Background: The retail industry is highly affected by the changes in the world. With the disruptive force of digitalization, more and more of the transactions within retail is moved online as the e- commerce has expanded making the retail industry more competitive. This change has and is forcing many offline retailers to close business around the world but in this change, has new trends emerged. Both online and offline retailers are starting to see the value of having physical stores as well as having an online presence. Doing so creates opportunities for both e-commerce companies and physical retail stores to create value using multiple channels. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out how an independent fashion brick and mortar store can create value for consumers through multiple channels to gain a competitive advantage against pure online retailers and larger retail companies. Method: This topic will be studied with a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with customers in demographic 18-30 years old with the goal of understanding how customers purchase clothes in different channels to create insights for independent brick and mortar stores. The data were analyzed with the seven steps of Grounded Theory. Conclusion: The results of the research show that independent brick and mortar store have competitive advantages regarding personal service, products, and product assessment. However, many customers want to search for information and inspiration about products online before they shop, even if the actual purchase is made in a store which means that independent brick and mortar stores need to have their products online for that. It was also found that customers want more flexibility between channels. For example, purchase online and pick-up in store. The authors believe that with this changes, independent brick and mortar stores can compete in the 21st century while still maintaining their current advantages.

abstract: This paper is the writing component of a project the author under took to create an entertaining program for a chamber ensemble. It discusses ways for chamber ensembles to create entertaining concert programs for today's audiences. Information was gathered by analyzing four interesting and successful groups--The Canadian Brass, Mnozil Brass, Les Trompettes de Lyon, and The Blue Man Group--and identifying common traits. These traits help facilitate the ultimate goal of making connections with audiences and include originality, comedy, choreography, memorization, continuous presentation, musical appeal, high quality presentations, and the proper personnel. These attributes were then implemented into the author's experimental group, the Omni Brass Ensemble, for testing with live audiences. Materials were used from published interviews, articles, newspapers, ensemble websites, and recordings of their performances. From the author's performances with the Omni Brass Ensemble, indications are that these findings work with live audiences. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2012

Omni-channel has become a major player in retail marketing today. It is steadily gaining popularity among retailers because of its capability of providing consistent and seamless customer shopping experience. Omni-channel allows sales to take place via the variety of channels as it implements cross-channel business model. With the emergence of technologies like mobile devices, E-commerce and social media, the way of retailing as we used tohas changed significantly.Customers of today use different variety of channels and devices on their shopping journey. Omni-channel provides retailers the opportunity to engage and build strong retail relationship with customers, offering different retail channels for customer to use. Store pickup is one of the strategies offered by Omni-channel as it presents an unique way of purchasing to customers. However, selling on a single channel is not enough due to the increasing demand in better shopping experience from customers. Such demand has put retailers in a position to rethink and redesign their retail marketing strategies. We believe cooperating online with offline channel is the response to the demand.This work aims to find answers to the study questions regarding retailer requirements and E-commerce platform to be integrated. The obtained analysis results provide answers to the study questions indicating that retailers are looking for strategies to fulfill thier customer requirements as their shopping demand continues to increase. The analysis results further show that WooCommerce as an E-commerce platform is most sutiable for the integration out of the three considered platforms. The integration is part of the implementation phase that demonstrates the proof of concept of Omni-channel strategy. As a proof of concept, a prototyp is developed and implemented. The implementation result provides an integrated system that seamlessly combines online and offline channels in regard of store pickup as part of Omni-channel strategy. However, the results of this work only provide information and demonstrate an initial step towards completed Omni-channel and that alot of work is required in order to reach the full Omni-channel retail.

This thesis aims to answer the research question of how an industrial retailer’s level of channel integration can be evaluated and improved. A conceptual model is developed and applied in a case study context of the shop channel of a large international industrial distributor of maintenance, repair and operations goods. Marketing channel integration is proven to improve customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer expenditure - despite these benefits, there does not exist any evaluation method that helps researchers or practitioners determine the level of channel integration of an industrial retail channel. The case study follows a mixed method approach and uses qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 11 managers and 24 employees, as well as quantitative data from a management survey with 26 respondents. Using the conceptual model the shop channel of the German parent company was rated at a multi-channel level of integration and the Dutch shop channel at a multiple channel level of integration. Any improvement to the level of channel integration of an industrial retail channel depends on the understanding of and commitment to the integrated channel strategy by the shop management.

Niche banks emerged from deregulation of the financial market and from the increasing distrust of the established banking oligopoly in Sweden. From its establishment, niche banks narrowed their scope and targeted certain profitable segments of the banking market. The proliferation of the technological development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) enables banks to collect information and gain more control over its customer base. To create meaningful relationships and retain customers, niche banks reaches out through the convenience of both online and offline channels to provide their products and services. With the support of two Swedish niche banks, namely Länsförsäkringar Bank and ICA Bank, the objective of this study is to understand how Swedish niche banks operate their CRM strategies and how they retain customers across channels. A mixture of deductive and inductive approaches has been used in handling our data. The empirical data collected from interviews was analysed together with secondary data to fulfil our research purpose. The result from this thesis illuminates that there are contrasting views of how CRM systems are used practically within the chosen niche banks. LF Bank’s CRM system falls back on the human factor rather than the technological advancement, while ICA Bank utilizes their CRM as a digital fundament in customer building.

Företag inom detaljhandeln behöver ständigt utvecklas för att bemöta kunders behov. I samband med digitaliseringen har omniverksamheter utvecklats, där främst e-handel och butiker integreras för att erbjuda kunder en sömlös shoppingupplevelse. Med omnikanalens tidigare utforskade fördelar, kommer även nackdelar som kanalkonflikter. Hur hanterar och motarbetar omniverksamheter kanalkonflikter proaktivt? Frågan har studerats utifrån ett nyintroducerat chefsperspektiv, som har stor påverkan på utformningen av en omnikanal. För att besvara frågan har även orsakerna till kanalkonflikter studerats för en mer omfattande och djupgående studie. Därav har studien och analysverktyget formats utefter tre huvudteman; målsättningar, intern koordination och intern kommunikation, tre områden som frekvent återkommer inom tidigare forskning om kanalkonflikter och kanalkonfliktshantering. Vidare är studien av kvalitativ karaktär, där studiens empiri är baserad på semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer inom omniverksamheter. Studiens resultat visar att kanalkonflikter proaktivt motarbetas på flera sätt. Överordnade gemensamma målsättningar har haft stor betydelse för företagens proaktiva arbete mot kanalkonflikter. Segmentering och integrering är två strategier som företagen har använt sig av främst för att effektivisera den interna koordinationen. Digitala kommunikationsplattformar för respektive berörd kanal inom omnikanalen, har visats effektivisera den interna kommunikationen. Studien bidrar såväl teoretiskt som praktiskt genom att bekräfta och komplettera tidigare forskning, samt bidra med ny kunskap kring ämnet för så väl omniverksamheter i detaljhandeln som för övriga företag och organisationer i olika branscher. / Retail companies constantly needs to evolve to meet customer needs. In conjunction with the digitalization omni operations have been developed where mainly e-commerce and stores are integrated to offer the customers a seamless shopping experience. With the omnichannel's previously explored advantages, there are also disadvantages such as channel conflicts. How do omni operations proactively manage and counter channel conflicts? The issue has been studied from a newly introduced managerial perspective, which has a major impact on the design of an omnichannel. To answer the question, the causes of channel conflicts have also been studied for a more comprehensive and in-depth study. Hence, our study and our analysis tool have been formed after three main themes; goals, internal coordination and internal communication, three areas that frequently recur in previous research on channel conflicts and channel conflict management. Furthermore, the study is of a qualitative nature, where the study's empirical data is based on semi-structured interviews with managers in omni operations. The study's results show that channel conflicts are proactively countered in several ways. Overall overarching goals have been of great importance for companies' proactive work on channel conflicts. Segmentation and integration are two strategies that companies have used primarily to streamline internal coordination. Digital communication platforms for each affected channel within the omnichannel have been shown to streamline internal communication. The study contributes both theoretically and practically by confirming and supplementing previous research, as well as contributing new knowledge on the subject to both retail operations and other companies and organizations in various industries.

This thesis deals with brief research on problematics of antennas in microwave band for omni-directional applications, own design and assembling of such an antenna. The purpose of the design is to have a best possible radiation patterns and reflection loss of our antenna. Conical monopole is chosen and it is simulated and changed to get the best possible parameters. Two prototypes are manufactured with mechanical changes applied and their parameters measured. Finished antenna is used for experimental channel measurement.

Background and Problem DiscussionA paradigm shift in retail is evident due to the increase of customers purchasing productsonline, where digitalization has created a concern regarding the existence of the physical storein today’s digitalized society. On the other hand, e-commerce has been seen as an opportunityfor retail stores to use as a strategy where physical and digital work together in a symbiosisfor creating unified messages and experiences for the consumers across channels. However,this creates a challenge for finding the right combination, where physical stores require otherdemands today because of e-commerce.Purpose and Research QuestionsThe purpose of this study is to investigate the value of the physical store in today’s digitalizedsociety from a company perspective. In order to answer the purpose, the following researchquestions have been formulated focusing on the Swedish fashion industry:• What role does the physical store have in today’s digitalized society?• How do fashion brands value the physical store?Research MethodologyIn this study, a qualitative method was conducted with a hermeneutic approach, utilizingsemi-structured interviews with key people at three traditional and three online-based fashionbrands, which are MarQet, H&M, Gina Tricot, Ellos, Jollyroom and Nelly.com.ConclusionThe physical store increases in value when working in a symbiosis with the online store. If thephysical and digital commerce are coordinated and run parallel with each other, together theycan produce greater value than individually. Traditional and online-based fashion companiesfind value in the physical store in attracting more customers, strengthening the brand,providing a holistic experience with personal service, events and added services. The storecan provide that little extra to the customer also by integrating with the online store in order tomove seamlessly across channels. The physical store is required in today’s digitalized societyin a symbiosis with the online store to create value for both customers and brands. This studycan in the long-term contribute to knowledge for fashion brands to understand and use thephysical store in the best way possible to create customer value.

For three decades research has been conducted about the adoption of new channels and technologies within banking, examining the determinants for why people adopt a new channel or not. According to Mckinney [16], most bank customers prefer to perform as many of their transactions through one single channel and they only go to another channel when the preferred one fails. Meanwhile, a study by Google [14] showed that 46% of the users that conduct  financial tasks switch device before completing the task. The contradictory data leaves the community with questions about how the users view and use different banking channels. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of user behaviour across channels in the banking sector. It identifies if, and which of, the omni-channel principles (seamless interaction, optimization and consistency) are relevant in the Swedish banking context.  A study took place over a three week period in Stockholm, based on a qualitative approach (interviews) and delimited to simple everyday banking tasks and to mobile and desktop channels. Results from the study show that users had a low need to switch between channels for the same task. Main reasons for choosing one device over the other were screen size, keyboard size, portability and availability which are physical characteristics that cannot change with omni-channel principles. The results suggest that a more unified user interface design based on the omni-channel approach lacks relevance for the simple everyday banking tasks, as users will probably not switch between devices even if the approach is applied. It also suggests that taking advantage of the strengths of each device is a good principle to follow when designing for cross-device systems like digital banking. / De senaste tre årtiondena har mycket forskning utförts kring adoption av nya kanaler och teknik inom banksektorn. Man har tittat på avgörande faktorer till varför människor börjar använda sig av en ny kanal eller inte, men ofta undgått att titta på hur de använder sig av flera olika kanaler i kombination. Enligt en studie av Mckinney så vill bankkunder utföra så många av deras bankärenden genom en föredragen kanal och rör sig bara till en annan kanal när ärendet inte går att utföra i den föredragna kanalen. Samtidigt visar en studie av Google att 46% av användarna byter kanal för att slutföra sitt ärende vilket av många tolkats som att användare vill byta kanal och använda sig av flera. Dessa motsättande slutsatser gör att det fortfarande finns frågetecken kring hur och varför bankkunder använder sig av olika digitala bankkanaler. Denna studie har som mål att bidra med insikter kring användarbeteenden över flera kanaler i banksektorn. Den identifierar också om och hur omni-channel principerna (“seamless interaction”, “optimization” och “consistency”) är relevanta att ta i beaktning för banker i Sverige. En treveckors studie genomfördes i Stockholm, baserad på en kvalitativ metod (intervjuer) och begränsad till enkla vardagliga bankärenden och till kanalerna mobil och dator. Resultaten visar att användare har ett lågt behov av byta mellan kanaler för att utföra samma uppgift. De mest framstående anledningarna för att använda sig av en viss plattform var kopplade till skillnader i fysiska egenskaper som skärmstorlek, tangentbordsstorlek, bärbarhet och tillgänglighet - egenskaper som inte kan ändras med omni-channel principer. Resultaten föreslår att ett mer enhetligt användargränssnitt mellan plattformarna baserad på omni-channel principerna saknar relevans för de enkla vardagliga bankärendena, eftersom användarna inte kommer se värdet av att växla kanal trots de applicerade principerna. Studien föreslår också att man bör utnyttja plattformarnas styrkor när man designar för system som sträcker sig över multipla kanaler.

Haptic feedback is feedback relating to the sense of touch. Current research suggests that the use of haptic feedback could give an increase in speed and accuracy when doing certain tasks such as outlining organ contours in medical applications or even filling in spreadsheets. This master thesis project has two different goals concerning haptic feedback. The first is to try to improve the forces for the SensAble PHANTOM Omni® Haptic Device when used in an application to outline contours in medical images, to give the user better feedback. The PHANTOM Omni is a device able to read in user movement of an arm attached to it in three dimensions, but it is also able to output forces through this arm back to the user, i.e. giving haptic feedback. By improving these forces and thus providing better feedback, we hope that speed and accuracy increases for a user working with the mentioned application. The second part of the project consists of evaluating if delays in a network between the haptic feedback device and the place where the data sets are located impact the user perceived quality or the outcome of the task. We do this by considering a number of potential architectures for distributing the image processing and generation of haptic feedback. By considering both of these goals we hope to demonstrate both a way to get faster and more accurate results when doing the tasks already mentioned (and other tasks), but also to understand the limitations of haptic performance with regard to distributed processing. We have successfully fulfilled our first goal by introducing a haptic force which seems quite promising. This should mean that the people working with outlining contours in medical images can work more effectively; which is good both economically for hospitals and quality of service-wise for patients. Our results concerning the second goal indicate that a haptic system for outlining contour can work well when using this new haptic force, even on low quality data links (which can be used for example in battlefield medicine or by specialists to conduct long distance operations or examinations) -- if the system architecture distributes the functionality so as to provide low delay haptic feedback locally. We have tried to compare our results from the second part with a model for the impact of network delay on voice traffic quality developed by Cole and Rosenbluth, but as there is not necessarily a numeric correspondence between the quality values that we used and the ITU MOS quality values for voice we cannot make a numeric comparison between our results and that model. However our experimental data seem to suggest that the decrease in perceived quality was not as fast as one might expect considering simply the ratios of the voice packet rate (typically 50 Hz) and the 1000 Hz rate of the haptic feedback loop. The decrease in quality seems to only be about one half of what the ratio of these rates might suggest (i.e., a factor of 10x faster decrease in quality with increasing delay rather than 20x). / Haptisk återkoppling är återkoppling som fås genom känseln. Nutida forskning visar att användandet av sådan återkoppling kan öka effektiviteten vid vissa arbetsuppgifter inom sjukvård, till exempel vid förberedande uppgifter inom strålbehandling, men också vid kontorsarbete såsom att fylla i värden i ett kalkylark. Detta examensarbete har två mål som rör haptisk återkoppling. Det första är att försöka förbättra krafterna som ges från den haptiska enheten SensAble PHANTOM Omni® Haptic Device vid användning i ett medicinskt datorprogram rörande strålbehandling, i syfte att förbättra användareffektiviteten. PHANTOM Omni är en maskin som har en arm kopplad till sig som både kan läsa av rörelser och ge ut krafter med hjälp av en inbyggd motor, det vill säga ge haptisk återkoppling. Genom att förbättra dessa krafter och därigenom ge mer realistisk återkoppling hoppas vi att effektiviteten kan öka för en användare av det nämnda datorprogrammet. Det andra målet är att utvärdera hur fördröjningar i ett nätverk mellan den plats där enheten är placerad och den plats där informationen som ska bearbetas finns, påverkar upplevelsen för användaren och därmed resultatet av arbetet. Vi genomför detta genom att analysera flera olika tänkbara arkitekturer, där placeringen av bilddatat och uträkningen av krafter som ska ges ut av den haptiska enheten varierar. Genom att undersöka dessa två olika aspekter hoppas vi att vi både kan visa ett sätt att få snabbare och bättre resultat när man arbetar med uppgifter av den karaktären som redan beskrivits, men också att förstå begränsningarna för att använda haptisk återkoppling i distribuerade system. Vi har framgångsrikt lyckats uppfylla vårt första mål genom att utveckla en kraft till den haptiska enheten som verkar lovande. Om denna kraft funkar i praktiken innebär det att personer som arbetar med förberedande uppgifter inom strålbehandling kan göra dessa uppgifter effektivare vilket är positivt både ekonomiskt för sjukhusen och kvalitetsmässigt för patienterna. De resultat vi har fått fram avseende vårt andra mål indikerar att användandet av en haptisk enhet inom medicinsk bildbehandling kan fungera bra med vår nyutvecklade kraft, även på nätverkslänkar med dålig kvalitet (som kan vara fallet exempelvis när medicinska specialister utför undersökningar eller operationer på distans) – om systemet är uppbyggt så att den haptiska återkopplingen sker lokalt med en minimal fördröjning. Vi har försökt att jämföra våra resultat från nätverksdelen med en modell beskriven av Cole och Rosenbluth, som ger kvaliteten på rösttrafik som en funktion av fördröjningen i ett nätverk. Dock finns det inte nödvändigtvis någon korrelation mellan de värden vi har fått fram och den kvalitetsskala för rösttrafik som de använde. Vi kan därmed inte göra en jämförelse rakt av mellan våra resultat och deras modell. Däremot så pekar de data vi har fått i våra experiment på att den användarupplevda kvaliteten inte sänktes lika snabbt som man kunde ha väntat sig om man bara tar hänsyn till förhållandet mellan uppdateringsfrekvenserna för rösttrafik (vanligtvis 50 Hz) och den haptiska återkopplingen (1000 Hz). Kvalitetssänkningen verkar vara hälften av vad detta förhållande skulle kunna antyda (det vill säga en faktor på 10 gånger snabbare sänkning i kvalitet med ökande fördröjning snarare än 20 gånger).