<p><strong>Master’s thesis in International Logistics and Supply Chain Management</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Title:  Logistics Management in Retail Industry: a case study 7-Eleven in</strong><strong> Thailand</strong></p><p><strong>Author:  Latika Supasansanee and Patthaveekarn Kasiphongphaisan</strong></p><p><strong>Tutor:     Susanne Hertz</strong><strong> and Benedikte Borgström</strong></p><p><strong>Date:      June 1, 2009</strong></p><p><strong>Keywords: 7-Eleven Thailand, Logistics, Retail     Convenience, Distribution Center and Warehouse, IT-Apply in retail store, and Competitive advantage</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Introduction: </strong>In today’s challenging competition in the consumer goods, the manufacturers strive for their products to reach final customers before they turn their heads to the rival’s ones. This research attempts to understand and investigate how 7-Eleven company manages its logistics activities, distribution and applying information technology to achieve competitive advantages.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of thesis is, in retailing industry and retailing convenience store’s perspective, to identify and describe the way 7-Eleven manages and operates its retail convenience business focusing on several aspects; strategic fits, distribution and IT, which support 7-Eleven’s activities and how they contribute to competitive advantages for the firm.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Frame of reference: </strong>Based on various sources of literature concerning competitive advantage and strategic fits, distribution related to marketing and retail, distribution centers and warehousing, and information system apply in retail store.<strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The study is considered as qualitative single-case study. Data is collected from the interviews with several parties involve with retail convenience industry in Thailand. Secondary data is retrieved from the information system, research and reports, publication sources as well as internet sources.  Lastly, data analysis is followed by the literature chapter.<strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>By applying the synchronized strategies between supply chain members to adjust and modify the capabilities of firms, leads to supply chain benefits and competitive advantage for retail firm. The applications of IT and Distribution Centers enhance supply chain capabilities, reliability, and dependability which result in better service and market performance. They are also the keys that facilitate the operations of supply chain and retail store.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

隨著再生醫學研究的蓬勃發展，幹細胞也成為未來醫療的焦點，長生不老、青春永駐，將不再是夢想；慢性疾病、罕見疾病等的治癒都可預期。其中臍帶血幹細胞的移植已可取代骨髓移植治療惡性血液疾病、免疫疾病，成功率與預後狀況都比骨髓移植更好。所以將臍帶血保存下來的觀念，已普遍成為產前衛教的一課，台灣約有一成以內的父母會自費將寶寶的臍帶血保存下來。 活動理論是俄國心理學家Vygotsky（1978）所提出的，強調主體必須透過工具才能達成客體目標，並架構人類基本活動的六個元素：主體、中介工具、客體、規則、社群與分工。單一活動中各元素為動態的互動關係，會隨著時間軸改變。 本研究深入訪談六位臍帶血保存戶後，透過活動理論元素強度分析比較臍帶血保存戶的生活脈絡，了解其關鍵點，同時也將業界行銷做法與活動理論進行比對分析，再參酌人性中「理性」與「非理性」的心理反應，做為未來行銷策略的參考。 結果顯示，客戶的生活脈絡中「主體-工具-客體」之三角關係最強，其中工具扮演不可或缺的角色；「主體-客群-客體」之三角關係次之，社群仍是活動中互動最密切的一群；規則與分工對生活脈絡的影響較小，反映出臍帶血保存是一個新產業，法規與分工都還沒有深入發揮影響力。在訪談業代與分析業者行銷策略後，瞭解未來在行銷保存臍帶血時，需兼具產品與服務的特性，並加強研發的能力，強化在再生醫療中的角色，才能讓此產業更蓬勃發展。 活動理論可將思維結構化並進行盤點，使離散的概念統整，對整個活動有一個清楚的全貌。應用在例行思考上，不論是事前評估規劃，或是事後執行檢討，均可迅速而清晰的將藍圖完整呈現。 / The use of stem cells becomes a key area of research and therapy followed by the fast development in regenerative medicine. Because the existence of stem cells, immortality or staying young forever will no longer be just a dream, and serious diseases and rare disorder are expected to be cured. Umbilical cord blood transplants have higher success and recovery rates than Bone Marrow transplants in treating blood disorders and diseases of the immune system. The concept of ‘cord blood storage’ has become an instruction prenatally. There are about 10% of parent will keep their baby’s cord blood in private cord blood banks at present in Taiwan. ‘Activity Theory’ was initiated by Lev Vygotsky（1978）in the 1920s. He created the idea of mediation. Following to the activity theory, Leont’ev (1981) structured the general context model into six elements: Subject、Tool、Object、Rules、Community and Labor Division. The interaction among elements for each activity is dynamic and can be changed over time. Six customers stored the cord bloods of their babies were interviewed in this study. The life contexts were studied and the strength of the six elements was compared among these customers based on the activity theory to analyze the reason of storing their baby’s cord blood, and to build the activity theory model. In addition, the marketing methods in the industry were compared and analyzed with the activity theory, and the psychological responses of reasoning and nonreasoning in human nature were further referred to build the future marketing strategy. The relation among Subject-Tool-Object was found to be the most important part in the model, where tool played the key role. The relation among Subject-Community-Object was the second important, where community interacted closely with activity. Rules and Labor Division were the less effective elements. This result indicates that private Cord Blood Bank is a new business, which is not affected by Rules and Labor Division yet. In the future, product and service characters should be combined, and the significance of R&D of stem cells in cord blood should be enhanced in Regenerative Medicine to promote the development of this business. Activity theory was proved beneficial in seeing a whole picture of activity by structuralizing the thinking and integrating the diverse ideas. A clear blue print in routine thinking can be seen either in the beforehand evaluation or the post-implementation review.

根據李郁文(2002)研究，有66%的購買決策是在店內形成，代表店內行銷活動會對消費者購買決策造成影響，進而導致品牌轉換的行為。因此，本研究將以製造商角度出發，專注探討店內行銷活動對消費者品牌轉換決策的影響。 本研究採用便利抽樣方式，抽樣對象為大台北地區在個人用品店購買臉部護膚品的20-49歲女性消費者。選擇屈臣氏及康是美，於2014年5月2日至5月18日展開問卷調查，由訪員先觀察消費者購買行為，當購物完畢後立即上前詢問其受訪意願，篩選條件為本次購買品牌與目前使用品牌不一致。經過三週訪問，總計接觸335位受訪者，回收105份有效問卷。問卷分析採用交叉分析及皮爾森卡方檢定，來瞭解兩個和兩個以上類別或等級變相之間的關係，判定變數之間是否有顯著差異。研究結果發現： 一、根據受訪者購買行為，分為非計畫購買(32%)、計畫購買品類(22%)、變更計畫品牌(37%)、購買計畫品牌(9%)。消費者有極高的比例(91%)是在店內形成購買決定，因此，店內行活動對於消費者品牌轉換決策有很大的影響。 二、店內行銷因素影響消費者購買決策前五名分別為：產品訴求符合需要(80%)、正在有折扣及促銷(76%)、試用後，覺得質地適合自己(59%)、是新品上市，所以想嘗試(36%)、店員、藥師或促銷小姐主動推薦(30%)。 三、消費者購買行為對品牌轉換決策之影響：原使用不同品牌的消費者因產品使用經驗的不同，導致其轉換理由會有所差異。品牌轉換因素的前五名是喜歡嘗試不同的產品(70%)、目前沒有促銷折扣(55%)及產品效用不如預期(50%)、產品質地不適合自己(29%)及銷售人員推薦(18%)。 四、消費者特性對品牌轉換決策之影響：年齡與收入對不同購買行為有顯著差異，而到店時間間隔則沒有顯著差別。非計畫購買者及變更購買計畫者，其年齡與收入較低；購買計畫品牌者，年齡與收入較高。

Food labels are imperative in consumers‟ decision-making process of packaged food products as they communicate important information such as expiry dates, nutrition information and information about allergies to the consumer. Especially during a first-time purchase, consumers rely on food labels to assist them in making their product choice easier. In the heterogeneous context of South Africa, consumers‟ product needs vary and one may assume that consumer needs in terms of food label information differ. Although food labelling is regulated in South Africa, it is still important that consumers are satisfied with labels due to their significant communicative function. However, to the knowledge of the author, little previous research exists on South African consumers‟ satisfaction with food labels. Therefore, this study aimed to explore and describe consumers‟ satisfaction with food labels based on a typical in-store encounter. The confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm had been used as theoretical foundation in this study and consumers‟ expectations and performance judgement of food labels were therefore explored and compared within the confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm. This study furthermore aimed to explore the influence of food labels on consumers‟ product choice as well as to determine the influence of demographic characteristics on consumers‟ expectations and performance judgement of food labels. Lastly, this study aimed to make recommendations to food regulators and manufacturers on how existing food labels could be improved in order to enhance consumer satisfaction. Based on the literature, satisfaction with food labels might be influenced by the information on food labels such as ingredient lists, expiry dates and nutrition information as well as attributes of food labels such as the readability, understandability, credibility and adequacy. Exploratory factor analysis used in the present study indicated that the information on food labels can be classified as either primary (ingredient list, expiry date, health and nutrition information, information about allergies and quality guarantee) or secondary (name of manufacturer, well-known logos or symbols, country of origin or geographical region, usage instructions and number of servings). A quantitative research method by means of a survey approach was used in this study over a period of three weeks. A total of 400 self-administered questionnaires were distributed at office buildings and business premises in the urban Gauteng Province in September 2010 by means of a non-probability sampling method. A total of 279 useful questionnaires were retrieved and data analysis was performed by Statistical Consultations Services of the North-West University using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Results show that respondents were only partially satisfied with food labels as they were satisfied with secondary information, but dissatisfied with primary information as well as with label attributes. The results furthermore show that primary information tended to be more likely to influence respondents‟ product choice than secondary information. In addition, results show that demographics had little influence on respondents‟ expectations and performance judgement of food labels. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations can be made to regulators and manufacturers on how consumer satisfaction with existing food labels can be improved. Recommendations include the improvement of the overall readability, understandability, credibility as well as adequacy of food labels. Especially primary information and the way it gets portrayed should be considered for improvement to increase consumer satisfaction. / Thesis (M. Consumer Science)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

隨著大者恆大的營運觀念，很多企業邁向連鎖體系，藥妝業亦是。根據MBA智庫百科(2015)指出，現代企業比任何時候都更依賴供應鏈的有效管理方能成功。而藥妝連鎖業的營運品項比任何產業都廣，其供應商更是多類與複雜，如何運用資訊化之力，尤其是日臻成熟又能快速掌握營運與競爭資訊的商業智慧，以提升供應鏈運作效能，而利於決策分析與競爭力，已是藥妝連鎖業當務之急。 有鑑於此，本研究首先針對研究主體之Y公司藥妝連鎖業營運及其供應鏈現況等進行個案研究，次而針對連鎖經營業、供應鏈及其管理、商業智慧與相關議題進行文獻探討，再者採行IDEF0與IDEF3進行Y公司供應鏈流程分析與資訊系統探討，並規劃與設計其商業智慧運作之資料倉儲的觀念模型、邏輯模型、實體模型、系統雛型及應用模型，最後綜整上述研究所得而分析與歸納個案公司供應鏈發展商業智慧重要與注意事項，其結論與建議如下： 結論方面，藥妝連鎖業供應鏈商業智慧之發展，現況是配銷缺乏統籌、供應鏈資訊化低、決策資源不足。而所需是建立基本藥品供應模式與資料倉儲，以收集大量資料發展商業智慧。而個案公司欲發展供應鏈商業智慧，需要了解產業現況與所需、掌握供應鏈商業智慧運作流程與模式、改進資料倉儲模型設計、奠立資訊化基礎、促進運作人才培養。 對Y公司的建議，可從1商業智慧發展之系統化、合理化 、標準化 、配送中心作業整合化投入，2品類管理發展之整合個案公司資訊系統，供應商和第三方資料投入，3企業整體營運面-資源配置優質化、提高市場占有率、提高市場占有率、提高競爭力、降低經營費用、引導生產領域、保護消費者權益投入。而對未來研究的建議是研究資料的增加、研究方法的改變與研究方向的拓展等。 / It becomes an important trend that firms invest to develop chain-operation. The drug & cosmetic also invest to develop chain-operation. Based on MBA encyclopedia (2015), firms much more depend on effective SCM now. And commodities of the Drug & Cosmetic are much more & complicated than any industry, they much more invest computerization to develop business-intelligence (BI) and improve SCM performance. Therefore, the study based on Y firm to explore the operation & supply-chain of the drug & cosmetic, invested to the chain-operation, SCM & BI literature review, then used IDEF0 & IDEF3 to analyze the supply-chain process & information system of Y firm, and plans concept model, logical model, physical model, system prototype & application model of Yfirm. In the end, the study obtained the following conclusion & suggestion： Conclusions: To BI development of the drug & cosmetic supply-chain: 1.distribution was lacking of integration 2.computerization level was too low 3.decision recourses was enough. Y firm wanted to develop supply-chain BI, it had to master needs of the industry and process & model of supply-chain BI, improved design of data-mining, built computerization base, invested train & education of human-recourse. Suggestions: To Y firm: 1.to develop BI system 2.to develop category management 3.to improve operation performance. To future research: 1.to add the research data 2.to change the research method 3.to expand the research direstion.

An exploratory field study was conducted to examine internal and external factors that influence adolescents' consumer behavior when serving as the family purchasing agents. Demographic, lifestyle, and marketing activities were examined to determine the influences that affect whether the adolescent will purchase the preferred family brands or other brands. Participating adolescents were sent by their parents to the grocery store on two separate occasions to purchase four preselected grocery items. The brands purchased were recorded and compared to the preferred brand names provided by the parents. While no statistical significance was found, occasional trends were observed. The analysis indicated that adolescents who experience a pluralistic family communication style will purchase products other than the preferred household brands. Adolescents who are exposed to television and radio tend to deviate more from the preferred family brands more often than do adolescents with less media exposure. Adolescents who work are more likely to go to the grocery store more often for their families than do nonworking adolescents. Also, adolescents seem to possess a price sensitivity to both high and low-involvement grocery items.

Författare: Susanne Nilsson och Tova Swerlander Handledare: Christine Tidåsen och Charlotte Hahn Examinator: Christine Tidåsen Titel: Vägen mot hållbara val En studie om hållbar konsumtion och cirkulär ekonomi inom möbler och inredning Kurs: Kandidatuppsats, 15 hp. Företagsekonomi, Inrednings- och butikskommunikation, Ekonomihögskolan, Linnéuniversitetet, VT17. Problemdiskussion: Studien ämnar till att skapa förståelse kring möjligheter för en mer hållbar konsumtion inom möbler och inredning eftersom att denna kategori är en av de mest ökande. Hållbar konsumtion är en del av den cirkulära ekonomiska affärsmodellen. Syfte: Studien syftar till att skapa förståelse för vad som möjliggör en mer hållbar konsumtion av möbler och inredning. Metod: Studien har grundats på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod och forskningsansatsen har varit abduktiv. För att skapa förståelse för ämnet hållbar konsumtion och cirkulär ekonomi har vi genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer med konsumenter, experter och företag. Slutsats: Studien tyder på att hållbar konsumtion inom möbler och inredning kan möjliggöras på flera sätt och det är många faktorer som påverkar. En omställning till cirkulär ekonomi är nödvändig för att en hållbar konsumtion ska vara möjlig fullt ut. / Authors: Susanne Nilsson och Tova Swerlander Supervisor: Christine Tidåsen och Charlotte Hahn Examiner: Christine Tidåsen Title: The way to sustainable choices A study about sustainable consumption and circular economy in furniture and interior design Subject: Bachelor thesis, 15 credits. Business Administration, Interior Design and Visual Merchandising, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Spring 17 Research: The authors wish to create an understanding of the opportunities for more sustainable consumption of furniture and interior, as this category is one of the most growing. Sustainable consumption is part of the circular economic business model. Purpose: The purpose is to create an understanding of what can contribute to a more sustainable consumption of furniture and interior. Method: This study is based on a qualitative research method and the research process has been abductive. In order to create an understanding of the topic, semi-structured interviews have been made with consumers, experts and a person from the furniture business. Conclusion: This study indicates that sustainable consumption of furniture and interior can be made in several ways and many factors affects. A switch to circular economy is necessary for sustainable consumption to be fully possible.

À la lumière de nombreux travaux récents, la conception, dans le champ des sciences sociales, de la mondialisation économique et culturelle comme une force d’uniformisation semble perdre de sa prégnance. L’objectif de cette thèse de doctorat est donc de se saisir de l’exemple de l’industrie de la grande distribution, en tant qu’éminente représentante de ce phénomène, pour vérifier, à travers le prisme particulier des pratiques et des représentations alimentaires, si l’on peutencore se contenter de comprendre le processus de mondialisation uniquement comme un vecteur d’éradication des différences culturelles. Procédant selon une méthodologie inductive et une approche comparative, nous avons voulu décrire cette industrie et ses implications sur les modalités du choix alimentaire, en prolongeant au Maroc nos analyses basées sur l’étude des cas français et américain. Suivant les préceptes méthodologiques de la socio-anthropologie et la stratégie de la mosaïque d’études de cas, nous avons, selon le modèle itératif prôné notamment par la grounded theory, sans cesse cherché à mettre nos hypothèses à l’épreuve du terrain à travers une constante extension des cas et une variation des objets étudiés. Cela nous a autorisé à viser une plus grande généralisation de nos théories et ainsi arguer en faveur d’une conception moins simplificatrice des processus de mondialisation en ancrant empiriquement notre plaidoyer pour une perspective complexe des phénomènes culturels et sociaux qui en sont issus. / In the light of the most recent work in social sciences, the understanding of globalization as a force of uniformization seems to be less and less acurate. The goal of this PhD dissertation is, therefore, to use the example of retail store industry, as a media of this globalization process, to verify, through the particular case of food practices and representations, if it is still possible to describe globalization as a destructive phenomenon in terms of cultural differences. Following an inductivist methodology, we studied this industry, its development modalities and their consequences within the various environment which have seen its appearance, its growth and spread to new cultural spaces in order to developp a more general theory of globalization. Adopting the principles of socio-anthropological research and the « case studies mosaic » strategy, and as it is encouraged by the iterative model of the grounded theory, we have constantly sought to submit our theoretical analysis at the test of our empirical field through a continious extension of cases and variation of objects. Thus, gaining in generalization, we have argued for a less simplist understanding of the globalization process, therefore founding our plead for a complex perspective of social and cultural phenomena.

This thesis introduces a financial simulation model covering two related financial domains: Mobile Payments and Retail Stores systems.   The problem we address in these domains is different types of fraud. We limit ourselves to isolated cases of relatively straightforward fraud. However, in this thesis the ultimate aim is to introduce our approach towards the use of computer simulation for fraud detection and its applications in financial domains. Fraud is an important problem that impact the whole economy. Currently, there is a lack of public research into the detection of fraud. One important reason is the lack of transaction data which is often sensitive. To address this problem we present a mobile money Payment Simulator (PaySim) and Retail Store Simulator (RetSim), which allow us to generate synthetic transactional data that contains both: normal customer behaviour and fraudulent behaviour.    These simulations are Multi Agent-Based Simulations (MABS) and were calibrated using real data from financial transactions. We developed agents that represent the clients and merchants in PaySim and customers and salesmen in RetSim. The normal behaviour was based on behaviour observed in data from the field, and is codified in the agents as rules of transactions and interaction between clients and merchants, or customers and salesmen. Some of these agents were intentionally designed to act fraudulently, based on observed patterns of real fraud. We introduced known signatures of fraud in our model and simulations to test and evaluate our fraud detection methods. The resulting behaviour of the agents generate a synthetic log of all transactions as a result of the simulation. This synthetic data can be used to further advance fraud detection research, without leaking sensitive information about the underlying data or breaking any non-disclose agreements.   Using statistics and social network analysis (SNA) on real data we calibrated the relations between our agents and generate realistic synthetic data sets that were verified against the domain and validated statistically against the original source.   We then used the simulation tools to model common fraud scenarios to ascertain exactly how effective are fraud techniques such as the simplest form of statistical threshold detection, which is perhaps the most common in use. The preliminary results show that threshold detection is effective enough at keeping fraud losses at a set level. This means that there seems to be little economic room for improved fraud detection techniques.   We also implemented other applications for the simulator tools such as the set up of a triage model and the measure of cost of fraud. This showed to be an important help for managers that aim to prioritise the fraud detection and want to know how much they should invest in fraud to keep the loses below a desired limit according to different experimented and expected scenarios of fraud.

At the turn of the years 2009 and 2010 the structure of supply chain of the company operating in the Czech and Slovak republic has changed through Warehouse Change Project. The goal of this diploma thesis is to evaluate changes caused by this project in term of mathematical modeling and multi-criterial decision making; eventually, propose appropriate changes in the logistic system.