This study investigates if a company’s brand identity can be used to influence public authorities in public procurement by possible discretions in the procurement rules, and the importance of this meaning increased business opportunity. The subject of the work, branding in public procurement, is unexplored and may be of interest to a larger market. The study approaches an inductive, explorative, single case study. Literature studies forms a theoretical framework that is combined with interviews with representatives from both public authorities and a company. The study finds that a company can use the part of Brand Identity named Image. To be successful, a company’s image expresses what is important and desired from an authority: security, trust, long-term focus and stability. This reduces the authority’s perceived risk and increases its security, and makes the company a more attractive choice. The study also finds that it is impossible to directly influence an ongoing procurement process. The study is limited to the defense market and procurement of large technical advanced systems, not commodity products. The study focuses on the direct relations between the procuring authority and the tendering industry. It will not discuss the involvement of political forces and their actions, e.g. counter-trade. Possible future research is the following suggestions: Investigation of how political forces have impact on international/ intergovernmental business. This could include the correlation between the size and magnitude of the procurement and political involvement. Investigation of the relationship between the compliance of international procurement rules, the favoring of domestic suppliers, and a nation’s position on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. A third extension of this work is to extend its scope to encompass other products or business areas, and make the result more general. The study contributes with knowledge about how branding has influence on public procurement. The result may be of interest to companies, active in the defense market, wanting to increase their competiveness, and for authorities that wish to improve their ability to implement good procurement practices.

<p>Background: It is necessary for a company to hold some unique and irreplicable competitive advantage in order to be able to succeed in a market. In a market where public procurement is an important part the competitive advantages will be characterized by the fact that some of the participants on the market are public organizations and that their actions as for procurement fall under the legislation LOU. The characteristics of competitive advantage also depend on and change with continuous changes on a market. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the competitive advantages that are presenton a current market characterized by public procurement and how these are created. The purposes is also to based on the trends on the market today study and predict the nature of the competitive advantage on the market in the future as well as the changes that we think will occur on the relevant market. </p><p>Realization: We have performed a case study of the market for enteral nutrition where data have been gathered from interviews with participants in the market and from studying the law of public procurement. The data is gathered and analysed based on an adapted model that we have derived from two theoretical perspectives of competitive advantage. The model that looks to the nature and the origin of competitive advantage has been tested and evaluated through application on the market. </p><p>Results: Strategic assets are of great importance in order for a company to create a competitive advantage in the form of being established, relations, being established in municipalities and the offer on the market of enteral nutrition today. These strategic assets and competitive advantages will in the future be characterized by the trends that are present on the market today. These trends are identified as an increasing knowledge, products for specific diseases, cooperation, limited procurements, alternative distribution channels and working towards the patients. The creation and the nature of competitive advantage is shaped by an interaction between the resources and capabilities of the firm and the needs and the needs and the demands of the market.</p>

Environmental awareness among public authorities and governmental institutions has been a priority initiative for countries in the EU over the last years. The public sector is a major consumer of products and services, while their environmental policies are also at a top. Many EU Member Countries have already implemented EU legislation for greener purchasing in the public sector, while others are now preparing their National Action Plan. However, conscious acceptance of National Policy objectives and adoption of green environmental behavior in all scales of the public sector is a challenge. Researchers are concerned that public authorities and especially those of a small size are still focused on the lowest price as a leading factor in public tenders. Many studies have shown that lack of knowledge is a key determinant for the scarce environmental requirements in public procurements. Under this framework, this thesis explores the determinants that affect the implementation of environmental requirements in public procurements and consequently the environmental awareness of small sized public organizations. This thesis is based on a review of policy documents and a single case study investigation. The single case study was conducted on the Technical Department of a municipality in North Greece and the data sources were engineering projects’ public procurements and interviews from the local authority’s officers.

Africa is a poor continent with many of the worlds least developed countries. The latest years the Swedish export to Africa has diminished, at the same time Sweden continues to be a big contributor of aid funds to the continent. However, trade in all its form contribute to prosperity in the trading countries which indicates that the trade with Sweden could help Africa to develop into a bigger and more important economy. Also, since trade increases a country’s welfare, both the Swedish and African societies could benefit from an increased trade between the countries. By getting involved in public procurements in Africa the Swedish companies would get an economic security in the otherwise quite risky market. The public procurements could also mean a way to enter the market or to increase the market shares in Africa. This Thesis is focused on public procurements from the African Development Bank, mostly since Sweden is a big contributor in the bank but only a few Swedish companies has won contracts from the bank and also because many studies has not been made regarding their procurement process. By using theories mainly from project marketing and networking, the market of public procurements in the African Development Bank, the process and the ways to succeed on this market has been studied. It has been showed that the competition for the procurements from the bank is hard, and that the Swedish companies have not been successful. There are many underlying reasons for this, one of the most important being the fact that the Swedish companies have not even been interested in participating in the procurements since they find the market, the process and the bank to complicated. New possibilities are emerging on the market with the African Development Bank improving the efficiency of the procurement process, more lobbying being performed from the Swedish Foreign Ministry and also the growing African market, which makes this market more interesting and could mean new opportunities for the Swedish companies. To improve the Swedish statistics in winning contracts from the bank the Swedish companies need to improve their networking to a great extent. Personal contacts and relationships are extremely important in making business in Africa and also when making bids on procurements from the bank. From the relationships in Africa, the Swedish companies can receive early information about upcoming projects in order to prepare the bid and market the company early. The Swedish companies must be more proactive in their marketing and visit Africa more often, as well as matching the needs with their offer to a better extent than today. It is important for the companies to have a long-term strategy when entering the African procurement market and not to resist too easily. Hard work and many resources will be spent before being awarded with the first contract and thereafter one success will lead to others.

Japan is one of the world’s major importers of wood products. Most of the wood entering the country is destined to Japan’s house building industry. However, Japan has been an indifferent market regarding demand of wood products certified for sustainable forest management. Current pressures that may indicate a shift in market conditions include: the recent economic recovery, increasing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the new government’s public purchasing policies (PPP) titled Timber Procurement Policies. In order to assess the market prospect (in the next 5 years) for wood products certified as coming from sustainable and/or legal sources a study was completed focusing on Japanese home builders. Data was collected through a self administered mail survey of residential builders in Japan. Results show that there is a low level of understanding, as well as willingness to adopt, forest management certification among Japanese builders. Consequently, current market demand for certified products is low and builders expect little change in consumers’ demand for wood materials certified for sustainable management as well as those certified for legality in the next five years. Builders considered the most important potential drivers for increased demand for certified and/or legal wood products to be rigorously implemented public purchasing policies, followed by increasing final consumers’ demand and the growth in CSR. Builders also estimated that the positive impact of PPPs would be rather modest but widespread. Finally, builders indicated that PPPs would favour demand for certain product categories, such as: domestic wood, softwoods, wood from plantation and to a lesser degree wood from temperate forests.

Bakalauro baigiamajame darbe nagrinėjamas inovatyvių viešųjų pirkimų reglamentavimas ir jų įgyvendinimo problematika. Inovatyvūs viešieji pirkimai - pažangaus augimo nuostatų įtraukimas į viešuosius pirkimus, kurie gali pagerinti ne tik švietimo, bet ir mokslinių tyrimų, novatoriškų idėjų skatinimą bei viešųjų paslaugų kokybę. Darbo teorinėje dalyje analizuojama viešųjų pirkimų politika ir jų teisinis reglamentavimas. Identifikuojama inovatyvių viešųjų pirkimų samprata ir jų svarba. Išskiriamos inovatyvių viešųjų pirkimų įgyvendinimo galimybės viešajame sektoriuje bei jų įteisinimas Viešųjų pirkimų įstatyme. Pateikiamos priežastys, lemiančios inovatyvių viešųjų pirkimų įgyvendinimo sunkumus. Taip pat nagrinėjamas inovatyvių viešųjų pirkimų įgyvendinimas ir praktika Europos Sąjungos šalyse. Empirinėje darbo dalyje atliktas interviu su Lietuvos viešųjų pirkimų specialistais. Tyrimu nustatyta, kad inovatyvūs viešieji pirkimai yra nevykdomi dėl pernelyg mažo valstybės politikos kūrėjų susidomėjimo inovatyviais viešaisiais pirkimais ir jų nauda. Autorė pateikia inovatyvių viešųjų pirkimų skatinimo modelį, kuriame dėmesys skiriamas švietimui, kuris būtinas informuoti ne tik LR Vyriausybės inovatyvių viešųjų pirkimų politikos kūrėjus, bet ir perkančiąsias organizacijas, tiekėjus, visuomenę apie inovatyvių prekių, paslaugų ar darbų pranašumą prieš įprastas prekes, paslaugas ar darbus. Taip pat aptarta verslo ir mokslo partnerystės sąsaja, kuri galėtų atnešti didelę naudą visos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The present Bachelor thesis analyses the regulation of innovative public procurement and the issues of its implementation. The state would be able not only to stimulate the development of innovations, but also increase competitiveness and the level of economy in the state by innovative public procurement. The theoretical part of the paper analyses public procurement policy and its legal regulation. The concept of innovative public procurement is identified, as well as its importance. The possibilities of innovative public procurement implementation in the public sector are distinguished, as well is its incorporation in the Public Procurement Act. There are also discussed the causes for difficulties in innovative public procurement implementation. The paper covers the analysis of innovative public procurement implementation and practice in the European Union states as well. The empirical part of the paper includes a discussion of the interview with Lithuanian public procurement specialists. The research revealed that innovative public procurement is not carried out due to lack of interest of the state policy makers in public procurement and its benefits. The author presents a procurement promotion model, in which a great attention is paid to education, as education is essential for informing not only innovative procurement policy makers of the government of the Republic of Lithuania, but also purchasing organisations, suppliers and society about the advantages of innovative... [to full text]

The release of green house gases and the environmental impacts humans have on the environment are huge and might cause irreversible changes to our earth. Meat is considered to have large impacts on the environment, especially beef meat and therefore there have lately been considerable discussions on the sustainable level of meat consumption and production. The main goal with this thesis is to study sustainable meat production and meat consumption in the county of Dalarna in Sweden. Indicators for sustainable meat production and meat consumption were developed and applied on three cases. Interviews were carried out with a municipality in the region that represents the consumer and three beef farmers that represents the producers. The three farmers in this study got many positive remarks regarding sustainability. There are still things to improve but on the whole many positive things were observed, e.g. use of natural grazing areas, maintenance of biodiversity, minor use of fertilizers and pesticides, use of land (pasture/leys) that otherwise would not be used for production of human food for direct consumption (e.g. grain) since the land is not suitable for that. To sum up the results from the consumer group, what can be seen is that the municipality is trying to improve their consumption patterns and that they have good intentions. They try for example to decrease their portions of meat and reduce their waste, they further try to implement days with only vegetarian food. On the other hand are the emissions from each pupil still too large if IPPC’s climate goal of a total of 1-2 ton CO2e emissions per person per year is to be reached. The consumers in Dalarna have the possibility, looking at things from a sustainable point of view, to choose a fine beef meat product (depending on how it is produced) from the neighbourhood. This is due to the fact that the producers in the study got many positive remarks regarding the sustainable indicators. It can therefore be considered positive if the municipality would support this production a thereby procure beef meat from the neighbourhood. The municipality must however change their consumer patterns and buy an amount of beef meat that can be considered sustainable. / Dagens utsläpp av växthusgaser plus all övrig miljöpåverkan människor ger upphov till kan orsaka bestående förändringar på vår jord. Insikten om att vårt handlande kan komma att få ödesdigra konsekvenser har lett fram till att begreppet hållbar utveckling har skapats. Det är ett begrepp som innehåller de tre stödpelarna ekonomi, social och miljö och med det menas att alla tre aspekter måste tas hänsyn till och fungera för att någonting ska anses hållbart. Kött är en produkt som har stor påverkan på miljön, både i from av höga växthusgasutsläpp, men även i form av övergödning, försurning och stor markanvändning. Nötkött har extra hög klimatpåverkan på grund av att nötboskap, som är idisslande djur, släpper ut stora mängder metan då de bearbetar sin föda. På grund av den här vetskapen har diskussionen om hur mycket och vad för sorts kött som ska konsumeras blivit högaktuell. Vad som är viktigt då frågan angående kött diskuteras är att skilja på produktion och konsumtion av kött. Produktion är det lantbrukaren arbetar med och konsumtion är vad vi konsumenter utför. En stor konsument i Sverige är den offentliga sektorn. Kommuner som en del av den offentliga sektorn har möjligheter att ta en ledande roll och vara ett föredöme för hur konsumtionen av kött borde se ut. Det övergripande syftet med den här studien är att studera hållbar köttproduktion och den offentliga sektorns köttkonsumtion i Dalarnas län i Sverige. Indikatorer för att bedöma hållbarheten i köttproduktion respektive köttkonsumtion togs fram. Dessa indikatorer applicerades sedan på några få utvalda fall, belägna i Siljansbygden i Dalarnas län. Då Dalarna är en region som i huvudsak lämpar sig för vallodling valdes tre lantbrukare med nötköttsgårdar ut för att representera producentledet. Konsumenten representerades av en kommun i Dalarna. Deras upphandlingar av kött plus vad de serverar i kommunens skolor utvärderades. Tio sammanfattande indikatorer för köttproduktion och sju för köttkonsumtion togs fram och gårdarna och kommunen utvärderades genom att intervjuer genomfördes med de tre lantbrukarna samt kostchef och upphandlingsansvarig på kommunen. Köttproduktionen (de tre fallgårdarna) fick utifrån de framtagna indikatorerna många positiva anmärkningar gällande hållbarhet även om förbättringar fortfarande är önskvärda. Positiva aspekter som observerades var exempelvis användningen av naturbeten, vilket i sin tur leder till bevarande av biologisk mångfald, liten användning av mineralgödsel och växtskyddsmedel, användning av marker (betesmarker/vallar) som annars inte skulle användas för produktion av humanföda för direkt konsumtion (ex. spannmål) då markerna inte lämpar sig för det etc. Konsumenten, den offentliga sektorn, arbetade också för att bli mer hållbara, de försökte införa vegetariska dagar, liksom at minska portionsstorlekarna av kött. De arbetade även aktivt med att minska sitt svinn. Trots det var utsläppen av växthusgaser per elev högre än vad som krävs för att nå IPCC:s uppsatta klimatmål om 1-2 ton CO2e per person och år. Att minska köttintaget är önskvärt liksom att de väljer de kött de konsumerar med omsorg. Vad som kan konstateras är att konsumenterna i Dalarna har möjlighet att välja ett bra nötköttsalternativ ifrån närområdet sett ur hållbarhetssynpunkt (beroende på hur köttet är producerat). Detta baseras på fallgårdarnas positiva resultat avseende hållbarhet i studien. Det kan därför anses positivt om kommunen stödjer den här produktionsformen och därmed upphandlar nötkött ifrån närområdet. Kommunen har möjlighet att öka hållbarheten i sin köttkonsumtion genom att ändra sina matvanor och begränsa sina köttinköp till en hållbar mängd.

Syftet med denna studie är att den ska lyfta fram problematiken byggföretagen upplever samt fungera som en fingervisning om i vilken riktigt eventuella förändringar i upphandlandets genomförande kan göras. Målet är att ta reda på vad branschen tycker om LOU och hur företagen förhåller sig till lagen. Vilka är dess problemområden som orsakar misstro och överklaganden? Undersökningens frågeställning: •Vad tycker entreprenörerna om tillvägagångssättet? •Vilken förändring skulle entreprenörerna vilja se?

Magistro baigiamajame darbe išanalizuota Lietuvos viešųjų pirkimų raida bei vystymosi tendencijos, charakterizuotas Lietuvos viešųjų pirkimų tikslas, strategija bei įsigijimo procedūrų veikimo modelis, ištirtos bei išskirtos teisinio reguliavimo kliūtys, lemiančios galimai nepakankamai efektyvias viešųjų pirkimų procedūras, suformuluotos ir pateiktos nacionalinės viešųjų pirkimų sistemos bei įsigijimų tobulinimo gairės, padėsiančios išspręsti identifikuotas problemas. Pirmojoje dalyje, siekiant nustatyti darbe keliamos problemos priežastingumą, atskleidžiama viešųjų pirkimų teisinio reguliavimo raida, vystymąsis bei ateities perspektyvos. Antrojoje dalyje, siekiant įvertinti, ar dabartinis Lietuvos viešųjų pirkimų reglamentavimas yra veiksmingas, ar vykdomos procedūros ir jų tvarka yra efektyvi, analizuojamas dabartinio viešųjų pirkimų procedūrų veikimo modelis. Trečiojoje dalyje, aptariami tyrimo metodai, kuriuos pritaikius nustatomos viešųjų pirkimų procedūrų probleminės sritys ir pateikiamos teisinio reguliavimo priemonės, padėsiančios siekti efektyvesnių viešųjų pirkimų procedūrų rezultatų. / Master's thesis analyzed the Lithuanian public procurement development and trends of development, characterized Lithuanian procurement objective, strategy and the acquisition of the operating model, researched and identified regulatory barriers that determine the possible lack of efficient public procurement procedures are formulated and the national procurement system and acquisition improvement guidelines to help solve the identified problems. In the first part of the work, to determine the causality problem caused disclosed procurement regulatory evolution, analyzed the Lithuanian public procurement development and future prospects. In the second part, in order to assess whether the current Lithuanian public procurement regulation is effective, and the procedures and arrangements are effective, analyzes the current procurement procedures for the functioning of the model. The third part discusses the methods by applying established procurement procedures and problem areas are regulatory measures aimed at achieving efficient public procurement procedures.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe išanalizuotas ir įvertintas viešųjų pirkimų vykdymas Lietuvoje ir jo efektyvumas, iškeltos viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo Lietuvoje problemos bei pateikti siūlymai kaip šias problemas spręsti, t. y. kaip padidinti viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo efektyvumą. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje teoriniu aspektu yra tiriamas viešųjų pirkimų teisinis reguliavimas, samprata, tikslai ir principai. Pateikiamos apibendrintos mokslinėje literatūroje ir viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo praktikoje nustatytos viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo Lietuvoje problemos, apžvelgta viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo Lietuvoje kontrolė. Antrojoje darbo dalyje yra nustatyta viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo Lietuvoje vertinimo metodologija. Trečiojoje dalyje yra atlikta Viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo Lietuvoje analizė, kurioje ypatingas dėmesys skirtas viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo efektyvumo rodiklių atskleidimui: skaidrumo didinimui, elektroniniams ir centralizuotiems pirkimams, teisiniam reglamentavimui, viešųjų pirkimų vykdytojų kvalifikacijos kėlimui, viešųjų pirkimų vykdymo trukmei. / The Master’s Thesis provides analysis and evaluation of public procurement procedures as well as their efficiency in Lithuania, identifies problems of public procurement procedures in Lithuania and defines proposals aimed at solving these problems in order to improve efficiency of the public procurement procedures. The first part of the Thesis presents overview of legal regulation, concept, objectives and principles of public procurement from the theoretical point of view. Problems related to the public procurement procedures in Lithuania, as summarized in the scientific literature and identified in practical implementation of public procurement procedures, are presented and control of public procurement procedures in Lithuania is reviewed. The second part of the Thesis defines methodology for evaluation of public procurement procedures in Lithuania. The third part provides analysis of public procurement procedures in Lithuania with a special focus on the establishment of the following efficiency indicators for the public procurement procedures: increasing of transparency, electronic and centralized procurement, legal regulation, development of qualifications of officers responsible for public procurement, duration of public procurement procedure.