Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Arlo Biere / In the world of fast paced competition with a focus on profits, small businesses are always looking for ways to stay ahead of their competition. One way to maintain the competitive advantage is to join forces with another small business that sells and services similar products. Mergers and acquisitions have been very common in agribusiness since the farm economy collapse in the early 1980s. Farms have been increasing in size, equipment has been growing in complexity with new technologies and size to keep up with growing farm size and equipment manufacturers are merging to create larger corporations that offer more solutions to the end user. Additionally, fewer machines are being purchased by growers and producers each year and the machines that are being purchased are able to do more than previous models. The new complexities require highly trained and skilled technicians to make repairs and service these machines. Farming practices continue to evolve with more limited- and no-till crop production. These factors are contributing to dealers forming larger multi-store operations with trade areas large enough to provide an adequate return on investment to attract the resources required to sell and support technologically advanced agricultural equipment. Large multi-store organizations support the requirement of customers by providing higher levels of customer service. As these large organizations increase in size they ensure a more sustainable business model with reduced fixed expenses leading to higher returns on sales and increased total sales. This study will examine two multi-store farm equipment farm equipment dealerships with a total of a total of eleven locations and make recommendations to create a merger of equals. The analysis will include a review of current sales data at each location and make recommendations for any new locations strategy using industry data as well. This information will help determine which locations should be eliminated or combined into single locations to reduce expenses. The study will also provide data to support implementing standard job pricing in the new organization. A new functional management structure will also be recommended to guide the new company towards increased sales revenues and position the organization for long term growth and sustainability.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissHSRF.pdf: 929413 bytes, checksum: eba0e23afc5b9ddf9f62c74dabad99cf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-08-07 / The main change in modern businnes management is the supply chain building and management, due to increasing need to turn them more competitive, in result of the recognition that the competition, in these days, happens between supply chains, no more between isolated business. Besides managing its internal activities, the supply chain management has the challenge of coordinating and managing its partners, including suppliers and customers. The references indicate some organizational and management tools that can help in performing those activities, and in this paper, they will be called coordinating practices to suplly chain management. This paper focus is to analyse the application of some tools in the automotive channel, and the main objectives are: identify and evalute the benefits performance reached through the use and application of some coordinating practices in automotive supply chain, focalizing the relationship between industry and channel, formed by car dealerships. The secondary objectives are: identify power, dependende and conflict relationships between OEM and channel; define the leadership and control; verify the main franchising contracts characteristics; identifiy the impact and the benefits of coordinating iniciatives in different car dealership sizes. Among its reasons, this paper aims to fill out the gap in researched literature, marked by few academic studies with unit of analysis in car vehicles distribution or in industry-distribution channel relationship. In this paper, the research type is a exploratory survey in one of the four main automotive industries in country, and in its respective channel. Expecting that the research results improve the practices applicability, and also help both industry and dealerships in managing the existing relationship. / A principal mudança na gestão das empresas atuais está voltada à construção e à gestão das cadeias de suprimentos, decorrente da necessidade de tornálas mais competitivas, resultado do reconhecimento de que, a competição no mercado atual ocorre no nível de cadeias e não mais apenas entre unidades de negócios isoladas. Além da necessidade de gerenciar suas atividades internas, a gestão da cadeia de suprimentos tem como desafio a coordenação e a gestão de todos seus elos, o que inclui os agentes à montante e à jusante. A literatura indica algumas ferramentas gerenciais e organizacionais que podem auxiliar no desempenho destas atividades, que nesta dissertação, são chamadas de práticas de coordenação à gestão da cadeia de suprimentos. O foco do trabalho está na análise de algumas ferramentas no canal de distribuição automotivo, e os principais objetivos são: identificar e avaliar o desempenho dos benefícios alcançados com o uso e aplicação de algumas práticas de coordenação utilizadas à jusante na cadeia automotiva, focando as relações entre montadora e canal de distribuição, formado pelas concessionárias de automóveis. Como objetivos secundários procura-se: identificar as relações de poder, dependência e conflito existentes entre montadora e concessionárias; verificar as formas de liderança e controle do canal; verificar as características dos contratos de concessão; identificar o impacto e avaliar o desempenho dos benefícios das práticas de coordenação em concessionárias de diferentes portes. Dentre suas justificativas, o trabalho procura preencher a lacuna existente na literatura pesquisada, marcada pela pequena quantidade de estudos acadêmicos em que a unidade de análise seja a distribuição de veículos ou a relação montadora-rede de distribuição. Nesta dissertação, o tipo de pesquisa é um survey exploratório em uma das quatro principais montadoras instaladas no país e em seu respectivo canal de distribuição. Espera-se que os resultados apresentados sirvam para aprimorar o funcionamento das práticas utilizadas, bem como, auxiliar tanto a montadora, quanto as concessionárias, na gestão dos relacionamentos existentes.

Thesis (MBA.) --University of Limpopo, 2019. / The study is carried out in order to evaluate the readiness of new car dealerships in Polokwane for the possible levying of carbon taxes. The study is set out to determine the level of understanding and knowledge of carbon taxes by the new car dealerships. With the continuous changing climate, the weather patterns have worsened and the resultant impacts seen through storms, hurricanes, droughts and floods, to name a few, around the globe. This has been as a result of the carbon emissions that has damaged the ozone layer. The ideology of the carbon instruments is that the emitters of carbon will divert to more environmentally friendly methods of running their operations. South Africa is one of the countries that has adopted to implement carbon taxes and the implementation began in 2010 within the motor vehicle industry. However, the motor vehicle industry does not seem to have prepared for the possible implementation of carbon taxes. With Polokwane being a developing city, the researcher aims to determine whether new car dealerships in the city of Polokwane were prepared for the implementation of the carbon taxes. The study was mainly qualitative and borrowed from quantitative methodology for data analysis. The total population amounted to 20 new car dealerships and a sample of 10 was selected for the purpose of the research. The evaluation of readiness was carried out by sampling of ten new car dealerships within Polokwane where a questionnaire was prepared and the participants requested to complete the questionnaire truthfully. The literature review considered prior research in relation to carbon emissions and carbon instruments. Some of the findings include identifying that there is still a gap in terms of knowledge and understanding of how carbon instruments work. However; if carbon instruments are correctly applied and implemented, provides for a good stimulation of economic growth. The laws and regulations around carbon tax still need to be refined to ensure that the desired outcomes are obtained.

Dealerships are the main interface for customer interaction when it comes to a multinational manufacturing company like Volvo Group. A lot of studies in the field of environmental impact is done on different kind of buildings like office buildings, residential buildings, public buildings etc by performing Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Life Cycle Cost analysis (LCC) etc. However, the number of studies done on an industrial building are very less when compared to other types of buildings. Industrial buildings are equally important in the construction industry since they play a good share in environmental impacts caused by buildings. The main objective of the thesis is to analyse the working process at VGRE and suggest ways to incorporate life cycle thinking in their working process to improve the environmental performance of new dealerships. Interviews were conducted with VGRE employees; literature reviews were done and analysis of internal documents from VGRE were studied and analysed as a part of the thesis. The views and opinions of the VGRE employees in the area of environment impact reduction, life cycle assessment and certification scheme/system were obtained and the steps involved in the development of a dealership as well as the different type of contract were also studied from the internal documents provided from VGRE. Cost was one of the main barrier/challenges in all the cases. Lack of interest in getting a dealership certified was also mentioned during the interviews. Energy saving measures like the solar panels were considered as additional cost for a building. Their preference in referring to previous Life Cycle studies of similar buildings rather than doing a Life cycle study on each building was also observed. / I syfte att identifiera hur man integrerar livscykeltänkande i arbetsprocessen hos Volvo Group Real Estate (VGRE) för att förbättra miljöprestanda för nya återförsäljare är detta examensarbete i princip en analys av arbetsprocessen hos Volvo som gjordes genom att göra intervjuer med Volvos anställda både i Göteborg, Sverige och Finland. Litteraturöversikter om livscykelanalys (LCA) samt certifieringssystem var också en del av metodiken. Slutligen analyserades och studerades några interna dokument från Volvo. LCA på Volvo, hinder och utmaningar som möter under arbetsprocessen, intern dokumentation, skillnaderna mellan en återförsäljare och andra byggnader, kostnadsfaktorer / affärssaker är de viktigaste slutsatserna som diskuteras i resultatsektionen.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:53:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JamilRFD_DISSERT.pdf: 2449651 bytes, checksum: 1c390a6e07e8059bb8987e552429382e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-18 / The study aims identify the existence of quality culture in Brazilian automotive dealerships with ISO 9001, motivated by this research problem: exist a quality culture in this dealerships, which facilitates the adoption of quality practices supported by ISO 9001? For referencing, the theoretical review was written in five themes: organizational culture, quality culture, total quality management, ISO 9001 quality management system and the Brazilian automobile industry. As regards the methodological aspects, the research has an applied nature, with a quantitative approach, being exploratory in their objectives, and bibliographic, documental and survey as technical procedures. The organizations participating in the study were all Brazilian automotive dealerships certified with ISO 9001. The research intended cover all the 80 active dealers with ISO 9001 certification identified by the Brazilian Committee for Quality (ABNT CB-25). The survey recorded participation of 32 companies (response rate 40%). The questionnaire was sent to seller managers, formatted into five sections: 1) introductory message 2) manager profile, 3) reasons for implementation and benefits generated by ISO 4) adoption levels of quality practices and 5) diagnosis of organizational culture. The questions contained in sections 2 and 3 were structured in multiple choice, and in the remaining sections were structured in Likert 5-point scale. The statistical method used (data analysis), was the descriptive statistics, for data representation in frequency percentage (FP) and standard level (SL). The results showed that the interviewed dealerships have an organizational culture with very high levels of prevalence in "outcome orientation" and "attention to detail" cultural dimensions. In addition, about the other two dimensions considered conducive to quality (innovation and teamwork/respect for people), both observed high prevalence. Based on the present results, concluded that the organizational culture of Brazilian dealerships with ISO 9001 are quality oriented, being conducive to adoption of quality practices supported by TQM Systems. However, it is important to mention that the quality culture identified is not sufficiently developed to adopt quality practices at optimal levels, which sets up an unfavorable scenario to deals with highly rigorous customer / O presente estudo tem como objetivo geral verificar se a cultura organizacional das concession?rias em estudo s?o orientadas ? qualidade, motivado pelo seguinte problema de pesquisa: existe uma cultura organizacional nas concession?rias em estudo que propicie aplica??o m?xima das pr?ticas da qualidade sugeridas pela ISO 9001? Para embasamento da tem?tica dissertada, elaborou-se uma revis?o te?rica nos seguintes pontos: cultura organizacional, cultura da qualidade, gest?o da qualidade total, sistema de gest?o da qualidade ISO 9001 e a ind?stria automobil?stica brasileira. Sobre o m?todo, a pesquisa possui natureza aplicada, com abordagem quantitativa, sendo explorat?ria em rela??o aos objetivos e bibliogr?fica, documental e survey em rela??o aos procedimentos t?cnicos. O objeto de estudo foram todas as concession?rias automotivas de ve?culos leves certificadas com ISO 9001 ativas no Brasil. A pesquisa procurou abranger as 80 concession?rias ativas com certifica??o ISO 9001, conseguindo contribui??o de 32 concession?rias (taxa de resposta de 40%). O instrumento de coleta utilizado foi enviado aos gerentes de vendas de ve?culos novos, formatado em cinco se??es: 1) mensagem introdut?ria ? pesquisa, 2) perfil do gestor, 3) identifica??o dos motivos de implanta??o e benef?cios gerados pela ISO, 4) avalia??o dos n?veis de ado??o das pr?ticas da qualidade e 5) diagn?stico da cultura organizacional. As indaga??es contidas nas se??es 2 e 3 foram estruturadas em m?ltipla escolha, e as demais se??es foram estruturadas em escala Likert de 5 pontos. Utilizou-se como m?todo estat?stico (an?lise dos dados) a estat?stica descritiva para representa??o dos dados em frequ?ncia percentual (FP) e n?vel padr?o (NP). Os resultados evidenciados demonstraram que as concession?rias em estudo, em uma an?lise global, possuem uma cultura organizacional em n?veis de predomin?ncia muito alta, apontando robustez nas dimens?es: orienta??o a resultados e aten??o aos detalhes . E quanto as outras duas dimens?es consideradas prop?cias ? qualidade (inova??o e trabalho em equipe/respeito pelas pessoas), ambas observaram alta predomin?ncia, sendo consideradas como dimens?es fortes . Desta forma ? poss?vel concluir, ap?s diagn?stico realizado, que a cultura organizacional das concession?rias em estudo s?o orientadas ? qualidade, vide perfil predominante nas quatro dimens?es culturais estimuladoras da qualidade. Entretanto ? importante destacar que a cultura da qualidade identificada n?o est? suficientemente desenvolvida para a ado??o as pr?ticas da qualidade em n?veis ideais, o que configura-se um cen?rio desfavor?vel a concession?ria que lida com clientes altamente exigentes e rigorosos

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:39:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Everton Alves Ferrari.pdf: 1604996 bytes, checksum: cfe797a5f604ed217cdc5b918d1ce3ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-25 / In times of significant and constant changes in the global scenario, specially the economic and technological development of emerging nations as China, the companies have increased their need for efficient management tools which can offer feedback from their operation, regarding flaws and problems faced trying to achieve their goal. According to data provided by Fenabrave, in 2010 the commercial vehicle fleet (trucks) was consisted of 2.743.496 units with a average life of 17.2 years. From 2006 to 2010, the registration and licensing of this kind of vehicle increased 109.26%. Such statistics make the automobile market (trucks) attractive to new vehicle manufacturers. However, to the existing companies already established, the definition of targets in order to achieve long term goals have become vital to the survival of the dealerships in such competitive markets. One management tool which has shown efficiency in connecting the adopted business strategy to the operation, defined by the budget, is the Balanced Scorecard. Through its indicators, the vehicle dealerships (trucks) are able to measure the performance related to the goals set. In order to propose performance indicators that are able to align the business strategy with the goals defined on the dealerships budget, the methodology adopted was a field research along a dealership network of a given brand, the dealership association and the manufacturers. The research highlights the actual management profile of the vehicle dealerships (trucks) and proposes a strategic general map and performance indicators, in the four perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard applicable to the sector / Em épocas de grandes e constantes transformações no cenário econômico, principalmente o avanço econômico e tecnológico dos países emergentes, como a China, cada vez mais as empresas necessitam de ferramentas de gestão eficientes, que possam oferecer feedback das atividades executas, principalmente no que diz respeito às falhas e dificuldades enfrentadas para atingir os objetivos traçados. Pelos dados da Fenabrave, em 2010, a frota de veículos comerciais (caminhões) totalizavam 2.743.496 unidades, com idade média de 17,2 anos. Do ano de 2006 para o ano de 2010, os emplacamentos desses tipos de veículos evoluíram 109,26%. Tais números tornam o mercado automobilístico (caminhões) atrativos à entrada de novas montadoras, mas para as que aqui já estão, definir e traçar metas para alcançar objetivos de longo prazo passaram a ser vital para a sobrevivência das concessionárias automobilísticas (caminhões), em mercados de alta competição. O Balanced Scorecard mostra-se uma ferramenta de gestão eficiente para conectar as estratégias de negócios adotadas às operações das organizações, definidas através do orçamento. Por meio de seus indicadores, as concessionárias automobilísticas (caminhões) poderão mensurar o desempenho em relação aos objetivos traçados. Com a finalidade de propor indicadores de desempenho capazes de alinhar as estratégias de negócios com os objetivos definidos no orçamento das concessionárias automobilísticas (caminhões), adotou-se como metodologia a pesquisa de campo envolvendo uma rede de concessionárias de uma determinada marca, a associação dos concessionários da marca e a montadora. A pesquisa evidencia o perfil atual de gestão das concessionárias automobilísticas (caminhões) e propõe um mapa estratégico genérico e os indicadores de desempenho, nas quatro perspectivas do Balanced Scorecard aplicáveis ao setor

The thesis project is a two-storey motorshow in Ostrava Poruba. It is a detached building with a second floor just above the ground brick part of the ground floor . The building is designed for sales and service of car . In front of the first floor is a shop with WC intended for the customers. Behind this section is on the first floor the facilities for employees , WC , kitchen, two showers and changing rooms . There is also a quick intake for 2 cars. On the second floor are located the office with separate WC . For this part of the building is the last part of a car dealership and service. Here you will find desktop with three separate workning places , part intended for minor repairs , drive trough car wash , paint shop , utility room and a spare parts warehouse . The structural system of the building consists of a steel construction with reinforcing brick core . The cladding of first floor consists from infill brickwork Heluz 20 with contact insulation system . The cladding of second floor from bearing brickwork Heluz P15 30 with a contact insulation system . The construction of the roof deck consists of single-layer straight roof . The supporting structure is made of concrete slab concreting trapezoidal sheet metal deposited on steel lattice girders. The roof deck is insulated with polystyrene EPS 150S . The waterproofing layer is made of two layers of modified bitumen sheet with reinforcements.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the marketing communication practices of car dealerships, in order to identify what factors are considered in the selection of the marketing communication mix incorporated in the marketing communication strategy. Furthermore, identify and establish an understanding of the marketing communication mix elements used by car dealerships in their marketing communication strategies. A qualitative research approach was followed in this paper. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with marketing personnel of various car dealerships in Gauteng, South Africa. In this paper, a qualitative content analysis was followed, and Atlas.ti version 10 computer software was used to generate themes. The study uncovered that car dealerships use various marketing communication mix elements to achieve their marketing communication objectives, such as creating dealership brand awareness, stimulating sales, and closing sales transactions. The study revealed also uncovered that internet is also used by car dealerships in executing marketing communication strategies. The study revealed the internal and external factors considered in planning and executing marketing communication strategies and campaigns. The study further discovered that these marketing communication elements are not used in isolation, but support each other in conveying marketing messages that lead to the attainment of various marketing communication objectives. The findings revealed that despite the use of radio and print media, social media types are increasingly being used by dealerships to share information with existing customers and potential customers regarding the dealerships‟ products and special offers, although the use of social media platforms varied. The study also discovered that car dealerships experience some challenges in planning and executing marketing communication strategies and campaigns. Recommendations to stakeholders in the motor industry and future research directions are provided. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)