Neighbourhood trade-stores, or small scale retail outlets specialising in domestic provisions sold in small quantities, are common features of residential landscapes in developing countries. While these shops are fixtures in the everyday micro-geographies of urban places, little is known as to how they are economically and socially bound up with the neighbourhoods in which they are situated and, in turn, how these linkages influence the day-to-day life circumstances of local people. Through such a local-level investigation utilising multiple qualitative methods, I examine the intra-neighbourhood economic and social roles of small trade-stores in an urban neighbourhood in Cochabamba, Bolivia. My analysis reveals that trade-stores were a key influence on the welfare of neighbourhood residents. Economically, these shops functioned as safeguards for family economies by providing multidimensional material support. Socially, trade-stores acted as mechanisms for informal social control, nodes of local information exchange, and sources of local social opportunities and social support.

In pace with a growing awareness among customers, so does the demand for sustainable products increase in various markets. Sustainability is even referred to become a mega-trend (Lubin & Esty, 2010). Although, extensive research can be found on sustainability and its three pillars; environment, social and economic, little is known whether there is a general customer demand for sustainability for any type of good. Therefore, this study’s purpose has been to compare sustainability demand for convenience goods and shopping goods, with the research question ‘Is the customer’s sustainability demand different between different types of goods? And if so, what are the differences?’ By using a deductive approach, hypotheses has been drawn by examining existing research in the fields of consumer behaviour, customer behaviour and sustainability in general but also for the food and apparel industry respectively.With a quantitative method using a questionnaire, primary data has been collected of customers’ sustainability demand within the food and the apparel industries as representatives for convenience goods and shopping goods respectively. The questionnaire was designed to capture customers’ sustainability demand based on their perceived importance of the three pillars of sustainability. A comparison between the industries resulted in significant mean answers of 3,97 for food and 3,17 for apparel, on a six-point scale. Further,a marginally equal level was demanded for the three pillars within food whereas the environmental pillar was considerably less ranked within apparel. The study further compares the sustainable attitude against sustainable behaviour. Actual buying of sustainable goods within all three pillars was shown to be lower than demand for both types of goods. Lastly, an exploratory research was conducted on the two types of goods in combination with demographic factors, resulting in indications of what factors companies should take into consideration. The final conclusion of the research question was that there is a difference in customers’ sustainability demand for different types of goods.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find what factors, and to what extent these factors, affects students buying behavior regarding textbooks online.   Method: A quantitative and deductive approach by collecting data using a questionnaire through Facebook.  The population for this study is University students in Sweden, and convenience sampling was used. A descriptive research design was chosen for this thesis.   Conclusions: In this research it was clear that students did not experience perceived risk when purchasing online. Regarding the price as an affecting factor, there was an impact on the students buying behavior. Also the convenience was seen as a factor that was influencing a purchase. The two last factors, social influence and brand awareness, was affecting the students buying behavior but should be treated carefully.   Paper type: Research paper.

Background: It is a known phenomenon that when external shopping malls arise next to cities the business of the city centres can be affected. This situation occurs since many years and in various places in the world, even Sweden. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine what factors are important to the consumers when they are shopping in general, and then to evaluate how these factors influence consumer satisfaction with regard to shopping malls and city centres.   Methodology: The research is based on a cross-sectional design with a quantitative strategy. The data collection is conducted through an internet based questionnaire with a snowball sampling approach.   Conclusion: The results are that, for consumers, store variety, atmosphere and service quality are quite important aspects when shopping. They also shows that store variety influences consumer satisfaction in both the shopping mall and the city centre. Finally, convenience influences satisfaction in the city centre and the social aspect influences customer satisfaction in shopping malls.

Vegetables and fruit appear to confer protection against various diseases, but most adults in South Africa eat substantially less than the recommended amounts. Many barriers and factors that influence vegetable consumption have been identified in the literature. One major barrier is the perishability of vegetables. Frozen vegetables can be a useful way in encouraging greater intakes. Some consumers are, however, of the opinion that processing destroy nutrients to a large extent. There is, therefore, a lack of understanding of the freezing process. Research on the attitudes of consumers towards frozen vegetables in South Africa is limited. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of consumers regarding the link between frozen and fresh vegetables and health and the attributes of frozen vegetables. Subjects/Setting: One thousand nine hundred and ninety seven South African respondents, representative of the four major race groups of South Africa (whites, blacks, coloureds and Indians) were randomly chosen from metropolitan areas from the nine provinces in South Africa. Questionnaires, existing of 17 food-related sections, including subsections on vegetables and health, were designed by researchers in co-operation with business partners. MARKINOR, a market research company, was contracted to collect the data. Respondents were questioned regarding their attitudes towards the link between frozen and fresh vegetables and health. Statistical analysis performed: The quantitative data produced by the survey was analysed by using the StatisticaⓇ-programme in order to generate the relevant tabulations, descriptive statistics and statistical tests. Results: Overall, the attitudes of consumers towards frozen vegetables were found to be negative. Practical and statistically significant attitude differences towards frozen vegetables were found between most variables. Results from this study revealed that different levels of education, age and gender do not have a big influence on consumer's attitudes towards frozen vegetables. However, practical and statistically significant differences were found between the various LSM (Living Standards Measure) groups, especially with regard to the convenience of frozen vegetables. Results also indicated that Indians, the age group 61+ and males were the most negative towards frozen vegetables. Almost 75% of all consumers indicated that they never eat frozen vegetables. Only 1% of consumers in the LSM group 2 own a fridge/freezer. An alarmingly 26% of all consumers indicated that they are not convinced that vegetables are healthy. Application/Conclusions: Nutrition professionals should use these findings to target messages in health-promotion programmes to increase the overall consumption of vegetables. The use of frozen vegetables by consumers with frozen storage facilities should be promoted aggressively. Consumers also need practical advice on how to overcome the barriers to dietary change. Nutrition counseling efforts should also be aimed specifically at increasing frozen vegetable consumption among targeted subgroups, particularly Indians, males and the age group 61+. It is strongly recommended that suitable measuring instruments be developed for assessing the knowledge and attitude of South Africans towards vegetable and fruit consumption and the ability of individuals to improve their health. The results of this study may prove to be very useful in this regard. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Convenience stores are playing a pivotal role in the contribution to profitability in the fuels retail environment. In order to increase market share that will lead to increased profits it is imperative to provide excellent customer service. Customer experience has been identified as the key construct in the modern retail environment to be addressed, in order to ensure a satisfied customer. It has been noted that customer experience is not measured in the convenience stores, but only at the pump stations and the carwash service points of Sasol garages. Sasol Oil has a fuels retail market share of 9% and it will be beneficial for the company to explore all avenues to increase market share since convenience stores contribute 25% towards the total profit of the company. A literature review was conducted to identify the important controllable elements of the total customer experience and the measuring instruments that can be used to measure these elements, which formed the basis of the empirical study. The measuring instruments discussed in the literature are Servqual, Kano and customised models. One of the dimensions of the total customer experience is service quality and a customised model was chosen as the measuring instrument of choice. Questionnaires were developed, based on the controllable elements of customer experience, and distributed via email and handouts. In total, 260 questionnaires were distributed with a response of 47.7%. Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis were employed to analyse the data. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach alpha. Cronbach alpha values above the minimum requirements and a cumulative variance of only 47% was achieved. Conclusions were drawn from the empirical study and recommendations were made in the final chapter. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Convenience stores are playing a pivotal role in the contribution to profitability in the fuels retail environment. In order to increase market share that will lead to increased profits it is imperative to provide excellent customer service. Customer experience has been identified as the key construct in the modern retail environment to be addressed, in order to ensure a satisfied customer. It has been noted that customer experience is not measured in the convenience stores, but only at the pump stations and the carwash service points of Sasol garages. Sasol Oil has a fuels retail market share of 9% and it will be beneficial for the company to explore all avenues to increase market share since convenience stores contribute 25% towards the total profit of the company. A literature review was conducted to identify the important controllable elements of the total customer experience and the measuring instruments that can be used to measure these elements, which formed the basis of the empirical study. The measuring instruments discussed in the literature are Servqual, Kano and customised models. One of the dimensions of the total customer experience is service quality and a customised model was chosen as the measuring instrument of choice. Questionnaires were developed, based on the controllable elements of customer experience, and distributed via email and handouts. In total, 260 questionnaires were distributed with a response of 47.7%. Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis were employed to analyse the data. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach alpha. Cronbach alpha values above the minimum requirements and a cumulative variance of only 47% was achieved. Conclusions were drawn from the empirical study and recommendations were made in the final chapter. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Under international law, every state has the sovereign right to establish the conditions under which it will grant its nationality to a vessel. By consequence, different schemes for ship registration have been developed, traditionally the nationalist and open system. While the nationalist system imposes strict requirements regarding national ownership and manning, along with burdensome fiscal regimes for the shipping industry, the open system offered flexible requirements and a friendly taxation environment, that help shipowners to minimize their operation costs. / Open registries have been criticized for not complying with international accepted shipping standards in safety, environmental, and labour aspects. However, some of them have made great efforts to raise these standards, mainly obliged by the new demands of the shipping industry. Nonetheless, the shift to a new culture of quality shipping is not only a responsibility of flag states, but of all the actors of a maritime scenario.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 317-342.

Den digitala utvecklingen har lett till en stor förändring kring hur konsumenter utför sina köp. I många branscher, exempelvis detaljhandeln, är e-handeln väldigt förekommande och börjar bli allt vanligare inom dagligvaruhandeln. Bland svenska konsumenter är det vanligt att de någon gång provat att handla dagligvaror på internet, men den totala omsättningsandelen talar för att det inte görs i en större utsträckning, jämfört med andra branscher. Inköp av dagligvaror sker ofta och återkommande och präglas av ett vanebeteende. Förutom detta föreligger flera faktorer som påverkar hur svenska konsumenter handlar sina dagligvaror.   Syftet med denna studie är att skapa förståelse varför svenska konsumenter inte handlar dagligvaror på internet i större utsträckning, då de har god erfarenhet av onlineköp i övriga branscher samtidigt som de bekantat sig med inköpskanalen inom dagligvaruhandeln. Den syftar även till att identifiera de faktorer som påverkar att en konsument köper sina dagligvaror på internet   Det resultat som framkommit i studien är att konsumenter som väljer att inte utföra sina dagligvaruinköp genom en digital distributionskanal, beror på att de präglas av ett vanebeteende. De har även ett behov av att känna och klämma på produkterna de köper och är inte villiga att betala de extra avgifter som tjänsten e-handel av dagligvaror innebär. De faktorer som gör att en konsument väljer e-handel som distributionskanal är framförallt bekvämlighet, tillgänglighet och tidsbesparing.     Förslag till vidare forskning är att ha ett större urval med respondenter, med ett bredare åldersspann, från hela Sverige. Detta för att kunna göra generaliseringar och dra slutsatser för en större population. / The digitalization has led to a major change in consumer’s buying behaviour. In many businesses, for example retail, e-commerce has become very popular and it is about to influence heavily the convenience goods business too. Among Swedish consumers, it is common that they at least once, have experienced buying groceries online. But the total revenue share for online grocery sales indicates that it is not done in the same extent, compared to other businesses. Purchase of groceries occur often and repeated and is characterized by a habitual behaviour. There is still though more factors that affects how Swedish consumers purchase their groceries.   The purpose of this study is to create understanding why Swedish consumers do not purchase groceries online in a larger extent. They have good experience of online purchasing in the retail business as well as they are familiar with buying groceries online. The study also aims to identify the influencing factors when a consumer chooses online purchasing for grocery shopping.   The result of the study concludes why consumers choose to not purchase their groceries through e-commerce. It depends on consumers’ habitual behavior, but also their need of touch and feel the groceries before purchase. They are also not willing to pay the extra fees that comes with the service of purchasing groceries through e-commerce. The factors that affect a consumer choosing e-commerce for grocery shopping are convenience, availability and time saving.   Suggestions to further research is to have a broader selection of respondents, with a wider range of age, from all over Sweden. This will enable to generalize and draw conclusions of a larger population.