This thesis is focused on the analysis of purchasing behavior of consumers in the furniture market. In the introductory part is defined the purchase behavior. There is described the cultural, social, personal and psychological factors that influence consumer decision-making, and stages of purchase decision making process. The following chapters describe characteristics of Czech consumers, specific methods of furniture retailers and evaluation of the furniture market in the Czech Republic. The last chapter is devoted to the results of a questionnaire survey concerning the purchasing behavior of consumers in the market of furniture and household accessories.

This study was developed to determine whether buyers expect suppliers with whom they have strong relationships to take preventative action if external events threaten to disrupt planned transactions. The alternative is that buyers perceive the relationships to be limited to contract obligations. This dissertation employed a quantitative study design to examine the buyer's view of buyer-supplier relational capital as a tool for risk reduction in the supply chain. The study is an extension of the work linking social capital, risk management, and inter-organizational network theory. The research population was a sample of 612 U.S. buyers managing global supply chains. The results were analyzed with factor analysis to evaluate the contribution of relational expectations, contract use, and organizational risk practices on the perceived risk reduction actions of the supplier. The relationships between the identified factors were determined through the development of a path model using partial least squares analysis. The data analysis suggests that the buyer does perceive relational capital to bring about specific risk prevention action from the supplier. More importantly, buyers include in their relational expectations of the supplier the reduction of any perceived supply chain risk that could impact the buying organization. The study also reveals the widespread use of preferred supplier relationships to handle the acquisition of critical goods and services. The study adds to the supply chain body of knowledge by expanding the known scope of buyer-supplier relational expectations. The work validates previous research by Ellis & Shockley (2010), which asserts that collaborative relationships lower a firm's risk profile. It also provides empirical evidence for network theories such as the study by DeWever, Vandenbempt & Martin (2005), who find that relational capital is a potential source of assistance during times of trouble.

The topic of this diploma theses is streamlining of HW purchasing process in a software company using methods and principles of project management. Firstly, it describes the theoretical concepts of project management and change management. In the analytical part, the company and the processes are analyzed. Based on this analysis, there are concrete changes and their execution designed.

The dissertation aims on evaluating of logistic processes at chosen company, which is ITAB Shop Concept CZ, a.s. Based on data analysis, suggestions leading to improvement of logistics related processes are established to secure continuous and economical way of acquiring supplies required for production and sales.

The diploma thesis focuses on the analysis of the current management of the purchasing process and inventory management for the production process in the company ZDAS, a.s. Based on the performed analyzes, this thesis proposes specific solutions for improving the actual partial processes.

Sustainability has become a prevalent societal value and is ubiquitous in public discourse. Securing sustainable economic growth on increasingly globalized markets is perceived by many as one of the greatest challenges of our time. Supply chains have become globally dispersed and are increasingly complex to manage. Companies are experiencing higher expectations from their stakeholders in terms of their sustainability performance. They can no longer renounce responsibility for the actions of their suppliers and need to manage their sourcing activities so as to ensure sustainable supply chains. This poses a challenge but can at the same time present a business opportunity. There have been attempts to identify a business justification and rational for pursuing sustainability in sourcing. However, previous research has been primarily theoretical and has lacked practical applicability. The current study seeks to investigate the key features of the business case for sustainability. It also seeks to identify how the business case can be realized in sourcing activities. The current study has an exploratory design and revolves around a single case company. It utilizes both primary- and secondary data as well as a rigorous literature review. The primary data consist of a pre-study as well as interviews whereas the secondary data consist of a review of the current sustainability- and sourcing processes of the case company. The study culminates in a thematic analysis of the empirical data as well as a subsequent discussion. The empirical data indicates that the market is exhibiting an increasing demand for products with a strong sustainability profile. Additionally, it indicates that sustainable sourcing will become increasingly important for complying with regulations, attracting employees and reducing risk throughout the supply chain. Currently, suppliers’ sustainability performance is predominantly managed through the screening process and there is no functional metric available for practitioners to quantitively evaluate it. Rather than relying solely on sustainability requirements, the empirical data indicates that it is through cooperation and joint initiatives the greatest results can be achieved. We conclude that there is business case for pursuing sustainability as it: reduces risk and costs; increases companies’ ability to retain and recruit employees; cost efficiently comply with regulations; retain and attract customers and increase overall competitiveness. In order to realize the business case, it is imperative for companies to formulate clearly defined goals and subsidiary objectives to follow up on established trajectories. Since there is no metric suitable for measuring sustainability performance it is advisable to adopt a reductionist approach. The screening process should be devoted to binary variables while the evaluations process should be concerned with those who can be quantifiably evaluated. Companies should work closely with suppliers by identifying opportunities for synergistic value creation and engage in joint initiatives. Finally, companies need to communicate their efforts and achievements to all concerned stakeholders.

The need to achieve competitive advantageous among companies have made international purchasing an attractive option. Acting on international markets could be beneficial from many perspectives; one of the main driving forces is to cut costs. However, there are also a lot of challenges related to international purchasing. CSR and Sustainability issues seems so becoming increasingly important in society and this will of course affect companies work with international purchasing. This paper investigates the driving forces and challenges related to international purchasing and the role of CSR and Sustainability in this context. The findings are then applied on the construction industry and the case company NCC. The methods used are both a literature study and an empirical study. The empirical study is based on interviews with representatives from varying industries. The study indicates that the importance of CSR and Sustainability is rapidly increasing. Companies must balance the driving forces in terms of e.g. cost and quality with CSR issues and other challenges that distance causes. Supplier relationships have turned out to be a crucial factor for the success of international purchasing and CSR. Building supplier relationships is therefore suggested as a strategy for NCC to embrace.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / This research focuses on a proposal to improve the purchase and supply processes for the food sector. An appropriate model for procurement management and monitoring is established. It is then validated that an adequate input purchase process reduces costs and improves the service quality of companies, which reduces delivery times to provide satisfactory service. Lean manufacturing tools, such as Value Stream Mapping (VSM), were applied to carry out the initial diagnosis of the process, activity analysis, and time measurements. Finally, the new process was standardized, and continuous improvement was achieved by applying purchasing management techniques. The research was experimental, and a pilot test was carried out in a company in the food sector. The results show that with the implementation of the new procedures, this company reduced the percentage of late deliveries, improved its service level and therefore its position in the industry.

Today, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) either go out of business or see their growth being stalled due to poor activity management and organization, which is why they are often unprepared to engage against large companies leading their competitive markets. This study aims to develop a comprehensive management model, exclusively designed for SMEs in the jewellery sector, which may encompass all areas that create value and make them competitive. The development of this comprehensive management model was deployed in 21 steps classified into three tiers based on three major philosophies. This study uses lean manufacturing to identify activities that add value and reduce waste, and lean green was used to provide the environmental care and culture approach required for a friendly and fair workplace environment. The selected scenario is a jewelry workshop, wherein techniques and tools were completely applied and yielded a 20% increase in operating performance and a 15% increase in annual return.

The Fisher and Seater [Fisher, M.E. and Seater, J.J., 1993. Long run neutrality and superneutrality in an ARIMA framework. American Economic Review 83, 402-415.] methodology is applied to Taylor's [Taylor, A.T., 2002. A century of purchasing power parity. Review of Economics and Statistics 84, 139-150.] data to test for purchasing power parity. Generally, the evidence is supportive of PPP. Further, FS test statistics have no size distortion problem and test power is improved with longer samples.