After the deregulation of the Swedish pharmacy market customers can be lost due to stock-outs. Optimization of pharmacy inventory levels has thus become increasingly important. To minimize inventory costs while considering the cost of shortages the latter must be estimated. However, the shortage cost is very difficult to compute. Thus, the aim of this paper is to estimate the pharmacy-specific shortage cost parameter and its relation to other inventory costs.

ABSTRACTThe privatization of pharmacies in Sweden took place in 2009, in part with higher availability of medicines as justification. For a good adherence, the patients needs a good availability of medicines from pharmacies. The aim of the study was that two years after the pharmacy reform study older people?s opinions on drug supply and pharmacy services, and which pharmacy chains they know about and use. The method used was a quantitative cross-sectional study and was conducted using questionnaires.

ABSTRACTThe privatization of pharmacies in Sweden took place in 2009, in part with higher availability of medicines as justification. For a good adherence, the patients needs a good availability of medicines from pharmacies. The aim of the study was that two years after the pharmacy reform study older people?s opinions on drug supply and pharmacy services, and which pharmacy chains they know about and use. The method used was a quantitative cross-sectional study and was conducted using questionnaires.

The most vital for a business is to understand how to please and satisfy its customers in order to make them loyal to the company. Companies weapon for competition in the retail business is defined through the retail mix. The retailer however often have limited resources whereas they have to prioritize between the factors included in the retail mix. The main purpose for this paper is to investigate what kind of internal connections that may occur between the factors in the retail mix, with focus on the job satisfaction as a catalyst on driving the values of the parameters included in the retail mix, where the factor service is the starting shot for the others included..

The purpose was to create differentiation concepts due to the upcoming deregulation of the Swedish pharmacy monopoly. Apart from the theory, the study is based on interviews with pharmacy customers and experiences from former pharmacy market deregulations in some of the other Scandinavian countries. The result shows that a differentiation concept that could work in a shorter perspective is a low service quality but with lower prices and a unique location. In a longer perspective it seems like the concept should change to a more service orientated differentiation concept with a variation of high quality services to gain competitive advantage..

Research Question: Does the pharmacy market seem to change in accordance with the goals stipulated by the government due to the reregulation?This leads to the following sub-questions:Does it seem like the availability of medical drugs for consumers increase?Does it seem like service for consumers get enhanced?Does it seem like the supply of services for consumers increase?Does it seem like the costs of medical drugs are maintained?Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the trends resulting from the reregulation of the pharmacy monopoly correspond to the goals stipulated by the government.The purpose is furthermore to compare the reregulation of other Swedish markets and the reregulation of the pharmacy market in other Nordic countries in order to heed their lessons.Method: This study uses method triangulation, with a questionnaire directed to pharmacy customers forming the quantitative basis and interviews with specialists regarding the pharmacy market, forming the qualitative. The study also draws heavily on historic data regarding reregulation of Swedish markets and reregulation of the pharmacy market in other Nordic countries.Conclusions:Availability of medical drugs has increased and will presumably continue to do so. Service quality has increased somewhat and will presumably continue to do so.Supply of services has increased and it will presumably continue to do so.The cost of medical drugs will only increase if it is required in order to satisfy the other goals.  .

Studiens syfte är att utveckla storbankernas Retail Banking verksamheter genom att studera detaljhandeln, de nya bankaktörerna och storbankerna. Det empiriska materialet baseras på åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer inom bank- och detaljhandelsbranschen Studien konstaterar att storbankerna måste utveckla sina Retail Banking verksamheter för att bemöta konkurrensen från andra bankaktörer. Genom förbättrade CRM-system, bättre nyttjande av distributionskanaler och mer försäljningsinriktade organisationer är storbankerna redo för framtidens Retail Banking..

Goal: To describe which evaluation method is used by Swedish retailers to assess a potential retail location and to describe to what extent the retail brand effects this strategic decision. Design: Analysis of ten interviews with companies within five retail sectors in Sweden. Main study: Indication of what methods are used to evaluate a location and how a company's retail brand affects the decision. Results: Retailers use a mix of theoretical methods to evaluate the location attributes and possible profit. Most common among mixtures was an application of the analog method, residual method or the checklist method in combination with a financial assessment.

The aim of this thesis is, from a business perspective, to examine how the pharmacy chain Medstop is working with their positioning in order to achieve competitiveness in the re-regulated pharmacy market. This is studied through a theoretical framework that demonstrates five forces that affects the competitiveness in an industry, the five-force model by Michael Porter.The thesis is a qualitative case study where data collection was done through interviews, literature, articles, websites and internal information from Medstop. The data was then complied into the theoretical perspective the authors have chosen for this paper, the five-force model by Michael Porter. This model was chosen because it gives a broad description of the competition a company faces by describing five different forces that affect the competition within a branch. The fact was collected on the basis of the marketing strategy positioning, and the essay is written from a business perspective.Our cunclusions are that the pharmacy chain Medstop are in their initial positioning and has chosen to position itself on the basis of their core values; credibility, safety and security.

This thesis attempts to clarify the impact of cultural differenceson customer expectations of service level. Furthermore, wewant to determine whether or not expectations of service differenough to be quantifiable between two countries, Sweden andthe US, mostly regarded as similar in business practices. The conclusion showed that higher ratings on four of Hofstede?s five cultural indexes were associated with higher customer service expectations overall, and in all four SERVQUAL dimensions. This research contributes to retail internationalization and customer expectations theory.

The purpose of this thesis was to illuminate and create a deeper understanding of how small niche retail businesses within the apparel industry position themselves. We aimed to investi-gate how these small niche retail businesses create their position and how they communicate these positions to their target market. To be able to investigate the positioning-process within these small niche retail businesses a case study was conducted based on interviews with two respondents from two different companies and observations of these businesses physical envi-ronments. The study indicated that the small niche retail businesses mainly make use of emo-tional aspects and their assortment range to create their position. To communicate their posi-tion to their target market they mainly use their in-store personal selling and their assortment range..

During the last years, the pharmacy market undergone major changes. Re-regulation that has been done in 2009 meant that monopoly was unlocked for competition. In a market where firms offer equivalent products, increases the importance of delivery service as competitive tool to differentiate themselves among the crowd. This also applies to pharmacy market where the supplies of goods in large way consist of equivalent products regardless of the company.This case study observes the importance of delivery service in terms of competitive tool on pharmacy market by focusing on a company?s improvement in delivery service.

The Swedish pharmacy market will be re-regulated in July 2009 which will present private actors with an opportunity to enter the market. Several risks and uncertainties are associated with such an entry. The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of identification and management of risks and uncertainties associated with entering the Swedish pharmacy market. We also intend to investigate similarities and differences in risk identification and risk management as well as create an understanding of the underlying reasons for these similarities and differences. Three companies interested in entering the market have been interviewed and the interviews were conducted with an open approach to avoid influencing the companies? answers.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to test four different hypotheses from the aspect of the title of this paper. H 1 Consumers trust the pharmacy employees? advice and suggestions for their purchase decisions more than the brand awareness they have received through the companies marketing communication H 2 Consumers are enough affected of a company?s marketing communication to choose their brand even if the pharmacy employees recommend other brands. H 3 Building brand equity through pharmacies can only be successful if the company has built up a trust for their brand among the pharmacy employees. H 4 Without building brand equity the marketing communication strategy for Ferrosan cannot increase their brand value and create loyalty.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to test four different hypotheses from the aspect of the title of this paper. H 1 Consumers trust the pharmacy employees? advice and suggestions for their purchase decisions more than the brand awareness they have received through the companies marketing communication H 2 Consumers are enough affected of a company?s marketing communication to choose their brand even if the pharmacy employees recommend other brands. H 3 Building brand equity through pharmacies can only be successful if the company has built up a trust for their brand among the pharmacy employees. H 4 Without building brand equity the marketing communication strategy for Ferrosan cannot increase their brand value and create loyalty. Methodology: The research method that was chosen is a detective argumentation that starts from theories and explain different parameters regarding the subject I am concentration on. It is a case study where the companies branding strategy towards pharmacies in Sweden is analyzed bys a mix of semi-structured interviews, documentation analysis and a quantitative research . Theoretical framework: The theoretical model that has been prepared gives me the possibility to analyze different parameters regarding branding that are important when building a brand in an new market.