Publicerad: 2022-12-15

Three recently published dissertations from the Centre for Retail Research shed light on the challenges faced by contemporary retail management.

In the final months of 2022, no less than three of the Centre for Retail Research's PhD students defended their doctoral theses. First up was Ebba Eriksson, from the Faculty of Engineering who defended her thesis on 11 November. In Ebba's thesis, she explores the omnichannel transformation in grocery retail in a series of five articles. While the transofrmation to omnichannel might sound straightforward in theory, grocery retailers often struggle to succeed in practice, particularly when it comes to being profitable. Ebba's thesis makes several important contributions for researchers and practitioners who want to understand how grocery retailers should manage the omnichannel transformation.

Read Ebba Eriksson's thesis - Exploring the omnichannel transformation of material-handling configurations and logistics capabilities in grocery retail 
 

On 1 December, it was the turn of Karla Marie Batingen Paredes, from the Department of Innovation Engineering. Karla's thesis focused on how to build retail's capability for innovation. As the rules of retail continue to change, many retailers are not only asking, “how can we innovate better?” but also "how can we innovate differently?” Karla's thesis aims to explore how retail incumbents can develop a systematic and sustained approach to innovation through management practices and mechanisms, and the challenges that they face in this journey of building innovation capability. 

Read Karla Marie Batingen Paredes's thesis - Building Innovation Capability in Retail: Towards a systematic and sustained approach to innovation in large retail organizations 
 

Last but not least, Anna Spitzkat from the Institute for Service Management defended her thesis on 9 December. Anna's thesis is titled Understanding Social Media Shopping: Instagram and the reconfiguration of the practice of shopping and, in it, Anna examines the consequences of introducing social media to the
practice of shopping. The dissertation offers new insights into technology-driven consumption and sheds light on a special group of consumers who have firmly integrated social media into their everyday lives. 

Read Anna Spitzkat's thesis - Understanding Social Media Shopping: Instagram and the reconfiguration of the practice of shopping
 

Congratulations to all our new doctors!