No description available.

Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze how CSR affects consumer behavior and how consumers are affected by, act on and behave as a result of the CSR strategies implemented by Coop grocery stores. If people are aware, have knowledge and what they know about Coop´ CSR work will be analyzed and compared with the help of survey investigations conducted in both Stockholm and Gävle. Like most big food retailers, Coop has a stated policy, but we will investigate if their CSR work makes a difference and if so - how, in the mind of the consumers. Method: A survey with 16 questions was constructed and these questions were adjusted to previous research made about CSR and its impact on the consumers and their buying decision process. The data was collected at the entrance of two Coop food retails stores, one in Gävle and the other in Stockholm. People that were at least 18 years of age were asked to participate. A total of more than 200 questioners added together in both cities were willing to participate. The data was analysed with the help of the statistical analyse program SPSS, where a regression analysis was made which we combined with a thematic analysis. Result and Conclusion: Our research indicates that consumer doesn't engage in the grocery stores work with CSR. Consumers do consider the ecological assortment but they find the price to be an obstacle when it comes to actually buying ecological products. Our study shows that there is no link between buying ecological products and loyalty towards Coop. For Coop to sell more ecological products, we suggest they should lower the prices or increase the knowledge among consumers to motivate a higher pricing. Suggestion to further research: Our study could easily be made on other food retail stores as it would be interesting to investigate if and how the end results would differ. Contribution of thesis: Our thesis gives Coop the opportunity to evaluate their CSR work and more importantly, its impact on its consumers, where suggestions are made on how to improve their CSR strategy.

Today’s fragmented and intensely competitive market place is the obstacle for retailers and suppliers to do business in a traditional way. Even customers have never been more sophisticated. In this perspective, thousands of idea has already been brought though articles, journals and books and thousands of seminars has been hold to define a new way of managing business. Just as an tremendous heat and pressure create diamond, these uncertainties and competitive challenges has produced a new marketing ideas known as category management that offers an wealth of opportunity for those who can adopt with this systematic approach. In this thesis, some definition and structure-oriented phases as well as the challenging area of category management are mentioned. In the next step, a perfect scenario through different stages starting from zero is brought out to show how retailers and suppliers can overcome the power game and collaborate with each other. Finally I have shown that a trust worthy relationship, coupled with in-store implementation of category management, can create a win-win situation for both retailers and suppliers. / Program: Magisterutbildning i Applied Textile Management

<p>Date: June 4, 2008</p><p>Level: Master Thesis EFO705, 10 points (15 credits)</p><p>Authors: Wannapa Chaletanone (05-11-1982, Thailand)</p><p>Wanee Cheancharadpong (03-09-1983, Thailand)</p><p>Title: Internationalization of IKEA in the Japanese and Chinese markets</p><p>Supervisor: Leif Linnskog</p><p>Problems: Why did IKEA internationalize into Japanese and Chinese markets? And what factors did influence IKEA’s success in Chinese market but failure in the Japanese market of the first round?</p><p>Purpose: The aim of thesis is to understand the internationalization of IKEA in Asia by comparing between Japanese and Chinese markets.</p><p>Method: This master thesis based on qualitative approach in order to investigate the internationalization of IKEA in Asian markets as a case study since it is beneficial in understanding the observation and explanation of behavior in the certain cases.</p><p>Conclusion: IKEA is considered as retailer internationalization who expands into Japanese market as a result of deregulation and asset-based advantage while internationalize into Chinese market because of supporting environments such as political, social and economic conditions as well as transaction advantage. To success and failure, psychic distance and learning, strategic decision making process, degree of adaptation of retail offer, entry strategy, characteristics of organization and management characteristics are the influencing factors on internationalization of IKEA in the Japanese and Chinese markets.</p>

This thesis is a study of Thai consumer behavior that affects the purchasing and servicing in the furniture retail industry. A market survey was conducted in Thailand to support this study. The target group of this study is people residing in Bangkok aged 25 year old and above. In order to find a suitable strategy for the new IKEA in Thailand, the data gathered was analyzed and discussed by applying the type of Kano’s model with IKEA’s strategies. It was also analyzed in terms of conceptual level between Kano’s model and research strategy. The study reveals that consumer behavior and characteristics of consumer requirements in Thailand are different from others counties. IKEA has to adapt suitable strategies that are consistent with Thai consumer behavior to achieve consumer satisfaction. This thesis also discussed that Kano model can inform strategy making process in term of quality and customer satisfaction as the results from Kano model quantitative analysis provide understanding of customer requirements and their attributes.

Several recent corporate governance scandals relate to non-disclosure or high amounts of pension benefits given to executive directors. The lack of disclosure and transparency has gained pensions benefits greater attention as a significant part of the total remuneration received by executive directors. Due to the associated problems there is a greater need for better disclosure and in turn heightened transparency towards shareholders.   This qualitative case study focuses on general retailers in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Due to the lack of research five general retailers from respective country were chosen to be examined and compared during 2006-2010. The aim is to examine the disclosure of individual pension benefits of executive directors and the development in levels of pension benefits in the following general retailers Bilia, Clas Ohlson, Debenhams, Dunelm Mill, Fenix Outdoor, Halfords, JD Sports Fashion,  Kappahl, Mekonomen and N Brown Group. The findings show that the majority of general retailers have complied with their respective corporate governance code during 2006-2010. The level of disclosure has differentiated, where UK general retailers have a higher level of individual disclosure. The development in levels of pension benefits has shown that there are higher amounts of pension benefits in Swedish general retailers. A negative trend in the development of the Chief Executive Officers amounts of pension benefits has mainly been present in 2007-2009. Reversal of the negative trend came in the last year of the case study. No distinctive trends were found in the development of pension benefits for all other executive directors.

Linnaeus University, School of Management and Economics, 5FE00E, Spring 2010 Author: Hana Hulthén Tutor: Helena Forslund Title: Information integration between retailers and manufacturers in Swedish food retail supply chains; The manufacturers’ perspective.  Background: According to study conducted by Brege in 2007, in Swedish food retail supply chains there is lack of external integration between retailers/wholesalers and manufacturers. This fact indicates that there are gaps in information integration between them which have consequences mainly for the manufacturers. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe gaps, from the manufacturers´ perspective, in the information integration between Swedish retailers/wholesalers and manufacturers, and analyze what are the consequences of these gaps for manufacturers as well as propose how these gaps can be alleviated. Method: Multiple - case study as research method has been applied. Specifically, three case companies, Swedish meat manufacturers, have been selected. Three one-hour long focused interviews combined with open-ended interviews have been conducted with two sales managers and one sales representative. The empirical evidence has been analyzed by using cross-case analysis method and pattern-matching method.   Results, conclusion: Firstly, Swedish meat manufacturers do not have access to real-time demand or POS data on store level. Instead, they receive orders from retailers based on updated demand forecast. As manufacturers do not have perfect demand information it leads to information asymmetry between retailers and manufacturers. As a consequence of inaccurate demand signal processing a Bullwhip effect can occur. Implementation of integrated information systems using EDI for exchange of POS data could solve the gap. However, small-scaled manufacturers have neither enough resources nor incentives to invest in an expensive business-to-business system. Furthermore, manufacturers with restricted production flexibility cannot utilize provided information on very detailed level; such as POS data. Thus, in these cases implementation of integrated information systems seems not to be reasonable. Secondly, it has been found that information integration between retailers and manufacturers has been significantly improved the last three or four years. The Swedish retailers are willing to provide information to manufacturers. Future Work: The result of this thesis is based only on findings from meat manufacturers. Other sectors could be also included as well as opinion of retailers and wholesalers to identify common problems related to information integration in Swedish food retail supply chains.

In the Swedish Fast-moving consumer goods industry (FMCG), most suppliers sell their products through retailers. For a successful product-launch, retailer acceptance is essential. Up to ninety percent of all product-launches fail, thus retailers must choose wisely which products to accept. Failing product-launches cost large sums of money for both retailers and suppliers. A number of factors have been shown by previous research to affect the success of a productlaunch and retailer acceptance, but there are factors that have been previously ignored, such as inter-organizational relationships. The authors of this study have chosen to conduct a study regarding how retailer acceptance and relational factors affect the success of a product launch in the Swedish FMCG-industry. The focus of this study has been on the relationships of Swedish retailer ICA AB and three of its suppliers. ICA AB was chosen because it is the largest retailer on the Swedish market. This study shows that retailer acceptance is positively affected by mutual trust, commitment and the relationship itself between the supplier and the retailer. However, the importance of these factors varies depending on the size of supplier and type of product.

Date: June 4, 2008 Level: Master Thesis EFO705, 10 points (15 credits) Authors: Wannapa Chaletanone (05-11-1982, Thailand) Wanee Cheancharadpong (03-09-1983, Thailand) Title: Internationalization of IKEA in the Japanese and Chinese markets Supervisor: Leif Linnskog Problems: Why did IKEA internationalize into Japanese and Chinese markets? And what factors did influence IKEA’s success in Chinese market but failure in the Japanese market of the first round? Purpose: The aim of thesis is to understand the internationalization of IKEA in Asia by comparing between Japanese and Chinese markets. Method: This master thesis based on qualitative approach in order to investigate the internationalization of IKEA in Asian markets as a case study since it is beneficial in understanding the observation and explanation of behavior in the certain cases. Conclusion: IKEA is considered as retailer internationalization who expands into Japanese market as a result of deregulation and asset-based advantage while internationalize into Chinese market because of supporting environments such as political, social and economic conditions as well as transaction advantage. To success and failure, psychic distance and learning, strategic decision making process, degree of adaptation of retail offer, entry strategy, characteristics of organization and management characteristics are the influencing factors on internationalization of IKEA in the Japanese and Chinese markets.

Bakgrund: Internet har skapat nya och billigare sätt för konsumenter att genomföra köp samt att söka efter information. Konsumenter är därför svårare att behålla i det nya affärsklimatet. E-lojalitet beskrivs som den viktigaste faktorn för e-handlare då det skapar lönsamhet och hög avsikt för upprepat köp. E-handlare behöver därför bygga relationer till sina konsumenter med hjälp av olika strategier för att skapa e-lojalitet. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utforska hur konsumenter påverkas av företags strategier för att försöka skapa e-lojalitet. Metod: Kvalitativt utforskande tvärsnittsstudie med fokusgrupper. Slutsats: E-handlare kan påverka konsumenter genom olika strategier. Strategierna kan användas i syfte att påverka konsumenterna till skapande av e-lojalitet. På grund av förutsättningarna på internet är e-lojalitet skört och kan lätt brytas om inte e-handlaren levererar efter konsumentens förväntningar. / Background: The Internet has created new and and affordable way for consumers to make purchases and searching for information. Consumers are therefore more difficult to retain in the new business environment. E-loyalty is described as the most important factor for e-retailers in the creation of profitability and high intention to repeat purchase. E-retailers therefore need to build relationships with their consumers using a variety of strategies for creating e-loyalty. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how consumers are affected by company strategies trying to create e-loyalty. Method: Qualitative, exploring cross-sectional study with focusgroups. Conclusion: E-retailers can influence consumers through various strategies. These strategies can be used in order to influence consumers in the creation of e-loyalty. Because of the conditions on the Internet e- loyalty is brittle and therefore easily broken if not the e-retailer delivers up to the consumer's expectations.