published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Construction Project Management

Along with more and more intense competition of OEM as well as ODM low margin strategy, Taiwanese' small appliance manufacturers have inevitably encountered the sharp profit decline and could no longer benefit from the original good earnings that derive from Vertical Integration Strategy commonly applied. In order to sustain the competitiveness and pursue higher returns, it's indispensable for those Taiwanese small appliance manufacturers to further consider moving towards value chains that generate better added-value such as R&D and marketing; R&D here includes innovation, patent and marketing consists of brand as well as channel. By fully adopting Vertical Integration Strategy in the preliminary, Airmate has fruitfully grown to a well profit-earning company and then moved towards design innovation as well as brand that were extremely stressed in Smile Curve Theory. Once again, Airmate has succeeded in the branding and considerably benefited from its brand equity. Based on China market's small appliance background, trend and affiliated with a liner regression analysis on home appliance manufacturers as well as channels, a research was conducted through in-depth interview and secondary data gathering to discuss how Airmate should further utilize channel to manifest its brand equity so that it could accordingly generate more profits as well as stabilize its cash flow. In summary, this very study has revealed and concluded a number of suggestions as followings. 1.New Product Development Strategy Owing to the inferiority of its product mix, Airmate has to further develop new product with eminent complexity and more varieties so that it could enhance its core competence as well as keep the new competitors from involving in the original competition. 2. Branding Strategy Airmate is highly suggested to keep investing in the branding as a way to better strengthen Airmate's high-end brand image. At the same time, a new branding project should be planned in order to extend Airmate's brand recognition to those secondary and thirdly cities as well as farmers market. It's not advised to additionally rebuild the middle or low end brands for thirdly cities or farmers market as it will muddle its brand positioning and diminish its high-end brand image. In light of brand theory, a product with higher added-value could correspondingly secure higher market price and generate better profit. Thus, since Airmate has been doing OEM as well as ODM for those celebrated appliance companies worldwide, it's extremely recommended that Airmate should appeal to media such as newspaper or magazine to publish articles to associate its brand with those high-end appliance companies. 3.The Channel Selection Strategy It's highly advised that Airmate should concentrate on primary and focused channels such as Home Appliance Chain Stores and Supermarket. A review and scheme should be conducted as a way to raise its brand exposure and at the same time increase the sales amount. 4.The Selection of Domestic or Foreign Channels Strategy With the advantages of advanced channel operations as well as management know-how and its large scale new stores opening plan, foreign channels have obviously surpassed the performance of channel efficiency and benefit than that of domestic channels. It's highly recommended that Airmate should actively build further close cooperation with foreign channels. 5.Channel Relationship Management A review on various channels and consumers' behaviors is suggested in order to better position the price and product separately to match up each channel. 6.The Measure to Cope With the Competition Resulted from WTO Innovation and setting up new appliance standard are key to sustain the core competence, Airmate is thus advised to focus on these two aspects.

In the face of globalization, the restaurant industry has to quickly develop chain stores that feature delicious food, rapid service, and uniqueness in order to create advantages in this traditional industry. Because of the highly labor-intensive nature of restaurant chain stores and the ever-increasing demand on high quality services from consumers for convenience and time efficiency in the competitive environment, integrating modern management concepts with a variety of information technologies to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of the restaurant has become winning tools for businesses. This research includes several main portions. First, we use the Formosa Chang as a case to analyze the competitive situation of restaurant chain stores, including the five forces analysis, SWOT, and critical success factors for restaurant chain stores to form the four management strategies of the case study company for store expansion, marketing, products, and service. Then, the E-business status of the chain store and its upstream and downstream E-business status are investigated. Finally, the mechanism for deployment the system is reported, which includes system investigation to confirm organizational preparations and resources allotment and determine the priorities in the development of the E-business system. This is followed by system analysis, system design, system hardware and software configuration and installment. Finally, the performance of the system is evaluated. Analysis of the key performance indicators (KPI) of the case study company shows high effectiveness of e-business in improving and simplifying its operational procedures.

This research is focus on discussion of Convenience Chain Stores¡¦ Key Successful Factors, in which using for lead into the LOHAS¡]Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability¡^. This case is based on the 7-11 of which used both of the ¡§Case Study¡¨ & ¡§Penetrate Interview¡¨. Except two high-level managers in charged of LOHAS, there are some other key men involved as following: two high-level managers in Uni-President(upstream company of 7-11) Enterprise and two high-level managers in Ton-Chuang¡]logistics¡^company. Among them I got four KSFs to be the result of this research, which van be the references in the future development of Convenience Chain Stores as following¡G 1.The factor of Social Environment. 2.The factor of Resource Input. 3.The factor of Product Strategy. 4.The factor of Strategy Popularization. 7-11 suppose to be the NO.1 beneficiary. Even though 7-11 had popularized the LOHAS foe three years, it never made any similar analysis and generalization. I expect to get the resonance of 7-11by the share of this research-to make a harmonious society by the three-wins of egoistic, altruistic and the earth.

The South African economy and especially its retail environment are continuously experiencing the impact of globalisation. The continuous expansions of large public retail businesses that consist of numerous chain stores are evident in both the local and international arena. South Africa has witnessed large amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI) invested into its retail sector. The above mentioned facts hold a serious challenge for small and medium retail businesses in South Africa (SMEs). In order for SME retail businesses to stay competitive against these global retail businesses, it needs to be able to withstand the competition in the environment it operates. This is not always an easy challenge given the limited access to resources that the majority of SME businesses have access to. This study presents how South African SME retail businesses can remain competent and profitable in spite of serious competition from large retail businesses of both local and international origin. In order to suggest recommendations for South African SME retail businesses to be more competent in relation to large retail businesses, the researcher identified some areas of improvement, which is perceived to be the most important for enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs. These variables include uniqueness, entrepreneurial leadership, cost effectiveness, technology and quality management. These variables were researched to understand how they affect SME retail businesses and where tested using quantitative analysis to ascertain if managers and owners of SME retail businesses believed that these variables would help them to improve the level of competitiveness in relation to large retail businesses. The results indicated that SME owners and managers felt that uniqueness, entrepreneurial leadership, cost effectiveness, technology and quality management all contributes to the competitiveness of their business. Empirical evidence shows that owners and managers of SME retail business felt that all of the above factors will result in their SME retail business being more competitive as compared to large retail businesses. The former will lead to better chances of success which again are most likely to lead to increased probability.

by Chan Wing-Sum. / Includes Chinese questionnaire. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-117). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vi / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.viii / Chapters / Chapter I. --- BACKGROUND --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.3 / Chapter III. --- STELUX HOLDINGS LIMITED --- p.6 / Chapter IV. --- CITY CHAIN CO. LTD --- p.8 / Company Development --- p.9 / Stage 1 (May 85 - May 86) --- p.9 / Stage 2 (May 86 - May 87) --- p.10 / Stage 3 (May 87 - now) --- p.12 / Current Marketing Strategies --- p.14 / Target Market --- p.14 / Competitors --- p.14 / Product --- p.15 / Price --- p.16 / Distribution --- p.17 / Promotion --- p.18 / Personnel --- p.19 / Presentation --- p.22 / Personality --- p.23 / Chapter V. --- OPTICAL 88 LIMITED --- p.25 / Company Development --- p.26 / Stage 1 ( April 79 - May 84) --- p.26 / Stage 2 ( May 84 - April 86) --- p.27 / Stage 3 (86- Oct. 88) --- p.28 / Stage 4 ( Oct. 88 - Now ) --- p.29 / Current Marketing Strategies --- p.30 / Target Market --- p.30 / Competitors --- p.30 / Product --- p.32 / Price --- p.33 / Distribution --- p.34 / Promotion --- p.35 / Personnel --- p.38 / Presentation --- p.40 / Personality --- p.40 / Chapter VI. --- RESEARCH --- p.42 / Methodology --- p.42 / Results --- p.45 / Demographics of Total Sample --- p.45 / "Demographics of City Chain ""Shoppers"" and ""Non-shoppers""…" --- p.47 / "Demographics of Optical 88 ""Shoppers"" and ""Non-shoppers""" --- p.49 / Research Implications and Recommendations --- p.51 / City Chain --- p.51 / Optical 88 --- p.58 / Chapter VII. --- DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS --- p.64 / Synergy Effect --- p.64 / Definition of Business --- p.65 / Definition of Products --- p.66 / Shopping Process --- p.72 / Life Cycle of Chain Stores in Hong Kong --- p.74 / Introduction Stage --- p.74 / Early Growth Stage --- p.76 / Rapid Growth Stage --- p.77 / Consolidation Stage --- p.78 / Maturity Stage --- p.78 / Chapter VIII. --- SUMMARY --- p.79 / APPENDIX --- p.80 / Chapter A. --- Factor Analysis of Attributes : City Chain --- p.80 / Chapter B. --- Factor Analysis of Attributes : Optical 88 --- p.81 / Chapter C. --- "TV Commercial of City Chain - ""Solvil et Titus (Shanghai 1937)""" --- p.82 / Chapter D. --- Instore Layouts of City Chain --- p.90 / Chapter E. --- "TV Commercial of Optical 88 - ""Stand by Me""" --- p.91 / Chapter F. --- "TV Commercial of Optical 88 - ""The Kid""" --- p.96 / Chapter G. --- Instore Layouts of Optical 88 --- p.107 / Chapter H. --- Questionnaire --- p.108 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.115

During the last decades, it has been brought to light that well organized logistics processes have contributed to competitive advantages for companies. Mio AB, a chain store warehouse and the second largest furniture company in Sweden, is operating in the middle of an expansion phase with growing revenue. As a consequence, larger volumes of goods are handled, space utilization become more scarce and the everyday operations within the internal logistics are affected. Therefore, the processes within the warehouse department were measured by performing a frequency study, registering how time was distributed between the different work tasks. In order to fully understand the processes, interviews were held with management and personnel. After analyzing previous research that could help guide to ease the impositions and analyzing the result of the frequency study, wastes were identified and new ways of working were suggested. The result firstly presents how to organize internal logistics operations in chain store warehouses to gain competitive advantage. Secondly, keeping in mind that firefighting stressed situations usually is not sustainable and only eases loads temporarily, long-term sustainability and ethics were addressed. Concluding that in order to optimize internal logistics operations in chain store warehouses and gain a long-term competitive advantage in a sustainable way, are achieved through standardizing work tasks, ensuring commitment of management and personnel and applying systems to serve the people and processes. Lastly it is advised to keep in mind the impact a company have on its surroundings and the importance of engaging in sustainable and ethically friendly operations, in order to achieve long-term competitive logistics.

Les chaînes de magasins d’alimentation et d’approvisionnement diffusent leurs succursales à partir de la fin du XIXe siècle dans les pays industrialisés. Leur avantage concurrentiel repose sur l’intégration de la fonction de grossiste. Fondée par Geoffroy Guichard à Saint-Étienne en 1898, Casino est la seule société succursaliste française à avoir conservé ses archives. L’histoire de l’entreprise permet d’identifier les dispositifs d’intégration de catégories de plus en plus diverses d’acheteurs au marché des biens de consommation : l’attachement à la marque-enseigne et aux marques propres, la professionnalisation de la vente. Les tensions peuvent se lire dans les archives entre la mise en application de principes fordistes de standardisation et la volonté de renforcer le lien de clientèle. Dès avant l’unification du marché français par une nouvelle génération d’opérateurs, les succursalistes entament un processus de fabrique du consommateur - un acteur détaché des relations de fidélités traditionnelles. En France, les chaînes succursalistes sont à l’origine du passage du comptoir, au libre-service et aux supermarchés - en 1960 chez Casino. Dans cette lutte séculaire entre deux principes théoriques antagoniques (le commerce et la distribution), l’État se présente en position d’arbitre, sommé d’engager la « réforme du commerce », un processus débouchant finalement sur le triomphe de la grande distribution. / Food and supply chains spread their branches since the end of the 19th century in industrialized countries. Their competitive advantage is based on the integration of the wholesaler function. Founded by Geoffroy Guichard in Saint-Étienne in 1898, Casino is the only French supply chain to have kept its archives. The company's history makes it possible to identify the tools used in order to integrate more and more categories of buyers, in the consumer goods market. For example, the attachment to the brand-name and the private labels, the emergence of marketing. Tensions can be read in the archives between the application of Fordist principles of standardization and the desire to strengthen the customer relationship. Even before the unification of the French market by a new generation of operators, the branch operators undertake the making of consumer - an actor detached from traditional loyalties. In France, chains open the way to self-service and the first supermarkets - in 1960 for Casino. Confined between two antagonistic theoretical principles (“commerce” and distribution), the state is in the position of arbiter, summoned to engage the « reform of the trade », a process finally leading to the triumph of mass retailing.

台灣連鎖零售業發展至今，市場已漸趨成熟，業者亦逐漸累積成功的商業經營模式。然而，連鎖通路勝出的關鍵因子不僅是規模經濟與經營效率，更需要了解每一門市經營效益，具備洞悉當地市場的能力，可以即時發現問題與調整經營方式。例如，如何透過經營活動產生的數值，分析店舖的績效（Ittner and Lacker 1998）；瞭解不同類型門市經營模式的關鍵的經營因素，以及可以提供門市經營變化預警訊息之預警指標，門市經營（李孟熹1994），為連鎖式經營業者應予重視之管理議題，亦為值得深入探討之研究議題。 本研究以國內某3C連鎖零售通路為研究樣本，以其2009年1月至2012年5月的營運數據為資料，實證分析影響該業者門市經營績效的因素。並就商品銷售變化面、營業面積運用效益面與門市獲利面，作進一步之分析。 透過實證模型結果分析，在「商品銷售變化面」，來客數與商品別週邊耗材營業額呈顯著正向關係。週邊耗材商品業績良好與否的變化與門市來客數之增減有密切關係，可做為評估門市經營客群的掌握度。另外，商圈類型為社區型、都市型與鄉鎮型門市商品銷售以2C為主，說明不同商圈類型的門市確實有不同商品組合，門市商品配置時需作調整以利滿足當地顧客購買需求。 在「營業面積運用效益面」，每人負責的坪數與坪效呈顯著負向關係。當每人負責的坪數越大時，該門市的坪效越差，也代表每人業績貢獻度越低，當店業績越少，營業坪數的承租應考量人員守備範圍以利最佳化。 在「門市獲利面」，單一門市經營時，來客數的掌握與特定商圈類型（社區型、都市型與鄉鎮型）門市的週邊配件業績占比可為衡量經營優劣的指標；多家門市共同經商圈時，業績因新設點的加入而擴大，的確透過多家門市可達到較高的商圈覆蓋範圍，在市場上掠奪競爭者的業績；但該商圈的整體獲利鮮少有提升，因需負擔相同的營業費用項目（如租金、人事費用、管理費用），且經營時程拉長，同商圈內的門市相互競爭狀況無法改善，出現將市場越做越小的情形。 / The developments of chain stores market in retailer industry mature gradually right now. Enterprises have accumulated commercial model how to operate successfully as well. However, the key point of success is not only scale economy and operating efficiency, but also operating benefit of per store. Having the ability of insight local market can discover problem and remodel it. For example, we can analyze stores performance by the operation information.（Ittner and Lacker 1998）we can understand the key operation factor in different kind of store. At the same time, that can be a warning sign for observing changing. Stores management is a important issue that enterprise should attach importance to it and it is valuable to investigate deeply. This thesis is based on 3C retailer industry, and the data period is from January, 2009 to May, 2012. Practical demonstration analyzes which kind factors will influence stores performance, and seperately discuss different aspect, sale change of product, average sale of per unit area, and profit &loss to do advanced analysis. According to the result of practical model, in the aspect of changing of product sales, consumer flow is positive related with accessory sales. The increase of the accessory sales will raise consumer flow. On the other hand, marketplace types are community type, city type, and countryside type which sale more consumer product than other marketplace type. So, different market type has different product portfolio, and need to adjust to fit the demand of local customer. In the aspect of average sales per unit area, average space per person is negative related with average sales per unit area. If area space per person is larger, average sales per unit area is less. It also means an average sale per person is lower. If the store sales decrease, we should consider optimizing average space per person. In the aspect of profit & loss on chain stores, accessory ratio can be an indicator whether the operation is excellent on particular marketplace type and consumer flow. When several stores cooperate to manage one marketplace, the sale will increase due to new store adding, and expand the market share. However, the total profit is rarely increasing due to expending double overheads (rental, salary, administration fee, etc.). These stores in same marketplace compete with each other in the long term. If this situation can’t improve, the market share will become more and more less.

隨著消費者行為的快速變化以及消費者對服務品質的要求提高，提供高品質的服務已經成為企業重要的策略。本研究透過「PZB 模型」從服務提供者和消費者兩個角度來探討台灣有機產業裡存在的服務缺口。 這些年有機連鎖店不斷的成長並成為重要的銷售通路之一，因此本研究選定有機連鎖公司以及有機連鎖店的消費者為研究對象。本研究採取個案研究方法，透過文獻、深度訪談、二手紀錄等方式蒐集資料，以有機連鎖公司以及消費者對服務缺口之觀點來分析及探討，並提出具參考價值的建議，讓相關企業未來可加以運用。 研究結果顯示目前有機產業裡的連鎖公司採取較被動的方式來了解消費者的需求；由於台灣有機產業裡的連鎖公司大多為中小企業，有限的能力和資源常成為滿足消費者需求最大的阻礙；有機連鎖公司缺乏服務品質的衡量指標，在供應商管理方面還需要加強；以上因素造成服務缺口的存在。此外，針對一般大眾對有機概念的推廣和教育還需要持續加強；產品資訊、品質、以及價格成為消費者在衡量服務品質的重要考量；加強推廣行動更能夠滿足消費者對有機產業的期望；另外，提升消費者對有機產品之信心亦為重要的改進方向。 / Facing rapid changes of customer behavior and increasing customers demand on service quality, delivering high quality service is adapted as an important strategy in businesses. This study applies the PZB Model to investigate the service gaps in the organic industry in Taiwan from the perspective of both service providers and customers. In recent years organic chain stores have become an important distribution channels for organic products. Therefore, organic chain store companies and organic chain stores customers are selected to be respondents. Using case study method, this study collects and analyzes data by collecting literature review, gathering secondary data, and conducting interviews with organic chain store companies and customers. The findings can serve as reference to future improvement in the industry. This study finds that current companies still use passive approaches to understand customer demands. Since most of companies in this industry are small and medium enterprises, limited capabilities and resources often become barriers when fulfilling customer demands. Companies are lacking of service performance measurement and quality improvement program. All of these situations can cause the existence of service gaps. Other findings showed that in general organic customers already have an understanding of the organic concept. However, the industry still needs efforts to communicate with people who currently aren’t customers. Product information, product quality, and price become important considerations for customers in assessing service quality in this industry. Moreover, customer trust and confidence in organic products should be increased and became an important focus of the government as well as the management to stimulate industry growth.