The current study aims to investigate the feasibility of international apparel and footwear retailers to expand their business in Pakistan and compete with other brands. It also highlights the business opportunities in Pakistan apparel retail sector and the motivations of international brands behind expansions. This study was conducted with the help of interviews based on diamond model of Porter, and Hofsetede cultural dimensions. The open ended questions were delivered to the professionals electronically while interviews were conducted by telephone. Seven companies from Pakistan were selected for study purpose. Data was analyzed and assessed manually. The study revealed that there is a significant opportunity for international apparel retailers to launch their retail outlets in Pakistan along with some risks. International brands which are financially strong can tackle these risks. However it was concluded that the companies with less financial strength may find it difficult to go in a new market within 5 years. UK brands are already there and brands from other countries are also opening. Overall Pakistan retail sector is growing and people are becoming fashion conscious. This study provides information to International apparel brands which they can take into consideration while entering Pakistan's apparel retail market. It also gives an opportunity for assessment of market in the light of theoretical modules and shows a direction of getting better market share by launching.

Los últimos años se ha podido observar el alto crecimiento en las tiendas de conveniencia en Lima siendo Miraflores unos de los distritos con mayor concentración de esta modalidad tiendas, esto se debe a las características que ofrece este tipo de canal a los consumidores, entre estos podríamos indicar los precios accesibles, calidad en los productos, promoción en redes y medios , los cuales comunican opciones nuevas que faciliten sus compras ,promociones llamativas como combos y productos resaltante que forman de la preferencia de los consumidores peruanos, por último la cercanía en las que se ubican estas tiendas. Con esto se observa que el Marketing Mix juega un papel importante en el crecimiento, expansión y éxito de este canal en el público peruano. Además de esto, se ha podido identificar que la aplicación de la Competitividad de igual manera es esencial para el logro de los objetivos y metas en una compañía. Por este motivo, en esta investigación se pretende mostrar el Marketing Mix y su influencia en la Competitividad en las tiendas de conveniencia en el distrito de Miraflores, año 2018. En el Capítulo I, se expondrá el marco teórico que define el concepto del Marketing Mix y Competitividad, luego se desarrollará la evolución, la importancia de ambos términos para el crecimiento y éxito en una compañía, sus ventajas y dimensiones. Para concluir este punto, se realizará un análisis del sector retail, en el Capítulo II, se indicará el plan de trabajo de investigación, donde se planteará el problema en las tiendas de conveniencia. De igual manera, se presentará la relevancia de la aplicación de ambos términos para este sector, objetivos e hipótesis para este análisis. En el Capítulo III, se desarrollará la metodología de investigación, el cual se definirá el enfoque, diseño de estudio, aplicación de instrumentos y finalmente se presentará la muestra utilizada para alcanzar lo estimado. En el Capítulo IV, se mencionará la metodología aplicada (cualitativa y cuantitativa), donde se presentarán las respuestas obtenidas. En el Capítulo V, se detallarán los resultados obtenidos por la investigación. Finalmente, se indicarán las conclusiones y recomendaciones que podrían llevarse a cabo gracias a este estudio. / In recent years, it has been possible to see the high growth of convenience stores in Lima, being Miraflores one of the districts with the highest concentration of this type of stores. This is due to the particular characteristics offered by this type of channel to consumers, among the ones we could indicate: accessible prices, product quality, networks and media promotion, which communicate new options that facilitate their purchases, flashy promotions such as combos and highlighted products that form the preference of Peruvian consumers and finally the proximity in which these stores are located. With this, it is observed that the Marketing Mix plays an important role in the growth, expansion and success of this channel in the Peruvian public. In addition to this, it has been possible to identify that the application of competitiveness in the same way is essential for the achievement of the objectives and goals in a company. For this reason, this research aims to portray Marketing Mix and its influence on the competitiveness of convenience stores in Miraflores district, 2018. In Chapter I, the theoretical framework that defines the concept of Marketing Mix and Competitiveness will be presented, then the evolution and the importance of both terms for growth and success in a Company, its advantages and dimensions will be developed. To conclude this point, an analysis of the retail sector, in Chapter II, the research work plan will be indicated, where the problem in the convenience stores. In the same way, the relevance of the application of both terms for this sector, objectives and hypotheses for this analysis will be presented. In Chapter III, the research methodology will be developed, which will define the approach, study design, application of instruments and finally the sample used to reach our aim will be presented. In Chapter IV, the applied methodology (qualitative and quantitative) will be mentioned, where the answers obtained. In Chapter V, the results obtained by the investigation will be detailed. Finally, the conclusions and recommendations that could be carried out thanks to this study will be indicated. / Tesis

Problembakgrund: Svensk detaljhandel består till stor del av unga medarbetare i ålder 16-24 år.  Enligt Statistiska Centralbyrån (SCB) (2013) utgör åldersgruppen cirka 42,3 % av samtliga medarbetare inom denna sektor. Då medarbetarna inom svensk detaljhandel är en viktig resurs är det av stor vikt att studera av vad dessa medarbetare motiveras i arbetet. Tidigare forskning har fokuserat på arbetsmotivation generellt och inte inriktat på den åldersgrupp och sektor som denna studie berör, därav upplevs behov av denna undersökning.   Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa och bidra till förståelse för vad yngre medarbetare i ålder 16-24 år motiveras av i arbetet. Även hur dess arbetsprestationer kan påverka verksamheten när medarbetarna är motiverade respektive icke motiverade. Utifrån studiens resultat har rekommendationer utformats som kan tänkas vara användbara för butikschefer.     Metod: Studien baseras på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med kvantitativa inslag. Detta i form av 12 semistrukturerade intervjuer där varje respondent även fått besvara en mindre enkätundersökning. Urvalet består av sex unga medarbetare inom angiven åldersgrupp och sektor, samt sex butikschefer inom vald sektor för ytterligare ett perspektiv på medarbetarnas arbetsmotivation. Resultat: Utifrån yngre medarbetares samt butikschefers perspektiv är relation till chef och kollegor samt uppskattning och uppmuntran viktiga faktorer som har stor påverkan för yngre medarbetares arbetsmotivation. Medarbetarna värderar även lön och anställningstrygghet som de viktigaste faktorerna för arbetsmotivationen, vilket butikscheferna inte delar uppfattning om. Medarbetarnas arbetsprestationer påverkas i stor utsträckning när de är motiverade respektive icke motiverade. Bland annat kan verksamhetens försäljning och kunder påverkas både positivt och negativt. / Problem: A large part of the Swedish retail sector consists of young employees in the age of 16-24 years. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB) (2013), this age-group represents approximately 42,3 % of the total number of employees in the Swedish retail sector. Employees in the Swedish retail sector is an important resource, therefore it is of great importance to study what motivates them in their work. The majority of previous research has focused on work motivation in general, and not on this age-group in the Swedish retail sector. Therefore the need for this study.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create and contribute to an understanding of what motivates young employees in the age of 16-24 years in their line of work. This purpose of this study is also to investigate how their work performance may affect the business when they are either motivated or non-motivated. Based on the resultat of this study, recommendations have been formulated which can be useful for store managers.   Method: This study is a qualitative research with quantitative elements. Twelve semi-structured interviews have been conducted, where each respondent had to answer a small questionnaire. The sample respondents consist of six young employees and six store managers in order, to get various perspectives on young employees’ work-motivation.   Result: According to young employees and store managers, the relationship with managers and colleagues, as well as appreciation and encouragement are important factors that have a major impact on younger employees’ motivation at work. Employees also value the salary and job security as the most important factors for work motivation, which store managers do not value as much. Employees' work performance is affected significantly when they are motivated compared to when they are non-motivated. For instance, that can affect the business’s sales and customers.

Three major research questions were addressed in this study. First, does information technology contribute to the productivity of retail institutions? Second, to what degree can information technology be substituted for labor and capital in retailing? Finally, is the market efficient in allocating information technology? These questions were chosen after a careful review of the literature revealed gaps in these areas.

<p>Through the years customer orientation is an area of marketing that has received much attention. One of the key aspects of customer orientation is the “ability of the salespeople to help their customers”. There has been research on how salesperson’s behavior influences customer orientation. However, previous research has been conducted on the business unit level. At the moment there is no research done on how a salesperson’s individual behavior affects a company’s overall customer orientation. Therefore, this dissertation will try to fill the research gap on how salesperson’s individual behavior affects overall customer orientation.The study is performed on the three major electronic retail stores in the Swedish market. Twelve types of behaviors were selected and were tested with the mystery shopper method and observations of customers in the stores. Two other behaviors of salespeople were discovered. The results show that many of the behaviors described in theories do apply to salesperson’s individual behavior. However, there are some behaviors that are more common than others. The conclusion is that even though there are some common salespeople behaviors, it is very individual how salespeople behave towards customers.</p>

Through the years customer orientation is an area of marketing that has received much attention. One of the key aspects of customer orientation is the “ability of the salespeople to help their customers”. There has been research on how salesperson’s behavior influences customer orientation. However, previous research has been conducted on the business unit level. At the moment there is no research done on how a salesperson’s individual behavior affects a company’s overall customer orientation. Therefore, this dissertation will try to fill the research gap on how salesperson’s individual behavior affects overall customer orientation.The study is performed on the three major electronic retail stores in the Swedish market. Twelve types of behaviors were selected and were tested with the mystery shopper method and observations of customers in the stores. Two other behaviors of salespeople were discovered. The results show that many of the behaviors described in theories do apply to salesperson’s individual behavior. However, there are some behaviors that are more common than others. The conclusion is that even though there are some common salespeople behaviors, it is very individual how salespeople behave towards customers.

Purpose The goal of this research is to define top-down and bottom-up approaches as well as the communication processes and the information flow to see how it is used and matched with day-to-day activities in several retail stores. To meet this goal, the following research questions have been formulated: ● How do organizations use information strategies such as top-down and bottom-up management? ● What are the means to be used in information strategies so that the envisaged objectives can be achieved?  Method To meet that objective, a study has been performed on seven store managers from seven different retail shops through interviews from which the empirical data has been gathered. The latter has been combined with a theoretical framework to achieve the purpose. Findings Based on the empirical results taken from the seven store managers, the authors were able to see and understand how each of them was using information strategies and what were the challenges and improvements related to it. Limitations The authors chose to limit their research to the retail industry in Sweden, therefore the outcome of this study cannot be applied to other industries or countries. Moreover, the interviews have been only given to store managers, which implies that the employees’ perspective on the subject is not analyzed here.

Digitalization has forced retailers to reevaluate their business models and channel strategies. Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are no longer the standard and most of today’s retailers offer customers multiple sales channels to purchase from. The present study focusses on the grocery retail industry, which is rapidly shifting towards a more online purchasing setting. There is a need for further research regarding customer experience and customer loyalty, in an online grocery setting, with the aim to identifyimportant online attributes. Previous studies on online grocery and purchasing behavior have neglected to consider customers’ shift from the physical to the online store. Therefore, this study contributes to explain how factors of Brand Equity, Online Customer Experience (OCE) and E-loyalty affect customers’ willingness to stay with same grocery retailer while moving from offline to online. The study used a quantitative research approach by distributing a questionnaire on social media, resulting in 128 useful responds. The result demonstrated a positive relationship between the three concepts and customers’ willingness to choose the same online grocery retailer as offline. Brand was a significant factor in both offline and online. An online grocery retailer’s Website, Products, Interaction and Convenience wereshown to be important online attributes. Feeling secure with providing personal information and using acredit card online, was important. Lastly, maintaining a relationship with their online grocery retailer andfeeling emotionally satisfied after their online purchase was essential. Future research couldcomplement with other concepts that further explain grocery customers’ shift from the physical store to online.

This paper studies the relationship between e-commerce diffusion and number of local establishments in the Nordic regions. The analysis is built upon a model which specifies an industry model with consumers search costs buying from heterogenous producers by Goldmanis et al (2010).  E-commerce technology features, such as price comparison websites, have dramatically lowered consumers’ search costs in the online market. Regressions will be tested on the retail sale of three different sectors: food and tobacco, information and communication equipment, and cultural and recreation goods sectors. The results will be compared to the total retail sale sector, and towards the online-only retail sector. Many jobs are on the line if the trend continues to close down local retail stores, and this paper will give an update on where the number of local retail establishments are heading for both policymakers and firm management. / Den här studien undersöker sambandet mellan e-handels påverkan på antal lokala varuhandel butiker i nordiska regionen. Analysen bygger på en modell som specificerar konsumenters sökkostnader inom en industri som köper från heterogena producenter av Goldmanis (2010). Prisjämförelse hemsidor har drastiskt sänkt konsumenters sökkostnader efter det lägsta priset för en given vara inom e-handel. För att undersöka hur lokala butiker har påverkats kommer regressioner att genomföras för att testa sambandet mellan ökad e-handel och antalet lokala butiker inom industrierna mat och tobaks, IT och kultur. Resultaten kommer att jämföras med den totala handeln för all varuförsäljning, samt mot e-handeln. Många jobb kan komma att försvinna inom en snar framtid om trenden hos företag fortsätter att stänga lokala butiker. Den här studien kommer att ge en uppdaterad bild hur det ser ut för antalet lokala butiker i den nordiska regionen som kommer att vara användbart för beslutsfattare och ledningen inom företag som verkar inom varuhandel.

Inledning: Tidigare studier beskriver att karriärsutveckling handlar om vilken riktning en individ tar i sitt arbetsliv. Hur karriärsutveckling sker och vad som påverkar individen är olika för kvinnor och män. Tidigare studier visar att det finns både inre och yttre faktorer som påverkar en individs karriärsutveckling. Vidare visar tidigare studier också att familjesituation och homosocial reproduktion även påverkar en individs karriärsutveckling. Studier visar att kvinnor har svårare än män att utvecklas i sina karriärer och orsakerna till att kvinnorna har svårigheter kan bland annat bero på glastaket. Frågor om karriärsutveckling och inre och yttre faktorer, om karriärsutveckling och familjesituation, om karriärsutveckling och glastak samt karriärsutveckling och homosocial reproduktion ska därför besvaras i denna studie. De aktuella problemformuleringarna är; Hur sker karriärsutveckling för kvinnor och män inom detaljhandeln i Sverige för att nå en chefsposition? Vad påverkar kvinnor och män i deras karriärsutveckling inom detaljhandeln i Sverige?   Syften: Det övergripande syftet med studien är att beskriva och skapa förståelse för hur kvinnor och män i detaljhandeln utvecklas i sina karriärer och vad som påverkar karriärsutveckling. Syftet är också att jämföra om det föreligger några olikheter alternativt likheter mellan könen i deras karriärsutveckling till att nå en chefsposition.   Metod: En kvalitativ studie med en komparativ design där empirisk data är insamlad genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med individer på chefsposition i den svenska detaljhandeln.   Resultat: Resultaten i denna studie visar att det föreligger ett samband mellan vad som påverkar individen i sin karriärsutveckling och hur karriärsutveckling sker. Den inre drivkraften och den egna personligheten samt familjesituationen är det som främst tycks påverka individernas karriärsutveckling. Resultaten tyder också på att kvinnor inte uppmärksammar glastaket i sin karriärsutveckling och tycks därför inte hindras av glastaket. Denna studies resultat visar också att det som tycks vara viktigast vid rekrytering är att skapa en balans mellan könen, könet tycks därför vara av betydelse vid rekrytering. Studien beskriver även att karriärsutveckling i detaljhandeln tycks starta på en låg nivå i hierarkin och att individerna därefter succesivt avancerar uppåt.   Slutsatser: Det kan konstateras i denna studie att det som påverkar individernas karriärsutveckling är den inre drivkraften och personligheten. Det kan även konstateras att familjesituationen påverkar kvinnor och män i deras karriärsutveckling då partnern tar ett större ansvar för familjen. Kvinnor i detaljhandeln uppmärksammar och hindras inte av glastaket i sin karriärsutveckling och vid rekrytering är homosocial reproduktion inte förekommande, det som är viktigt är att uppnå balans mellan könen. Denna studie kan konstatera att karriärsutveckling i den svenska detaljhandeln startar lågt i hierarkin samt att kvinnor och män startar på ett likartat sätt. / Introduction: Previous studies describe career development as the different directions individuals take in their work. How a career development transpires and what influences individual face is different for women and men. Previous studies show that there are internal and external factors affecting the individual's career development. Further, previous studies also show that family situation and homosocial reproduction also affect an individual's career development. Studies show that women are less likely than men to develop in their careers and that they tend to face gender specific obstacles in their career development. Previous studies show that the reasons why women have difficulties may be due to the glass ceiling. Questions about career development and internal and external factors, about career development and family situation, career development and the glass ceiling as well as career development and homosocial reproduction is therefore to be answered. The issues regarded in this study are; how does career development of women and men in the retail sector in Sweden evolves to reach a management position? What affect men and women in their career development in the retail sector in Sweden?   Aims: The overall aim of the study is to describe and to create understanding of how women and men in the retail sector develop in their careers and what influences career development. The aim is also to compare whether there are any similarities alternatively differences between women and men in their career development into a management position.   Method: A qualitative study with a comparative design in which empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews with individuals in management positions in the Swedish retail sector.   Results: The results of this study show that there is a connection between what affect the individual in their career development and how career development occur. One's own personality, the inner urge and the family situation is what primarily affect their career development. The results also suggest that women are not obstructed in their career development by the glass ceiling in their career development. This study shows that what was considered the most important in recruitment is to create a balance between the sexes, not to recruit a specific gender. The study shows that a career development in the retail sector starts at a low level in the hierarchy and that individuals evolve gradually thereafter.   Conclusions: The indications that affect individuals' career development are the internal driving force and personality. It is also evident that the family situation affects men and women in their career development since the partner is taking more responsibility. Women in retail doesn’t notice and are not obstructed by the glass ceiling in their career development and the recruitment isn’t affected by homosocial reproduction, it is important to achieve gender balance. This study finds that career development in the Swedish retail sector starts low in the hierarchy and that woman and men will start in a similar way.