Private label in the supermarket industry : a case study of ICA

ABSTRACT   Title: Private label in the supermarket industry: a case study of ICA.   Level: Final thesis for a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration   Author: Zhing Mo, Yulan Qu   Supervisor: Dr. Aihie Osarenkhoe   Date: 2010 – May   Aim: This dissertation aims to find out the motives behind the introduction of private label in ICA. The purpose is to further integrate the private label as a branding concept.    Method: Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in this research. The primary data has been collected through face-to-face interviews with ICA managers and an administer questionnaire. Secondary data has been collected from books, articles and the Internet.   Limitations: This research was limited by the size of the customer population and the number of stores. In addition the research was performed during the early stages of market penetration by ICA’s private label, and the results of future research might be different.   Conclusions: ICA released private label to counter manufacturer power and to be more price competitive. Moreover, it had a positive effect on customers’ loyalty. The introduction of the ICA private label had a great impact on brand image and brand awareness. With regards to loyalty, the ICA private label strategy is on the correct track but still has a gap between the intended objective and actuality.    Contribution of the thesis: This research contributes to finding out the advantages for retailers of introducing private label. Another contribution is to help the readers gain an in-depth understanding of private label in a brand concept. Moreover the research also presents some interesting prospects for further research.   Key words: private label, brand image, brand awareness, brand loyalt

Private label in the supermarket industry : a case study of ICA

ABSTRACT   Title: Private label in the supermarket industry: a case study of ICA.   Level: Final thesis for a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration   Author: Zhing Mo, Yulan Qu   Supervisor: Dr. Aihie Osarenkhoe   Date: 2010 – May   Aim: This dissertation aims to find out the motives behind the introduction of private label in ICA. The purpose is to further integrate the private label as a branding concept.    Method: Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in this research. The primary data has been collected through face-to-face interviews with ICA managers and an administer questionnaire. Secondary data has been collected from books, articles and the Internet.   Limitations: This research was limited by the size of the customer population and the number of stores. In addition the research was performed during the early stages of market penetration by ICA’s private label, and the results of future research might be different.   Conclusions: ICA released private label to counter manufacturer power and to be more price competitive. Moreover, it had a positive effect on customers’ loyalty. The introduction of the ICA private label had a great impact on brand image and brand awareness. With regards to loyalty, the ICA private label strategy is on the correct track but still has a gap between the intended objective and actuality.    Contribution of the thesis: This research contributes to finding out the advantages for retailers of introducing private label. Another contribution is to help the readers gain an in-depth understanding of private label in a brand concept. Moreover the research also presents some interesting prospects for further research.   Key words: private label, brand image, brand awareness, brand loyalt

Engaging Customers : How e-commerce companies can use customer involvement to create a superior online shopping experience

Topic: Co-creation of experience Research gap: The number of papers focusing on customer involvement and customer experience has increased significantly in recent years. However, there is a lack of studies on how companies can use customer involvement for creating a better customer experience jointly with customers, which Prahalad & Ramaswamy (2000, 2003, 2004) refer to as the co-creation of experience. Purpose: By this paper we want to develop an understanding of how e-commerce companies can use customer involvement to create a superior online shopping experience. Theoretical basis of our paper: Customer involvement (e.g. von Hippel); experience co-creation (Prahalad & Ramaswamy) Methodology: We conducted in-depth interviews with nine Swedish, Norwegian and Chinese e-commerce companies from different industries to collect data on how they use customer involvement and/or co-creation. The interviews were semi-structured interviews which consisted mostly of open-ended questions. In order to be able to identify patterns and learn about the nature of how companies involve customers, a qualitative multi-case study design was used. Findings: The main findings are that some e-commerce companies have already realized the importance of the customer experience and also already involve their customers in various forms for co-creating experience. However, none of the companies completely fulfils the criteria of experience co-creation as defined in the theoretical articles by Prahalad & Ramaswamy (2000, 2003, 2004). Practical implications: E-commerce companies have many options to provide a better online shopping experience by involving customers as co-creators. Research limitations: Due to the sample size and the fact that a convenience sample was chosen, the results cannot be generalized. Originality/value: This study can provide insights into opportunities for the co-creation of experience in the case of e-commerce companies. Keywords: Customer involvement, Experience co-creation, Experience, E-commerce, Innovation community

Biocomposites prepared by alkaline phosphatase mediated mineralization of alginate microbeads

This study set out to develop a biomimetic scaffold by incorporating osteoinductive hydroxyapatite (HA) particles into a porous alginate gel matrix via a cell-friendly pathway. Two types of alginate/calcium phosphate (Alg/CP) composites were prepared through alkaline phosphatase (ALP) mediated mineralization and counter-diffusion precipitation. Structural characteristics were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Thermal stability and mineral content were studied by means of thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld refinement showed the presence of bone-like hydroxyapatite. Our studies suggested that the gradual nature of enzymatic process together with alginate matrices provide regulation of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite formation. The ALP-mediated mineralization process has great advantages over counter-diffusion precipitation, providing homogenous mineral distributions, smaller crystal sizes, and increased apparent Young's moduli, which creates a better structure for bone defect repair scaffolds

Reaction behaviors and synergistic effects for co-pyrolysis of Huadian oil shale and waste tire

In order to improve the efficiency of oil shale pyrolysis and the utilization value of semi-coke, this paper co-pyrolyzed Huadian oil shale and waste tire.The weight loss behavior, product yield and composition properties of co-pyrolysis were investigated by thermogravimetric analyzer and aluminum retort reactor.The synergistic effect was analyzed based on the difference between experimental and calculated values.The results show that co-pyrolysis can promote the release of volatile matter, the actual weight loss is higher than the calculated value at 500 ℃, and reaches the maximum value of 2.86 % when the proportion of waste tire is 80 %.The mixed pyrolysis of oil shale and waste tire has the effect of "increasing oil and reducing water".When the waste tire accounts for 50 %, the actual oil yield is 32.91 %, which is 1.5 % higher than the calculated value, and the actual water yield is 1.20 % to 1.77 % lower than the calculated value.Meanwhile, the content of heavy components with boiling point higher than 350 ℃ in the pyrolysis oil increases.There is higher yield of C1~C4 hydrocarbons from waste tire pyrolysis, and the calorific value of semi-coke is up to 30.43 MJ/kg.Co-pyrolysis can also improve the calorific value of pyrolysis gas and semi-coke

Systematic genome editing of the genes on zebrafish Chromosome 1 by CRISPR/Cas9

Genome editing by the well-established CRISPR/Cas9 technology has greatly facilitated our understanding of many biological processes. However, a complete whole-genome knockout for any species or model organism has rarely been achieved. Here, we performed a systematic knockout of all the genes (1333) on Chromosome 1 in zebrafish, successfully mutated 1029 genes, and generated 1039 germline-transmissible alleles corresponding to 636 genes. Meanwhile, by high-throughput bioinformatics analysis, we found that sequence features play pivotal roles in effective gRNA targeting at specific genes of interest, while the success rate of gene targeting positively correlates with GC content of the target sites. Moreover, we found that nearly one-fourth of all mutants are related to human diseases, and several representative CRISPR/Cas9-generated mutants are described here. Furthermore, we tried to identify the underlying mechanisms leading to distinct phenotypes between genetic mutants and antisense morpholino-mediated knockdown embryos. Altogether, this work has generated the first chromosome-wide collection of zebrafish genetic mutants by the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which will serve as a valuable resource for the community, and our bioinformatics analysis also provides some useful guidance to design gene-specific gRNAs for successful gene editing

Determination of the number of ψ(3686)\psi(3686) events at BESIII

The numbers of ψ(3686) events accumulated by the BESIII detector for the data taken during 2009 and 2012 are determined to be and , respectively, by counting inclusive hadronic events, where the uncertainties are systematic and the statistical uncertainties are negligible. The number of events for the sample taken in 2009 is consistent with that of the previous measurement. The total number of ψ(3686) events for the two data taking periods is