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Over the past few years, a new system of currency has appeared in our daily life: the
complementary community currency. Indeed, more than 5,000 complementary currencies have
been established lately. As its name suggests, it is a currency used in parallel with the national
currency within a given territory. Based on the principle of local production, sustainable and
social economy, the users are citizens of common life who choose to change their way of living
by adopting responsible acts. Local communities pool their efforts to recognize unmet needs
and to bring solution to create systems that benefit to local producers rather than mass retails.
This works attempts to clarify the different types of complementary community currencies and
to provide the key success factors of those initiatives. Many factors have been found by the
review of the scientific literature and several specific projects were interviewed to validate those
assumptions. It appears that different characteristics should be brought to light in order to offer
successful project depending on the type: either LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) or
local currency.
The qualitative analysis enables us to qualify the type and number of initiators, the size of the
network, the type of financing, the support of the public authorities as some characteristics
among others that will have to be discussed and appropriately chosen to make the project a real
success and to help it succeed in the long run

complementary currencies --- local production --- social economy --- sustainable economy --- success factors --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Economie sociale

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The do-it-yourself and building materials sector in Wallonia is divided between small businesses and big stores, which are analysed during this work. Everyone feels involved in this sector because everyone has already been in this kind of shops.
After setting the context by explaining the do-it-yourself and building materials sector in Wallonia and its history, this master thesis tries to clear up the choice of the different ratios and the success and risk factors for small businesses. The different studied brands are the following for big stores : Brico, Hubo, Brico Plan It, Gamma and Arma, BigMat Cataldo, Brico Targez, Moline Habitat, Dartevelle, Garsou et Royal Tapis for small businesses. These theoretical parts show us an increased competition between the different brands and a saturated market. Every business shows us that the competition can not increase in the next years if everyone wants to survive.
Then, the practical part deals with the presentation of the market by summarising all the numerical informations for big stores but also for small businesses. The purpose of this work is to examine the viability of the sector, and particularly the viability of small businesses in front of big stores, by analysing liquidity, profitability and solvency of the different businesses. This is the quantitative analysis of the master thesis and it includes the choice of the period of six years beginning in 2010 until 2015 and the analysis strictly speaking. This analysis allows us to have an overview of the sector which seems to be in a good shape even if few businesses seem to have some small weaknesses.
Thereafter, we determine the success and risk factors for small businesses in front of big stores. A qualitative analysis allows us to validate the theoretical success and risk factors and complete them with the practical aspect of the sector.
To conclude, the quantitative and qualitative analyses give the same results. The small businesses benefit from more success than risk factors. Moreover, the results of the financial analysis of small shops are higher than those from big stores. But it is still difficult to determine the future of the sector because the evolution of the sector is unpredictable.

Do it yourself --- Building materials --- Liquidity --- Profitability --- Solvency --- Success factors --- Risk factors --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Marketing --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Finance --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Production, distribution & gestion de la chaîne logistique