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Decision making and the brewing industry

University of British Columbia

The nature of the brewing industry in British Columbia is determined by its marketing environment. All aspects of the environment have some influence but it is the legal variable which is the dominant factor. There is no other industry which is as strictly regulated as the brewing industry. This regulation severely restricts the use of the marketing decision variables, the usual means by which a firm can combat the environment, and thus the industry is in the peculiar position of being able to do relatively little in order to encourage sales. The marketing environment is divided into five segments in this thesis and each segment is investigated in detail in order to determine its part in the overall picture. The constraints which the environment imposes on the decision variables are then examined and the means which are left for a firm to combat the environment are discussed. The decision to use a particular method requires that several activities be undertaken first, in order to arrive at that decision. The sequence of activities which lead to a decision constitutes the process of decision making. Such a process is fundamental to every firm. This thesis examines the theory behind the decision making process and a model is developed to describe the various steps. This model is then included in a general procedural model for systematically dealing with several problems. To test theory against practice, this latter model is compared step-by-step with an actual problem that occurred in the brewing industry.

Text

2011-06-16

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35499

Business Administration

University of British Columbia

Graduate