The lifecycle of fashion products get shorter and shorter. Companies in the fashion business needto make sure that they can offer their customers the right products, in the right quantity at theexact right time. The competition on the fashion market today is tough and if companies aregoing to be successful they need to have access to the most reliable suppliers, and also offer theircustomers products with high quality to attractive prices. It is therefore of highest importance toevaluate and choose the right sourcing strategy. Product category and type of organisation aresome of the factors that will determine which strategy that is most appropriate. The purpose withthis study is to investigate the possibilities for Swedish fashion brands to source from thePortuguese and the Chinese supplier markets. Based on selected theories and empirics we havedetermined the advantages and disadvantages for a Swedish company with small quantities andfocus on design on both markets. Since we had the opportunity to visit a Portuguese sourcingcompany the main focus will be on Portugal in this study.We have used a hermeneutic perspective in our study and have alternated between theory andempirics. We have been working close to our objects of the study and tried to put our results intoa bigger perspective to be able to get a greater understanding for the subject. Our empirics arebased on the interviews we made at the Portuguese sourcing company and at their sister companyin Gothenburg. The theory and empirical materials have been analysed and our conclusions arebased on these results.Our conclusion is that both the Portuguese and Chinese supplier market can be a good alternativefor Swedish fashion brands with small quantities and focus on design. Both markets havedifferent advantages and disadvantages regarding supplier performance such as price, quality,flexibility and lead times. We think that the selection of supplier market should be based uponorganizational and product issues like volume and the importance of design. / Program: Textilekonomutbildningen

Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Relationship marketing has received much attention and widespread publicity over the past ten years and has moved to the forefront of research and practice. It provides companies with a management tool to establish economically profitable relationships, networks and interactions with different, but equally important stakeholder markets. The marketing concept as reflected in the four P's of the marketing mix was prominent in marketing practice and thinking until the mid-1980s, when reference to customer relationships and relationship building began to appear in the literature and became the focus of much research. The marketing concept, although still relevant, was expanded to include the dimension of relationships. The shift fiom transactional to relationship-based marketing has many implications for product and service based business. Marketing can no longer be viewed as a separate function to which an organisation can assign responsibility for the customer while the rest of the organisation gets on with their tasks. Rather, the relationship-based view of marketing places the responsibility for marketing (as defined broadly) on everyone in the organisation. In other words, it is the responsibility of every employee within the organisation to satisfy the needs of customers. A relationship marketing orientation can therefore create a competitive edge for an organisation and can also have a positive impact on organisational performance. In a highly competitive, global environment organisations are focussing more attention on building sustainable, competitive advantages by developing and maintaining close, cooperative relationships with a limited set of suppliers, customers and channel members. Through these relationships, organisations create value by differentiating their offering and/or lowering their costs. The term "relationship marketing" is therefore applied to a number of different marketing activities ranging from consumer frequency marketing programs to selling activities directed towards building partnerships with key customers. The focus of this study is to investigate the mutually beneficial nature of establishing long term relationships in supplier markets, customer markets, internal markets, recruitment markets, internal markets and influence markets. The different principles which are important to improve and professionally manage the relationships in the markets listed above, are identified and discussed. These principles were tested in travel agencies in the Western Cape province to determine their current and ideal application in a travel and tourism environment. The calculation of effect sizes were based on the difference between the current and ideal application of the principles within travel agencies in the Western Cape. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

Relationship marketing has received much attention and widespread publicity over the past ten years and has moved to the forefront of research and practice. It provides companies with a management tool to establish economically profitable relationships, networks and interactions with different, but equally important stakeholder markets. The marketing concept as reflected in the four P's of the marketing mix was prominent in marketing practice and thinking until the mid-1980s, when reference to customer relationships and relationship building began to appear in the literature and became the focus of much research. The marketing concept, although still relevant, was expanded to include the dimension of relationships. The shift fiom transactional to relationship-based marketing has many implications for product and service based business. Marketing can no longer be viewed as a separate function to which an organisation can assign responsibility for the customer while the rest of the organisation gets on with their tasks. Rather, the relationship-based view of marketing places the responsibility for marketing (as defined broadly) on everyone in the organisation. In other words, it is the responsibility of every employee within the organisation to satisfy the needs of customers. A relationship marketing orientation can therefore create a competitive edge for an organisation and can also have a positive impact on organisational performance. In a highly competitive, global environment organisations are focussing more attention on building sustainable, competitive advantages by developing and maintaining close, cooperative relationships with a limited set of suppliers, customers and channel members. Through these relationships, organisations create value by differentiating their offering and/or lowering their costs. The term "relationship marketing" is therefore applied to a number of different marketing activities ranging from consumer frequency marketing programs to selling activities directed towards building partnerships with key customers. The focus of this study is to investigate the mutually beneficial nature of establishing long term relationships in supplier markets, customer markets, internal markets, recruitment markets, internal markets and influence markets. The different principles which are important to improve and professionally manage the relationships in the markets listed above, are identified and discussed. These principles were tested in travel agencies in the Western Cape province to determine their current and ideal application in a travel and tourism environment. The calculation of effect sizes were based on the difference between the current and ideal application of the principles within travel agencies in the Western Cape. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007