The international marketing strategy of grocery retailers – the strategy of adaptation and standardization

Research question – The research question, that this study attempts to answer, is, what and why grocery retailers, which specifically work with the strategy of standardization, adapt in their marketing mix to the host market. Main adaptations are analyzed with regard to psychic distance in terms of consumer characteristics. Methodology – This study presents a qualitative research design. Secondary data, in-depth interviews and personal observations were used, in order to identify adaptations, which were conducted in a grocery retailer in Germany, which is its home market, and in Sweden, which is considered to be a host market. Findings – The main findings of this research indicate that grocery retailers that specifically work with the strategy of standardization, adopt their core strategy at the host market, in order to keep their economy of scale. However, the standardization strategy may cause negative financial results, which is why adaptations, in order to attract new customers, are required. Conclusively, a mix of both, the adaptation and standardization marketing strategy, has to be utilized.

Microstructural, Mechanical and Tribological Characterisation of CVD and PVD Coatings for Metal Cutting Applications

The present thesis focuses on characterisation of microstructure and the resulting mechanical and tribological properties of CVD and PVD coatings used in metal cutting applications. These thin and hard coatings are designed to improve the tribological performance of cutting tools which in metal cutting operations may result in improved cutting performance, lower energy consumption, lower production costs and lower impact on the environment.  In order to increase the understanding of the tribological behaviour of the coating systems a number of friction and wear tests have been performed and evaluated by post-test microscopy and surface analysis. Much of the work has focused on coating cohesive and adhesive strength, surface fatigue resistance, abrasive wear resistance and friction and wear behaviour under sliding contact and metal cutting conditions. The results show that the CVD deposition of accurate crystallographic phases, e.g. α-Al2O3 rather than κ-Al2O3, textures and multilayer structures can increase the wear resistance of Al2O3. However, the characteristics of the interfaces, e.g. topography as well as interfacial porosity, have a strong impact on coating adhesion and consequently on the resulting properties.  Through the deposition of well designed bonding and template layer structures the above problems may be eliminated. Also, the presence of macro-particles in PVD coatings may have a significant impact on the interfacial adhesive strength, increasing the tendency to coating spalling and lowering the surface fatigue resistance, as well as increasing the friction in sliding contacts. Finally, the CVD-Al2O3 coating topography influences the contact conditions in sliding as well as in metal cutting. In summary, the work illuminates the importance of understanding the relationships between deposition process parameters, composition and microstructure, resulting properties and tribological performance of CVD and PVD coatings and how this knowledge can be used to develop the coating materials of tomorrow.