkemedel till användarna. Den slutliga prototypen kan förse användare med läkemedel från fyra olika rutor. Olika experiment genomfördes för att säkerställa att maskinen kan utföra de önskade uppgifterna och att den kan effektivt automatisera leveransen av olika mediciner.

Thesis (MS en S)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Informal street trading is an aspect with which South Africa's ever growing cities need to cope. Since the earliest times, trade has played an important role in creating livelihoods for many people. In today's society - characterised by unemployment and underdevelopment - informal street traders have recognised that there is a gap in the market, and thus, by plying their trade they created a sustainable livelihood for themselves. It has to be admitted that town planning over the years neglected the role of the informal street trader, and not much was done by way of creating a city sphere to accommodate the street trader. In chapter two of this study the discussion addresses the historical role and activities of the informal street trader, and surveys aspects of legislation and racism that played a prominent role in previous times. Authorities did not regard informal trading in a positive light and many harsh steps were taken against street traders. This provides one of the reasons why no latitude was granted to informal street trading and why South Africa's existing efforts to accommodate informal street trade could at best be described as dismal. In chapter three the role and extent of informal trading in the economy is discussed. A study was made of the possible reasons why the informal street trade has emerged, and the contribution of the informal trade towards South Africa's Gross Domestic Product, is also dealt with. Today informal street trade is viewed as one of the ways by means of which to alleviate South Africa's existing employment crisis and accommodation of the informal street trade is seen as a top priority. When considering the phenomenon of informal street trading, it is impossible to ignore the people who are involved in this sector. They have created not only jobs for themselves, but a sustainable way of living. Chapter four attends to the characteristics of the informal street trader and also addresses the problems and challenges that these people have to face. Addressing these problems or challenges is not an easy task, and one of-the major problems in this respect has been the question of legislation. Informal street trading needs to be directed through laws and policies, aimed at addressing traders' needs and which are proactive in creating a positive trading environment. In chapters five and six the legislation and regulation of informal street trading in three of South Africa's major metropolitan cities - Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban - are reported. Chapter seven contains the conclusions of the study, followed by some policy recommendations. These are based on the findings made in the study on informal street trading, and could possibly enhance the proactive control and development of informal street trading. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Informele straathandel is 'n verskynsel wat volop in Suid-Afrikaanse stede voorkom. Handel is verantwoordelik vir die skep van werksgeleenthede en in vandag se samelewing, wat gekarakteriseer word deur armoede en werkloosheid, bied informele straathandel 'n uitweg aan menige persone om In bestaan te voer. Deur die jare het stadsbeplanning nie die nodige aandag aan die informele straathandelsektor gegee nie en meeste Suid-Afrikaanse stede kan nie hierdie tipe aktiwiteit suksesvol akkommodeer me. In hoofstuk twee van hierdie studie word daar ondersoek ingestel na die historiese agtergrond en aktiwiteite van die informele straathandelaar en word kwessies soos wetgewing en rasisme aangespreek. Owerhede het tydens die vorige bedeling nie die straathandel as 'n positiewe aspek van Suid-Afrika se groeiende stede beskou nie en sterk maatreels is teen straathandelaars gene em. Weens hierdie stappe en aksies, het dit gelei tot 'n stedelike omgewing wat nie straathandelaars vandag kan akkommodeer nie, en word dit ook as die rede beskou waarom huidige pogings tot die akkommodasie van straathandel nie as besonder suksesvol beskou kan word nie. In hoofstuk drie word die rol en mate waartoe informele straathandel tot die land se ekonomie bydra, bespreek. Die moontlike redes is ondersoek om die ontstaan van die informele straathandelsektor te identifiseer, en ook is gekyk na die bydraes wat die straathandel tot Suid-Afrika se Bruto Binnelandse Produk maak. Vandag word die informele straathandel as 'n moontlike oplossing vir armoede en werkloosheid in Suid- Afrika beskou en word die ontwikkeling van die sektor as 'n top prioriteit hanteer. Daar is ook ondersoek ingestel na die mense wat betrokke is in informele straathandel. Hierdie deel van die bevolking was in staat om op 'n volhoubare manier werk vir hulself te skep. Hoofstuk vier stel ondersoek in na die kenmerke van die informele straathandelaars en kyk ook na die daaglikse probleme en uitdagings wat hierdie mense beleef. Om hierdie probleme en uitdagings te bowe te kom, is nie eenvoudig nie, maar die grootste probleem vir straathandelaars spruit voort uit wetgewing oor die sektor. Informele straathandel benodig rigtinggewende w.etgewing en beleid wat die sektor se behoeftes en probleme aanspreek en ook 'n positiewe omgewing vir die straathandelaars skep om in te werk. Hoofstukke vyf en ses stel ondersoek in na die bestaande wetgewing oor informele straathandel, soos dit aangetref word in drie van Suid-Afrika se grootste stede, Kaapstad, Port Elizabeth en Durban. In hoofstuk sewe word die gevolgtrekking en beleidsvoorstelle rondom die bevindings van die studie gemaak. Dit sal dan moontlik lei tot die bevordering en skep van 'n gunstige en pro-aktiewe omgewing waarbinne informele straathandel kan floreer.

Problem: Development of a firm’s offering is a vital weapon for competition. Obtaining knowledge on customer expectations and translating those into product development and superior service delivery is surrounded by prioritisation decisions. Industrial vending systems are proven to be a growing field in terms of deployments but have received little academic attention, especially regarding service quality perception to support customer-oriented innovation processes for suppliers, facilitating such decisions. Purpose: To identify key drivers of positive service quality perception and customer satisfaction as well as trust and commitment indicators for business-to-business industrial vending systems. Method: Through an explanatory approach, qualitative data on multiple cases was gathered. 14 in-depth semi-structured interviews were held with customers currently using a specific industrial vending system. Conclusion: Solution characteristics of industrial vending systems impact service quality perception through compliance with customer requirements. A total of 13 customer satisfaction drivers were identified for the investigated industrial vending system, the most important being efficiency, user-friendliness and timeliness. Further, the presence of individual- and company level trust in customer-supplier relationships positively impacts commitment intentions. Contribution: Adds novel knowledge on customer satisfaction for industrial vending systems and contributes with suggestions for managers on how trust and commitment affect customer satisfaction, which can be incorporated into the value promise design, product development and marketing strategies. / ISNET (finansierad av KK-stiftelsen)