Academic literature on the topic 'Other Retail Services'

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and tests a service excellence model, thus providing a detailed understanding of the key antecedents of service excellence, from a customer ' s perspective. The model presented in this paper is rooted in cross-disciplinary literature and tested amongst customers of UK retail banking services. Design/methodology/approach – Following a systematic approach to scale development, the paper draws on survey data from 260 consumers of retail banking products, with the data collected on national basis in the UK. Findings – The theoretical framework was evaluated using a structural approach. Of the hypothesised antecedents, innovation has the greatest impact on service excellence while reputation the least, as far as customers are concerned. Research limitations/implications – The research was limited to one research domain, i.e. UK retail banking, and thus it is reasonable to hypothesise that other aspects of service excellence will be more or less relevant for other types of financial services or in other geographic regions. Practical implications – Given the challenges faced by the retail banking sector, there are implications for practitioners because the authors identified the key antecedents of service excellence. The antecedents can be used by practitioners to help demonstrate excellence on their part and they could differentiate what are homogenous services at a time when the retail banks are going through a period of recovery following the crisis within the sector. Originality/value – This work complements the understanding of service excellence and provides insight for scholars and practitioners by modelling services for a specific service sector.

Introduction. Modern retail integrates the development of goods and services, their production, sale, exchange and consumption into a global network and is a basis for an accelerated development of services and trade. Network retailers offer consumers not only a wide range of goods and services, but also the opportunity to buy everything in one place, where a large retail space offers up to hundreds of thousands of items. It is network retail that has a purposeful impact not only on the economy of an individual country, but also on global economic processes. The aim of the article is to study the theoretical aspects and develop practical recommendations for improving the analytical efficiency of network retail. Results. The article examines approaches to the disclosure of the economic category of "retail". The state and peculiarities of the development of domestic network retail, problems and difficulties of their functioning are analyzed. It is determined that the development of network retail requires professional and quality retail branding, which is a complex category and includes the process of brand development for the retail network and includes components: marketing research; internal audit; creation of a unique logo of a retail trade network; development of the spatial environment of the retail trade network. The method of the analysis of activity of the network retailer in particular the complex comparative analysis of the network retail in the dynamic competitive environment is offered and the balanced system of indicators of the analysis of activity of the network retail is offered. Conclusions. The development of online retail creates new opportunities for business through the introduction of modern information systems, digitalization of production processes and business, the creation of e-shops and interactive storefronts. The activity of network retail, like any other enterprise, requires a qualitative and comprehensive analysis in order to strengthen its position in the market, a stable position in a competitive environment. Therefore, business owners, executives, senior managers and potential investors and business partners should pay significant attention to the analytical support of the effective operation of the network retailer in order to manage business, finance and further increase profitability.

The main purpose of this study is to consider the influence of internal and external factors on the development of services of retail trade networks. Studying the internal factors of development of services, it should be noted that for enterprises of network formats, which include retail trade networks, it is very important to have their own service standards, personalized approaches of interaction and contact with consumers to ensure the quality of the provision of trade services. Attentive attitude towards customers is ensured, among other things, by reducing the tension and intensity of staff work. The article presents a hypothesis about the identified internal and external factors affecting the development of retail trade networks, showing their influence or connection. Customer focus is seen as one of the priority factors and is divided into two categories in relation to customers and employees of the retail chain. The quality of trade services largely depends on the customer focus of consumers. Using a paired regression model, we analyzed the impact on the share of attracted customers in relation to factors such as customer satisfaction with the service in order to understand how satisfied consumers are with the interaction with the enterprise; average frequency of visits to the retail network (customer traffic) per week per 1 m2 of retail space; net support index; an indicator of dissatisfaction with the service. The dependence and influence of these factors on customer satisfaction have been determined. The analysis of environmental factors was carried out using the method of principal components, three groups of factors and their impact were identified. The resulting indicators of the «dynamics of retail trade turnover per capita» are the average per capita cash income of the region's population, the availability of retail space, the development of transport infrastructure, the proximity of administrative centers, accounting for which made it possible to forecast the dynamics of total regional income.

Retailing in India is growing at the rate of about 18-20 per cent per annum. As part of its strategy to gradually open it up to foreign competition, the government is also in the process of increasing foreign direct investment in the retail sector. At the same time, the urban consumer is becoming more discerning and demanding as far as the lifestyle is concerned. Urban Indian household income and purchasing power are also on the rise. Under such circumstances, the success of organized retailing in India mainly depends on delivery of services through quality improvements. In service organizations, customer-perceived service quality is considered as one of the key determinants of business performance. So far, in the Indian context, there is a dearth of tested instruments which can measure customer-perceived service quality of a retail store. At the same time, instruments developed in other countries have not been tested for their applicability in the Indian retail industry. It is in this context that this paper reports on the application of Dabholkar, Thorpe and Rentz's (1996) retail service quality scale in measuring the gap between the customers' expectations and their perceptions about the service quality of retail stores in India. Statistical analyses were performed to test the dimensionality of service quality and to examine the reliability of the scale. Finally, the analysis of the gap scores was used to suggest relevant improvements in the retail store service quality. The results indicate the following: Although the instrument was found to be quite reliable, the gap scores did not merge into five dimensions of service quality as proposed by the scale developers; rather, the gap scores roughly merged into nine dimensions. The instrument and the five dimensions of service quality may need considerable restructuring. A few statements which showed considerable reliability problems should be restated or substituted by more relevant statements. The instrument may not be applicable to the retail sector in India without further restructuring. Further research is necessary to understand retail store service quality in India. The analysis of the gap scores indicates that the highest perceived service gap lies in the policies of the retail stores, particularly, parking facilities provided by them. Apart from this, all other statements also show a negative gap implying the need for considerable improvements in retail service quality. Therefore, as organized retailing develops in India, retail stores in India will have to improve the quality of their services significantly in order to compete successfully in the global marketplace.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of source credibility (expertise and trustworthiness) on perceived value (perceived usefulness (PU)), as well as the latter’s impact on sub-dimensions of customer citizenship behaviour (helping and advocacy intentions (AIs)) in an electronic banking services setting. Design/methodology/approach In total, 439 respondents who use at least one form of electronic banking service and who have previously received positive messages about electronic banking services from other customers were approached to complete a self-administered structured questionnaire. Findings Source credibility dimensions have a positive and significant relationship with PU. PU in turn has a positive and significant relationship with helping intentions and AIs as forms of customer citizenship. Research limitations/implications The findings advance understanding of the extent to which customers rely on the perceptions of other customers in determining the usefulness of a service as well as their willingness to advocate the benefits of the service and help other customers. Practical implications The findings may guide retail banks in obtaining a greater understanding of the customer citizenship behaviour process and the extent to which banks can rely on customers to convince other customers of the benefits of electronic banking services. Originality/value This study offers insight into the antecedents of the advocacy and helping intentions sub-dimensions of customer citizenship behaviour. It also explains how value between customers can be created by considering the elaboration likelihood model and social exchange theories, and customer citizenship behaviour.

Emergence and evolution of information technologies paved way for the online transactions, termed as e-commerce. E-commerce was soon rechristened as wired e-commerce due to the rapid rise of mobile phone and other handheld devices facilitating access to internet while on the go and this led to the coining of the term m-commerce, the wireless avatar of e-commerce. Term Mobile commerce or simply m-commerce has been attributed to the collection of location based commercial services that are delivered by various internet enabled handheld devices such as mobile phones, tablets and palmtop devices. Though, essentially, both-e-commerce and m-commerce- are similar as the transactions are electronic in nature and are facilitated by internet but the element of mobility is one big differentiator between the two. Now, it has become difficult for the people to imagine e-commerce without the mobility dimension appended to it. In today’s online business environment, m-commerce is growing as next stage of e-commerce. Further, M-commerce has opened up new vistas for marketing the products, for targeting the customers at multiple points, for offering customized services using location based features and for enabling enhanced shopping and service experiences. It also offers opportunities for services that are more efficient and more user-friendly. The marketers may also offer new approaches, apps, and in-store solutions for enhanced customer engagement after researching the needs, roles and use contexts of the customers. Marketers have already started talking about mobile conversion funnel besides desktop conversion funnel. It is quite interesting to note that in mature markets, shape of the funnel is different and has higher purchase conversion rate.

This paper explores how the language policy of Ukraine is established in the retail and services sphere. The analysis focuses on the Ukrainian legislation which regulates the use of the official language and other languages in advertising, product information, and services. In the period of the Ukrainian state independence, the language use in the retail and servi-ces sphere is determined by Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine which lays down the basic principles for the operation of languages in Ukraine and the legislative documents which regu-late customer-provider relationships and contain requirements for goods and consumer services.The article states that information should be provided to the consumer in accordance with the lan-guage legislation requirements. The Law “On Languages in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic” (1989) and especially the so-called “Kivalov – Kolesnichenko language law” did not guarantee Ukrainian citizens the right to receive information and to be served in the official language, i.e., in Ukrainian. The 2019 language law, Article 30, however, obliges all service providers to serve consumers and provide information about goods and services in Ukrainian. Keywords: sociolinguistics, language policy, retail and services sphere, Ukrainian language.

The lack of trade services can lead to a decrease in the quality of life of the population, and as a result, the outflow of the population to other regions. It is necessary to assess the dynamics, scale and level of retail trade development in the Khabarovsk Territory, to assess the intraregional differentiation of the population's access to retail trade services. Conclusions are drawn about an increase in the concentration of trade in the cities of Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, as well as an increase in the differentiation in the consumption of retail trade services in the regions of the region. Areas with insufficient provision of retail space were identified. The directions of state regulation in this matter are proposed.

Australia has set a strong ambition to capture opportunities presented by the emerging digital economy. While much discussion has focussed on the significant investment being made in broadband infrastructure, it is important to recognise that a range of other factors will also impact Australia’s ability to realise this vision of a dynamic digital market. Not least will be the requirement for the highest levels of satisfaction across a complex service delivery environment encompassing retail and business consumers, today’s retail and wholesale service providers, early phase digital content providers as well as the full range of future digital application services providers.This challenge transcends access network architecture and technology considerations, while highlighting the complex array of technology, process and systems components required to deliver digital services in the global marketplace. Successfully addressing this challenge is fundamental to ensuring Australia develops an effective service delivery ecosystem to underpin its digital future.This paper makes the case for industry to turn its attention to the operational market structure and processes that will support this future environment, together with the key multi-party relationships and interdependencies that will underpin the required high levels of user experience and Australia’s ultimate success.

ABSTRACT The study aims to analyze the influence of the services quality and relational efforts relational satisfaction, relational outcomes and retention of customers in the retail business in the city of Banjarmasin. The population in this study is the consumer supermarket in the city of Banjarmasin, such as Hypermart, Giant. Lottemart, and Ramayana Robinson. Given the respondents in this study is homogeneous, so that the sample collection technique is systematic random sampling with selected respondents must meet predetermined criteria standards. because the population is not limited to, the proportional method used to determine the number of samples as many as 200. Data analysis using SPSS and AMOS 20.0 software. From the test results that, only 7 hypothesis have a significant effect, namely: services Quality has significantly influence to customer satisfaction of retail transactions in Banjarmasin. Quality of service is a significant effect on the retention of retail customers in the city of Banjarmasin. Relational Efforts significant effect on satisfaction of customer transactions in Banjarmasin. Relational efforts has significant influence to outcome relational. Satisfaction transaction has significant influence to outcome relational retail customers in the city of Banjarmasin. Transactions Satisfaction has significant effect to the customer retention of retail customers in the city of Banjarmasin. Outcome relational has significant effect on the customersretention in the city of Banjarmasin.While two other hypothesis has not significant are: Quality of service not significant effect on relational outcomes retail customers in the city of Banjarmasin. Efforts relational no significant effect on the retention of retail customers in the city of Banjarmasin. Keywords: Service Quality, Relational Effort, Transaction Satisfaction, Relational Outcomes, Customer Retention

The highly variable demand of fast fashion causes retailers in the industry to face large uncertainties when allocating initial inventory batches across multiple locations. Further into the selling season, inventory imbalances might arise as an effect of deviations from expected demand. To mitigate these imbalances, retailers can make use of lateral transshipments of inventory from locations with excess stock to those facing the risk of a stockout. Such transshipments require models for determining what and how much to ship as well as when to ship it. This thesis investigates how such a model can be applied on replenishment warehouse level in a fast-fashion retail setting. The research was conducted through a quantitative case study at Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), one of the largest fast-fashion retailers in the world. An appropriate existing transshipment model based on the concept of service level was identified and adjusted to suit the characteristics of H&M. In contrast to the vast majority of models in literature, empirical probability distributions were used for dynamically modelling short-term demand. The proposed model was evaluated and found to suggest transshipments yielding significant revenue increase driven by lowered price reductions. This thesis differs from existing literature by providing a unique case-study of how a transshipment model can be applied in practice and how it performs on empirical data from one of the largest fast-fashion retailers in the world.
Den kraftigt varierande efterfrågan på snabbt mode gör att aktörer i branschen står inför stora osäkerheter vid initiala lagerallokeringar. Längre in i försäljningscykeln kan lagerobalanser uppstå till följd av avvikelser från den förväntade efterfrågan. För att hantera obalanserna kan företag flytta lager från de regioner med lageröverskott till de som i närtid riskerar att få slut i lager. Sådana flyttar kräver modeller för att avgöra vad och hur mycket som ska flyttas samt när det ska flyttas. Detta examensarbete undersöker hur en sådan modell kan appliceras inom branschen för snabbt mode. Studien genomfördes som en kvantitativ fallstudie i samarbete med Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), en av världens största aktörer inom snabbmodebranschen. En lämplig existerande modell som baseras på konceptet om servicenivå identifierades och anpassades efter H&M:s egenskaper. Till skillnad från majoriteten av modeller i literature användes empiriska sannolikhetsfördelningar för att dynamiskt modellera kortsiktig efterfrågan. Den föreslagna modellen utvärderades och visades föreslå flyttar som genererar signifikanta intäktsökningar drivet av lägre prisnedsättningar. Denna studie skiljer sig från existerande litteratur genom sitt bidrag med en unik fallstudie av hur en modell för lagerflyttar kan appliceras i praktiken samt hur den presterar på empirisk data från en av världens största snabbmodeaktörer.

The new EU regulation, revised payment services directive (PSD2), will change how the retail banking market works today. It will obligate banks, with the consumer’s consent, to provide access to account information and thus open up the market for new actors. This study aims to provide an understanding of the effects PSD2 will have on the retail banking market in Sweden and how the banks will act to cope with the changes it entails. There is a lack of academic articles on PSD2, and the reports that do exist are to the greater extent published by consultants. Hence, this report seeks to bridge that gap by exploring banks from a strategic point of view, taking a starting point in the theory of competitive advantage and open innovation, in order to analyse different banks’ strategies that they are considering when PSD2 is enforced. This will be a cornerstone for understanding the future development of the Swedish retail banking market. To gain in-depth knowledge about the banks’ strategies to cope with PSD2, a case study has been made where 10 semi-structured interviews have been conducted with 10 different banks operating in Sweden - this represents the greater majority of all banks in the Swedish retail banking market. From the empirical findings in this report, it is clear that very few banks consider that only complying to PSD2 is a good strategic alternative. Instead, most banks see greater business opportunities in PSD2 and from this study it is evident that the market is heading towards an open banking approach. However, the path towards open banking differs between banks. All banks will focus on becoming compliant but due to differences in size, capabilities and resources, the banks try to differentiate themselves through different approaches. Some banks will attempt an open banking approach immediately, while others will start by becoming a producer of services and from there decide whether or not to move into open banking. What has been made crystal clear from the analysis of the empirical findings, is that no banks will start off by becoming a distributor of more advanced customer data to third parties.
Den nya EU-regleringen, andra betaltjänstdirektivet (PSD2), kommer att förändra hur bankmarknade fungerar idag. Det kommer att förplikta banker, med konsumentens samtycke, att ge tillgång till kontoinformation och därmed öppna marknaden för nya aktörer. Denna studie syftar till att ge en förståelse för de effekter som PSD2 kommer att ha på bankmarknaden i Sverige och hur bankerna kommer att agera för att klara de förändringar som medförs. Det finns få akademiska artiklar om PSD2, och rapporterna som finns är i större utsträckning publicerad av konsulter. Därför syftar denna rapport till att bidra med en akademisk rapport som utforskar banker från en strategisk synvinkel, med utgångspunkt i teorin om konkurrensfördelar och öppen innovation, för att analysera bankernas strategier för att möta PSD2. Detta  kommer att vara grunden för att få en förståelse av den framtida utvecklingen av den svenska bankmarknaden.  För att få en djupare förståelse av bankernas strategier för att möta PSD2 har en fallstudie gjorts där 10 halvstrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med 10 olika banker som är verksamma i Sverige - det motsvarar större delen av marknadsandelen på den svenska bankmarknaden. Från de empiriska resultaten i denna rapport är det uppenbart att väldigt få banker anser att endast följa PSD2 är ett bra strategiskt alternativ. I stället ser de flesta banker större affärsmöjligheter i PSD2 och från denna studie är det uppenbart att marknaden är på väg mot “open banking”. Vägen mot “open banking” skiljer sig mellan bankerna. Alla banker kommer att fokusera på att bli kompatibla men på grund av skillnader i storlek, kapacitet och resurser försöker bankerna skilja sig genom olika metoder. Vissa banker kommer omedelbart att ta sig an “open banking”, medan andra börjar med att bli en producent av tjänster och därmed bestämma huruvida de ska gå in i “open banking” eller inte. Vad som har tydliggjorts från analysen av de empiriska resultaten är att inga banker kommer att börja med att bli distributör av mer avancerade APIer till tredje parter.

This thesis investigates ego-involvement, a measure focused around the customer satisfaction and service quality assessement concept. It questions whether or not it has the potential to be a better predictor of leisure participation and leisure satisfaction than the measures of service quality that dominate leisure service assessment at present.

This chapter discusses the rules and regulations for the conduct of business of banks, deposit-takers, and providers of payment services. The banking and payment services conduct regime involves elements of both information regulation (an approach based on disclosure or transparency) and product regulation, in the sense of mandatory rights and obligations for the services provided. In contrast to the more highly regulated realm of retail investments, there is no attempt at advice regulation, albeit the Financial Services Authority has indicated that it is considering whether it should make further provision for advice on deposits, and in particular structured deposits (where the interest or return is dependent on the performance of an underlying index/indices, stock(s) or commodity/commodities).

This chapter concerns the seven principal aspects of redress under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) 2000. Redress may be due when the primary goal of consumer protection has failed to attain its objective and a customer suffers loss or inconvenience. This chapter considers the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) requirements for firms with regard to complaint handling. It also looks at the process by which disputes between retail customers and regulated firms can be brought to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the way in which the FOS will decide a dispute. The process by which a designated consumer body can bring complaints to the FCA regarding consumer interests, and the role of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), are explained. Finally, the role of consumer redress schemes, restitution orders, and other circumstances where consumers may obtain redress are explained.

This chapter reviews the operation of the main elements of the Prudential Regulatory Authority’s (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) prudential regulation. Prudential regulation concerns culture, systems, governance, and risk management as well as capital resources. The standards attached to each of these elements are explained in this chapter. It also considers the extra requirements placed on qualifying banks by the recovery and resolution regime, as well as the need to ring fence retail and other core services.

Responding to lessons learned during the global financial crisis, the EU Directive on the Recovery and Resolution of Banks and Securities Firms (Directive 2014/59/EU, the BRRD) has substantially changed the legal framework for insolvency management of financial services institutions across Europe. As the legislative process has been completed with the adoption of the BRRD, and of Regulation No. 806/2014 establishing the Single Resolution Mechanism, this book offers an insight into the new European framework for the resolution of banks in distress. This book takes stock of what has been achieved and presents an insightful analysis of both the technical framework and its impact on Banking institutions and their counterparties in representative forms of Banking activities, including retail and wholesale depositors, counterparties to financial directives, and the providers of relevant parts of the market infrastructure. Special attention is given to the international coordination of resolution. The book’s focus is on resolution and its impact on the relationships between banks, customers, other market participants, and market infrastructure, including the preventative requirements on recovery and resolution planning under the BRRD.

This book provides a clear and concise dual US/UK and pan-asset analysis on the legal and regulatory issues that arise in connection with private investment funds. The book advises on the structuring, formation, and operation of a range of asset classes, including hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, and other non-retail collective investment vehicles. This edition has been revised to reflect the numerous and significant developments in financial services regulation on both sides of the Atlantic since the publication of the second edition. More elements of the Dodd Frank financial regulatory reforms, which increased the scope and reach of regulation applicable to private funds, have been implemented and commented on in this edition. In relation to European regulation, the impact of the commencement of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) has also now been analysed. The US/UK approach is maintained, but this edition now also includes consideration of third countries, particularly the Middle East and Asia. An entirely new chapter is dedicated to litigation and regulatory enforcement, and some treatment is given to the effects of the global financial crisis, in particular the regulatory response and the changes to negotiating leverage of fund managers and fund investors. The potential impact of ‘Brexit’ on the United Kingdom private funds industry and the future of the AIMFD and European private funds is also examined.

This chapter focuses on France’s legal framework for access to private-sector data by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Post-9/11, France enacted provisions to require telecommunications operators and providers of hosting services to retain significant amounts of metadata. The French laws on data retention went beyond the scope of the now-invalidated EU directive on data retention, and the French laws remain on the books today in spite of a recent CJEU decision holding that similar laws in the UK and Sweden violate fundamental rights. France’s intelligence agencies have wide-ranging powers to collect data and conduct interceptions without prior court approval, including the right to analyze metadata of all French Internet users to detect suspicious patterns of behavior. In 2016, the French Constitutional Court invalidated a 25-year-old law permitting intelligence authorities to conduct untargeted monitoring of radio transmissions without supervision; so far, other provisions of government surveillance laws have survived constitutional challenge.

Human capital investments are at the core of the SIA. In the knowledge-based service economy, the SIA is a promising model for how to ensure economic growth and social cohesion simultaneously through investments in human capital. Yet investing in human capital raises challenges that require attention towards how people accumulate skills and retain these over time. Due to particular features of human capital, this chapter argues, a comprehensive approach is needed that both incentivizes skill acquisition over the life course and protects acquired skills via policies that facilitate labour-market transitions, thus enabling reintegration into the labour market. The discussion elaborates on ways in which social investment policies are complementary to each other, with particular attention to how policies that invest in skills complement policies that protect these skill investments. Evidence for such institutional complementarities is assessed through descriptive statistics and a vignette analysis of the Swedish case.

Intense competition and price wars in the retail sector provide the impetus to examine consumer behavior in the retail industry. It has become increasingly important to scrutinize what drives consumer choice of retail stores. This chapter addresses this need and aims to establish the factors that drive consumer retail choice behavior. The empirical setting for the study was five organized Indian retail stores: Easy Day, Big Bazaar, More, Reliance Fresh, and Freshmart. Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire (n=700) in a store-intercept survey. Data were analyzed using multivariate data analysis techniques. A model identifying the variables that predicts retail store choice probabilities was developed and tested. Results establish that atmospherics, merchandise assortment, and customer satisfaction have a significant positive impact on retail store choice. On the other hand, price has a significant negative impact on retail store choice. Implications are discussed.

The growth of the global service economy has led to a dramatic increase in our daily interactions with highly specialized service systems. Service (or value-cocreation) interactions are both frequent and diverse, and may include retail, financial, healthcare, education, on-line, communications, technical support, entertainment, transportation, legal, professional, government, or many other types of specialized interactions. And yet surprisingly few students graduating from universities have studied anything about service or service systems. Service Science, Management, Engineering, and Design (SSMED), or service science for short, is an emerging discipline aimed at understanding service and innovating service systems. This article sketches an outline and provides an extensive, yet preliminary, set of references to provoke discussions about the interdisciplinary nature of SSMED. One difficult challenge remaining is to integrate multiple disciplines to create a new and unique service science.

The potential influence of music in eliciting organic reactions has been appreciated since ancient times. Knowing that consumers typically receive exposure to many hours of music each day, scientists and marketers have recognized its potential in consumer behaviour and decision making. Literature suggests that customers like hearing music when they shop, and feel that the retailer providing music cares about them. Retailers have to work diligently to keep their stores favourable in the mind of consumers. Both practitioners and researchers supported the argument that music is a beneficial element in the use of atmospherics in business. Based on the empirical research this chapter provides an insight into the role of music as an important element in retail store atmosphere. The chapter explains the complex character of music, its classifications and key variables, and interaction with other atmospheric cues. The chapter concludes that music has a significant influence on consumer behavior, and that retailers must ensure that they are playing music that their target markets like in their stores.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is one of the latest product tracking technologies being utilized by retailers. Operations management improvements were among the first recognized applications of this technology earlier in the century. RFID applications in managing retail operations, such as inventory management and control, lead to significant benefits. However, RFID applications are not limited to operations management and go beyond the operations side to offer improvements in other areas in retail such as marketing and managing customers’ shopping experiences. In this research, we review the applications of RFID technology in retail since its introduction and how those applications have evolved over the last two decades to help retailers provide omnichannel services to their customers in the current market. We will demonstrate what strategic and tactical factors have helped retailers implement this technology and what factors have slowed down the process of adoption. We will also report on the latest status of the utilization of RFID in the retail sector.

The aim of this chapter is to identify whether frontline employees perceived themselves as having feelings of sexism, ageism, and appearance discrimination against customers in retail services. This investigation is a quantitative research, a conclusive description (Gil, 2002), and ex post facto study, which utilises a survey to collect the data and sampling by convenience. Three protocols are used (1) to format the questionnaire, (2) to produce 12 different standards combining age, gender, and appearance, and (3) to create social classification (Rattam, 1998). In a previous study (Palmeira, Palmeira, & Santos, 2012), customers of different ages and genders perceived some degree of prejudice and discrimination in face-to-face retail services. Now, on the other side of the coin, frontline employees who work in Fashion and Food retailing recognise that there is prejudiced behaviour against customers, depending on their age, gender, and appearance, when providing them with face-to-face retail services. More than 95% of female and more than 64% of male attendants believe that well-dressed, young female customers are given priority when being served. Almost 80% of female and only 58% of male frontline workers believe that badly-dressed middle-aged men (not younger men) are the last to be served when there is no clear queuing process in the retail spatial area. This context strongly suggests the growing importance of an interpersonal skills training process for an organisations' staff as a way of avoiding behaviour that makes the customers think that there are prejudice and discrimination in the service process, as well as ASL development (T&D against Ageism, Sexism, and Lookism) being part of the strategic statements.

The TATAs entered the jewelry market with a retail chain, Gold Plus, which was engaged in selling branded jewelry. Their focus was on the mass market with a presence in small towns and in rural India. The sale of jewelry is based on trust which cannot be established in a day and the jewelry market has been the domain of local players who have dominated for years and have developed strong bonds with their customers over many decades. Further, there are also many players in the branded jewelry segment such as Gitanjali, D’damas, Asmi, to name a few and many other multi-national firms. These would provide stiff competition to Gold Plus. Therefore it remains to be seen how far Tata Goldplus is able to make a place for itself in the crowded market.

Technological developments, changes in consumer behavior and intense competition are the most important threats of today, affecting many sectors as well as the retail industry. Innovative retailers, in the face of with these threats, have embraced and implemented the omni-channel retailing approach, which is the next step in multi-channel. However, other players in the retail industry lag behind this change. The aim of this chapter is to establish the experiences of innovative retailers that have adopted omni-channel retailing in the context of risks, challenges and opportunities. The research data were obtained using questionnaire method from the retailers in Turkey, one of the developing countries. As a result of the study, it was found that retailers who would adopt the omni-channel retailing would have the opportunities to be able to dominate all channels, provide better services to the customers, increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, keep in constant contact with the customers, get better customer recognition and increase sales volume.

We are witnessing a real revolution in the way we buy and in consumer habits. It's been decades since brands started taking their first steps in ecommerce, followed by the implementation of the first online payments and the phenomenon of .com. However, even at that time, companies had little information about their customers, and these were perceived and treated as a large homogeneous mass. The stage today is different. The user is proactive and has access to a lot of information, which makes him more demanding. For this and other reasons, the consumer should be perceived and treated as an independent individual and whose needs determine the development and marketing of a brand's products and services (now called a centric customer strategy).

The paper presents the results of a two years research on the field of energy management systems. These systems range from the largest ones found in industrial plants down to the smallest utilized by the residential consumers. The goal is to define an energy management system specific to supermarkets sector including hypermarkets operating in large scale retail. The need to ensure continuity and quality of energy services, the high energy consumptions, the complexity of operation and maintenance facilities and, in general, the lack of strategies in energy end uses are just some of the reasons that have oriented the research in this sector. On the other hand, the groups operating in the large-scale retail, in order to contain costs, have always walked the path of maximum standardization of plants characteristics or, in most cases, the implementation of economy of scale in purchasing and maintenance; strategies not sufficient to ensure real savings considering the rising costs of energy. The starting points of the research have been some energy efficiency actions applicable to this type of consumers: buildings and facilities design, optimization of energy purchasing, management of maintenance, monitoring and collecting energy data, promotion of best practices in end uses, energy benchmarking, etc. For the purpose an energy audit was developed in the biggest supermarket and hypermarket chain in Italy during the last two years; the results led to the implementation of an operative protocol that makes possible to achieve energy savings in excess of 20%. The large number of supermarkets analyzed, the rigorous approach to the measurement and the monitoring of energy data, the possibility to verify the results in a ongoing way and the use of simulation models and software, permit a feasible extension to similar contexts.

Purpose- Study aims at finding the Direct Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on Customer Satisfaction, Trust and Loyalty, together called as Customer Reactions (CR) and Indirect effects via Retailer Personality (RP). Design/methodology/approach- A Food and Grocery Retail customer intercept survey was conducted with sample size 410. Links were identified followed by development of a conceptual model. EFA was conducted through SPSS (23v) and CFA through Smart PLS (3.2.7v). Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Findings- It was found that perceived CSR Policy of the retailer shown a direct effect on Retailer Personlaity but shown no direct effect on CR whereas CSR Policy exhibited varied indirect effects on CR via RP. Research limitations/implications- Deficient resources led to the lacking of generalizability of research outcomes. The present research was based on Retail Service Quality Scale in Indian context, though by adopting other scales, results may vary in different cultural settings. Practical implications- Improved CSR Policy of the retailer can have a favorable indirect effect on CR via Retailer Personality. Retailer can mould the CSR Policy to enhance CR. Originality/value- Study endeavored to create a holistic view of the effects of CSR Policy on CR. Relationships among all variables give originality to the study which has never been studied in Indian context.

The traditional retail sector is currently facing major challenges, particularly due to digitalisation and the associated changes in customer behaviour, increasing demands in the service world, new technologies and other factors. The COVID19 pandemic has accelerated and intensified this process. From a retailer's point of view, it is essential to create value for the customer through digital interactions. In this article, a study based on the Value in Interaction Model investigates whether it is possible for physical retailers to make a digitally supported interaction as valuable as the direct contact in the store and what influence this has on the Perceived Relationship Quality. The results show that the difference in perceived value between the physical and digital retailer interaction is relatively small. This proves that when the interaction layers are actively designed with a focus on value, a digital interaction can be almost as valuable as the traditional in-store interaction.

Aim/Purpose: In many OECD countries, emergency response relies on volunteers, and while emergency incidents are increasing, volunteer numbers are declining. Volunteer turnover occurs at various stages of the volunteering life cycle (i.e., recruitment, training, socialisation, performance, and retirement), the socialisation stage has the greatest impact on organisations, as it occurs after the allocation of resources and training, but before the investment is returned through volunteer performance. There is sparse literature exploring this stage. Background: Addressing the gap, this paper presents a model of volunteer retention, predicting acceptance, social-expulsion, or self-exclusion, based on social fit. Methodology: The model is based on an inductive examination of the processes of volunteer turnover during socialisation of emergency service volunteers. Using a grounded theory approach, focus groups and interviews were conducted with 157 volunteers across seven locations. Contribution: This model contributes to theory by categorising volunteer turnover according to the stages of the volunteering life cycle, and to practice by drawing attention to the need to consider social fit prior to investing in new volunteer training and understanding the role of leadership intervention pre- and post-training. Findings: The study identifies the processes of volunteer turnover and predicts that volunteers either stay or leave based on the level of their social fit. Recommendations for Practitioners: Strategies are developed to guide leaders on the best approaches to maintain and retain volunteer workers in Emergency Service agencies Recommendation for Researchers: The model contributes to theory by providing an empirically based description of the processes involved in volunteer retention and turnover and offers guidelines for increasing volunteer retention in emergency services and other volunteer organisations across Australia and around the world. Impact on Society: Increased retention benefits the emergency service organisation in terms of return on the investment of volunteer training, regarding sustainability of human resources, and in regard to increasing diversity among its volunteers. In turn, this retention also benefits volunteers, and the entire community, as it gains access to a greater number of emergency services providers. Future Research: Future research should focus on recreating this study in other countries and in different emergency service contexts.

Whether a given waste-to-energy (WTE) facility is publicly or privately owned and/or operated, and notwithstanding the pluses or minuses of any given Service Agreement or Operations Contract, the public sector can derive great benefit if it establishes a solid understanding of and maintains active oversight role in the technical, financial, and environmental issues associated with WTE project operations. Experience has shown that public sector clients who remain in close touch with the day-to-day operations of these capital intensive operations from the outset also retain a greater measure of influence over the inner workings, as well as the exterior/aesthetic appearances of these capital-intensive waste-processing and disposal facilities. While all parties strive for environmentally sound and safe operations, private sector operators must be concerned with profitability and/or maintaining shareholder value while the public sector entity is more typically focused on ensuring the facility provides reliable disposal services for a heterogeneous wastestream that changes over time, remains a “good corporate neighbor,” and does this at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayers and other facility users.

The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida (UF) are participating in an innovative program to explore whether making electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) available in print through online retail sites can have positive impacts for graduates, the University, and the general public. Digitization and metadata enhancement have improved discoverability and ease of access for ETDs in the Institutional Repository at the University of Florida (IR@UF). However, through this new program, research can be shared widely beyond academe with practitioners, corporate researchers, independent scholars, and international readers. This paper will describe how the Smathers Libraries have worked with a corporate partner, BiblioLabs, to leverage online retailers’ discovery engines to promote print versions of ETDs while alerting readers to the free digital versions available in the IR@UF. This paper will also share how alumni, current graduate students, and other campus stakeholders have responded to the pilot of this new service. The Libraries are monitoring referred traffic to the IR and sales data. UF is the first university to contribute content to this effort, but we expect others to follow suit if the data supports the expectations of the University, the Libraries, and our graduates.

The economics of cogeneration depend on whose perspective is being considered. A retail electric customer is concerned with the degree to which electric purchases at regulated tariffs can be reduced. A public utility’s perspective includes where the unit would fit in the generation “stack,” how much the unit would operate, and the opportunity costs of operating the cogeneration unit as opposed to other available units. An independent power producer (IPP) has many of the same objectives as an electric utility. However, an IPP has no franchised service territory guaranteeing markets for electricity it produces, although an IPP escapes many issues associated with regulation. Because of these different perspectives, a cogeneration project which is economic for one entity might not be for another. In addition, even if cogeneration is thought to be economic for all three, the optimal equipment selection and operating scenario can vary substantially among potential investors. This paper discusses the factors which influence economic viability of cogeneration from the perspectives of different potential investors.

Competitiveness, which is inextricably linked to the notion of competition, remains the aim pursued by companies and countries because everyone wants to outsource others and, over time, enjoy the benefits. A successfully competing community based by providing of services has more opportunities to attract and retain visitors, the same time implementing and meeting the needs of community members and ensuring community stability. With the rapid development of innovations and technologies, reveals the necessary to analyse the determinants of competitiveness. The competitiveness of the rural area is reflected by factors such as investment attractiveness, living conditions, attractiveness for the population, geographical location, heritage, culture, the fostering of customs and traditions. In order to assess the factors determining the competitiveness of rural communities, an investigation was organized. Methods chosen for the study: document analysis, SWOT and interviews.

This paper applies to individuals charged with maintaining the reliability of shell and tube heat exchangers. These persons typically specify and/or retain the services of others to examine heat exchangers with nondestructive test methods, such as eddy current and are responsible for submitting run-repair-replace recommendations to management. Electromagnetic Testing (ET) uses the electromagnetic characteristics of components made of conductive materials to determine their condition. Eddy Current Testing (ECT), an electromagnetic method that utilizes induced electrical currents, is usually used to examine non-ferromagnetic materials. ECT’s high rate of examination, relatively good accuracy with thin wall components, repeatability and volumetric measurement make it an ideal method for examining nonmagnetic heat exchanger tubes. This paper will provide a brief description of the method, concentrating on ECT because most power generation industry heat exchanger tubing is non-ferromagnetic in nature. This paper will also address the following: • Training and Certification of Technicians. • ET signal analysis, an exacting science? • ASME Section V, Appendix II vs. Appendix VIII for in-situ ECT of all heat exchanger tubing. • Signal analysis variables and limitations. • A need to know the potential degradation mechanisms. • Condition assessment vs. eddy current testing.

The trend of moving online in the retail industry has created great pressure for the logistics industry to catch up both in terms of volume and response time. On one hand, volume is fluctuating at greater magnitude, making peaks higher; on the other hand, customers are also expecting shorter response time. As a result, logistics service providers are pressured to expand and keep up with the demands. Expanding fleet capacity, however, is not sustainable as capacity built for the peak seasons would be mostly vacant during ordinary days. One promising solution is to engage crowdsourced workers, who are not employed full-time but would be willing to help with the deliveries if their schedules permit. The challenge, however, is to choose appropriate sets of tasks that would not cause too much disruption from their intended routes, while satisfying each delivery task's delivery time window requirement. In this paper, we propose a decision-support algorithm to select delivery tasks for a single crowdsourced worker that best fit his/her upcoming route both in terms of additional travel time and the time window requirements at all stops along his/her route, while at the same time satisfies tasks' delivery time windows. Our major contributions are in the formulation of the problem and the design of an efficient exact algorithm based on the branch-and-cut approach. The major innovation we introduce is the efficient generation of promising valid inequalities via our separation heuristics. In all numerical instances we study, our approach manages to reach optimality yet with much fewer computational resource requirement than the plain integer linear programming formulation. The greedy heuristic, while efficient in time, only achieves around 40-60% of the optimum in all cases. To illustrate how our solver could help in advancing the sustainability objective, we also quantify the reduction in the carbon footprint.

1.1 Macroeconomic summary Economic recovery has consistently outperformed the technical staff’s expectations following a steep decline in activity in the second quarter of 2020. At the same time, total and core inflation rates have fallen and remain at low levels, suggesting that a significant element of the reactivation of Colombia’s economy has been related to recovery in potential GDP. This would support the technical staff’s diagnosis of weak aggregate demand and ample excess capacity. The most recently available data on 2020 growth suggests a contraction in economic activity of 6.8%, lower than estimates from January’s Monetary Policy Report (-7.2%). High-frequency indicators suggest that economic performance was significantly more dynamic than expected in January, despite mobility restrictions and quarantine measures. This has also come amid declines in total and core inflation, the latter of which was below January projections if controlling for certain relative price changes. This suggests that the unexpected strength of recent growth contains elements of demand, and that excess capacity, while significant, could be lower than previously estimated. Nevertheless, uncertainty over the measurement of excess capacity continues to be unusually high and marked both by variations in the way different economic sectors and spending components have been affected by the pandemic, and by uneven price behavior. The size of excess capacity, and in particular the evolution of the pandemic in forthcoming quarters, constitute substantial risks to the macroeconomic forecast presented in this report. Despite the unexpected strength of the recovery, the technical staff continues to project ample excess capacity that is expected to remain on the forecast horizon, alongside core inflation that will likely remain below the target. Domestic demand remains below 2019 levels amid unusually significant uncertainty over the size of excess capacity in the economy. High national unemployment (14.6% for February 2021) reflects a loose labor market, while observed total and core inflation continue to be below 2%. Inflationary pressures from the exchange rate are expected to continue to be low, with relatively little pass-through on inflation. This would be compatible with a negative output gap. Excess productive capacity and the expectation of core inflation below the 3% target on the forecast horizon provide a basis for an expansive monetary policy posture. The technical staff’s assessment of certain shocks and their expected effects on the economy, as well as the presence of several sources of uncertainty and related assumptions about their potential macroeconomic impacts, remain a feature of this report. The coronavirus pandemic, in particular, continues to affect the public health environment, and the reopening of Colombia’s economy remains incomplete. The technical staff’s assessment is that the COVID-19 shock has affected both aggregate demand and supply, but that the impact on demand has been deeper and more persistent. Given this persistence, the central forecast accounts for a gradual tightening of the output gap in the absence of new waves of contagion, and as vaccination campaigns progress. The central forecast continues to include an expected increase of total and core inflation rates in the second quarter of 2021, alongside the lapse of the temporary price relief measures put in place in 2020. Additional COVID-19 outbreaks (of uncertain duration and intensity) represent a significant risk factor that could affect these projections. Additionally, the forecast continues to include an upward trend in sovereign risk premiums, reflected by higher levels of public debt that in the wake of the pandemic are likely to persist on the forecast horizon, even in the context of a fiscal adjustment. At the same time, the projection accounts for the shortterm effects on private domestic demand from a fiscal adjustment along the lines of the one currently being proposed by the national government. This would be compatible with a gradual recovery of private domestic demand in 2022. The size and characteristics of the fiscal adjustment that is ultimately implemented, as well as the corresponding market response, represent another source of forecast uncertainty. Newly available information offers evidence of the potential for significant changes to the macroeconomic scenario, though without altering the general diagnosis described above. The most recent data on inflation, growth, fiscal policy, and international financial conditions suggests a more dynamic economy than previously expected. However, a third wave of the pandemic has delayed the re-opening of Colombia’s economy and brought with it a deceleration in economic activity. Detailed descriptions of these considerations and subsequent changes to the macroeconomic forecast are presented below. The expected annual decline in GDP (-0.3%) in the first quarter of 2021 appears to have been less pronounced than projected in January (-4.8%). Partial closures in January to address a second wave of COVID-19 appear to have had a less significant negative impact on the economy than previously estimated. This is reflected in figures related to mobility, energy demand, industry and retail sales, foreign trade, commercial transactions from selected banks, and the national statistics agency’s (DANE) economic tracking indicator (ISE). Output is now expected to have declined annually in the first quarter by 0.3%. Private consumption likely continued to recover, registering levels somewhat above those from the previous year, while public consumption likely increased significantly. While a recovery in investment in both housing and in other buildings and structures is expected, overall investment levels in this case likely continued to be low, and gross fixed capital formation is expected to continue to show significant annual declines. Imports likely recovered to again outpace exports, though both are expected to register significant annual declines. Economic activity that outpaced projections, an increase in oil prices and other export products, and an expected increase in public spending this year account for the upward revision to the 2021 growth forecast (from 4.6% with a range between 2% and 6% in January, to 6.0% with a range between 3% and 7% in April). As a result, the output gap is expected to be smaller and to tighten more rapidly than projected in the previous report, though it is still expected to remain in negative territory on the forecast horizon. Wide forecast intervals reflect the fact that the future evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant source of uncertainty on these projections. The delay in the recovery of economic activity as a result of the resurgence of COVID-19 in the first quarter appears to have been less significant than projected in the January report. The central forecast scenario expects this improved performance to continue in 2021 alongside increased consumer and business confidence. Low real interest rates and an active credit supply would also support this dynamic, and the overall conditions would be expected to spur a recovery in consumption and investment. Increased growth in public spending and public works based on the national government’s spending plan (Plan Financiero del Gobierno) are other factors to consider. Additionally, an expected recovery in global demand and higher projected prices for oil and coffee would further contribute to improved external revenues and would favor investment, in particular in the oil sector. Given the above, the technical staff’s 2021 growth forecast has been revised upward from 4.6% in January (range from 2% to 6%) to 6.0% in April (range from 3% to 7%). These projections account for the potential for the third wave of COVID-19 to have a larger and more persistent effect on the economy than the previous wave, while also supposing that there will not be any additional significant waves of the pandemic and that mobility restrictions will be relaxed as a result. Economic growth in 2022 is expected to be 3%, with a range between 1% and 5%. This figure would be lower than projected in the January report (3.6% with a range between 2% and 6%), due to a higher base of comparison given the upward revision to expected GDP in 2021. This forecast also takes into account the likely effects on private demand of a fiscal adjustment of the size currently being proposed by the national government, and which would come into effect in 2022. Excess in productive capacity is now expected to be lower than estimated in January but continues to be significant and affected by high levels of uncertainty, as reflected in the wide forecast intervals. The possibility of new waves of the virus (of uncertain intensity and duration) represents a significant downward risk to projected GDP growth, and is signaled by the lower limits of the ranges provided in this report. Inflation (1.51%) and inflation excluding food and regulated items (0.94%) declined in March compared to December, continuing below the 3% target. The decline in inflation in this period was below projections, explained in large part by unanticipated increases in the costs of certain foods (3.92%) and regulated items (1.52%). An increase in international food and shipping prices, increased foreign demand for beef, and specific upward pressures on perishable food supplies appear to explain a lower-than-expected deceleration in the consumer price index (CPI) for foods. An unexpected increase in regulated items prices came amid unanticipated increases in international fuel prices, on some utilities rates, and for regulated education prices. The decline in annual inflation excluding food and regulated items between December and March was in line with projections from January, though this included downward pressure from a significant reduction in telecommunications rates due to the imminent entry of a new operator. When controlling for the effects of this relative price change, inflation excluding food and regulated items exceeds levels forecast in the previous report. Within this indicator of core inflation, the CPI for goods (1.05%) accelerated due to a reversion of the effects of the VAT-free day in November, which was largely accounted for in February, and possibly by the transmission of a recent depreciation of the peso on domestic prices for certain items (electric and household appliances). For their part, services prices decelerated and showed the lowest rate of annual growth (0.89%) among the large consumer baskets in the CPI. Within the services basket, the annual change in rental prices continued to decline, while those services that continue to experience the most significant restrictions on returning to normal operations (tourism, cinemas, nightlife, etc.) continued to register significant price declines. As previously mentioned, telephone rates also fell significantly due to increased competition in the market. Total inflation is expected to continue to be affected by ample excesses in productive capacity for the remainder of 2021 and 2022, though less so than projected in January. As a result, convergence to the inflation target is now expected to be somewhat faster than estimated in the previous report, assuming the absence of significant additional outbreaks of COVID-19. The technical staff’s year-end inflation projections for 2021 and 2022 have increased, suggesting figures around 3% due largely to variation in food and regulated items prices. The projection for inflation excluding food and regulated items also increased, but remains below 3%. Price relief measures on indirect taxes implemented in 2020 are expected to lapse in the second quarter of 2021, generating a one-off effect on prices and temporarily affecting inflation excluding food and regulated items. However, indexation to low levels of past inflation, weak demand, and ample excess productive capacity are expected to keep core inflation below the target, near 2.3% at the end of 2021 (previously 2.1%). The reversion in 2021 of the effects of some price relief measures on utility rates from 2020 should lead to an increase in the CPI for regulated items in the second half of this year. Annual price changes are now expected to be higher than estimated in the January report due to an increased expected path for fuel prices and unanticipated increases in regulated education prices. The projection for the CPI for foods has increased compared to the previous report, taking into account certain factors that were not anticipated in January (a less favorable agricultural cycle, increased pressure from international prices, and transport costs). Given the above, year-end annual inflation for 2021 and 2022 is now expected to be 3% and 2.8%, respectively, which would be above projections from January (2.3% and 2,7%). For its part, expected inflation based on analyst surveys suggests year-end inflation in 2021 and 2022 of 2.8% and 3.1%, respectively. There remains significant uncertainty surrounding the inflation forecasts included in this report due to several factors: 1) the evolution of the pandemic; 2) the difficulty in evaluating the size and persistence of excess productive capacity; 3) the timing and manner in which price relief measures will lapse; and 4) the future behavior of food prices. Projected 2021 growth in foreign demand (4.4% to 5.2%) and the supposed average oil price (USD 53 to USD 61 per Brent benchmark barrel) were both revised upward. An increase in long-term international interest rates has been reflected in a depreciation of the peso and could result in relatively tighter external financial conditions for emerging market economies, including Colombia. Average growth among Colombia’s trade partners was greater than expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. This, together with a sizable fiscal stimulus approved in the United States and the onset of a massive global vaccination campaign, largely explains the projected increase in foreign demand growth in 2021. The resilience of the goods market in the face of global crisis and an expected normalization in international trade are additional factors. These considerations and the expected continuation of a gradual reduction of mobility restrictions abroad suggest that Colombia’s trade partners could grow on average by 5.2% in 2021 and around 3.4% in 2022. The improved prospects for global economic growth have led to an increase in current and expected oil prices. Production interruptions due to a heavy winter, reduced inventories, and increased supply restrictions instituted by producing countries have also contributed to the increase. Meanwhile, market forecasts and recent Federal Reserve pronouncements suggest that the benchmark interest rate in the U.S. will remain stable for the next two years. Nevertheless, a significant increase in public spending in the country has fostered expectations for greater growth and inflation, as well as increased uncertainty over the moment in which a normalization of monetary policy might begin. This has been reflected in an increase in long-term interest rates. In this context, emerging market economies in the region, including Colombia, have registered increases in sovereign risk premiums and long-term domestic interest rates, and a depreciation of local currencies against the dollar. Recent outbreaks of COVID-19 in several of these economies; limits on vaccine supply and the slow pace of immunization campaigns in some countries; a significant increase in public debt; and tensions between the United States and China, among other factors, all add to a high level of uncertainty surrounding interest rate spreads, external financing conditions, and the future performance of risk premiums. The impact that this environment could have on the exchange rate and on domestic financing conditions represent risks to the macroeconomic and monetary policy forecasts. Domestic financial conditions continue to favor recovery in economic activity. The transmission of reductions to the policy interest rate on credit rates has been significant. The banking portfolio continues to recover amid circumstances that have affected both the supply and demand for loans, and in which some credit risks have materialized. Preferential and ordinary commercial interest rates have fallen to a similar degree as the benchmark interest rate. As is generally the case, this transmission has come at a slower pace for consumer credit rates, and has been further delayed in the case of mortgage rates. Commercial credit levels stabilized above pre-pandemic levels in March, following an increase resulting from significant liquidity requirements for businesses in the second quarter of 2020. The consumer credit portfolio continued to recover and has now surpassed February 2020 levels, though overall growth in the portfolio remains low. At the same time, portfolio projections and default indicators have increased, and credit establishment earnings have come down. Despite this, credit disbursements continue to recover and solvency indicators remain well above regulatory minimums. 1.2 Monetary policy decision In its meetings in March and April the BDBR left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.75%.

With its annual Payment Systems Report, Banco de la República offers a complete overview of the infrastructure of Colombia’s financial market. Each edition of the report has four objectives: 1) to publicize a consolidated account of how the figures for payment infrastructures have evolved with respect to both financial assets and goods and services; 2) to summarize the issues that are being debated internationally and are of interest to the industry that provides payment clearing and settlement services; 3) to offer the public an explanation of the ideas and concepts behind retail-value payment processes and the trends in retail payments within the circuit of individuals and companies; and 4) to familiarize the public, the industry, and all other financial authorities with the methodological progress that has been achieved through applied research to analyze the stability of payment systems. This edition introduces changes that have been made in the structure of the report, which are intended to make it easier and more enjoyable to read. The initial sections in this edition, which is the eleventh, contain an analysis of the statistics on the evolution and performance of financial market infrastructures. These are understood as multilateral systems wherein the participating entities clear, settle and register payments, securities, derivatives and other financial assets. The large-value payment system (CUD) saw less momentum in 2019 than it did the year before, mainly because of a decline in the amount of secondary market operations for government bonds, both in cash and sell/buy-backs, which was offset by an increase in operations with collective investment funds (CIFs) and Banco de la República’s operations to increase the money supply (repos). Consequently, the Central Securities Depository (DCV) registered less activity, due to fewer negotiations on the secondary market for public debt. This trend was also observed in the private debt market, as evidenced by the decline in the average amounts cleared and settled through the Central Securities Depository of Colombia (Deceval) and in the value of operations with financial derivatives cleared and settled through the Central Counterparty of Colombia (CRCC). Section three offers a comprehensive look at the market for retail-value payments; that is, transactions made by individuals and companies. During 2019, electronic transfers increased, and payments made with debit and credit cards continued to trend upward. In contrast, payments by check continued to decline, although the average daily value was almost four times the value of debit and credit card purchases. The same section contains the results of the fourth survey on how the use of retail-value payment instruments (for usual payments) is perceived. Conducted at the end of 2019, the main purpose of the survey was to identify the availability of these payment instruments, the public’s preferences for them, and their acceptance by merchants. It is worth noting that cash continues to be the instrument most used by the population for usual monthly payments (88.1% with respect to the number of payments and 87.4% in value). However, its use in terms of value has declined, having registered 89.6% in the 2017 survey. In turn, the level of acceptance by merchants of payment instruments other than cash is 14.1% for debit cards, 13.4% for credit cards, 8.2% for electronic transfers of funds and 1.8% for checks. The main reason for the use of cash is the absence of point-of-sale terminals at commercial establishments. Considering that the retail-payment market worldwide is influenced by constant innovation in payment services, by the modernization of clearing and settlement systems, and by the efforts of regulators to redefine the payment industry for the future, these trends are addressed in the fourth section of the report. There is an account of how innovations in technology-based financial payment services have developed, and it shows that while this topic is not new, it has evolved, particularly in terms of origin and vocation. One of the boxes that accompanies the fourth section deals with certain payment aspects of open banking and international experience in that regard, which has given the customers of a financial entity sovereignty over their data, allowing them, under transparent and secure conditions, to authorize a third party, other than their financial entity, to request information on their accounts with financial entities, thus enabling the third party to offer various financial services or initiate payments. Innovation also has sparked interest among international organizations, central banks, and research groups concerning the creation of digital currencies. Accordingly, the last box deals with the recent international debate on issuance of central bank digital currencies. In terms of the methodological progress that has been made, it is important to underscore the work that has been done on the role of central counterparties (CCPs) in mitigating liquidity and counterparty risk. The fifth section of the report offers an explanation of a document in which the work of CCPs in financial markets is analyzed and corroborated through an exercise that was built around the Central Counterparty of Colombia (CRCC) in the Colombian market for non-delivery peso-dollar forward exchange transactions, using the methodology of network topology. The results provide empirical support for the different theoretical models developed to study the effect of CCPs on financial markets. Finally, the results of research using artificial intelligence with information from the large-value payment system are presented. Based on the payments made among financial institutions in the large-value payment system, a methodology is used to compare different payment networks, as well as to determine which ones can be considered abnormal. The methodology shows signs that indicate when a network moves away from its historical trend, so it can be studied and monitored. A methodology similar to the one applied to classify images is used to make this comparison, the idea being to extract the main characteristics of the networks and use them as a parameter for comparison. Juan José Echavarría Governor