The starting point of this dissertation is the increasing number of Swedish consumers who use the Internet forshopping. Convenience is said to be an important ground for this choice. However, there are few studies thatattempt to understand the true meaning of convenience. This study sets out to understand what convenienceentails for Internet shoppers, what characterizes a convenient Internet shopper, what charterizes a convenientonline product or service, and finally how different meanings of convenience can be explained in differentshopping situations. The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of consumers’ conveniencegrounds when shopping online. Qualitative data was collected from 24 respondents, 12 female and 12 male,living in the Swedish cities of Örnsköldsvik, Stockholm, Göteborg and Borås. Data collection was mainlyconducted by means of group interviews and additional personal interviews, questionnaries and shoppingexperiment observations. The study has its theoretical outlook based in convenience literature, and conveniencemotives when choosing a particular store, however, adjusted to better fit the phenomenon of onlineshopping.This theoretical approach emphasizes different dimensions of convenience and gives special insight intoremote shopping consumers. Results show that convenience is an important ground for Internet shopping.Convenience in this context, can be seen from a psychological and/or behavioural perspective. However,grounds for convenience entail efficiency and rationality reasons for all of the respondents included in thestudy. These results indicate that convenience is best understood by using a resource efficiency approach.When using this approach the study shows the importance among the respondents to save time and energy,both from a psychological as well as a physiological perspective. Another useful explanation in order tounderstand the meaning of convenience is to use consumers’ descriptions of themselves as planned orimpulsive. In most cases the respondents describe themselves as planned consumers, which in turn indicatethat the use of a resource efficency perspective is valuable.It is a great variety of products and services described as convenient, however the study pinpoints twoexceptions: home electronic devices and tickets. The study shows that one reason for the differences inconsumers’ convenience perceptions is how time is perceived. Another reason is how customer perceivespsychological or physiological energy. A third reason is how they perceive security and safety. Another importantresult is that convenience differs between women and men in the study. The female consumer givespriority to saving time and saving physical energy. The male consumer gives priority to timing. The study’s resultscan help online businesses to identify how their customers perceive convenience to better designcommunication, virtual store, information, payment and deliviery according to their wants and needs. Anotherpractical implication drawn from the findings is to use direct delivery when possible and offer home delivery. / <p>AKADEMISK AVHANDLING: För avläggande av ekonomie doktorsexamen i företagsekonomi som</p><p>med tillstånd av Handelshögskolans fakultetsnämnd vid Göteborgs</p><p>universitet framlägges till offentlig granskning fredagen den 5 oktober</p><p>2007, kl 10—12 i sal B33 vid Företagsekonomiska Institutionen,</p><p>Vasagatan 1, Göteborg.</p>

The visiting friends and relatives segment has not been given much study, because the segment has been perceived as small and with no positive economic impact on destinations. This is because of the belief that VFR travelers sleep and eat at their friends’ and relatives’ houses. Lately, the definition of VFR travelers has been changing due to more studies in the area. The results of these studies have shown that the size of the segment has been underestimated, as has the economic impact the segment has on a destination. This thesis is a complement to Bischoff and Koenig-Lewis study ”VFR Tourism: the Importance of University Students as Hosts”. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how students at Umeå university affect the tourism industry in Umeå. The thesis aims to study the frequency of visits made by the students’ friends and relatives, seasonal distribution of the visits, visitor motives, and economic factors linked to these visits. The study is based on a questionnaire survey with closed-ended questions. The study was conducted through descriptive statistical analysis of the questionnaire. Results of the study indicates that the main reason for friends and relatives to visit students in Umeå is to be with the student in question. Most of the VFR travelers stay at their host’s place, with only a few percent using commercial accommodation. Instead VFR travelers have more economic impact on restaurants, shopping and nightlife.

In recent decades, the built environment has become a political device in new ways. To attend to these particularities, a broadly defined post-humanism has reshaped the way that geographers and other researchers think about what matters in everyday life and what those materials have to do with the question of subjectivity. The critical insights of the "cultural turn" have been updated with reference to the many ways that landscapes and built environments are always embodied experiences that emerge in relation to broader non-human and technological environments. The geographies of consumption, in particular, have been strongly impacted by new technologies that govern the flow of commodities into new spaces, including our everyday lives. This dissertation draws on recent theories of embodiment-including affect and emotion-to explore the politics of the new technological consumer landscapes that have proliferated world wide in the second half of the twentieth century. In Latin America, this expansion was made possible through militarized interventions during periods of dictatorship strongly linked to the geopolitics of the Cold War. Taking Chile as an exemplary case of a rapidly emerging mass consumer society, this dissertation charts the expansion of a dominant sector of society (retail) into new territory, the Chiloé archipelago in southern Chile. The embattled "Mall Paseo Chiloé" offers up an opportunity to explore how embodied feelings are implicated in the production of new consumer landscapes through affective, emotive and non-human interventions.

Syfte: Vårt syfte med denna studie är att ur ett företagsperspektiv undersöka hur köpkanaler kan integreras för att skapa kundvärde. Forskningsfrågor: Hur kan företag möta olika målgruppers behov genom att använda omnikanaler? Hur kan företag underlätta kunders vardag genom att använda omnikanaler? Hur kan företag förenkla kunders köpbeslut genom att använda omnikanaler? Metod: Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär, med en kombination av induktiv och deduktiv ansats. Den empiriska datan är insamlad genom sju semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats: Livsmedelssektorn genomgår idag en revolutionerande förändring där den försöker integrera köpkanaler och anpassa sig i en omnihandel. Kunden är idag mer medveten och aktiv än vad den någonsin tidigare varit, varefter den ställer högre krav på att företag ska förse dem med praktiska lösningar som genererar höga kundvärde. Studien resultat påvisar att det existerar en viss osäkerhet vid köpbeslut via online handel och vi kan konstatera att företag kan möta denna problematik genom att förse kunden med produktinformation samt skapande av förtroende. Studiens resultat indikerar på att företag bättre kan möta kunders behov och önskningar om de använder sig av psykografiska variabler vid segmentering. Genom att aktivt ta ställningstagande för hållbar utveckling kan företag attrahera den medvetna och aktiva kunden som förekommer på dagens marknad. Vi kan konstatera att kunden vill handla när, var och hur den vill vilket ställer krav på tillgänglighet och integration av köpkanaler. Studien har även påvisat att livsmedelssektorn inte implementerat mobila applikationer i den mån kunden önskar, men att detta är under utveckling. Teoretiskt bidrag: Studien bidrar med riktlinjer vilka kan följas vid utvecklingsarbetet gällande omnihandeln. Förslag till framtida forskning: Livsmedelssektorn har idag börjat integrera köpkanalerna för att möta kundernas krav och behov, men som framkommit ur studien finns det en problematik kring att skapa lönsamhet av denna verksamhet. Vi föreslår därför vidare undersökningar som fokuserar på hur aktörer inom livsmedelssektorn kan skapa lönsamhet i en omnihandel. / Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate from a business perspective how purchase channels can be integrated to create customer value. Research Questions: How can companies meet the needs of different target groups by using omnichannels? How can companies facilitate customers daily lifes by using omnichannels? How can companies simplify customers purchase decision by using omnichannels? Method: The study is of qualitative character, with a combination of an inductive and deductive approach. The empirical data has been collected through eight semi-structured interviews.  Conclusion: The food industry is experiencing a revolutionary change where it tries to integrate buying channels and adjust to an omnichannel environment. Today’s customer is more aware and active than it ever has been before, from what their demands are higher on the companies to provide them with practical solutions, which generate high customer value. The study shows that certain insecurity exists concerning the buying decision online and we note that companies can meet these problems by providing the customers with product information and trust creation. The result of the study indicates that companies can meet the needs and wishes of their customers in a better way by using the psychographics variable when segmenting.  By actively taking a stand for sustainable development companies can attract the conscious and active customer present on todays market. We can conclude that the customer wants to shop when, where and how it wants to which requires availability and integration of buying channels. The study has also shown that the food industry not yet implemented mobile applications to the extend the customer wishes, but that it’s developing. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes with guidelines, which can be followed in the progress work concerning the omnichannels. Suggestion for future research: The food industry has today begun to integrate buying channels to meet customer demands and needs, but that emerged from the study, there is a problem on creating profitability. We therefore suggest further research that focuses on how companies in the food industry can create profitability in an omnichannel world.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

abstract / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Housing Management