The retail sector accounts for more than 3% of the total electricity consumption in the UK and approximately 1% of total UK CO2 emissions. The overarching aim of this project was to understand the energy consumption of the Tesco estate (the market leader), identify best practice, and find ways to identify opportunities for energy reduction. The literature review of this work covered the topic of energy consumption in the retail sector, and reviewed benchmarks for this type of buildings from the UK, Europe and the US. Related data analysis techniques used in the industry or presented in the literature were also reviewed. This revealed that there are many different analysis and forecasting techniques available, and that they fall into two different categories: techniques that require past energy consumption data in order to calculate the future consumption, such as statistical regression, and techniques that are able to estimate the energy consumption of buildings, based on the specific building's characteristics, such as thermal simulation models. These are usually used for new buildings, but they could also be used in benchmarking exercises, in order to achieve best practice guides. Gaps in the industry knowledge were identified, and it was suggested that better analytical tools would enable the industry to create more accurate energy budgets for the year ahead leading to better operating margins. Benchmarks for the organisation's buildings were calculated. Retail buildings in the Tesco estate were found to have electrical intensity values between 230 kWh/m2 and 2000 kWh/m2 per year. Still the average electrical intensity of these buildings in 2010-11 was found to be less than the calculated UK average of the 2006-07 period. The effect of weather on gas and electricity consumption was investigated, and was found to be significant (p < 0.001). There was an effect related to the day-of-the-week, but this was found to be more related to the sales volume on those days. Sales volume was a proxy that was used to represent the number of customers walking through the stores. The built date of the building was also considered to be an interesting factor, as the building regulations changed significantly throughout the years and the sponsor did not usually carry out any fabric work when refurbishing the stores. User behaviour was also identified as an important factor that needed to be investigated further, relating to both how the staff perceives and manages the energy consumption in their work environment, as well as how the customers use the refrigeration equipment. Following a statistical analysis, significant factors were determined and used to create multiple linear regression models for electricity and gas demands in hypermarkets. Significant factors included the sales floor area of the store, the stock composition, and a factor representing the thermo-physical characteristics of the envelope. Two of the key findings are the statistical significance of operational usage factors, represented by volume of sales, on annual electricity demand and the absence of any statistically significant operational or weather related factors on annual gas demand. The results suggest that by knowing as little as four characteristics of a food retail store (size of sales area, sales volume, product mix, year of construction) one can confidently calculate its annual electricity demands (R2=0.75, p < 0.001). Similarly by knowing the size of the sales area, product mix, ceiling height and number of floors, one can calculate the annual gas demands (R2=0.5, p < 0.001). Using the models created, along with the actual energy consumption of stores, stores that are not as energy efficient as expected can be isolated and investigated further in order to understand the reason for poor energy performance. Refrigeration data from 10 stores were investigated, including data such as the electricity consumption of the pack, outside air temperature, discharge and suction pressure, as well as percentage of refrigerant gas in the receiver. Data mining methods (regression and Fourier transforms) were employed to remove known operational patterns (e.g. defrost cycles) and seasonal variations. Events that have had an effect on the electricity consumption of the system were highlighted and faults that had been identified by the existing methodology were filtered out. The resulting dataset was then analysed further to understand the events that increase the electricity demand of the systems in order to create an automatic identification method. The cases analysed demonstrated that the method presented could form part of a more advanced automatic fault detection solution; potential faults were difficult to identify in the original electricity dataset. However, treating the data with the method designed as part of this work has made it simpler to identify potential faults, and isolate probable causes. It was also shown that by monitoring the suction pressure of the packs, alongside the compressor run-times, one could identify further opportunities for electricity consumption reduction.

Este estudo investiga os fatores determinantes da eficiência técnica no setor de supermercados brasileiro com base na aplicação de diferentes métodos de fronteira de produção que permitem uma comparação de desempenho entre companhias. Para isso, utilizou-se uma amostra de 85 redes de supermercados em operação no Brasil entre os anos de 2006 e 2015. A metodologia de pesquisa baseou-se em três abordagens de estimação da fronteira de produção: paramétrica, não paramétrica e semiparamétrica. Na primeira, a eficiência é estimada por meio da análise da fronteira estocástica com dados em painel, e diferentes especificações para função de produção. Nessa etapa também são estimados modelos com heterogeneidade a fim de encontrar os determinantes da eficiência dos supermercados. Em seguida os métodos não paramétricos de fronteira são classificados quanto à organização dos dados, primeiramente calculou-se o DEA-Malmquist para dados em painel, e, em seguida a técnica de DEA tradicional para cada ano separadamente. Por fim, os escores de eficiência obtidos pelo DEA são organizados em painel e utilizados como variável dependente na abordagem semiparamétrica, que estima um modelo Tobit para encontrar os determinantes da eficiência. Os resultados de todas as abordagens apontam para a ineficiência do setor de supermercados brasileiro, um alerta às companhias para melhorarem seus processos produtivos. Foi identificada uma queda na eficiência técnica do setor nos últimos anos, enquanto a produtividade apresentou variação positiva, em grande parte causada pela mudança tecnológica. A análise comparativa dos resultados dos modelos mostrou que a escolha da abordagem não influencia no ranking de eficiência, por outro lado a magnitude dos escores de eficiência varia de forma significativa de um método para outro. Os modelos de SFA com heterogeneidade e DEA em dois estágios forneceram resultados diferentes quanto aos determinantes da eficiência, no entanto, na comparação da eficiência média foi possível encontrar evidências do impacto do tamanho, do poder de mercado e da realização de fusões e aquisições sobre a ineficiência dos supermercados, confirmando três das hipóteses propostas na pesquisa. Tais achados representam uma significativa contribuição para literatura sobre eficiência no varejo, ainda pouco explorada no Brasil / This study investigates the determinant technical efficiency factors in the Brazilian supermarket sector based on the application of different production frontier methods that allow a comparison of performance between companies. A sample of 85 supermarket chains operating in Brazil between 2006 and 2015 was used. The research methodology was based on three approaches of estimation of the frontier of production: parametric, non-parametric and semiparametric approach. In the first one, the efficiency is estimated through the analysis of the stochastic frontier with panel data, and different specifications for production function. In this step, models with heterogeneity are also estimated in order to find the determinants of supermarket efficiency. Then the non-parametric frontier methods are classified as to the organization of the data, first the DEA-Malmquist was used for panel data, and then the traditional DEA technique for each year separately. Finally, the efficiency scores obtained by the DEA are organized as a panel and used as the dependent variable in the semiparametric approach, which estimates a Tobit model to find the determinants of efficiency. The results of all approaches point to the inefficiency of the Brazilian supermarket sector, which represents an alert for companies to improve their production processes. In addition, a drop in the sector\'s technical efficiency was identified in recent years, while the productivity showed a positive variation, largely due to technological change. The comparative analysis of the model results showed that the choice of the approach did not influence the construction of the efficiency ranking, on the other hand, the magnitude of the efficiency scores varies significantly between the approaches. SFA models with heterogeneity and two-stage DEA provided different results regarding efficiency determinants; however, in the comparison of the average efficiency it was possible to find evidence of the impact of size, market power and mergers and acquisitions on the supermarket inefficiency, confirming three of the hypotheses proposed in the research. These findings represent a significant contribution to literature on retail efficiency, which is still little explored in Brazil.

The need to raise the skills and knowledge of both managers and staff in small business through improvement to education and training is the underpinning thematic concern of this research. Another concern is the appropriateness of action research as a process for research and development in education and training for small business. The independent supermarket industry in Australia provided the case study for this action research. The study sought to identify the barriers to participation in education and training programs and to develop strategies to overcome these barriers. Participation in education and training programs in the independent supermarket industry in Australia was found to be constrained by working conditions at store level, geographic location, negative attitudes of owners or principal managers towards education and formalised training and economic pressures on the industry. In this study the action research methodology provided the means to incrementally achieve a rich contextual understanding, to build researcher-client relationships, client receptivity to the research findings and credibility for both the researcher and the study. However, a key constraint to action research was the difficulty of gaining active participation from the client system. Another contribution of this is the documentation of the key issues and characteristics of independent supermarkets which have been poorly reported. The issues and characteristics identified for independent supermarkets, such as those arising from future uncertainity, family ownership, management style and attitude are compatible with those reported for small business generally. This research was guided by, and the results support, the proposition put forward by Gummesson that action research in a business environment is enhanced by the combining of the consultant and researcher roles. This role duality and the cyclic processes of action research provided the opportunity for incremental benefits to the clients which gave incentive for the clients to provide access and support for research in their enviro / Master of Science (Hons)

<p>The out-of-town retail establishments are part of the dramatic structural changes in the retailing of food and groceries. There are however strong indications suggesting these establishments result in negative externalities concerning areas such as pollution and urban environment. The purpose of this study is to describe and, from an economic perspective, analyse the Swedish political regulations and planning policies concerning the out-of-town supermarkets. The analysis establishes that the current regulations regarding out-of-town retailing do not, due to the occurrence of market failures, produce an optimal situation. It might therefore be necessary to change the planning policies in a more restrictive direction. Unfortunately, information regarding consumer preferences, necessary for an effective institutional regulation, are not available. Further research is thus needed to obtain this information.</p>

The out-of-town retail establishments are part of the dramatic structural changes in the retailing of food and groceries. There are however strong indications suggesting these establishments result in negative externalities concerning areas such as pollution and urban environment. The purpose of this study is to describe and, from an economic perspective, analyse the Swedish political regulations and planning policies concerning the out-of-town supermarkets. The analysis establishes that the current regulations regarding out-of-town retailing do not, due to the occurrence of market failures, produce an optimal situation. It might therefore be necessary to change the planning policies in a more restrictive direction. Unfortunately, information regarding consumer preferences, necessary for an effective institutional regulation, are not available. Further research is thus needed to obtain this information.

Background: Along with the rapid economic development in China, some associatingproblems emerged, such as inflation. Especially for the daily consuming fresh fruits andvegetables (FFV), the price goes up at very fast speed, which draws a lot of publicattention on it. Farmers are discouraged and hurt by the low vegetable prices. However,end consumers are complaining about the high vegetable prices. A consensus is reachedthat the problem behind this phenomenon exists in the "distribution links".Aim: How is the current status of FFV distribution system of supermarkets in China?What factors do influence the efficiency and cost of the system? How is theimplementation of ASD in China and what are the advantages and barriers? Should it beimplemented widely? If yes, what are our recommendations to improve it?Definition: Agricultural super-docking is a new method of supply and distribution offresh agricultural products from farmers to supermarkets directly, by signing anagreement of intent between farmers and merchants, in order to build an efficientplatform for quality agricultural products to enter the supermarkets. The essence of ASDis to dock the thousands of small farmers and the different supermarkets to build anintegrated production and marketing chain to gain benefit for merchants, farmers andconsumers at the same time.Completion and results: It is a complex task to improve the efficiency of FFVdistribution system of supermarkets in China and there is a long way to go to implementASD successfully and widely since this market is at the starting stage and immature. Toimplement ASD successfully and widely, professional FFV third-party distributioncenters should be constructed, as well as exchanging information norm.

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία αποτελεί ερευνητική μελέτη στα ΜΗ.ΣΥ.ΦΑ. και της πώλησης τους από τα supermarket, καθώς και της καταναλωτικής συμπεριφοράς σε σχέση με αυτά. Πρόκειται για μία περιγραφική ποσοτική έρευνα, η οποία διεξήχθη μέσω ερωτηματολογίων με δείγμα ποσοστών, με αντιπροσωπευτικότητα ως προς το φύλο και την ηλικία με βάση την απογραφή της ΕΛΣΤΑΤ(2011) για τον Δήμο Πατρών. Αρχικά, περιλαμβάνει την εισαγωγή, όπου παρατίθενται ο σκοπός της έρευνας, βασικές εισαγωγικές έννοιες σχετικά με τα ΜΗ.ΣΥ.ΦΑ. και το μάρκετινγκ, ενώ ακολουθεί η χρησιμότητα του προβλήματος, η ακολουθητέα μέθοδος ανάλυσης και οι περιορισμοί που παρουσιάστηκαν κατά τη μελέτη. Στη συνέχεια, αναπτύσσεται το θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο της ανάλυσης, με όλα εκείνα τα απαραίτητα στοιχεία της καταναλωτικής συμπεριφοράς, του μίγματος μάρκετινγκ και πώς αυτά εφαρμόζονται στην περίπτωση των ΜΗ.ΣΥ.ΦΑ. Ακολουθεί το ερευνητικό μέρος της εργασίας, με αναλυτική ανάπτυξη της μεθοδολογίας έρευνας, παράθεση πινάκων, γραφημάτων και αποτελεσμάτων και λεπτομερής εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων. Το ερωτηματολόγιο περιλαμβάνει ερωτήσεις που αποσκοπούν στη μελέτη της αντίληψης του καταναλωτή σχετικά με τα ΜΗ.ΣΥ.ΦΑ., της συχνότητας χρήσης και αγοράς αυτών, αλλά και των μεταβλητών κάθε στοιχείου του μίγματος μάρκετινγκ ως προς το προϊόν, τη διανομή, την προβολή και την τιμολόγηση. Η ανάλυση πραγματοποιείται μέσω του στατιστικού πακέτου SPSS και περιλαμβάνει περιγραφική στατιστική ανάλυση και ανάλυση παραγόντων, η οποία ομαδοποιεί τις μεταβλητές μας και παρουσιάζει τους τελικούς παράγοντες που ομαδοποιούν τους καταναλωτές με βάση την άποψη και την συμπεριφορά τους. Τέλος, ακολουθούν τα συμπεράσματα σε συνοπτική μορφή, ώστε να είναι κατανοητά και να δείχνουν ευκρινώς τις προτιμήσεις και το καταναλωτικό προφίλ του δείγματος που συμμετείχε στην έρευνα αυτή, ενώ αναπτύσσονται συνοπτικά κάποιες προτάσεις για άσκηση πολιτικής εκ μέρους των φαρμακευτικών εταιρειών σχετικά με τα ΜΗ.ΣΥ.ΦΑ. προϊόντα και το μίγμα μάρκετινγκ αυτών. Στο παράρτημα παρατίθεται αυτούσιο το ερωτηματολόγιο, στο οποίο βασίστηκε η παρούσα έρευνα. / This thesis is a research study in OTC and selling them from the supermarket, and consumer behavior in relation thereto. This is a descriptive quantitative research, conducted through questionnaires with sample rates, with representativeness gender and age based on census ELSTAT (2011) for the Municipality of Patras. Initially, includes import, which lists the purpose of the research, basic concepts and principles regarding the OTC and marketing, followed by the utility of the problem, followed assay and limitations encountered during the study. Then develops the theoretical background of the analysis, with all the necessary elements of consumer behavior, marketing mix and how they apply in the case of OTC Below is the research part of the work, detailing the development of research methodology, tile tables, graphs and results and detailed conclusions. The questionnaire includes questions designed to study the perception of the consumer on the OTC, frequency of use and their market and the variables of each element of the marketing mix to the product, distribution, promotion and pricing. The analysis is performed through the statistical package SPSS and includes descriptive statistical analysis and factor analysis, which compiles our variables and presents the final factors grouping consumers based on the views and behavior. Finally, following the conclusions in summary form that is understandable and clearly indicate their preferences and the consumer profile of the sample participated in this research, and develop briefly some suggestions for a policy on the part of pharmaceutical companies on MI.SY .FA. products and the mixture of these marketing. In the appendix, as the whole questionnaire, to which this research was based.

Darbo tikslas - įvertinti prekybos darbuotojų darbo sąlygas ir jų sąsajas su darbuotojų sveikata. Uždaviniai: 1. Įvertinti darbuotojų darbo sąlygas. 2. Įvertinti prekybos centrų darbuotojų darbo aplinkoje veikiančių veiksnių sąsajas su sveikatos pakenkimais/sutrikimais. 3. Įvertinti psichosocialines darbo sąlygas (pasitenkinimas darbu, nuovargis, stresas, bulingas). 4. Pateikti pasiūlymus darbo sąlygų gerinimui. Tyrimo metodika. Anketinė darbuotojų apklausa. Bendras tiriamųjų skaičius N = 212. Respondentai apklausti, individualiai užpildant anketą apie gyvenimo būdą, subjektyvų sveikatos vertinimą, darbinę veiklą ir darbo sąlygas. Klausimynas sudarytas, remiantis mokslin��s literatūros šaltiniais, anksčiau rengtais tyrimais. Statistinė duomenų analizė atlikta, naudojant duomenų kaupimo ir analizės programą SPSS 12.0. Rezultatai. Pagal anketinės apklausos duomenis, tarp respondentų sveikatą palaikanti gyvensena nėra labai paplitusi. Respondentų maitinimosi dažnis nėra pakankamas, dauguma respondentų visi��kai nepusryčiauja, ar pusryčiauja labai retai; nėra fiziškai aktyvūs, dauguma rūko. Dirbančių viršvalandžius asmenų buvo daugiau nei pusė – 113 darbuotojų (53,3 proc.). Viršvalandžių nedirbantys pasisakė 99 asmenys (46,7). Apdoroti anketų duomenys leidžia teigti, kad viršvalandžiai, darbo stažas, negatyvaus elgesio apraiškos darbe siejamos su darbuotojų sveikatos sutrikimais, tad reikia imtis priemonių šių veiksnių dažniams mažinti. Skyrėsi šių grupių tiriamųjų sveikatos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim of the study – to evaluate the work conditions and employees’ health relationship at Kaunas trade companies. Objectives: 1. To evaluates the employees’ working conditions. 2. To evaluate the relationship between the active factors of working place and health impairment/disorder of supermarkets worker’s. 3. To evaluate psychosocial working conditions (satisfaction with work, tiredness, stress, bullying). 4. To make suggestions about the ways of improving working conditions. Methods: The questioning of the employees. The general number of the respondents N=212. The responders were questioned individually by completing forms about their life style, subjective evaluation of health, working activities, and working conditions. The questionnaire was prepared in accordance with the scientific resources and previously accomplished researches. The statistical data analysis was accomplished using the data accumulation and analysis method SPSS 12.0. Results: According to the results of the questionnaires the healthy life style is not popular among the respondents. The frequency of nourishment of the respondents is not sufficient; most of them do not have breakfast at all, or have it very seldom; the respondents are not physically active, most of them smoke. More than a half of the respondents answered that they worked overtime – 113 employees (53.3 %); 99 responders (46.7 %) stated that they didn’t work overtime. According to the answers of the respondents it is clear that... [to full text]

A cultural studies approach is applied to an analysis of land-use planning theory and practice to seek a holistic understanding of events struggling in praxis to construct ideologies and paradigms about the supermarket phenomenon, in a post- Fordist age. This links interests shared and contested by Govemment and key parties as agents of social change, including Sainsbury's as a typification of the supermarket business and the planners' professional body. The thesis challenges positivist assumptions embodying tenets of classical economic theory and rationalist, empirical methodology. It focuses on attempts to achieve ideological hegemony by the re-articulation of common sense explanations through everyday events mediated by late industrial capitalism's commodification process. The nature of the post-modernist dialectic centred on Capital's modernisation project favouring a new service economy is explored in relation to an organic interplay between ideas and action, and the linking of planning theory to reification. The nature of ideological code systems in relation to retail land-use planning, as a feature of culture and their discursive role in an ongoing struggle for power and dominance, is evaluated in the deconstruction of historical and contemporary texts. A new concept of dialectical pluralism is offered which acknowledges the dynamic construction of ideologies and paradigms between parties in everyday relational experience. The methodology offers a wide, topic-based inductive research focus taking the four poles of Government, the planning profession, academia and the business sector at points of apparent harmony and disjuncture, to review the means by which events in time and space are struggled for to establish ideological hegemony. A priority is to compare and contrast assumptions underpinning the training of land-use planners that reward or inhibit vested and less defined interests, including those legitimising and funding professional research projects.