Aktuell forskning indikerar att antalet köpcenter växer för varje år som går, vilket grundar sig i att detaljhandelsindustrin under de senaste decennierna expanderat allt mer. Mycket av köpcentrens succé har att göra med dess bekvämlighetsfaktor, vilket resulterat i att denna detaljhandelsform snabbt hittat hem hos gemene man. Detta eftersom de erbjuder ett smidigt och effektivt shoppingalternativ jämfört med den klassiska gatan kantad av butiker. Dess placering tenderar även att vara lättillgänglig från både bostad och jobb vilket ökar attraktionsvärdet för köpcentret som i sin tur också har att göra med den ökande betydelsen av en välbalanserad hyresgästmix. Det vill säga den sammansättning av butiker som gallerian har. Butiker som i sin tur lever på de kunder som besöker köpcentret och som blivit allt svårare att locka till sig i dagens konkurrens, ledd av näthandeln. En förutsättning för att möjliggöra detta är att köpcentrumledningen försöker uppnå ett ömsesidigt samarbete med sina hyresgäster för att skapa synergieffekter mellan de olika delarna inom köpcentret. Detta lägger än mer tyngd på ledningen för ett köpcentrums relation till hyresgästerna. Därför syftar denna studie till att undersöka vilka faktorer som spelar in i affärsrelationen mellan köpcentrumledningen och hyresgästerna inom ett köpcenter och utröna hyresgästernas beroende av varandra. För att uppfylla syftet har en enkätundersökning genomförts. Denna har distribuerats till köpcentrena MittiCity och Galleria Duvan som båda är belägna i Karlstad. Resultatet från undersökningen indikerar att deltagarna värdesätter en levande kommunikation med centrumledningen och att de har möjlighet att vara med och påverka vid centrala beslut inom köpcentret. Däremot visar utfallet att respondenterna är oeniga när det gäller centrumledningens flexibilitet och strävan efter ett långsiktigt hyresförhållande. I fråga om hyresgästernas inbördes beroende av varandra pekar resultatet på att deltagarna ser värdet i att köpcentret innehar ankarhyresgäster. Dessutom framgår att de erfar att både deras egen butik och deras grannbutiker gynnas av de kunder som respektive butik attraherar. Däremot visar resultatet att merparten av respondenterna upplever det som negativt om grannbutikerna har snarlika produkter. / Current research indicates that the number of shopping centers is growing each year that passes, which in turn is based upon that the retail industry during recent decades has expanded without a foreseeable end in sight. Much of the shopping mall´s success has to do with its convenience factor. This has resulted in that this form of retail establishment quickly found a home among the general public. This is because they provide a convenient and efficient shopping alternative compared to the classic street based shops. Furthermore its location also tends to be easily accessible from both housing and jobs, which also increases the general appeal of the mall. Another factor that applies to mall appeal is the increasing importance of a balanced tenant mix. That is, the composition of the stores that occupies the mall. Store´s, which in turn depends on the customers who visits the mall. Attracting these customers has become a feat that has grown increasingly more difficult to do in today's competitive environment led by the expanding e-commerce. A prerequisite to achieve this is that mall management tries to accomplish mutual cooperation with their tenants in an effort to create synergy between the various components within the mall. This puts even more weight on the center management's relationship with the tenants. Therefore, this study aims to investigate which factors that is important in the relationship between mall management and tenants in a shopping center environment and also to ascertain tenant´s interdependence between each other. In order to fulfill this purpose a survey has been conducted. This has in turn been distributed to the shopping centers Mitticity and Galleria Duvan, both located in Karlstad. The results of the study indicate that participants value a vivid communication with the center management and that they have the opportunity to participate as well as influence the key decisions within the mall. However, the result also shows that respondents are divided when it comes to the center management's flexibility and the pursuit of a long-term tenancy. In the case of tenant´s interdependence, results indicate that the participants notice the value of anchor tenants and that they agree with that both their own store and neighboring shops benefit from the customers that each store attracts. However, the results show that the majority of respondents feel that it is negative if the neighboring store offers similar products as their own.

The thesis project describes  the analysis, process and major factors in development of a simple component oriented Web Shop in ASP.NET. It addresses to the concepts used in  the application as  well  as  derivation  of  technical  design  and  development  from  the  concepts  acquired  by studying existing approaches. The report  describes  a  brief  summary of  existing  approaches  and related  technologies.  It also lays  the foundation  of  goal  oriented  approach  by  providing  an  overview  of  component  based  software engineering. The  basic  concepts for modularization  were  barrowed from  entities  identification,  object models and component models pplication’s architecture is set to be a layered app roach combining the software layered  architecture  approach  with  multi  tier  architecture  of  web  applications. Class models explaining the inner structure of each component have been provided and an overview of user interface pages is given to explain the application outer flow. The application sets out to prove the significance of component oriented approach as well as  the  support  provided for it by ASP.Net. The resulting package proves  to  have  scalable  components  that could be scaled for  or  reused in another  application or  in  a later version of the same application. / First and Final Version of our Thesis Report / SoftIn - Introducing methods and tools for software development in small and medium-sized enterprises

The main aim of this research was to investigate the differences of women’s consumer behavior when shopping for clothes. To investigate these differences quantitative approach was used. In order to collect data for analysis a questionnaire was developed. During the study the following aspects were analyzed: frequency of shopping and expenditure, women’s values, store selection criteria, motivations and sources of information women usually use. After reviewing numerous scientific articles, eleven different hypotheses were developed, in order to be tested in the course of this study: H1: Women’s consumer behavior varies with age H2: Sexual attraction motivation decreases with age H3: Conformity motivation decreases with age H4: Fashion expression motivation decreases with age H3: The importance of comfort increases with age H6: The importance of quality increases with age H7: The importance of knowledgeable staff increases with age H8: Younger women shop clothes more often H9: The influence of impersonal sources of information increases with age H10: Younger shoppers are more price-conscious H11: It is important for older consumer to be known or recognized in the store To test these hypotheses, the data from fifty nine women was collected with the help of the questionnaire. Then, all respondents were divided into five age cohorts in order to structure the results and analyze differences in every age cohort. After having analyzed all the gathered data, five hypotheses were confirmed, while other six hypotheses were rejected. Hypothesis 1 was rather general and it was confirmed in the very beginning. All the other hypotheses were analyzed with the help of regression analysis in Excel. After testing every hypothesis, author of the thesis came to the conclusion that hypothesis 2, hypothesis 5, hypothesis 8 and hypothesis 10 are be confirmed, while hypothesis 3, hypothesis 4, hypothesis 6, hypothesis 7, hypothesis 9 and hypothesis 11 are rejected.

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The purpose of this study is to do a comparison between luxurious fashion stores and normal/regular ones, describe the differences in terms of the store design and discuss the influences and their impact on the customer experience. The second purpose is to give suggestions to normal/regular fashion stores from Sweden regarding improvements that they might need to enhance the customer’s shopping experience. In order to complete this study, both primary and secondary data were collected. Primary data was collected by performing three different methods. First was an observation, which was done in both luxurious and normal/regular fashion stores. An interview was performed with the manager of H&M Västerås. Last but not least method was to apply a questionnaire in order to find out the customer’s opinion concerning their shopping experience. The secondary data was gathered from Mälardalen’s University data bases and library and also from online resources. Conclusion:               The luxurious fashion stores have a unique way of displaying their garments, which gives an idea of neatness, comfort and order. They also have special services that add to the customer’s shopping experience, enhancing it. Even thought normal/regular fashion stores are different from luxurious, they give a big importance to the quality, the price and displaying their garments in a specific order. When it comes to the shopping experience customers’ encounter, most of them considered that it is important to have helpful staff, right temperature, appropriate music and light and clean environment. Overall it can be seen, that even thought they are completely different, the normal/regular fashion stores still try to offer the best experience to their customers.

Spurred by changing retail and development patterns, as well as continuous suburban growth, greyfield sites can be found at the heart of most postwar suburbs in North American municipalities. Ranging in definition, greyfields are best described as an “underused, economically obsolete, retail tract located in an inner ring suburb that requires significant public and private involvement to curtail decline” (Feronti, 2003, p.11). However, tied to demographic trends and increased municipal urbanization, these vacated retail sites are positioned well for redevelopment. Yet, the redevelopment process of these sites is fraught with impeding and facilitating factors that can have significant implications for redevelopment options and viability. As such, research questions considered were: Do municipalities address greyfield challenges and opportunities? What factors impede and facilitate greyfield redevelopment? This thesis also asks these questions within the context of the City of Edmonton’s current policy and existing built form, and asked: How should greyfields be planned in the City of Edmonton? This thesis attempts to answer these questions through a review and analysis of existing literature, case studies (Belmar in Lakewood, Colorado and Century Park in Edmonton, Alberta) and through primary research conducted with key stakeholders. The research found that municipalities were largely unacquainted with the challenges and opportunities of greyfield redevelopment. Where support guidelines did exist, they were largely aspirational and lacked consideration for the unique impeding and facilitating factors of greyfield redevelopment. It was found that impeding factors to greyfield redevelopment ranged from administrative hurdles fraught with inexperience in greyfield redevelopment, to financial and land economic constraints. Facilitating factors were found in collaborative stakeholder consultation, municipal and administrative leadership, and a range of supportive fiscal mechanisms. Lastly, ten recommendations to facilitate greyfield redevelop within the City of Edmonton were discussed.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att genom metodologisk triangulering ur ett kundperspektiv undersöka de grundläggande faktorerna till varför turism- och shoppingindustrin kan kopplas samman och skapa shoppingturism. En etnografisk studie utfördes genom en triangulering av kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder för att belysa ämnet shoppingturism från konsumentens synvinkel. Den primära metoden utgjordes av två kvantitativa enkäter med shoppingturister samt observationer. För att få ett ytterligare djup gjordes kvalitativa intervjuer med branschfolk och Gekås besökare. Postmodernismen och dess innebörd har lett till att shopping och turism kan ses som en enhetlig näring. Tre begrepp binder dem samman: upplevelse, hedonism och utilitarism. Begreppet shoppingturism har kommit att bli centralt inom den gemensamma näringen, vilket också visade sig i undersökningen då majoriteten ansåg att shopping och turism hör ihop.

This study uses the case study method to investigate how IT facilitates business model innovation. The Gloria Material Technology Corporation (GMTC) is chosen for this study. We consider the business model and information technology (IT) factors and analyze how GMTC use IT to facilitate business model innovation. Regarding the business model factor, we describe the GMTC¡¦s value propositions, value network, and key resources for co-production; further we identify the needed abilities for each stakeholder among the value network to make the co-production business model possible. For the IT factor, we present what ITs are developed and deployed among the value network in order to make the business model work. Finally, we report GMTC¡¦s performance after its innovation.

More retail and service firms are using mystery shoppers in Taiwan to monitor their frontline operations and to assess their customer service, since the concern over whether their customers are truly satisfied is increasing. However, virtually nothing is known about whether the quality of the data collected by professional mystery shoppers is different or more reliable than that of shoppers disguised by general customers. Here we use a traditional statistics approach to assess the quality of data collected from both professional mystery shoppers and general customers. Feedback questionnaires from general customers and the potential use of mystery shoppers are made as a means of evaluating the service quality of cram schools in Taiwan. The purpose of this thesis is to show that the reliability of mystery shopping data made from professional mystery shoppers is higher than that of data made from general customers. With this question in mind, we conducted a two-step empirical research, as the amount of samples needed was insufficient. First, a primary study to examine the equality of population among branches was carried out in order to pool data from different branches. Then, the relative reliability of the surveys of mystery shoppers to general customers was examined by pooling data of the branches together. The findings provide evidence to suggest that reliable information could be obtained by pooling both shopper reports together. This empirical result also implied that well-trained mystery shoppers can make more objective observations and more effective assessments than general customers.

In order to cut down the overuse of plastic bags, the Taiwan government had implemented a restriction policy for the use of plastic shopping bags. Under this policy, hypermarkets, department stores, supermarkets and many other stores are prohibited from offering free plastic shopping bags. They can only sell them. Meanwhile, since their goods are cheap, various, and many hypermarkets have become a main shopping place and the kind of store where Taiwanese spend most of their money. This study was aimed to find out the variables affecting shoppers¡¦ bag-use behaviors¡Xwhich included bringing one¡¦s own bag and requesting bags from the salesperson¡Xat hypermarkets. A bag-use model was proposed for these variables. It included six variables and was based on Hines, Hungerford and Tomera¡¦s (1986) model of responsible environmental behavior and Cheng¡¦s (2004) integrated model of environmental behavior. The variables were environmental concern, environmental responsibility, attitude toward the behavior, self-efficacy, response efficacy and situational factors. Results showed that the bag-use model could predict both kinds of environmental behaviors (Nagelkerke R2 = .68, .60). Self-efficacy was the main variable that determined whether shoppers would bring their bags to shopping, whereas situational variables determined whether shoppers would request bags from the salesperson. Implications of these results and suggestions for the authorities were discussed.