Please read the abstract in the dissertation. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Consumer Science / unrestricted

While much has been written about retail stores and the retail environment, franchises and organisational marketing, not much can be found on “host” organisations such as shopping centres and their role within the marketing mix. A unique disparity exists within shopping centres in that not only are they an organisation with their own brand identity and culture, but they also play host to numerous retailers and franchises with very clear brands and messages of their own. The question that is often posed to the landlord is therefore whose message or what message is the correct one to market to the common consumer-base targeted by both the shopping centre (landlord) and the tenant (retailers). When considering this, it is important to understand that a symbiotic relationship exists between landlord and tenant within shopping centres in that if a tenant is successful this will result in greater rentals for the landlord and if the landlord’s property is successful, i.e. popular, this will result in greater revenue for the tenant. Both parties therefore actively engage in marketing of their businesses and whilst the message is often noticeably different, what is unique is that this is often to the same consumer-base. Tenants in many shopping centres contribute towards centre marketing expenses as part of their lease agreements and as a result have certain expectations in terms of what message is being marketed. Shopping centres varying in size and tenant numbers make the landlords marketing role that much more complex and often generic messaging is employed to umbrella the wide offering available. This study aims at investigating the expectations held by retail tenants of their shopping centre landlords through the internal communications function. Corporate communication theory as well as public relations theory was used as a grounding.

This dissertation is dealing with the preparation of business plan of innovative company. Company with the vision of unification Vietnamese convenience stores. Following strategic document was prepared as a support of the company business plan.

M.A. / Shopping centres in South Africa, regional ones in particular, find themselves existing in an increasingly competitive marketplace, where despite a move towards creating better marketing communications around centres, consumers are overwhelmed by such communications messages and by the abundance of centres from which to choose. This has created a problem of brand parity, where there is very little differentiation between centres, yet development shows no signs of slowing down. This causes further confusion by giving the consumer more choice, leading to brand switching. The problem is exacerbated by consumers who have become much more knowledgeable and far more demanding in terms of what they expect from products and services (Evers, 2005; trendwatching.com, 2007), including shopping centres. Additionally, shopping centre marketers have to deal with developers, owners, management companies and leasing agents, as well as tenants, who neither understand the process of branding nor believe in it, while also having to deal with their own lack of skills in the area of branding regional shopping centres. In light of this, there is a need to strategically conduct trend analysis, to see where the shopping centre industry is headed, so as to help centres create a sustainable competitive advantage in terms of branding (Gossen & Gresham, 2002) by being aware of trends, so that they can better meet the needs of the potential markets that they serve. Specifically, this requires a look at future mega trends that are affecting regional shopping centres based on what is termed the 3Es of branding, which are experiential branding, emotional branding and electronic branding. To this end, an ethnography was conducted, based on the trend analysis technique known as Trend Unit (Evers, 2005: trendwatching.com), which comprised a 14-year immersion study and encompassed the collection of data using participant observation, informal unstructured personal interviews and the review of media artefacts. The trend analysis revealed three new trends that are coined based on the 3Es of branding.

This Master‘s thesis describes throughput of manufacturing order in company Walter s.r.o. It is a proposal of improvement system to monitoring order in mounting. Better told, it is unification of dates to central place and accessing to all concern. This company belongs to the group WALTER MASCHINENBAU GmbH. The bussines comunity deals with developments, production and selling of CNC (by computer numeric controlled) machines for production, fine grinding and measuring tools.

It is important for compilers to generate executable code that is as small as possible, particularly when generating code for embedded systems. One method of reducing code size is to use instruction set architectures (ISAs) that support combining multiple operations into single operations. The ARM ISA allows for combining multiple memory operations to contiguous memory addresses into a single operation. The LLVM compiler contains a specific memory optimization to perform this combining of memory operations, called ARMLoadStoreOpt. This optimization, however, relies on another optimization (ARMPreAllocLoadStoreOpt) to move eligible memory operations into proximity in order to perform properly. This mover optimization occurs before register allocation, while ARMLoadStoreOpt occurs after register allocation. This thesis implements a similar mover optimization (called MagnetPass) after register allocation is performed, and compares this implementation with the existing optimization. While in most cases the two optimizations provide comparable results, our implementation in its current state requires some improvements before it will be a viable alternative to the existing optimization. Specifically, the algorithm will need to be modified to reduce computational complexity, and our implementation will need to take care not to interfere with other LLVM optimizations.

Emerging markets have generated a lot of interest during the last couple of years; one reason for this is the economic growth potential of emerging markets and the opening up of new, interesting and potentially very lucrative groups of consumers. South Africa has a rich and diverse culture and shows signs of major socio-economic inequalities that are symptomatic of emerging economies. In South-Africa, department stores are significant to the emerging market female consumer market as they provide an extensive assortment of products and services. Department stores also offer a number of product categories and each provide an opportunity for indepth analysis. Work apparel is one such product category where more research is required in order to understand how these consumers evaluate product assortments. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe how the emerging market female consumer market (EFC) evaluates work wear product assortments in major South African department stores. The study makes a contribution to the field of retail, marketing and consumer behaviour in terms of a better understanding of the emerging market. It is also valuable in providing insight in consumers’ decision making processes towards work wear and preferences towards product assortment. The theoretical approach to the study included a literature review on the emerging market female consumer in South Africa, the South African retail environment and department stores, product assortment and product attributes. The cue diagnostic framework was used as a theoretical perspective for the study. This consumer-based approach was considered particularly appropriate for this study, in terms of the prioritization by a female consumer in an emerging market of product attributes when she is shopping for work wear and evaluating retailers’ product assortments. Combined with the literature review the cue diagnostic framework offered a theoretical basis for the study and provided an overall perspective on the specific phenomenon to be studied. An exploratory survey research design was employed together with a conjoint analysis method to provide insights into attribute ranking and level of influence of specific attributes. The sample consisted of 120 (n=120) female consumers living and working in Gauteng between the ages of 20 and 60, currently working with some sort of training, diploma or degree. Non-probability sampling methods were used, including purposive and snowball sampling. Respondents completed an online selfadministered questionnaire. To ensure an appropriate sample, the online questionnaire was also distributed in paper-based format.. An exploratory survey research design was employed together with a conjoint analysis method to provide insights into attribute ranking and level of influence of specific attributes. The sample consisted of 120 (n=120) female consumers living and working in Gauteng between the ages of 20 and 60, currently working with some sort of training, diploma or degree. Non-probability sampling methods were used, including purposive and snowball sampling. Respondents completed an online selfadministered questionnaire. To ensure an appropriate sample, the online questionnaire was also distributed in paper-based format. The results of the study indicated that the emerging market female consumer market has set ideas and preferences which appeal to them when purchasing work wear from department stores in South Africa. Certain product attributes were found to be more important than others while some were used in conjunction with other attributes. This combining of attributes helped to strengthen the importance of these attributes in the decision making process. The study adds value, knowledge and insight to the existing literature on consumer preferences in emerging markets and the apparel attributes that inform these preferences. This research will be useful for researchers as well as marketers who are interested in marketing campaigns, product assortment planning and retail settings. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--Universityof Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Consumer Science / unrestricted

Children’s interests are often used as a rationale in child-centered approaches to build emergent curriculum that is tailored to young children’s motivations for learning. Against a neoliberal backdrop of standardized learning objectives, emergent curriculum appeals to children’s interests to foster children’s agency through building curriculum alongside teachers. However, research on children’s interests calls for further development of theory regarding children’s interests as the concept may be conceptualized narrowly in research and practice. This study explored the concept of children’s interests within a child-centered preschool classroom at a private university-based school that implements emergent curriculum. I used critical childhoods studies and Actor Network Theory as analytic and theoretical frames for conceptualizing children’s interests as socially and materially constructed among networks of both human and nonhuman actors. The findings are presented as a case study of a Store project that was developed based on children’s interests in money, stores, and ice cream. Fieldnotes and memos from participant observation, artifacts, and teacher documentation were used to map actor networks acting upon one another in the development of the Store project. Through the tracing of the material and semiotic transformations of money, stores, and ice cream, I argue that children exhibited agency through expressions of resistance that were made viable in network with material and other nonhuman actors. Children sought free interests that circulated outside the frames of the Store project’s currency by networking with red shoes, emptied bookshelves, and lollipops. Even as teachers supported and sustained the interest-based Store project toward real learning goals through eliciting children’s feedback and sense of duty, children offered silence as well as critique of the shopkeeper/customer dichotomy as resistance. As such, I propose that children exhibit agency through resistance in the process of redefining their interests within the contexts of their particular childhoods. Implications of the findings explore ways that children’s interests are situated within and propulsive toward particular childhoods and markets of labor futures. Though non-publicly funded child-centered settings that adopt emergent curriculum are partially sheltered from neoliberal demands on proffering real learning outcomes, they are networked within a neoliberal context through their positions within markets of schooling.

El presente Plan de Negocios, para la implementación de un negocio tipo Retail (tienda de conveniencia) en el distrito de Santa Anita, considera el análisis de la historia y como han venido creciendo las tiendas de conveniencia en el ámbito local y global. Asimismo, se evalúa la participación de estas y los niveles de ingresos promedio, en el mercado local, esto último que servirá para determinar un estimado de los ingresos para las proyecciones financieras. Se ha realizado una investigación cualitativa para poder obtener la información que servirá como fuente para la realización del presente plan. Se desarrolla el análisis del macro entorno (PESTEL) donde se evalúan los factores políticos, económicos, sociales, tecnológicos, ecológicos y legales. Asimismo, se desarrolla el análisis del micro entorno, en donde se aplica el análisis FODA (fortalezas, debilidades, oportunidades y amenazas del negocio), y el análisis de las cinco fuerzas de PORTER. Financieramente los resultados son favorables, considerando que para la realización de las proyecciones se han tomado valores conservadores, teniendo en cuenta la situación coyuntural de salud que se vive en el país. El cálculo del VAN y el TIR están dentro de los parámetros aceptables, así mismo, el cálculo de los ratios e Indicadores financieros, para los niveles de sensibilidad evaluados, nos dan resultados económicos y financieros aceptables. En tal sentido, se concluye que el Plan de Negocio para la implementación de una Tienda de Conveniencia en el Distrito de Santa Anita es viable por reunir las condiciones favorables para su implementación. / This Business Plan, for the implementation of a Retail-type business (convenience store) in the Santa Anita district, considers the analysis of history and how convenience stores have been growing locally and globally. Likewise, their participation and average income levels in the local market are evaluated, the latter being used to determine an estimate of income for financial projections. A qualitative investigation has been carried out in order to obtain the information that will serve as a source for carrying out this plan. The macro environment analysis (PESTEL) is developed where political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal factors are evaluated. Likewise, the analysis of the micro environment is developed, where the SWOT analysis is applied (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the business), and the analysis of the five forces of PORTER. Financially, the results are favorable, considering that conservative values ​​have been taken to carry out the projections, taking into account the current health situation in the country. The calculation of the NPV and the IRR are within the acceptable parameters, likewise, the calculation of the ratios and financial indicators, for the sensitivity levels evaluated, give us acceptable economic and financial results. In this sense, it is concluded that the Business Plan for the implementation of a Convenience Store in the Santa Anita District is viable because it meets the favorable conditions for its implementation. / Trabajo de investigación

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