Trust Based Buyer-Supplier Relationship Will Further Assist Boots.com's Business Development Strategy for Product Line Extension

In the last twenty years the research on inter-organizational relationship has been growing, it circles around the idea that intensive competition in the marketplace is making it too expensive for one firm to do everything on its own. The widespread belief that companies should focus on their core competencies (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990) has led to an outsourcing trend and in increasing awareness of the importance of a competitive supply base. There is a strong belief and a general agreement that company require a variety of relationships, while there is not a 'best' type of relationship exist. However, trust in exchange relationship has been hypothesized to be a valuable economic asset because it has been described as an important antecedent to effective inter-organizational collaboration (Sako, 1991; Smith, Carroll and Ashford, 1995) The aim of this paper is to examine the importance of building a good buyer-supplier relationship for Boots.com's product line extension business growth strategy. Thus examine the validity of the research topic: 'Trust based buyer-supplier relationship will further assist Boots.com's business development strategy for product line extension'

A Study of Mazuism Religious Tourism in Taiwan: an Example of Dajia Jenn Lann Temple

Although the study of Mazuism has been popular among scholars, few have attempted to touch upon its religious tourist behaviour; however, as the purpose of their travel is to worship at the Mazu Temple, it is thus, a tourism destination. Therefore, from the perspective of religious sustainable operation, it is important to understand the tourist behavior patterns of religious tourists visiting Mazu Temple. The purpose of this study is to analyze the interrelationships between destination image, service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioural intention. This study is conducted with convenience sampling methods for tourists visiting Jenn Lann Temple in Dajia, Taichung, Taiwan, and a total of 408 valid questionnaires are obtained. The valid questionnaires collected in this study are statistically analysed using descriptive statistics and PLS. The results show that destination image, service quality, perceived value, and satisfaction have positive impacts on tourists’ behavioural intention. According to the results of the above analysis, this study constructs a religious tourism behaviour model of Mazu believers and gives management advice to the Mazu Temple

An Empirical Study Of It Development In The Banking Industry Of Taiwan

The focal point adopted in the present study is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and its adoption in Taiwan’s banking industry. Since the current challenge banks are facing is in implementing and supporting new technological solutions that will enable them to be more responsive and flexible to their clients, a quantitative research methodology was employed in the present study in an attempt to answer the following research question: What are the critical factors that explain the degree of success in the deployment of CRM systems in Taiwan’s banking industry? First, based on the findings from the previous studies, an exploratory study consisting of focus-group interviews was conducted to uncover the nature of the problems confronting the banks in adopting CRM. Second, based on the findings from this preliminary investigation, a quantitative analysis using survey and statistical methods was conducted to identify possible answers to the research question. The research done with the present study has uncovered a number of factors which can be used to guide companies for a successful CRM deployment. These factors include primacy of customer service, customizing CRM functions/modules, discovering customers’ needs, maintaining employee’s moral, conducting a decision support system. If the major goal of implementing a CRM system is to improve the overall CRM deployment, the management in Taiwan’s banking industry should then emphasize three of two factors: primacy of customer service and customizing CRM functions/modules

A Study on the Management Effectiveness and Problems of Tribal Colleges in Taiwan

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the development background and objectives of indigenous tribal colleges, and to understand the effectiveness and problems of its management in Taiwan. After SWOT analysis, the main findings are as follows: 1. Advantages: the unique culture of indigenous people is an opportunity for economic development. In addition, the protection of laws and regulations is the main advantage of tribal college. 2. Weakness: under the current economic system, the indigenous people are limited in land use, inconvenient transportation, inadequate agricultural technology, and unsmooth sales channels, which limit their economic development. 3. Threats: because the population flows to the city, the tribal people do not understand what kind of institution the tribal university is, and some of the funds have to be paid by the learners themselves, resulting in the low participation of the tribal people. Moreover, the units that handle tribal college are almost different every year, which affects the preservation of data. 4. Opportunities: the existence of tribal college also provides an opportunity for the inheritance and reconstruction of indigenous culture. Based on the above analysis, this study puts forward relevant suggestions for the management of tribal colleg

HOWCAN MULTI- CHANNEL RETAILING FURTHER EXPAND THEIR PRODUCT RANGE WHILST SUSTAINING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND SATISFACTION FOR BOOTS.COM?

The Nottingham MBA team were assigned to explore online product range extension of Boots.com from marketing, supply chain and financial perspectives. Firstly, from the marketing perspective we explored the market attractiveness, profitability, challenges of expanding the product lines in online industry specifically. Initially we identified the existing customer segments and the emerging customer segments, to better understand the target customers for extending the product line. We also considered market-product life cycle for applying the marketing strategies by considering the market, product and brand parameters by benchmarking with key players in the industry and industry trends. This enabled us to identify the areas of growth for extending the product line for Boots.com. Furthermore, future distribution method '�¢â�¬�� New Fangled Drop ship model was also evaluated to provide efficient delivery for extended product range in the area of supply chain management. After that, key performance indicators (KPI's) for sustaining customer experience and satisfaction across different channels is also suggested. Lastly we analysed the financial implications of extending the product line, by identifying the key future revenue generators for Boots.com. Considering this as the foundation we developed the hypotheses which were to be answered through the study. H1: For online product expansion in e-retailing, strategic market planning process necessitates careful examination of market attractiveness, typically in shaping market attractiveness, factors such as market size, market growth, competition, segmentation, targeting and positioning, margin potential and the company's core competencies. H2: In moving into new markets, the critical success factors include leveraging on brand/reputation and capability. The timing of products and customer segmentation are important for market attractiveness. H3: Good inventory management, cost-effective and efficient delivery and supply for new product protect margin and profitability. H4: In Key Performance Measurement ('KPI') for sustaining customer experience and satisfaction for Boots.com, Channel Alignment, Drop Ship and Efficient Standardised Delivery Methods for all products are used. The hypotheses were answered through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. For analysing Boots.com internally we looked into Boots.com's internal data which was provided to us from all the perspectives of Sales and Marketing, Supply Chain and Financials. For understanding from customer perspective in terms of new products from marketing view point and understanding the customer experience in terms of delivery methods from multi channel retailing and supply chain view point, we conducted various levels of surveys for collecting the data. This cemented our research and analysis of data we collected from the industry reports. The results and finding reinforced our hypotheses in extending the product line from marketing, supply chain and financial perspectives. Finally, our research and analysis enabled us to recommend the key areas of product line extension for Boots.com and the scope of improvement for the future drop ship model. Based on the screening criteria of market attractiveness and business position, we have recommended five products which can be further maximised and taken further. These products are seen to be financially viable based on the projected future cash flow, projected profit margin, and net present value to signify increasing shareholders wealth. For Boots.com, these financial viability must be accompanied by Key Performance Indicators which are intrinsically linked to continuous improvement. To conclude, we also considered Boots.com's future road map for showcasing the future direction by incorporating these recommendations

On The Orbital Evolution of Jupiter Mass Protoplanet Embedded in A Self-Gravity Disk

We performed a series of hydro-dynamic simulations to investigate the orbital migration of a Jovian planet embedded in a proto-stellar disk. In order to take into account of the effect of the disk's self gravity, we developed and adopted an \textbf{Antares} code which is based on a 2-D Godunov scheme to obtain the exact Reimann solution for isothermal or polytropic gas, with non-reflecting boundary conditions. Our simulations indicate that in the study of the runaway (type III) migration, it is important to carry out a fully self consistent treatment of the gravitational interaction between the disk and the embedded planet. Through a series of convergence tests, we show that adequate numerical resolution, especially within the planet's Roche lobe, critically determines the outcome of the simulations. We consider a variety of initial conditions and show that isolated, non eccentric protoplanet planets do not undergo type III migration. We attribute the difference between our and previous simulations to the contribution of a self consistent representation of the disk's self gravity. Nevertheless, type III migration cannot be completely suppressed and its onset requires finite amplitude perturbations such as that induced by planet-planet interaction. We determine the radial extent of type III migration as a function of the disk's self gravity.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure