This thesis is focused on Master Data Management of Product Data. At present, most publications on the topic of MDM take into account customer data, and a very limited number of sources focus solely on product data. Some resources actually do attempt to cover MDM in full-depth. Even those publications are typically are very customer oriented. The lack of Product MDM oriented literature became one of the motivations for this thesis. Another motivation was to outline and analyze specifics of Product MDM in context of its implementation and software requirements for a vendor of MDM application software. For this I chose to create and describe a methodology for implementing MDM of product data. The methodology was derived from personal experience on projects focused on MDM of customer data, which was applied on findings from the theoretical part of this thesis. By analyzing product data characteristics and their impacts on MDM implementation as well as their requirements for application software, this thesis helps vendors of Customer MDM to understand the challenges of Product MDM and therefore to embark onto the product data MDM domain. Moreover this thesis can also serve as an information resource for enterprises considering adopting MDM of product data into their infrastructure.

Aus der Motivation "In der Produktentwicklungsphase führen die zunehmende Nutzung externer Engineeringleistungen und die Erstellung domänenspezifischer Modelle vermehrt zu heterogenen Datenbeständen. Diese sind häufig auf verschiedene Verwaltungsebenen und -systeme verteilt. Mitunter befinden sich diverse Produktdatenmanagementsysteme parallel im Einsatz. In der Betriebsphase verursachen unterschiedliche Informationsquellen, darunter Sensoren und eingebettete Systeme, verteilte und ebenfalls heterogene Datenbestände. Stetig komplexer und intelligenter werdende Produkte sowie deren Vernetzung im Kontext von Industrial Internet of Things führen zu einem rasanten Anwachsen der Datenmenge. Ein gemeinsames Management von Produkt- und Maschinendaten zwischen der Entwicklungs- und der Betriebsphase existiert nicht. Insbesondere ist kein barrierefreier und konsistenter Informationsaustausch möglich. Vorwiegend organisatorische und sicherheitsrelevante Defizite verhindern derzeit einen koordinierten, multidirektionalen und reproduzierbaren Austausch von Produktinformationen. In dem Zusammenhang besitzen Maschinenhersteller keinen Zugriff auf die Informationen realer Maschinen. Maschinenbetreibern fehlt der Zugang zum Produktmodell und zu den damit verbundenen Entwicklungsergebnissen und den aktuellsten Änderungen. ..."

Manufacturers dealing with complex products or systems are widely dependent on new technologies which can be utilized to create new business models. Servitization literature express an increased demand for advanced service offerings for manufacturers where revenues are generated by the performance and availability of their product. This stream of literature agree that maintenance organisations hold an important part of capturing the advantages of advanced servitization business models but that manufacturers often struggle with the deployment of digital technologies. Furthermore, studies within servitization imply that digital implementations and information management create value for manufactures, but a gap exists regarding how value is created. This study therefore explores and furthermore identifies the role of digitalized product information in maintenance services and how it creates value. The aim is to contribute with new insights regarding the realisation of advanced services within the service operations area. The research design is a multiple embedded case study including 10 interviews and a cost analysis. Technicians and maintenance managers are interviewed within companies who are i) manufacturers of complex products or systems and ii) have their own maintenance organisation. Two themes, “Convenience” and “Sustainability” were derived from the interviews to describe how value is created by the usage of DPI. Value is created by simplified processes, optimized time management, reduced consumption, optimized life-expectancy etc. through the usage of DPI in maintenance services of complex products or systems. Economic value in terms of cost reductions, sales optimizations and economic stability could be identified as holistic value created for the organizations, enabled by the two main themes. The results of the study indicate overlapping similarities with the existing literatures and address important aspects of how to realise the benefits of advanced services for manufacturers and what digital capabilities related to maintenance that can be utilized to successfully implement such services. / Tillverkande företag som hanterar komplexa produkter eller system är starkt beroende av ny teknologi som kan utnyttjas för att skapa nya affärsmodeller. Forskning inom tjänstefiering visar en ökad efterfrågan av avancerade tjänsteerbjudanden för tillverkande företag där intäkter genereras av produkternas prestanda och tillgänglighet. Dessa forskare är eniga om att underhållsorganisationer spelar en viktig roll för att fånga fördelarna med dessa avancerade tjänsteerbjudanden men att tillverkande företag ofta har svårigheter med att implementera digital teknik. Studier inom tjänstefiering påvisar att digitala implementationer och informationshantering skapar värde för tillverkande företag, men att ett forskningsgap som beskriver hur detta värde skapas existerar. Denna studie syftar därför till att utforska och identifiera rollen av digitaliserad produktinformation i underhållstjänster och hur det skapar värde. Målet med studien är att bidra med nya insikter angående förverkligandet av avancerade tjänsteerbjudanden inom litteratur för tjänstefiering. Studien är utformad som en multipel fallstudie som inkluderar 10 intervjuer och en kostnadsanalys. Tekniker och underhållschefer är intervjuade inom företag som är i) tillverkare av komplexa produkter eller system och ii) har en egen underhållsorganisation. Två teman, ”Bekvämlighet” och ”Hållbarhet”, härleddes från intervjuerna för att beskriva hur värde skapas genom användandet av DPI. Värde skapas genom förenklade processer, optimerad tidsåtgång, minimerad konsumtion, optimerad livslängd hos produkter osv. genom användningen av DPI i underhållstjänster av komplexa produkter eller system. Ekonomiskt värde i form av kostnadsreduceringar och optimerad försäljning kunde identifieras som holistiskt värde skapat för organisationerna, realiserat av resultatets två huvudteman. Studiens resultat indikerar överlappande likheter med existerande forskning och adresserar viktiga aspekter angående hur avancerade tjänsteerbjudanden förverkligas och vilka digitala förmågor relaterat till underhåll som kan utnyttjas för att på bästa sätt implementera sådana tjänster.

While consumers are shifting towards online clothing purchases globally, South Africa, a developing economy with well-developed infrastructure, is lagging in this regard. This research highlights significant drawbacks that may jeopardise the growth of online shopping despite the multiple advantages that consumers and retailers could benefit from. The key to the issue is that a consumer is not physically present in the store, and that online consumers’ experiences are limited to the technological capabilities of existing digital platforms. Inevitably, consumers’ online experiences would be framed in terms of what they are accustomed to in physical stores, therefore, sensory-rich, captivating environments. Creating well-designed mobile phone applications, which incorporate multiple sensory cues, is consequently crucial to capture online shoppers’ attention, and to ensure online retailers’ success. Millennials, the largest generational consumer group presently worldwide, is particularly important to online clothing retailers due to their potential buying power, interest in clothing as a product category, as well as their extensive use of mobile technologies. This study was conducted in the context of an emerging economy and aimed to examine the real-time influence of visual and auditory cues - that could viably be incorporated with available technology into a custom-designed mobile phone application for a fictitious clothing retailer - on millennials’ sensory experience and purchase intentions when purchasing clothing online. Clothing is a rather complex product category where sensory cues in combination with a range of extrinsic and intrinsic product characteristics are highly relevant during product evaluation. To accommodate the realities of physical store experience, three moderating influences were examined within the chosen stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theoretical framework, namely, the effects of telepresence, customisation, and available clothing product information. A positivistic, quantitative, descripto-explanatory, cross-sectional study was designed, presenting a two-phase electronic survey. It presented a vignette design that exposed respondents to the capabilities of the custom-designed mobile phone application before completing a questionnaire. Convenient, online snowball sampling through social media produced a sample size of 842 millennial respondents, from the Gauteng province in South Africa. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, covariance-based structural equation modelling, moderation analyses, and multivariate analyses of variance. The findings confirmed the significant influence of visual and auditory cues on millennials’ online sensory experience, as well as the significant positive moderating role of telepresence and customisation respectively, in facilitating millennials’ purchase intentions when shopping online. Failure to affirm the moderating influence of product information on consumers' purchase intentions, may be ascribed to the absence of intrinsic product characteristics such as fit, feel, and comfort, which are highly relevant but can not yet be incorporated into an online platform. This elevates the importance of how existing sensory cues are presented, and how they could counteract shortcomings of online shopping encounters. Considering what has been achieved by the gaming industry, in terms of visuals and sound when playing online, retail store mobile phone applications have not yet optimised their potential. Gender differences in online shoppers’ sensory experience, purchase intention and use of product information suggest that millennial men's purchase decisions may be more rational inclined compared to their female counterparts. The study indicates how millennials’ online clothing purchase endeavours could be enhanced in developing countries like South Africa, where online shopping has not yet reached first-world levels. Empirical evidence is also provided on how online sensory experiences and effective mobile phone app designs could enhance clothing retailers’ online apps to boost online sales. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / PhD / Unrestricted

This thesis presents the result of a research conducted with the blind and visually impaired in scanning a QR-code and finding medical product information. Three prototypes were developed through Design Science Research Methodology and tested via a talk aloud protocol and observation. Qualitative data was gathered through a semi-structured interview for background of the participants and after each test. The participants came from the Swedish Association of the Visually Impaired in Malmö and consisted of four people. The development of the prototypes was conducted iteratively with the feedback from the tests. The first two prototypes were designed to find navigational and contrast issues and the third prototype, to correct the issues. The result was a solution that effectively met the needs and preferences of the participants as well as the insights to take the information architecture into account when developing, before the design and functionality.

The ongoing consumer transition from offline to online shopping in the fashion retail industry requires retailers to take action. Not only do consumers shop more online, they also go online for research of retail products. Forecasts tell that bringing the online experience to offline stores might bridge the gap between the two channels. The online experience provides high-end digital content, and puts a demand on the product information offline as this was found crucial for the customer experience. The marketing possibilities in-store was found to be an advantage to bricks-and-mortar retailers. Thus, this study aims to investigate how the customer experience can be enhanced in retail bricks-and-mortar stores through digital product information. A survey was conducted to identify user requirements in terms of product information. An augmented reality prototype was formed to satisfy the identified user requirements. The prototype was tested in two user studies that evaluated the content, visualization, interaction and satisfaction. The prototype was iterated between the two user studies. The most crucial parameters of fashion retail product information were established, together with implications for the visual representation and interaction. It was found that there were unfulfilled user needs with existing service options, which were satisfied with the use of an augmented reality prototype for product information retrieval. The use of AR for this purpose also proved to be able to contribute to an omnichannel solution for multi-channel retailers. The conclusion was thus that the customer in-store experience could be enhanced by the introduction of an augmented reality prototype for product information retrieval, taking into account the implications for content, visualization and interaction provided in this study. / Den pågående konsumentövergången från offline till online shopping i modedetaljhandeln kräver att detaljhandlare vidtar åtgärder. Förutom att konsumenterna handlar mer online, använder de också onlinebutiker allt mer för undersökning av produkter. Prognoser förtäljer att införandet av onlineupplevelsen till offline-butiker kan överbrygga klyftan mellan de två kanalerna. Onlineupplevelsen tillhandahåller högklassigt digitalt innehåll och ställer krav på produktinformationen offline, eftersom denna konstaterades vara en avgörande faktor för kundupplevelsen. Marknadsföringsmöjligheterna i fysiska butiker har visat sig vara en fördel för detaljhandlare som existerar i offlinekanalen. Således syftar denna studie till att undersöka hur kundupplevelsen kan förstärkas i fysiska detaljhandelsbutiker genom digital produktinformation. En enkätundersökning genomfördes för att identifiera användarnas krav när det gäller produktinformation. En augmented reality-prototyp formades i anspråk att tillfredsställa de identifierade användarkraven. Prototypen testades i två användarstudier, som utvärderade prototypens innehåll, visualisering, interaktion och tillfredsställelse. Prototypen itererades mellan de två användarstudierna. De mest kritiska parametrarna för produktinformation fastställdes, tillsammans med implikationer för visuell representation och interaktion. Det kunde konstateras att en AR-prototyp kunde tillfredsställa ännu omötta användarbehov för inhämtning av produktinformation. Användningen av AR för detta ändamål visade sig också ha möjligheten att bidra till en omnichannel-lösning för modehandlare som existerar i flera kanaler. Slutsatsen var således att kundupplevelsen i fysiska detaljhandelsbutiker kan förstärkas genom införandet av en augmented reality-prototyp för produktinformationsinhämtning, genom att ta hänsyn till de implikationer gällande innehåll, visualisering och interaktion tillhandahållna i denna studie.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In an ever-increasing wme market in which the decision to purchase becomes increasingly complicated for the consumer of wine because of the greater variety of wines that are available on the shelves of wine shops, wine producers and marketers are compelled to differentiate their product from the rest of the products. This can be done by finding more and better ways of providing the consumer with correct information to support the decision to purchase. Such information should support the consumer in the place where the decision to purchase must be made, namely at the shop shelf. This is where the packaging, which includes the label, is the main source of information. Correct information is a relative concept and the aim of this study was to determine what the consumer regarded as the most important information on the back label of a bottle of wine. A questionnaire was compiled to collect such information and was distributed in the Boland region. Wine consumers who also are buyers of wine were asked to complete the questionnaires. The results of the study indicated that, although twenty options with regard to information, which were presented in the questionnaires, were all regarded as important, eight of these options were clearly given a greater degree of preference. The challenge presented to the winemaker and marketer is to exercise a selective choice with regard to the information to be accommodated in the limited area of the back label on a wine bottle to thereby adequately meet the consumer's need for information relevant to the particular wine / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In 'n steeds groeiende wynmark waar die koopbesluit vir die wynverbruiker steeds meer ingewikkeld raak as gevolg van die groter verskeidenheid wyne beskikbaar op die winkelrak, is die wynprodusent en -bemarker geforseer om sy produk van die res te differensieer. Dit kan gedoen word deur meer en beter metodes te vind om die verbruiker te voorsien van korrekte inligting om sodoende sy koopbesluit te ondersteun. Hierdie inligting moet die koper ondersteun waar hy die koopbesluit neem, naamlik by die winkelrak, dit is wanneer hy daar is dat die verpakking, wat die etiket insluit, die hoof inligtingsbron is. Korrekte inligting is 'n relatiewe begrip en die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal wat die verbruiker as die belangrikste inligting op 'n wyn rugetiket beskou. 'n Vraelys is opgestel om sodanige inligting te versamel en is in die Boland area versprei. Wynverbruikers wat ook self wyn aankoop, is versoek om die vraelyste te voltooi. Die resultate van die studie het daarop gedui dat, alhoewel al twintig inligtingsopsies in die vraelys as belangrik beskou was, daar duidelik agt opsies was wat voorkeur geniet het. Die uitdaging aan die wynmaker en -bemarker is om die selektiewe keuse te maak ten opsigte van watter van hierdie informasie hul op die beperkte ruimte van 'n wyn rugetiket sal kan akkomodeer om sodoende ook aan die verbruiker se inligitingsbehoeftes te voorsien, met inagname van beskikbare inligting rakende die betrokke wyn.

This thesis deals with the Master Data Management (MDM), specifically its implementation. The main objectives are to analyze and capture the general approaches of MDM implementation including best practices, describe and evaluate the implementation of MDM project using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services (MDS) realized in the Czech environment and on the basis of the above theoretical background, experiences of implemented project and available technical literature create a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. To achieve objectives above are used these procedures: exploration of information resources (printed, electronic and personal appointments with consultants of Clever Decision), cooperation on project realized by Clever Decision and analysis of tool Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services. Contributions of this work are practically same as its goals. The main contribution is creation of a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first (theoretically oriented) part deals with basic concepts (including definition against other systems), architecture, implementing styles, market trends and best practices. The second (practically oriented) part deals at first with implementation of realized MDS project and hereafter describes a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool.

Product information search has become one of the most important application areas of the Web. Especially considering pricey technical products, consumers tend to carry out intensive research activities previous to the actual acquisition for creating an all-embracing view on the product of interest. Federated search backed by ontology-based product information representation shows great promise for easing this research process. The topic of this thesis is to develop a comprehensive technique for locating, extracting, and integrating information of arbitrary technical products in a widely unsupervised manner. The resulting homogeneous information sets allow a potential consumer to effectively compare technical products based on an appropriate federated product information system. / Die Produktinformationssuche hat sich zu einem der bedeutendsten Themen im Web entwickelt. Speziell im Bereich kostenintensiver technischer Produkte führen potenzielle Konsumenten vor dem eigentlichen Kauf des Produkts langwierige Recherchen durch um einen umfassenden Überblick für das Produkt von Interesse zu erlangen. Die föderierte Suche in Kombination mit ontologiebasierter Produktinformationsrepräsentation stellt eine mögliche Lösung dieser Problemstellung dar. Diese Dissertation stellt Techniken vor, die das automatische Lokalisieren, Extrahieren und Integrieren von Informationen für beliebige technische Produkte ermöglichen. Die resultierenden homogenen Produktinformationen erlauben einem potenziellen Konsumenten, zugehörige Produkte effektiv über ein föderiertes Produktinformationssystem zu vergleichen.

Abstract Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration. Bachelor of Science with Specialization in Marketing – Main Field of Study: Business Administration. School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University, Course Code 2FE21E, 2018 Title: From Bags to Boxes: A Study of the Consumers Perception of Value in Online Fashion Retail Sales Authors: Nadine Bolm, Betty Hartigan Supervisor: Michaela Sandell Examiner: Åsa Devine Background: Online retail sales has been growing steadily since the late twentieth century. Fashion, as a segment of the online marketplace, is the largest market in cyberspace and as new companies are combined with old ones who want to establish a presence online, competition is stifling. As more companies offer fashion in the online world consumers behavior evolves with this new reality and customer-perceived value shifts as the consumers values in their transactions shifts. In order to gain and maintain a strong consumer base companies need to know what the variables are that make up customer-perceived value in hopes of affecting it. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explain the relationship between values of utilitarian nature, those being; monetary savings, convenience, product variety, product information, and customer-perceived value in online fashion retail and to explain the relationship between values of hedonic nature, those being; adventure, gratification, best deal, idea, and customer-perceived value in online fashion retail. Methodology: The research conducted here was an explanatory study to determine how different independent variables related to a single dependent variable. The study was deductive in nature and used a quantitative approach. Independent variables were studied with the use of a convenience sample and self-reporting survey posted online. Statistical analysis was conducted with data collected from 142 valid responses and through the use of validity and reliability methods the data was determined statistically meaningful and valid to test the hypothesis as accepted or rejected.   Findings: The findings of this study show that a new theoretical model was needed to better demonstrate the direct connection between variables that consumers identified as valuable to them in online fashion shopping, had with consumer-perceived value. By examining data collected through online survey it was determined that of the 8 variables, seen as valuable by research into consumer perceived value, 4 would be accepted as such. These 4 variables would become the basis for a new model that explained how consumers develop customer-perceived value. Conclusion: The research explains the relationship the 8 variables selected by previous research for their effect on customer-perceived value. It also provides a model for future research activities or for development of marketing plans with exceptional efficiency and effectiveness in mind. In directly relating each variable to customer-perceived value on its own merit it was found that the variables respondents valued most were of the more practical or utilitarian in nature aside from one, adventure, which possessed the highest level of value of the 8 variables.     Keywords: Customer-perceived value; Utilitarian value; Hedonic value; Online retail; Online fashion retail; Ecommerce; Monetary savings; Convenience; Product variety; Product information; Adventure; Gratification; Best deal; Idea