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<p>Despite the high expectations that researchers and practitioners had for business-to- business electronic marketplaces (EMs), EMs have not prospered, for reasons that are not well understood. Research to this point on EM adoption is very limited due to their quickly changing nature and the complexity of the issue, which involves multiple economic, political and technical factors at both macro and micro levels.</p> <p>EM adoption and buyer-supplier relationships are related. Buyer-supplier relationships play an important role in firms' EM adoption decisions since businesses are not willing to change their current relationships with trading partners to adopt EMs and their support functionalities, such as auctions, reverse auctions, transaction support, etc. The adoption of EMs also impacts buyer-supplier relationships. A framework is proposed in this thesis to investigate these mentioned issues. A buyer-supplier relationship perspective is adopted to investigate EM adoption, and both the economic and power dimensions of buyer-supplier relationships are examined. It is proposed that power can speed up the adoption of EM functionalities and that the effect of power is moderated by market structure. Some important contingencies are suggested that underlay buyer supplier relationships, such as transaction uncertainty, transaction frequency, transaction specific investment, complexity of product description and non-contractible factors, and it is proposed that they are likely to affect choice of functionality. At the same time, it is proposed that EMs can make short-term relationships efficient and long-term relationships effective. It is also proposed that the use of EMs causes varying degrees of satisfaction of participants with their online trading partners.</p> <p>A case study approach was adopted to examine the framework. A total of five EMs and some of their participating buyers and suppliers were studied to validate the propositions. Some important findings are reported. The first finding was that the classification of EMs should not be a dichotomy, but a continuum. It was also found that complexity of product description could not explain why companies choose to use different functionalities, since simple products tended to be involved in EM trading, in all the functionalities that we studied. It was confirmed that relationship efficiency and effectiveness gains were moderated by the drawbacks of EMs and the lack of participant system and process integration into EM systems. Finally, based on the results of the case studies and the confirmed propositions, a refined framework is presented and described.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In a business to business context, the adoption of a disruptive technology can introduce great risks and benefits for all involved parties. In order to investigate the issues surrounding disruptive technology adoption, this dissertation analyzes the roles of buyers, suppliers, and employees within the adoption process. First, it is found that interorganizational trust has a positive impact on the likelihood of disruptive technology adoption, thus benefitting incumbent suppliers. Second, pre-existing interorganizational trust is shown to lead to lower quality adoption decisions from the buyers' perspective. Finally, employees are found to be less likely to accept disruptive technologies, as compared to incremental technologies. The influence of buyer, supplier, and employee relationships are complex and are explored in further detail in the following studies. / Business Administration/Marketing

Though 48% of all privately-held firms are at least 50% owned by a woman or women, women-owned enterprises received only 9% of the institutional investment deals and 2% of the dollars in 1999 in 2006. In the corporate supplier market, women-owned enterprises obtained only 4% of the market share. These figures indicate that women or women-owned enterprises face some level of hurdles in the marketplace. Drawing on Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior, the study explored the impact of corporate supplier diversity programs on corporate purchasers' intention to purchase from women-owned enterprises. Two hundred seventy two corporate purchasers across a diverse range of industries and geographical regions in the U.S. participated in a scenario-based mail survey. The findings suggest that corporate supplier diversity programs did influence the purchasers' intention to purchase, and the influence was more direct than indirect, contrary to some of the hypotheses proposed in the study. The findings contribute to both the corporate social responsibility literature and the women's entrepreneurship studies. With regard to the corporate social responsibility literature, the findings demonstrate that it is possible for business to incorporate positive duty into its core economic activities without compromising its financial gains and that the economic-aligned and duty-aligned orientations can be integrated. With reference to the women's entrepreneurship studies, the findings point to a way to overcome the hurdles that women-owned enterprises face. Given that 40% of the corporations do not have a supplier diversity program, the findings have practical implications as well; corporations are urged to implement a supplier diversity program if they do not have one, and to be committed to implementing their programs if they already have established one, for doing so is simply another case of doing well by doing good. / Ph. D.

The medical device manufacturing industry has a deficiency in determining how to improve supplier performance for the components and systems they purchase. Many complex medical devices require components from superb suppliers. But how does a medical device manufacturer (MDM) impartially assess supplier performance to know which suppliers to continuing with (or even boost purchase volumes) and which suppliers they should exit? This study describes which supplier-specific metrics are most important to medical device manufacturers (MDMs) so they can utilize this supplier performance scorecard backed by real-world inputs. This research will focus on five categories to measure MDM supplier performance (Quality, Price, Delivery, Customer Service, and Partnership) across twenty-three (23) metrics. Because this is a focus of MDM supplier performance, we are not focusing on analysis of device sales to the final customer (e.g., distributors or group purchasing organizations {GPO}). The study will follow a framework including research analysis of supplier performance management in other industries, methods to attain data from MDMs via survey, results and analysis of the data, conclusions, and an easily understandable MDM supplier performance scorecard. In the survey, 135 MDM professionals replied when asked to rate twenty-three (23) supplier performance metrics, across five (5) categories aggregated from nine (9) different industries. The survey yielded a myriad of results including, weighting factors of each of the metrics, and those data results were used to compile an MDM supplier performance scorecard utilizing real-world feedback. The analysis revealed the ratings of importance of the categories as: Quality (43%), Delivery (24%), Customer Service (4%), Partnership (13%), Price (8%) and associated weights for the twenty-three (23) metrics that matter most to an MDM when creating a performance scorecard for their supplier base. Three contributions that this research will add to the body of knowledge: An in-depth review of supplier performance across many different industries (i.e., non-healthcare and healthcare) for contrasting/comparing evidence. A detailed MDM survey and statistical analysis on the topic of supplier performance management. An easily understandable and useable MDM supplier performance scorecard (via MS Excel) for MDM supply chain and/or operations users and/or managers.

No / This paper provides a systems-based approach to the exploration of the relationship and integration between Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) factors as part of a Sustainable Operations Management (SOM) agenda. The authors have chosen electronic procurement (e-Procurement) as a suitable context in this light. Through a review of extant literature, a Systems Archetype (SA) model was developed (based on the ‘Accidental Adversaries’ archetype) and findings from a quantitative pilot study exploring key factors pertinent to e-Procurement SRM were gathered, and hence evaluated against SOM factors. The objective of this research was to describe and visualise the causal interrelationships involved in SRM-SOM through the application of a SA (as an Operations Research tool). The authors believe that this research also provides a unique approach to developing and harnessing the useful and unique properties of Systems Thinking (ST), by attempting to reduce and organise the (generally ad hoc and wide-ranging) sequence of subjective perspectives commonly experienced in causal mapping experiments. The paper builds upon the extant literature, and provides further basis for continuing research in the areas of ST, SAs and the application of operational research to plan sustainable operations.

Yes / A major challenge for supply chain managers is how to manage sourcing relationships to ensure reliable and predictable actions of distant suppliers. The extant research into sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has traditionally focused on the transactional and collaboration approaches through which buyers encourage suppliers to act responsibly. However, little effort has been devoted to investigating the factors that underpin and enable effective implementation of these two approaches, or to exploring alternative approaches to help sustain an acceptable level of social performance from suppliers. Building on organisational justice theory, we developed a framework in which we propose that buyers’ justice (i.e. distributive, procedural and interactional) as perceived by suppliers can serve as an alternative and complementary vehicle to the conventional sustainability governance approaches for driving the social justice exhibited by suppliers. The paper sheds new light on an alternative relational approach to help to restrain potentially harmful acts of suppliers. It provides a foundation for new research avenues in the SSCM context and supports more informed decision making by practitioners.

ABB is a global company with a leading position in power and automation technologies. Being active on a global market creates a high pressure to always develop the business and reduce costs in order to stay competitive. The purchasing function at ABB ́s unit Control Products is divided into a strategic- and an operative purchase department. The negotiated setups the strategic purchasers establish with the suppliers have been shown to affect the transport- and inventory costs that are charged to the operative purchase department. In order to determine whether more beneficial setups could be negotiated by including transport- and inventory costs when they are evaluated, this case study has been requested. Two master students from Linköping University have conducted the study and by investigating different setups, conclusions to answer the study ́s purpose could be drawn. The purpose is presented below. The study’s purpose is to recommend future guidelines for the strategic purchasers at ABB’s unit Control Products that can be applied when negotiating with suppliers, by evaluating purchase-, transport- and inventory costs. In order to investigate how the purchase-, transport- and inventory costs were affected by different setups, four different cases were defined. Each case included a specific article, which was chosen based on its properties and its current and alternative setups. The conducted literature reviews and interviews with employees at Control Products resulted in the two sub- criteria lead time and net price were defined as the most important ones when negotiating and evaluating suppliers. A combination of these sub-criteria was therefore used to choose suitable articles. Once the cases had been defined, the purchase-, transport- and inventory costs could be calculated for both their current situation and alternative setup scenarios. Theories from relevant researches were used to strengthen and criticised the cases’ results. Each case's result provided information regarding how the purchase-, transport- and inventory costs were affected by specific setups. By comparing the alternative scenarios with the setup currently used, the alternatives ́ profitability could be determined. The cases showed that by only studying one of the three cost posts, only a limited insight was gained. Even if the purchase cost was to increase for an alternative setup, it could still be profitable to implement due to decreased transport- and inventory costs. Furthermore, an alternative setup that showed significant potential to reduce inventory costs was proven to not be profitable because of its effect on the net price. Neglecting to take transport- and inventory costs into account when a potential supplier is evaluated can make a deal look more profitable than it is. The final recommendation is that purchase-, transport- and inventory costs all have to be taken into consideration in order to determine which setups that are economically preferable. If the strategic purchasers at Control Products includes these when they negotiate with suppliers, more profitable deals can be obtained. / <p>Examensarbetet är en förvrängd version då känslig information om ABB inte ska läcka ut.</p>

The competitive market of today is characterized by globalization, because of that organizations increased demands from customers on the services as well as on product. In other word, the customer is focusing on buying the service in same way as they buy products. For that the trust in relationships is considered as an important and effective factor when the business to business partners want to achieve growth profitability, and long term time. In order to reach high trust in relationships between customers and suppliers, ability to measure trust in relationships and to improve it is important. One to know how to be able to follow up the trust in the relationships between customers and suppliers, maintain and develop relationships for as long as possible in order to reach the company's goals. The first step in the project was data collection via an email survey and by direct contact with those companies by phone. Then the data was used to make an analysis by comports the results with pervious theories. The analysis enabled to identify the different types of factors which makes the trust in relationships more strong and stable .In the last chapters results are discussed and it was found that the each company has its own way to follow up the relationships to maintain the trust in relationships for longer  time to a achieve their goals and profit. The conclusions are each company have different way of measuring and regardless of which indicators are used for measuring the trust in relationships between the customer and service supplier, they must be  linked directly to the organization's  goals to maintain and  continuity relationships for as long as possible in order to reach the company's goals. The effective trust is important factor which lead to the partners feeling they belong to each other’s which the relationships between them  take a partner form which lead to long term time and profitable relationships and strong trust in relationships.