The big-box retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Target have become the focus of many studies researching their impacts on local economic outcomes. This dissertation studies three related topics: (i) the dynamic interrelationship among the presence of the big-box stores, retail wage, and employment, (ii) the impact of the big-box retailers on personal income growth, and (iii) the dynamic interrelationship between the presence of big-box retailers and personal income growth. The research draws important insights with potential implications for regional developers and policy makers. The first essay analyzes the dynamic relationship among the presence of the big-box retailers, retail wage, and employment at the county level for 1986-2005. A vector autoregression model is applied on panel data. Impulse response functions and variance decompositions are also presented. Results suggest that the presence of big-box stores decreases retail wages and increases retail employment. Retail employment has a higher impact on the retailers’ location decision than retail wage. The results also show that the presence of Wal-Mart drives the above-mentioned effects, while the presence of Target is insignificant. The second essay investigates the impact from the presence of big-box retailers on personal income growth in U.S. counties between 2000 and 2005 - based on neoclassical growth models of cross-country income convergence. Results suggest that counties having both Wal-Mart and Target stores experienced slower growth in personal income. After controlling for spatial autocorrelation, similar to the first essay, the effect of Wal-Mart’s presence on personal income growth is dominant in terms of statistical significance relative to Target’s. The third essay expands the second essay and investigates the dynamic interaction between the presence of big-box retailers and personal income growth over time at the county level for the period 1987-2005, using a panel vector autoregression model. For this analysis, the earning shares of natural resources and manufacturing sectors are included - assuming that all the variables are endogenous to one another. The findings indicate that big-box retailers negatively affect personal income growth, which is consistent with the second essay. However, personal income growth has an insignificant effect on the big-box retailers’ location decision.

Background: The textile and apparel industry is seen as one of the most polluting industries of these times. Consumers and retailers are both considered important stakeholders in the textile supply chain. Despite that Dutch Millennial consumers are willing to buy sustainable products, there is a gap between their intention and behaviour with regard to sustainable textile products. To narrow this gap, the influencing factors on the gap need to be indicated and opportunities for retailers to be generated.  Purpose: Explore how to narrow the intention-behaviour gap of sustainable textile consumption of Dutch Millennials together with Millennial consumers and retailers.  Method: To attain the purpose, a qualitative study was conducted. An analytical framework was created to study the factors influencing the intention-behaviour gap of sustainable textiles by Dutch Millennial consumers. To gain insights, 16 semi-structured interviews have been conducted, ten interviews with consumers and six with textile retailers.  Conclusion: Price, availability, trust in a company and knowledge and information are factors from a consumer perspective that directly impact the intention-behaviour gap of Dutch Millennials. Moreover, the results show a direct impact of retailers on the intention-behaviour gap. Four opportunities are formulated to narrow this gap from a retailer's perspective.

The clothing retail industry has developed globally and is today one of the world’s largest industries. In recent years, Sweden has developed a competitive fashion industry, where the new trend in e-commerce is clear. Since e-commerce is a suitable strategy for rapid growth, it is especially important for managers to understand the impact e-commerce has on their businesses. To be able to have the ability to survive in the long-term industrial competitiveness, firms have to continuously improve their knowledge base about the factors that must be considered when choosing sales channels in the clothing retail industry. In this master thesis we have studied and analysed factors that must be considered when choosing sales channels. A literature review was done, where eleven initial factors that affect the choice of sales channels were identified. Thereafter, to conduct a comprehensive empirical study, we conducted eight case studies with semi-structured interviews with companies in the Swedish clothing retail industry, founded no longer than approximately a decade ago to cover the recent developments in the industry. The empirical study resulted in that six factors from the literature were reinforced and that four new factors were identified. These ten final factors were thereafter analysed from two main perspectives: company focus and consumer focus. Finally, the impact of the final factors on the three different sales channels; online, brick-and-mortar and retailing, was discussed. The ten final factors are: Marketing and Customer Loyalty, High Costs, Customer Behaviour, Outsourcing or Insourcing, Managerial Productivity, Intangibility and Tangibility, Fill a Gap, Customer Experience Control, Spread of Distribution and Type of Assortment. Our contribution to previous research is that this study has a more distinct company focus, and due to the development of e-commerce this study has captured the new characteristics of the industry.

No description available.

Yes / Abstract Purpose: The best possible way for brick-and-mortar retailers to maximise engagement with personalised shoppers is capitalising on intelligent insights. The retailer operates differently with diversified items and services, but influencing retail atmospheric on personalised shoppers, the perception remains the same across industries. Retail atmospherics stimuli such as design, smell and others create behavioural modifications. The purpose of this study is to explore the atmospheric effects on brick-and- mortar store performance and personalised shopper’s behaviour using cognitive computing based in-store analytics in the context of emerging market. Design/methodology/approach: The data are collected from 35 shoppers of a brick-and-mortar retailer through questionnaire survey and analysed using quantitative method. Findings: The result of the analysis reveals month-on-month growth in footfall count (46%), conversation rate (21%), units per transaction (27%), average order value (23%), dwell time (11%), purchase intention (29%), emotional experience (40%) and a month-on-month decline in remorse (20%). The retailers need to focus on three control gates of shopper behaviour: entry, browsing and exit. Attention should be paid to the cognitive computing solution to judge the influence of retail atmospherics on store performance and behaviour of personalised shoppers. Retail atmospherics create the right experience for individual shoppers and forceful use of it has an adverse impact. Originality/value: The paper focuses on strategic decisions of retailers, the tactical value of personalised shoppers and empirically identifies the retail atmospherics effect on brick-and-mortar store performance and personalised shopper behaviour.

Background: T-Emballage is an established retailer of packaging materials with a specialization in customer-unique packaging solutions. For T-Emballage, it is crucial to adapt to the increasing importance of packaging materials as an opportunity for value creation and differentiation in an industry where customer demands are increasing, which requires active cooperation with suppliers to be at the forefront. Effective supplier development improves supplier capabilities and performance, helping buyers achieve cost reductions, productivity improvements, quality improvements and optimal resource utilization. SMEs are often characterized by limited resources, which makes it especially essential for these companies to develop the right supplier in the right way. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and explore activities for supplier development based on a portfolio analysis and supplier evaluation, with a focus on improving the quality, price and service of T-Emballage’s various suppliers. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate the potential cost-related effects that can be achieved when implementing the recommended activities for T-Emballage’s strategic suppliers. By achieving this, the study aims to offer insights and recommendations for effective supplier development for retail SMEs in the packaging industry. Method: The study employs a qualitative approach with quantitative elements, where the first research question is primarily qualitative and the second, quantitative. Data collection was conducted through structured, semi-structured, and unstructured interviews. Furthermore, data was gathered from two focus groups, as well as directly from T-Emballage’s business system and statistical programs. Conclusion: The study finds that T-Emballage’s nine largest suppliers, in terms of spend, require different activities for supplier development. For the strategic suppliers, whose performance in the supplier evaluation had room for improvement, direct activities are recommended, in the categories of training and support, technical development, communication and collaboration as well as evaluation and assessment. For the strategic suppliers that have performed well based on the supplier evaluation, along with the bottleneck supplier, non-critical and the leverage supplier, various indirect supplier development activities are recommended. Furthermore, it appears that the implementation of the recommended supplier development activities for T-Emballage’s strategic suppliers potentially generate both cost increases and reductions. The indirect activities offer the greatest potential for cost reductions, while several of the direct ones were considered unfeasible considering, among other things, the resources that would be required. Contribution: The study contributes to filling a research gap regarding supplier development for retail SMEs in the packaging industry. By using portfolio analysis and supplier evaluation, the study offers a unique framework to determine appropriate supplier development activities for different suppliers. In addition, the results of the study constitute a significant decision basis for T-Emballage in terms of the choice of supplier development activities. The study’s societal contribution lies in promoting an ethical supply chain practice through supplier development, fostering long-term stability, potentially benefiting the wider community through improved economic growth and responsible business conduct.

El estudio tuvo como objetivo el análisis de distintas variables que se encuentran presentes tanto en el interior como exterior de los espacios físicos de un retail minorista que pueden guiar a los consumidores, dentro de una tienda, a modificar su proceso de compra. Para ello, se definió un conjunto de variables del visual merchandising a las que los clientes están expuestos como parte de una estrategia y táctica de marketing que los conlleven a tener o experimentar una intención de compra. Dichos componentes están relacionados al ambiente y diseño del espacio de compra. Por ello, se estudiaron variables como el color, iluminación, window display y diseño interno. Ante ello, se realizará un estudio cuantitativo a jóvenes mujeres que asisten a retailers minoristas de ropa femenina y compran constantemente. / The objective of the study was to analyze different variables that are present both inside and outside the physical spaces of a retail retailer that can guide consumers, within a store, to modify their purchase process. To do this, a set of visual merchandising variables was defined for customers who are exposed as part of a marketing strategy and tactic that lead to having or experiencing a purchase intention. These components are related to the environment and the design of the shopping space. Therefore, variables such as color, lighting, shop window and internal design were studied. Given this, a quantitative study will be carried out on young women who attend women's clothing retailers and shop constantly. / Trabajo de investigación

Yes / The issues of channel conflict and channel power have received widespread research attention, including Geylani et al.’s (2007) work on channel relations in an asymmetric retail setting. Specifically, these authors suggest that a manufacturer can respond to a dominant retailer’s pricing pressure by raising the wholesale price for a weak retailer over that for the dominant retailer while transferring demand to the weak retailer channel via cooperative advertising. But, is online expansion another kind of strategic manufacturer’s optimal response to a dominant retailer? In this paper, we extend this work by adding a direct online selling channel to illustrate the impact of the manufacturer’s internet entry on firms’ demands, profits, and pricing strategies and on consumer welfare. Our analysis thus includes a condition in which the manufacturer can add an online channel. If such an online channel is opened, the channel-supported network externality will always benefit the manufacturer but hurt the retailers. Consumers, however, will only benefit from the network externality when a dominant retailer is present and will be hurt when both retailers are symmetric. / National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chongqing’s Natural Science Foundation, British Academy

Hållbarhet bygger på att företag tar ett socialt, miljömässigt och ekonomiskt ansvar. Med hjälp av hållbarhetsrapporten kommunicerar företag sitt hållbarhetsarbete och resultaten av det. Användarna av hållbarhetsrapporterna är företagets intressenter, vilka påverkar och påverkas av företagets verksamhet. För att företaget ska veta vilka frågor som intressenterna anser väsentliga behöver företaget engagera sina intressenter. Intressentengagemang är processen som används av företag för att engagera relevanta intressenter i hållbarhetsarbetet och för att välja ut vilka frågor som är väsentliga att ta med i hållbarhetsrapporten. Denna studie fokuserar på dagligvaruhandelsföretag och deras intressentengagemang. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur dagligvaruhandelsföretag i Sverige engagerar sina intressenter i hållbarhetsrapporterna genom att utgå ifrån de tre principerna inkluderbarhet, väsentlighet och respons samt att jämföra hur engagemanget har förändrats under de senaste åren. För att uppfylla syftet har en kvantitativ ansats valts i form av innehållsanalys av hållbarhetsrapporter. Resultatet från studien visar att dagligvaruhandelsföretagen generellt är tydliga med vilka intressenter som inkluderas samt vilka frågor som anses väsentliga av intressenterna. De är dock inte lika transparenta med hur själva intressentengagemanget ser ut. Studien visar även att de metoder som främst används är one-way och two-way. / Sustainability is based on companies taking social, environmental and financial responsibility. With the help of a sustainability report, companies communicate their sustainability work and the results of it. The users of the sustainability reports are the company's stakeholders, which affect and are affected by the company's operations. In order for the company to know which issues stakeholders consider important, the company needs to engage its stakeholders. Stakeholder engagement is the process used by companies to engage relevant stakeholders in the sustainability work and to select which issues are essential to include in the sustainability report. This study focuses on grocery retailers and their stakeholder engagement. The purpose of this study is to investigate how grocery retailers in Sweden engage their stakeholders in the sustainability reports by using the three principles inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness and comparing how the engagement has changed during the recent years. To fulfil the purpose a quantitative approach has been chosen in the form of content analysis of sustainability reports. The results of the study show that the grocery retailers are generally clear about which stakeholders are included and which issues are considered essential by the stakeholders. However, they are not as transparent about how the stakeholder engagement itself looks. The study also shows that the methods that are mainly used are one-way and two-way.

Purpose − Previous research has shown that Swedish Small-and-Medium enterprises (SMEs) have a relatively low level of digital maturity when it comes to export, thus limiting growth potential in international markets. This study aims at investigating this phenomenon with a focus on e-commerce, as it is among the top digital channels that have a large impact on international expansion. Factors influencing the usage of e-commerce channels within internationalisation by Swedish SME fashion retailers will be investigated.  Design/methodology/approach −The overall methodology used in this study is qualitative with an abductive mode of reasoning. The study follows a case study approach using multiple cases with interviews as the primary data source. Based on literature review, thirteen factors are identified to have a certain influence on the usage of e-commerce within internationalisation. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with seven cases to examine the identified factors from literature and explore new factors if possible. Findings − The results present eleven critical factors including eight identified factors from the literature together with five newly discovered factors. They are Relative Advantage, Perceived Usefulness, Compatibility, Costs, Customer Reachability, Branding and Advertising, Time-efficiency, Technology Competence & Configuration, Organisation Size, Competitive Pressure, and Main Product Features. These critical factors have various effects depending on companies’ business operations and the degree of online internationalisation. The results further confirmed that the Uppsala Model is still applicable in the context of Swedish SME fashion retailers internationalising with e-commerce.  Value − This study has contributed to the existing research on e-commerce and internationalisation in terms of the influence on firms’ e-commerce usage within internationalisation in the post-adoption phase, and under the specific business context of Swedish small-and-medium sized fashion retailers. Based on the conclusion, practical implications are offered for similar companies in this industry