Market information services established in 1999 were aimed at the promotion of market efficiency through provision of information across the nation. While the responsible bodies have improved the knowledge of prices, information exchange and flow, as a result of competition between markets, is not known and questions of market effectiveness still stand. This study examines market efficiency based upon response to price signals across Ugandan markets. We focus on information exchange for maize and beans among 16 key markets. We study weekly price data from the first week of 2000 to the last week of 2003 from each of the sixteen markets. Each commodity is studied separately using Vector Autoregessions (VARs) and Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). The two techniques are widely used to show market risk and causal relations in time series data. While results are presented individually for each commodity, the markets are comparable. In determining market efficiency, we test for stationarity of the data, explore the magnitude of forecast error decompositions over time across markets, and observe the patterns of communication based on DAGs. We find that markets are more efficient in exchanging information on maize than beans. Communication of data is mostly between markets in eastern, western, and central parts of Uganda. Overall, markets are very slow in reacting to information in the short run.Information from the Mbale and Iganga markets, which are located in areas of high production, is very valuable in the maize trade. However, of the two markets, it is data from the Mbale market, located near the border with Kenya, which is of paramount importance. Specifically, price is discovered in Mbale in the maize trade. Our results also show the Gulu market, which is situated in an insecure zone, to be very responsive to price signals over the long run. In the case of beans, it is the price signals from Tororo and Jinja that cause more disruption in most of the markets. Price is discovered in these two markets. A majority of the markets is more affected by data from Jinja than Tororo. This segmentation in market price discovery suggests an existing market failure. Arua and Gulu are found to be the least responding markets in regards to price signals for beans. We do not find information from the Kampala market to be important in either the maize or beans trade.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen Featherstone / The Company is comprised of retail and w holesale agri-input outlets, toll/contract manufacturing and various departments that aid in three tiers of the supply chain. The Company Department 2’s principal goal is to earn a profit and that is achieved by helping their retail customers succeed across Division M. Therefore, a comprehensible strategy for selecting, positioning and promoting wholesale products and services is fundamental in uncovering actual value. The Company has grown to be one of the nation’s foremost agricultural distributors across the United States. Various geographies across the United States, excluding the region, have moved to a three-tier supply chain by merging retail and wholesale outlets. Currently, value demanded from end-users and retail outlets has been supplied from the wholesale level that has sustained the four-tier supply chain a cross the region of the United States. Even though the Company is vertically integrated, their knowled ge and core offerings originate from the retail segment of the supply chain. Retail firms that provide differentiated products and services with the most value to the end-user are those that fit the Company Department 2’s market. In addition, targeted retail fir ms emphasize a full-service business model by supplying produ cts and services across multip le categories. Company Department 2 provides value internally and externally. The three core areas from Company Department 2 are proprietary products, precision products and services, and other retail services valu able to retail customers. Positioning of these core areas differs based on the depth of the current relationship. A flanking strategy is proposed for prospective customers by bundling prestige goods and distribution innovations specifically in the focused proprietary line of products. A guerilla strategy is proposed for existing customers by highlighting product proliferation and improved services across all three of the core areas. Both strategies emphasize advertising and promotion, but more intensive campaigns are proposed with prospective customers. These positioning strategies and tactics are accomplished through accurate implementation at the field level. By risking a claim for what Company Department 2 stands for, communicating how value is created for a customer and communicating the reliability of these offerings, Company Department 2 will develop a unique identity in the marketplace.

The digital era has brought enormous changes to traditional industries, among which the music industry has been particularly hard hit. Unauthorized downloading and file-sharing on the internet has significantly threatened the viability of the music industry. Reduced sales, as much as one-tenth of previous sales, have caused closure of many companies. The market territory has also shifted constantly. The future of the music industry relies on how it can address these changes. In addition, the rise of wholesale retailers that emphasize lower costs and quantity price discounts has also worsened the prospect of the music industry. Traditional music retailers have little profit margins to compete with these chained wholesale retailers. Losing market access, the sales and profits for pop music continue to decline, let alone "non pop" music, such as Buddhist music. The author has been a producer of Buddhist music for years and runs the Buddha Cloud Music Production House. Facing these changes, in this thesis he presents a new marketing strategy, deviated from traditional business sequence of production, recording, marketing, and retails. This strategy includes: (1) directly promoting his works to Buddhist temples; (2) marketing through mass media, such as newspapers and Buddhist TV channels; and (3) a total access marketing approach using online e-business programs. The author details how he used this strategy to successfully promote his works of Buddhist music produced in his studio. It is expected that the proposed strategy can shed some light on the marketing of other industries that face similar challenges.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2005. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (doctoral)--Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 408-416).

This thesis presents a conceptual framework within which a geography of wholesaling may be pursued and illustrates it in terms of a case study carried out in Vancouver, British Columbia. In particular the research draws attention to the significance of the locative decision, and the institutional framework within which it is made in accounting for the distribution of wholesaling activity. The essence of the wholesaling function is that, in contrast to retailing, it consists of business transactions with other than ultimate consumers. The wholesaler typically serves as a break of bulk and regrouping point to which goods are shipped in bulk, and from which they are distributed in order lots as required by the customer. The relevant body of substantive theory was examined with a view to generating explanatory hypotheses for the distribution of wholesale grocers in Metropolitan Vancouver. In essence this literature postulated that distribution centres such as wholesale grocers, ceteris paribus, tend to locate at the point of minimum cost of distribution and maximum accessibility to their markets. A reconnaissance of the case area suggested, however, that a number of "distorting" factors were important in an adequate interpretation of the pattern. A more complex research orientation seemed to be required. Accordingly the locational pattern of the wholesale grocers in Metropolitan Vancouver was considered as the net resultant of the locative decisions of its constituent entrepreneurs. The institutional framework of the industry in Metropolitan Vancouver was considered as the context of the locator's decision. The function, technology, market structure and control aspects were studied and a number of relevant locational factors isolated. It was found that entrepreneurs can, and do, evaluate and rank site factors in terms of their long run business objectives. Where their location is, in their view, inadequately serviced, especially vis-a-vis other sites, they will express dis-satisfaction. When dis-satisfaction is strong enough the locator will move to a new and, to him, more appropriate site. It was concluded that Vancouver's role as a distribution centre for wholesale grocers was secure. Within the Metropolitan area, however, the locational pattern of wholesale grocers was in flux. It was concluded that the downtown area was, and would continue to be at a disadvantage to more peripheral areas as a local for wholesale grocery establishments. Further, those firms which had maintained downtown locations were those dealing in specialised merchandise with a high value to volume ratio; those whose sales volumes did not require large sites; those which had a specific market or other over-riding locational factor (e.g. lack of capital) influencing the choice of a downtown site. Firms which had moved to more peripheral sites tended to be larger companies requiring large areas of floor space, free flowing highway conditions, or were dealing in nationally known branded goods where proximity to a downtown market was not vital. The conclusions formed in this study are valid only for the industry, the area and the time period under consideration. It remains for further studies of grocery wholesaling to be made at other times and places to test their general applicability. It is hoped, however, that the conceptual framework within which the study was conducted and the research techniques which were utilised will provide a methodological orientation universally suitable for the development of a geography of wholesaling whose empirically derived principles will form a segment of a unifying theory for economic geography. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate