Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Narasimhan, Sridhar; Committee Member: Li, Haizheng; Committee Member: Slaughter, Sandra; Committee Member: Thursby, Marie; Committee Member: Zhang, Han.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Christos Alexopoulos; Committee Co-Chair: Mark Ferguson; Committee Member: Dave Goldsman; Committee Member: Hayriye Ayhan; Committee Member: Paul Griffin. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (PH.D.)--Michigan State University. Marketing, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Aug. 11, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 232-250). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-68). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Larry C. Giunipero, Florida State University, College of Business, Dept. of Marketing. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 12, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains x, 94 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2005. / Advisor: Norman P. Archer. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-197). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-274).

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The role of the traditional purchasing department has evolved significantly over the last decade into a competitive value adding procurement function within an organisation’s lean supply chain model. It has become a necessity to work with the suppliers to provide flexible, accurate, effective and cost effective goods and/or services (Barla, 2003; Ellram, 2002). In addition organisations are developing and utilising new business models geared towards improving both the balance sheet and the income statement to respond to external forces and new market opportunities. The change in business model places additional emphasis on leveraging increased innovation from suppliers, thus having a vast impact on supply management to such an extent that organisations are creating strategic relationships (Carter et al., 2007). In this paper, the supplier relationship management model will be studied under lean philosophy as to address the focal point – sustainable procurement. The paper will consist of three main areas: Supplier relationship management – Literature study Supplier relationship management – Case study Supplier relationship management – Operational tool Supplier relationship management – Literature study will address the theoretical methodologies, best practices, benefits and advantages, etc. Supplier relationship management – Case study will showcase a South African multi-national FMCG1 manufacturer’s methodology as well as the benefits of utilising a supplier relationship management approach to procurement. Supplier relationship management – Operational tool will be a practical tool developed for evaluating and facilitating supplier relationship management in an African context. The end result of the paper should be a feasible solution to prolonging the impact of procurement, thus increasing sustainability in the maturity stage of procurement’s life span in the typical product life cycle model (Canny Buyer, 2007). 1 Fast Moving Consumer Goods (“FMCG”) are products that have a quick turnover and relatively low cost (Wikipedia, 2007a). / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die tradisionele rol van die aankope department binne ‘n organisasie het oor die laaste dekade merkwaardig verander en word nou bedryf as ‘n kompeterende waardetoevoegende skakel binne die organisasie se voorsieningsketting. Terselfdetyd het dit noodsaaklik vir leweransiers en organisasies geword om op ’n geïntegreerde wyse te werk te gaan om meer akkurate en koste-effektiewe goedere en/of dienste te lewer (Barla, 2003; Ellram, 2002). Organsisasies is ook genoodsaak om nuwe innoverende besigheidsmodelle te ontwikkel om ten beste eksterne besigheidsfaktore en nuwe markgeleenthede aan te spreek ten einde beide die balanstaat sowel as die inkomste staat positief te impakteer. Hierdie kardinale veranderinge in die besigheidsmodel van organisasies lei daar toe dat addisionele druk op leweransiers geplaas word om met innovasie navore te kom. Op sy beurt plaas dit verdere druk op die voorsieningsketting, selfs tot so ’n mate dat dit die organisasie noop om na die moontlikhede van strategiese vennootskappe te ondersoek (Carter et al., 2007). Die skryfstuk gaan leweransiers verhoudingsbestuurmodelle evalueer en bestudeer binne ‘n voorsieningsketting om sodoende die vraag na volhoubare verkryging te beantwoord. Die skryfstuk sal uit drie fokusareas bestaan, naamlik: Leweransiers Verhoudingsbestuur – Literatuurstudie Leweransiers Verhoudingsbestuur – Gevallestudie Leweransiers Verhoudingsbestuur – Bedrysmodel Leweransiers Verhoudingsbestuur – Literatuurstudie sal die teoretiese metodologie, die vooren nadele van leweransiers verhoudingsbestuur aanspreek. Leweransiers Verhoudingsbestuur – Gevallestudie sal ‘n studie loots binne die verhoudingswerkinge binne ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse multi-nationale maatskapy wat in die vinnige verbruikersgoederemark betrokke is. Leweransiers Verhoudingsbestuur – Bedrysmodel sal ’n praktiese voorstel vorendag bring om ’n leweransiersverhouding meer doeltreffende te bestuur in Afrika. Die eindresultaat van die skryfstuk sal dus ’n lewens vatbare oplossing wees om die volhoubare impak van verkrying te verleng in die volwasse stadium van ‘n produk se lewensiklus (Canny Buyer, 2007).

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / Projects are often outsourced to an external project management office that has to adapt and operate in a matrix style organisational structure. This project management office is then forced to follow the project management framework enforced by their clients, especially if these clients operate on a global, multinational business level. In such cases it is common practice that the project management office also has to follow a strict procurement approval process to ensure controlled project capital governance, which often results in project baseline schedule delays. The source of these project schedule delays may even cause conflict between the project management office, the respective project manager and their common clients. As part of the current research, various procurement transactions within such a project environment were tracked as a case study to validate the approval efficiency of all approval authorities within the procurement process itself. The duration for transaction approvals were tracked in order to compare it with existing service level agreements between the relevant stakeholders. The results obtained from the above study indicate that the actual procurement approval duration is misaligned with the theoretical and expected procurement approval duration, confirming that existing service level agreements should be aligned with more realistic deliverable expectations. The current research confirms that the organisational structure of this particular matrix style project environment and the way in which the procurement process is governed for transaction approval, have a direct negative impact on project deliverables; especially on the baseline schedule. The current research also confirms that the client organisation should be sensitive in how they structure their project organisational environment as over-governance of the procurement process can often result in unexpected schedule delays. This over-governance of the procurement process exposes various inefficiencies in the overall process, without necessarily enhancing overall project governance. The current research shows that restructuring of the procurement approval process could reduce the procurement approval duration, and present a more realistic service level agreement between the project stakeholders. This will allow the project manager to more accurately define his baseline project schedule and align all stakeholders’ project schedule expectations.