Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to study the interaction between seller and buyer in a mobile phone store. The specific research questions under investigation are:Are there any underlying factors behind mobile purchase, and if so, what are they? Are mobile purchases driven by lifestyle factors and do customers try and create identities when purchasing new mobile phones? Material/Method: The study employs an ethnographic method when trying to answer the posed research questions. I have under a period of two weeks studied the seller-buyer interaction in a mobile phone store. In order to further increase the accuracy of my findings, I have complemented my observations with a sample of buyer and seller interviews. Main results: The observations and interviews were initially studied in isolation, resulting in different themes. These themes were then collapsed into some common themes pertaining to the different methods. Overall, I conclude three major findings from the seller-buyer interaction which I name, (1) context and influence, (2) status, and (3) social accepting.

Introduction: Already in the 1970’s, internationalisation was noted as a striking trend in business. Since then, the speed of internationalisation has increased as infrastructure, communication, and IT have decreased space and time barriers for international trade. Today, companies must engage in international activities to survive in the competitive environment and researchers argue that firms’ international performance is determined by their ability to establish relationships. Problem: In order to facilitate the search for business actors globally, Chamber Trade Business to Business AB offers a database in which companies can post business inquiries. Lately, the number of inquiries published in the database has decreased. Therefore, the question arose what other tools companies use instead when searching for business partners. This empirically driven problem is also matched by a theoretical need for more research about how firms establish international relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how small Swedish B2B companies find downstream international partners. Theoretical framework: In order to create a frame of reference for guidance in the collection and analysis of the empirical data, theory has been divided into three sections; Internationalisation theory, Business to Business relationships theory, and Means for international interaction. Method: To fulfil the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative study with an inductive approach was undertaken. Secondary data in terms of literature and academic articles were scanned to create a theoretical framework and to facilitate the collection of primary data. Primary data was gathered from ten small Swedish firms in order to find out how their downstream international business relationships had been initiated. Conclusion: Our thesis concludes that many Swedish sellers start out their internationalisation to countries with close distance by responding to unsolicited orders from foreign customers. Over time, their proactiveness increases and they primary use the following channels in order to find international partners: networks, trade fairs, trade- and industry organisations, and the Internet. Databases have several defaults for being a useful search tool, mainly their lack of precise search criteria and personal interaction. Further, when companies offer a high quality product, a reputation is created about the company. Consequently, foreign customers pull the company into new countries and the need for external search tools is low.

Till följd av marknadens utveckling har beroendet av informationsutbyte och samverkan i olika nätverk ökat. De senaste årtiondenas fokus på informationsutbyte och samarbete ledde till att Supply Chain Management uppstod. Flera forskare har karakteriserat lyckad styrning av samverkan som en kärnkompetens som krävs för att vara konkurrenskraftig. Ägande och kontrollfunktioner som tidigare låg inom samma verksamhet har förändrats och tillämpningen av VMI har uppkommit. VMI innebär att leverantören övertar ansvaret för lagerstyrningen hos kunden. Samarbetet kräver effektivt informationsflöde inom försörjningskedjan och ett bättre informationssystem, vilket ökar möjligheten att förbättra kedjans effektivitet. Vi hade, med den här utgångspunkten i åtanke, för avsikt att besvara problemformuleringen: Hur hanteras information i VMI-styrda relationer inom koncerner? Syften med undersökningen var att undersöka hur lagerstyrning i form av VMI fungerar i en koncern, förklara hur VMI påverkar informationsflöde och relationer i en koncern samt att analysera betydelsen av VMI för informationsutbytet. Efter teoretiska studier genomfördes en undersökning på en koncern där VMI har införts och givit resultat. Resultaten från intervjuerna har sedan analyserats och vi har kommit fram till följande. För att hantera information i VMI-styrda relationer krävs att det finns bra system, en tydlig ansvarsfördelning och förtroende mellan parterna.

Background: In order to survive and attain growth organizations need to make different investments which require that different decisions are being made. It is a process, by which a person, group or an organization identifies a choice or judgment to be made, gathers and evaluates information about alternatives and selects from among the alternatives. Thus, a decision is of great importance for an organization for which it is interesting for us to see how they make their decisions regarding a purchase and foremost how the actual decision-making process is constituted regarding a purchase of a simulation solution offered by our case company FrontWay AB. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine and understand how a client’s decision-making process looks like, concerning the purchasing of technical complex products in industrial organizations, more specifically in the pulp- and paper industry. Method: A qualitative study has been used, based on interviews with the clients of FrontWay who have bough their simulation solution or are in the buying process. Result and Conclusions: The empirical findings that has come to hand shows that the decision-making process actually was shorter than perceived by the case company. One explanation was that the investment was not seen as big. Further we have concluded that the selling organization and the buying organization do not see the same start and end point when a decision is being made. The decision-making process for the buying organization seems to be difficult to shorten down, however, if the selling organization will do some changes maybe it can be shortened down. It is however questionable if FrontWay can make changes at all since it requires a lot of work as well as a lot of resources. As it takes time to make a good decision, and also resources from the buying organization to have someone working with simulations solution fulltime it is unsure if it is of interest to actually shorten down the decision-making process.

As demands on companies’ accountability have increased, researchers have turned their attention towards the social auditing practice and studied its role in companies supply chains. This study highlights a theory gap, questioning existing praise and criticism correlated to the categorization of social auditors. By comparing two different social audit categories, namely the independent and internal auditors, this paper contribute with a broader understanding of the similarities and differences between the two audit types. This study addresses the research question; how does the independent and internal social audit type support companies’ work with improving social standards in the supply chain? The theoretical framework includes aspects within the area of social auditing, buyer-supplier relationships and theories regarding the categorization of the two audit types. The study draws upon a qualitative approach investigating two cases with different social auditors, finding that both auditor types have their strengths and weaknesses, and therefore support companies in different ways. Referring to this tradeoff, this study concludes that the praise and criticism correlated to the two audit classifications of independent and internal auditor might not be completely valid, which calls for further research.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the functioning of knowledge sharing in the supply chain of Taiwan IT industry and face the current practice of modular component outsourcing with a theoretical threat of architecture change and modularity trap. Today, modularity and component outsourcing became almost an prerequisite for an successful IT company. Product architectures are widespread and well defined. It is however the question nobody dares to ask – what if this changes? How can the Taiwan suppliers make sure, that they will still be in the game even if the rules change? How can they assure that their position as the cutting edge component providers won`t be taken by someone else? The basic premise of the research is, that the relationship management of supplier and buyers often seen in countries with Confucian tradition can overcome this threat thanks to deeply rooted trust and good and opened communication patterns. This paper first introduces the Supplier-buyer relationship theory and background on its functioning within the New Product Development (NPD) area. The study also touches on the issue of Early Supplier Involvement (ESI) into the New Product Development. Next the theory on Modularity and Modularity Trap are introduced. Based on the literature review, I construct an research framework, consisting of two bodies: The architecture as a variable and Buyer-supplier relationship and NPD. The major conclusions of this study are (1) The architecture of the product to be developed is an important driver on the supplier-buyer relationship creation. (2) To build the relationship with buyers is important step for the suppliers, but it can only be build around technology that is important for the buyer. (3) Supplier`s understanding of architecture knowledge of its buyers is crucial. (4) The main reason to invite supplier into New product development is buyers technological distance between what they can have and what they want to have. (5) Product Complexity (number of parts and their interconnections within the product) have a positive influence on the supplier role creation. (6) All buyers have a rather good component knowledge. (7) The management alignment will be greatly influenced byt architectural attributes of the product to be developed.

Despite the vast research within the fields of buyer-supplier relationships and the fashion industry, a lack of comprehensive understanding concerning the connection between the two seems to be found. Research regarding long-term relations and key concepts in form of trust and commitment, are stated to be crucial in order to create a long-term relationship. However, the importance of these concepts application regarding small-sized fashion retailers was identified to be an unexplored area; thus, a research gap was detected. This highlights a need for further research of the characteristics of the buyer- supplier relationships within small-sized fashion retailers. The purpose of this study was consequently to investigate buyer-supplier relationships within small-sized fashion retailers. Furthermore, based on the literature review of the theoretical framework, three research questions were formulated. To gather empirical data, a multiple-case study was conducted and semi-structured interviews with four purchasing managers working in the fashion industry were performed.   This study discloses that the concepts of trust and commitment were identified as being of great importance, in order to maintain a long-term relationship between the parties. Further, several factors, e.g. communication, conflict resolution and identification were distinguished to have a significant impact on the character of a close relationship. Finally this study concluded that the relation between the buyer and supplier is highly valued; with especially trust as a key factor. Both affective and calculative commitment was identified to exist, often depending on the size and dependence of the supplier. However, the prosperity of the business was ultimately argued to be the main reason for maintaining a partnership. Hence, the retailers preferred a close relationship, but sometimes accepted a transactional one due to their own customer demand.

Companies face competition that comes at them from different directions in the current environment of globalization, deregulation and the push for greater mass customization of products, which still can be differentiated from other products and services. A large number of companies have outsourced a large percentage of their non-core activities in order to concentrate on their core competencies with transportation of their goods being one of the aspects that they have outsourced. Companies are faced with shorter lead times, inaccurate forecasts, unexpected delays in production and need to seek out alternative transportation modes in order to get their goods to market on time. Transportation by air ends up being the best choice to handle requirements of time sensitivity and the transportation of high value goods. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the air freight supply chain and network that is in place in the Jönkoping region is constructed; in addition to seeking out information in regards to the type of air freight goods being transported into and out of the region; along with the buying behavior and promotion strategies utilized in the promotion of air freight within the region of Jonkoping. The conclusions from this thesis show that there are a number of key actors (integrators and freight forwarders) involved in the air freight network within the Jönköping region. A number of them indicated that the actors they mainly interacted with, in terms of activity links and resource ties, were limited to the airports that were outside of the Jönköping region. There were a few of the actors in terms of integrators that did interact with the Jönköping airport in a capacity that was greater than other actors. In terms of the type of air freight goods that were transported into and out of the region spare parts made up a major portion of the goods transported, followed by clothing and textiles, and other mechanical industry products. The promotion of air freight mostly performed by integrators to their customers is done in terms of emphasizing reliability, punctuality, regularity and security to their customers.

Background: The need to cut costs, save money, become profitable, be innovative, improve product quality and be responsive to customers’ demands is encouraging some organizations to form strategic relationships with suppliers. In achieving this, certain joint investments, called structural bonds, are developed within the relationship life-cycle. Although the bonds tend to tie down the partners and also create impediments for the termination of the relationship, they inevitably contribute to the achievement of mutual goals and sustaining competitive advantage. Past researches failed to relate the structural bonds’ development to any of the stages of the relationship life-cycle, which this study investigated. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate why and in which stages of a strategic buyer-supplier relationship are structural bonds initiated. Method: A multiple case study approach, involving four companies, was undertaken to achieve the purpose of this study. The method used in collecting the empirical data is in-depth interviews with purchasing employees of these companies: Lagermetall AB, Atlas Copco AB, SAAB Tech AB and Husqvarna AB. Results: Most of the structural bonds, based on this study, were introduced at the beginning of the relationships. Some of the reasons for introducing these bonds are: improved product quality, joint product development, knowledge transfer, innovation and communication. Though the bonds may be introduced by the more powerful organization in the relationship, there is interdependency in the relationship. The bonds influenced the following in the relationship: trust, commitment and cooperation, information sharing, and performance but also generated lock-in effects.

In the context of supply contract design, the more powerful party has the lib- erty of withholding private information which also improves its bargaining power. Traditionally, the supplier (e.g., manufacturer) has been more powerful, and, hence, the existing literature in the area emphasizes supplier-driven contracts. However, in some current markets, such as the grocery channel, the bargaining power has shifted to the buyer (e.g., retailer). For example, in the United States, large retailers, such as Wal-Mart, exert tremendous market power over their suppliers. Also, with the advent of the Internet, buyers have gained access to much more information about multiple potential suppliers. Hence, this dissertation takes into account the recent trends in power shifting between suppliers and buyers, and it attempts to provide a comparison of optimal supply contract designs in supplier- versus buyer-driven chan- nels. This research is unique in that we explore the impact of both power shifting and information asymmetry while designing optimal supply chain contracts under supply uncertainty and competition. Placing an emphasis on the cases of stochastic and/or price-sensitive demand, we work on several novel problems in stochastic mod- eling, nonlinear and dynamic optimization, and game theory. Hence, this research has roots in applied probability, optimization, inventory theory, game theory, and eco- nomics. The goal is to advance our practical knowledge of designing implementable contracts because such knowledge is crucial for optimizing supply chain performance in the real world. This dissertation provides insights about * the individual and joint impacts of the power structure and information asym- metry on supply chain performance, * the value of information for contract design in supplier- versus buyer-driven channels, * the impact of supply uncertainty and supplier competition on contract design in supplier- versus buyer-driven channels.