Global sourcing is an important strategy for Swedish businesses since it is a mean to gain competitive advantage which is important on the global market Swedish businesses act on. Consequently it is interesting to investigate the importance of the perceived benefits and challenges with global sourcing since these factors affect the global sourcing decision. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how Swedish large businesses perceive the benefits and challenges with global sourcing. To be able to fulfil the purpose primary data was used which was collected through an Internet based questionnaire where the respondents were asked to rank and rate the importance of the benefits and challenges with global sourcing. The data collected was in a quantifiable form and thus quantitative tools were used to analyse the collected data. The result of the study regarding the benefits was that price clearly was perceived as the most important benefit, while counter-trade obligations were seen as the least important benefit. Regarding the challenges, longer lead times and cultural issues were seen as the most challenging aspects, while customs regulations, tariffs and quotas and discrimination from the supplier were perceived as the least important challenges. However since too few responses of the questionnaire were obtained, these results is not generalizable on other Swedish businesses than those that are represented in the sample.

Maturity models have become a widely used framework for assessing various capabilities and technologies among businesses. This thesis develops a maturity model for assessing Business Analytics (BA) in Swedish e-commerce firms. Business Analytics has become an increasingly important part of modern businesses, and firms are continuously looking for new ways to perform analysis of the data available to them. The prominent previous maturity models within BA have mainly been developed by IT-consultancy firms with the underlying intent of selling their IT services. Consequently, these models have a primary focus on the technical factors towards Business Analytics maturity, partly neglecting the importance of organisational factors. This thesis develops a Business Analytic Maturity Model (BAMM) which fills an identified research gap of academic maturity models with emphasis on the organisational factors of BA maturity. Using a qualitative research design, the BAMM is adapted to the Swedish e-commerce industry through two sequential evaluation stages. The study finds that organisational factors have a greater impact on BA maturity than previous research suggests. The BAMM and the study's results contribute with knowledge of Business Analytics, as well as providing e-commerce firms with insights into how to leverage their data.