Background: Pressures from stakeholders drive manufacturers to be more environmental committed. The demand and supply integration (DSI) aims at balancing the demand and supply in order to stay competitive and reduce costs which can help manufacturers decreasing production costs for environmental-friendly products. When a company is integrating and disseminating information, trust is expected to play an important role between the supply chain partners. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate, theoretically and empirically, of how environmental commitment and trust can influence DSI within the German textile manufacturing industry. Methodology: The primary data, in this thesis, was conducted using a structured web survey sent out to 982 German textile manufacturers via email, based on the database Orbis. The response rate was 5.6 per cent. The simple linear regression analysis was used in order to investigate the relation of environmental commitment and trust on the extent of DSI. Findings, conclusions: In the German textile manufacturing industry, on the one hand, the results indicated that there is a positive linear relation of environmental commitment on the extent of DSI. Due to the low response rate and the lack of previous studies, further research should be conducted to confirm this relation. On the other hand, trust somewhat influences the extent of DSI, however, no linear relationship is found between them. The result is not in coherence with previous research. Hence, further studies are needed to clarify this relation.

In this paper I investigate the energy cooperation between the EU and Russia from the political and economic points of view. The relevance of the issue is due to the growing role of energy sector, the need for security of energy supply and demand and for political and economic balance of power in the region, and closer economic integration. Two theoretical approaches, geopolitical and bureaucratic, guiding the research, explain the behavior of protagonists. To better understand the present level of cooperation I analyze the background and dynamics of EU - Russia energy trade relations. As a case study, I investigate the Nord Stream project as an example of successful cooperation of Germany as an EU member state and Russia in this field. I discuss challenges for the healthy mutual partnership in the energy sector, namely, high politicization of the issue, monopolization of Russian energy sector and low sustainability of Russian economic development, and mistrust between the protagonists. I attempt to identify possible policy changes aimed to improve this cooperation and achieve fruitful partnership, security and stability. Key words: Russia, EU, energy, cooperation, Realpolitik, international relations, oil, gas, energy dialogue, ECT, security, balance of power, geopolitics, interest groups,...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:50:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5904.pdf: 2269216 bytes, checksum: 57eb6804c177749bbc6d216c338869a1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-29 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Empirical works have shown that risks in a supply chain can affect the efficiency of the flows of products, services and information in it, causing misalignment between activities, inefficiencies in operations and low firm performance. In this sense, we note that the inter organizational information sharing has been pointed out in several studies (e.g., LEE et al, 2012; GIUNIPERO and ELTANTAWY , 2004; BLACKHURST et al, 2011) as an element capable of mitigating several risks involved in the productive activities of a supply chain. This thesis fits into this perspective, more specifically, seeks to analyze the relationship between sharing information with suppliers and customers and the mitigation of risks in supply chains (i.e. disruptions, poor delivery performance, failure orders, poor demand forescast, and others). Moreover, it is expected to understand if this fact (risk mitigation) contribute to improving business performance. Thus, we performed an empirical study consists of three stages, namely: i) literature review, ii) conducting a test of hypotheses with data processing by means of the technique of Structural Equation Modeling, and iii) interviews for in-depth understanding of the hypotheses were confirmed. Overall, the results indicate that, for the studied sector, a share of effective and efficient information between the company and its key suppliers focus promotes the mitigation of supply disruptions and inefficiencies in distribution operations or fulfilling delivery times along the chain, even without an appropriate sharing of information on demand (by the closest ties of the final consumer) or occurring inconsistencies with regard to its prediction. Moreover, with respect to performance improvement from the risk mitigation, the results are conclusive and allow to state that the expected effect was confirmed, i.e., so smaller are the risks involving the activities of supply, production and distribution of a focal with its suppliers and customers, best will their performance results (operational , market and financial). As contribution of the study, besides to filling the gaps identified in the literature highlights the production of knowledge to data from the Brazilian situation, since this research focuses on a recent topic (risks mitigation in supply chains) in an industry specific, of agri-companies. / Estudos mostram que se os riscos de uma cadeia de suprimentos não forem mitigados, estes podem afetar a eficiência dos fluxos de produtos, serviços e informações da mesma, provocando o desalinhamento entre as atividades, ineficiência nas operações e o baixo desempenho das empresas. Sob esta perspectiva, o compartilhamento inter organizacional de informações tem sido apontado em diversos estudos (por exemplo, GIUNIPERO e ELTANTAWY, 2004; BLACKHURST et al., 2011; LEE et al., 2012) como um elemento capaz de mitigar boa parte dos riscos que envolvem as atividades produtivas de uma cadeia de suprimentos. Há, entretanto, uma lacuna na literatura no que diz respeito aos efeitos do compartilhamento de informações sobre a mitigação de riscos envolvendo o fornecimento e a demanda. Sendo assim, a presente tese busca analisar a relação existente entre o compartilhamento de informações e a mitigação de riscos envolvendo o fornecimento (ou seja, interrupções, ineficiências nas operações de distribuição ou no cumprimento de prazos de entrega) e demanda (a saber, colocações repentinas de pedidos, decorrentes de alterações repentinas e frequentes na demanda ou ocasionadas por erros nas projeções de demanda dos principais clientes frente à sua demanda real). Além disso, buscou-se entender se a redução de riscos envolvendo o fornecimento e a demanda pode contribuir para a melhoria de desempenho empresarial. Para tanto, realizou-se um estudo empírico composto de três etapas, a saber: i) revisão de literatura; ii) realização de um teste de hipóteses com tratamento dos dados por meio da técnica de Modelagem de Equações Estruturais, e; iii) entrevistas para entendimento em profundidade das hipóteses que foram confirmadas. De maneira geral, os resultados permitem concluir que, para o setor pesquisado, um compartilhamento de informações eficaz e eficiente entre a empresa foco e seus principais fornecedores promove a mitigação de interrupções no fornecimento, bem como a redução de ineficiências nas operações de distribuição ou no cumprimento de prazos de entrega ao longo da cadeia. Sob esta perspectiva nota-se que tal mitigação ocorre mesmo sem haver um compartilhamento adequado de informações sobre a demanda (por parte dos elos mais próximos do consumidor final) ou ocorrendo inconsistências no que diz respeito à sua previsão. Com relação à melhoria de desempenho a partir da mitigação de riscos, os resultados obtidos são contundentes e permitem afirmar, sem ressalvas, que o efeito esperado foi confirmado, ou seja, quanto menores forem os riscos envolvendo as atividades de suprimentos, produção e distribuição de uma empresa focal com seus fornecedores e clientes, melhores serão os seus resultados de desempenho (operacional, de mercado e financeiro). Como contribuição do estudo, além do preenchimento das lacunas identificadas na literatura destaca-se a produção de conhecimento com dados da situação brasileira, uma vez que esta pesquisa foca um tema recente e pouco pesquisado (gestão de riscos em cadeias de suprimentos) em um setor específico, o de empresas agroindustriais.