Submitted by Leticia Schettini (leticia@ufrrj.br) on 2016-10-06T12:17:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2000 - Ebenezer Pereira Couto.pdf: 1399145 bytes, checksum: 6e9f68eab6bbb9fd7652730b81d28e85 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-06T12:17:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2000 - Ebenezer Pereira Couto.pdf: 1399145 bytes, checksum: 6e9f68eab6bbb9fd7652730b81d28e85 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2000-03-28 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior-CAPES / Our intention in this thesis was rethinking the limits, advance and regression of the intervention of State in the agricultural commercialization, particularly in terms of the effectiveness of handling food supplies by the public instance that intervenes, forging conditions of order and liquidity in commodities markets. In Brazil, the handling of public stores coincided with the Guaranteed Minimum Prices Policy (PGPM) that historically was subordinated to diverse objectives than others related to the regulated stabilization of markets. We focus in special the period mediated by the years of 1965 and 1998, with emphasis in the approval of a new set of ordering rules for the (non retail) markets, a strengthening element for the better arbitration of the public manager in the regulation of the agricultural markets in the country. Contradictorily, however, such potential of intervention chocked with the fiscal crisis of the Brazilian State and in the financial pressure deterioration of the system, besides of the macroeconomic scenario of great exposure of the Brazilian economy to the international market in 90th years. Particularly after the implantation of the Real Plan, the strategy of an economic policy referred to circumstantial external market prices, appropriated by means of key-parameter of the agricultural and commercial policies, was too dangerous. Lacking consistent rules to order the commercialization, the proper public performance tended to aggravate the market instability making impracticable, by this means, the coordination of the interchange as a basis for the regulated stability of food prices. In truth, such stability could constitute one of the elements to improve consistent policies of food security, especially in an asymmetric reality like that one of Brazil, where the public institutionality with stores traditionally lacked any explicit correlation with so urgent theme. / Nosso intuito neste trabalho de tese foi repensar os limites, avan?o e retrocesso da interven??o do Estado na comercializa??o agr?cola, particularmente quanto ? efetividade do manejo de estoques de alimentos pela inst?ncia p?blica que interv?m, forjando condi??es de ordem e liquidez nos mercados de commodities. No Brasil, o manejo de estoques p?blicos coincidiu com a Pol?tica de Garantia de Pre?os M?nimos (PGPM), pol?tica esta que historicamente foi subordinada a objetivos outros que os da estabiliza??o regulada de mercados. Focalizamos em especial o per?odo mediado pelos anos de 1965 e 1998, com ?nfase na aprova??o de novo conjunto de regras ordenadoras dos mercados de atacado, que representou um elemento de potencializa??o da arbitragem do gestor p?blico na regula??o dos mercados agr?colas no pa?s. Contraditoriamente, por?m, tal potencial de interven??o esbarrava na crise fiscal do Estado brasileiro e no agravamento da press?o financeira sobre o sistema, ademais do cen?rio macroecon?mico de maior exposi??o da economia brasileira ao mercado internacional nos anos 90. Particularmente a partir da implanta??o do Plano Real, exacerbaram-se os perigos da estrat?gia de pol?tica econ?mica lastreada na assun??o dos pre?os (circunstanciais) do mercado externo, apropriados como par?metro-chave das pol?ticas agr?cola e comercial. Faltando regras consistentes de ordenamento da comercializa??o, a pr?pria a??o p?blica tendia a agravar a instabilidade de mercado inviabilizando-se, desta forma, a coordena??o do interc?mbio como base da estabilidade regulada de pre?os alimentares. Como sabido, tal estabilidade se constituiria em um dos condicionantes do avan?o de pol?ticas consistentes de seguran?a alimentar, sobretudo em realidades como a brasileira, em que a institucionalidade p?blica com estoques tradicionalmente prescindiu de qualquer correla??o expl?cita com t?o premente quest?o.

Internet is a part of everyday life and most people are now used to shopping online. This in turn has led to the fact that companies with traditional stores lack knowledge of what their customers wants and their preferences about buying. Creating an understanding of what customers wants has always been the focus of business to maintain and create loyalty towards consumers. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate which preferences determine loyalty within traditional stores and online stores.  The factors studied are pricequality, price awareness, service, time efficiency, trust and choice. These variables are the independent variables of the study which will be tested against the dependent variables which is loyalty in traditional stores and loyalty online. The study is limited to consumers who bought clothes last year. The design of the study is based on quantitative methodology were surveys have been the source of data collection. 187 people responded to the survey which has then been analyzed in SPSS using multivariate regression. The result of the study shows that the preferences regarding loyalty within traditional stores were service and pricequality. The results also show that the preferences regarding loyalty within online stores are service, time efficiency and trust. The study contributes to research by measuring which preferences affect loyalty when shopping in traditional stores and in online stores. By providing an understanding of which preferences determine loyalty within traditional stores and online stores, companies can understand why consumers are loyal and use the information to support strategical decisions within companies.

De fysiska modebutikerna står inför stora utmaningar och man spår en massiv butiksdöd framöver. Främst drabbas detaljhandlarna i småstäder som idag står inför en ökad konkurrens från e-handeln som är tillgänglig dygnet runt och som kan erbjuda ett överlägset produktutbud. Den ökade tillgängligheten som finns online har bidragit till att dagens konsumenter har förändrat sitt köpbeteende och handlar på andra sätt än förut. På grund av detta har antalet fysiska butiker i Sverige minskat och var sjunde butik har försvunnit mellan år 2011 och 2017. Detta har skapat en oro i samhället och främst för de lokala detaljhandlarna i småstäder, eftersom handeln har en stor inverkan på den lokala ekonomin. Trots att e-handeln växer i snabb takt visar forskning att butikshandeln fortsättningsvis kommer att stå för en stor del av handeln i många år framöver, fast med ökad konkurrens. En småstad som har märkt av den ökade konkurrensen från e-handeln och konsumenternas förändrade köpbeteende är Ulricehamn. Där finns en pågående avveckling av butiker i stadskärnan. Utifrån tidigare forskning har ett forskningsgap identifierats gällande studier som undersöker hur företagen i småstäder agerar utefter konsumenternas förändrade köpbeteende. I denna studie är syftet att undersöka hur fysiska modebutiker i småstäder påverkas av den ökade konkurrensen från e-handeln. För att undersöka detta används Ulricehamn som ett verktyg. Genom en kvalitativ metod har empiriskt material samlats in genom intervjuer med Fastighetsbolaget som äger butikslokalerna i Ulricehamn, Handelsliv Ulricehamn som arbetar med cityhandeln och butikschefer för modebutikerna. Genom en analys av det insamlade empiriska materialet och teorier kring hur de fysiska butikerna påverkas av strukturomvandlingen konstaterar denna studie att strukturförändringen påverkar modebutikerna i småstäder på olika sätt beroende på vilken butik det är. Gemensamt är att alla modebutiker känner av det förändrade konsumentbeteendet. Modebutikerna arbetar främst med att erbjuda personligt bemötande och service till sina kunder för att stärka de fördelar som de har gentemot e-handeln. Resultatet mynnar ut i rekommendationer till hur modebutiker i småstäder bör arbeta framöver för att behålla och förstärka sin position på marknaden. Denna studie är skriven ur ett företagsperspektiv och till framtida forskning föreslås bland annat intervjuer alternativt enkäter till människor bosatta i småstäder. På så sätt kan det bidra till att studien kan få ytterligare en dimension angående konsumentens tankar och åsikter om handelns strukturförändringar. / The fashion stores face major challenges and a massive store death is predicted in the future. Mainly, retailers in small cities are affected and they are today facing increased competition from e-commerce that is available around the clock and which can offer a superior product range. The increased availability online has contributed to today's consumers have changed their buying behavior and acting in other ways than before. Because of this, the number of stores in Sweden has decreased and every seventh store has disappeared between 2011 and 2017. This has created anxiety in society and mainly for the local retailers in small towns because the stores has a major impact on the local economy. Despite the fact that e-commerce is growing at a rapid pace, research shows that store shopping will continue to account for a large part for many years to come, though with increased competition. A small town that has noticed the increased competition from e-commerce and the consumers' changing purchasing behavior is Ulricehamn. There is an ongoing settlement of stores in the city. Based on previous research, a research gap has been identified regarding studies that studies how the companies in small towns act alongside the consumers' changing purchasing behavior. In this study, the purpose is to investigate how fashion stores in small towns are affected by the increased competition from e-commerce. To investigate this, Ulricehamn is used as a tool. Through a qualitative method, empirical material has been collected through interviews with a property company, a company that works with city shopping in Ulricehamn and store managers for the fashion stores. Through an analysis of the collected empirical material and theories about how the stores are affected by the structural change this study notes that the structural change influence fashion shops in small towns in different ways depending on which store it is. Common is that all the fashion stores are aware of the changed consumer behavior. The fashion stores mainly work with offering personalized service and service to their customers in order to strengthen the benefits they have towards e-commerce. The result results in recommendations for how fashion stores in small cities should work in the future to maintain and strengthen their position in the market. This study is written from a business perspective and for future research, interviews or surveys are proposed to people living in small towns. In this way, it can help the study to have an additional dimension regarding the consumer's thoughts and opinions about the structural changes of commerce.

Den fysiska handelsplatsen har länge varit kärnan inom handeln men utmanas nu av den växande e-handeln. Statistik från HUI Research och Svensk Handel visar att e-handeln i Sverige har haft en stark tillväxt de senaste åren som beräknas fortsätta öka. Men vad innebär egentligen den ökande e-handeln för fysiska handelsplatser? Genom media får vi bilden av att konsekvenserna av en ökad e-handel resulterar i en butiksdöd. En mängd forskare menar att konsekvenserna snarare är en ökad integrering av e-handel och fysisk handel. Vi genomförde tidigt en förstudie som visade att det finns en avsaknad av ett empiriskt synsätt i diskussionen kring vad den ökande e-handeln innebär för fysiska handelsplatser. Syftet med studien blev således att komplettera nuvarande forskning genom en kvalitativ studie som applicerar ett empiriskt synsätt och undersöker vad den ökande e-handeln innebär för fysiska handelsplatser. Det gjorde vi genom att intervjua fastighetsägare och handelsaktörer inom detaljhandeln. Studiens resultat visar att det finns skäl till att tro att de fysiska handelsplatserna kommer påverkas ju mer e-handeln växer. Den digitala- och fysiska handeln kommer att integreras ännu mer och fastighetsägares strategier förändras för att se till att deras handelsplatser förblir attraktiva när e-handeln ökar. / Since way back the physical retail location has been the core of retail, however it is now challenged by the emerging e-commerce. Statistics from HUI Research and the Swedish Trade Federation show that e-commerce in Sweden has experienced strong growth in recent years and is expected to rapidly increase and transform the physical retail landscape. But what does the growing e-commerce really mean for the physical stores? From what media cover in the news we get the impression that the consequences of increased e-commerce result in a death of physical retail stores. A number of researchers argue that the consequences are instead rather an increased integration of e-commerce and commerce in physical stores. From the pre-study we conducted there was an indication that the discussion of what the increasing e-commerce entails for the physical stores lacks an approach consisting of an empirical perspective. The purpose of the study was thus to supplement current research through a qualitative study that applies an empirical approach and investigates what the increasing e-commerce entails for the physical stores. We did this by interviewing real estate property owners and retail players within the retail sector. The result of the study shows that there is reason to believe that the physical stores will be affected the more the e-commerce grows. Digital and physical commerce will be integrated even more, and property owners' strategies change to ensure that their real estate remain attractive when e-commerce grows rapidly and the market transforms.

This thesis examines the nature of labour usage within a market-leading Australian food retail firm and the employment relations consequences of the labour usage strategies employed by the firm. Retail employment is well established as a research subject in the UK, but has received comparatively little research attention in Australia. Given that retail industry employment accounts for 15 per cent of the Australian workforce, this represents a significant oversight. Within the retail industry, the supermarket and grocery sector employs 6 per cent of the Australian workforce. The sector is dominated by two major chains and is highly competitive, with a reputation for low profit margins, mundane jobs and low pay. The sector is recognised for an employment structure that is segmented with one segment holding full-time jobs with core employment conditions and the other segment, part-time jobs with poor working conditions. The dominant theory used by scholars to explain this employment structure is the dual labour market model and later iterations such as Atkinson's flexible firm model. This research assesses the value of these models, in particular Atkinson's flexible firm model, as a representation of the labour usage strategies of a market-leading Australian food retail firm. This analysis demonstrates that, in a general sense, Atkinson's model has applicability to the labour usage strategies exhibited in food retailing. The research found that, contrary to the theories of dual labour markets, a strong internal labour market operated within the firm with short hours casual employment as the port of entry. The benefits of this practice for the organisation were flexibility in labour usage and substantial wage savings, while the negative consequences were recruitment difficulties, exacerbated by high levels of staff turnover. For the employees, the consequences depended on their position in the organisational hierarchy and their individual circumstances, but involved initially accepting limited working hours and low pay in order to gain entry into the organisation. The research undertaken for this thesis leads to the development of a revised model, the casual internal labour market model, which more accurately depicts the labour usage strategies within the case study organisation. Retail researchers argue that it is necessary to understand the dynamics of the industry in order to understand the structure of labour usage. Additionally, employment relations and retail researchers both stress the need to contextualise labour usage patterns within broader environmental constraints and supply side factors. In seeking to achieve this, this research examines business strategies, retail specific employment relations literature and the Australian employment relations context. Furthermore, this study addresses the issue of retail employment strategies at several levels within one of Australia's market-leading food retailers: corporate level, store level and at the level of individual departments within the store. In doing so, this thesis highlights the differences in labour usage between stores and between departments within the stores and thereby provides a more detailed picture of the labour use practices within food retailers.

No description available.

Background: The concept of value perception is widely discussed in scientific literature and it is well-known, that channels deliver value to the customer. However, so far there has been no research about the efficiency of channels, especially the consumer´s perception of channel efficiency. Therefore, this study contributes to the current literature in channel management and it fills an existing research gap. The authors establish a definition of the term 'channel efficiency' and they develop a measuring instrument. For this thesis, the three criteria (1) shopping enjoyment, (2) interpersonal service quality and (3) price level are taken into consideration for the efficiency calculation. The two channels of interest are physical retail stores and the Internet. The target group is university students. Purpose: To measure and compare the efficiency of the channels 'physical retail store' and 'Internet' from the consumer´s view and thus, to find general patterns of rated channel efficiency. This will be achieved by investigating the individual channel value perception of certain channel specific criteria and by exploring the respective relevance of these criteria.   Research Questions: 1. What is the general channel efficiency of the channel physical retail store? 2. What is the general channel efficiency of the channel Internet? Method: A quantitative study in form of an online questionnaire has been conducted with German and Swedish students. 1 995 persons participated in the survey. The analysis has been carried out by using the computer software SPSS. Thus, the collected data could be edited with respect to the verification of the proposed hypotheses, the calculation and comparison of the respective channel efficiencies and additionally, the identification of patterns for gender and age groups. Research findings: The analysis of the collected data has shown that the three regarded criteria are of diverse importance and they are perceived differently for the channels physical retail stores and the Internet. Hence, the efficiency of those two channels is also unequal; physical retail stores reach a mean value of 46.8% and the Internet in turn achieves an average of 43.1%. This shows that both channels hold potential for improvement. When looking at patterns between gender and age groups, the authors could also identify interesting differentiations.

The purpose of this thesis is to explain how satisfaction, trust and commitment impacts customer retention and word-of-mouth communication within the industry of Speciality Stores. The study takes off from a historical perspective where the development of marketing is presented, which ultimately leads to customer relationship management (CRM). The study raises the components of customer loyalty and the difficulties of how to build successful customer relationships within the industry of Speciality Stores. A survey questionnaire is conducted and distributed digitally to respondents that are customers of an anonymous company within the industry under investigation. The main findings in this study are that companies within the industry of Speciality Stores can achieve word-of-mouth communication through customer satisfaction and trust. The study also finds that the features of customer satisfaction have a stronger impact on word-of-mouth communication than the features of trust. This means that it is these features of the ones treated in this study that companies within the industry of Speciality Stores should enact in order to best achieve word-of-mouth communication among its customers.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983.

隨著消費者行為的快速變化以及消費者對服務品質的要求提高，提供高品質的服務已經成為企業重要的策略。本研究透過「PZB 模型」從服務提供者和消費者兩個角度來探討台灣有機產業裡存在的服務缺口。 這些年有機連鎖店不斷的成長並成為重要的銷售通路之一，因此本研究選定有機連鎖公司以及有機連鎖店的消費者為研究對象。本研究採取個案研究方法，透過文獻、深度訪談、二手紀錄等方式蒐集資料，以有機連鎖公司以及消費者對服務缺口之觀點來分析及探討，並提出具參考價值的建議，讓相關企業未來可加以運用。 研究結果顯示目前有機產業裡的連鎖公司採取較被動的方式來了解消費者的需求；由於台灣有機產業裡的連鎖公司大多為中小企業，有限的能力和資源常成為滿足消費者需求最大的阻礙；有機連鎖公司缺乏服務品質的衡量指標，在供應商管理方面還需要加強；以上因素造成服務缺口的存在。此外，針對一般大眾對有機概念的推廣和教育還需要持續加強；產品資訊、品質、以及價格成為消費者在衡量服務品質的重要考量；加強推廣行動更能夠滿足消費者對有機產業的期望；另外，提升消費者對有機產品之信心亦為重要的改進方向。 / Facing rapid changes of customer behavior and increasing customers demand on service quality, delivering high quality service is adapted as an important strategy in businesses. This study applies the PZB Model to investigate the service gaps in the organic industry in Taiwan from the perspective of both service providers and customers. In recent years organic chain stores have become an important distribution channels for organic products. Therefore, organic chain store companies and organic chain stores customers are selected to be respondents. Using case study method, this study collects and analyzes data by collecting literature review, gathering secondary data, and conducting interviews with organic chain store companies and customers. The findings can serve as reference to future improvement in the industry. This study finds that current companies still use passive approaches to understand customer demands. Since most of companies in this industry are small and medium enterprises, limited capabilities and resources often become barriers when fulfilling customer demands. Companies are lacking of service performance measurement and quality improvement program. All of these situations can cause the existence of service gaps. Other findings showed that in general organic customers already have an understanding of the organic concept. However, the industry still needs efforts to communicate with people who currently aren’t customers. Product information, product quality, and price become important considerations for customers in assessing service quality in this industry. Moreover, customer trust and confidence in organic products should be increased and became an important focus of the government as well as the management to stimulate industry growth.