Electronic commerce is increasingly applied in commercial fields, no exception to construction procurement process. But coming with it, also creates many problems, many of them remain as hot issues for both researchers and stakeholders in industries and have not been solved, though enormous efforts have been offered from different parties involved, among which, ethics in e-commerce enabled construction procurement process stays on top of all. This thesis investigates ethical issues related to the e-commerce application in the construction industry. Research methods used in this study include a thorough literature review, a questionnaire survey, interviews and a case study. These studies were conducted in August 2004. The samples studied in my thesis included a group of 30 experienced construction professionals who were attending a MBA distance learning programme offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Beijing. Through these studies, various construction ethical issues such as computer ethics and corruption in the e-commerce enabled construction procurement process are thoroughly discussed and patterns of ethical behaviors were identified. Specifically, through the questionnaire and interviews, it was identified that the majority of the respondents (70%) agreed that ethical atmosphere is almost nonexistent in the China construction industry. The majority (78%) also agreed that there was only a little ethical awareness. However, the majority of respondents (51%) believed that there is a positive relationship between ethical behavior and long-term profitability of the company. On the other hand, the respondents' views were divided when judging the relationship between ethical behaviour and short-term profitability as 40% believed the relationship between ethical behaviour and short-term profitability of the company was uncritical, while 43% believed there was a strong relationship between them. The majority of respondents (63%) also confirmed that ethics was never discussed with companies. When asked on the difficulties encountered in developing a strong ethical awareness in the company, respondents cited various reasons including the lack of support from senior management; prevailing trend in the industry, negative impact on long-term and short-term profitability. The majority of respondents (90%) also chose "keep silent" when asked if they spotted unethical behaviors. Finally, the majority of respondents (90%) believed that unethical behaviors increase the cost of procurement by at least 10%. The interviews and case study reinforced the findings and revealed reasons for the ethical behaviors in China construction industry. Based on these findings, this study has proposed several remedial measures in order to prevent unethical behaviors. In addition, scope for further research is also identified.

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought disturbances to a large number business as well as whole industries disrupting their supply chains, proving that most of today's companies don't have sufficient systems or strategies to evade or reduce major supply chain disruptions. One industry that was affected heavily is the fashion industry who is characterized by short lead times, globalized supply chains and volatile customer demand. Production stops and lockdowns in the asian region and difficulties with shipping and transportation have led to devastating consequences for a large number of apparel companies. Creating a need for different strategies to enforce the resilience of the supply chains. The procurement process plays a crucial part in this as it refers to the obtaining of materials, products or services and sourcing suppliers, creating a strong link between the resilience of the supply chain and the company's procurement sector.In this paper we aim to explore and provide insight on which procurement risk management strategies brand owning apparel companies in Sweden have utilized in order to reduce the supply disruptions caused by the pandemic, the purpose with our thesis is to provide insight on how these companies have adapted their PRM strategies to be formidable in the more risk-prone environment that COVID-19 has created. Ultimately the goal is to identify success factors and provide theoretical insight and practical recommendations for practitioners in the industry.   We have conducted qualitative research using an inductive approach and explanatory research design. The data derives from interviewing several different swedish brand owning apparel companies and was analyzed using grounded theory. Our findings suggest that supplier diversification has become more usual practice due to the supply disruptions. Mainly nearshoring has become more prevalent than before COVID-19 according to our findings. We also found that apparel companies have increased the usage of agile tools to reduce supply disruptions, referring to more flexible ordering and agile inventory management. We also found that collaborative partnerships were used as a successful strategy to reduce supply disruptions. Lastly we also found several apparel companies digitalizing their procurement process following the restrictions caused by the pandemic. Even though our theoretical frameworks suggest using demand management tools to reduce the impact of supply disruption, our empirical findings did not support such PRM-activity. Our study contributes to the literature by contextualizing various procurement risk management strategies that apparel brands used to reduce the supply disruption, furthermore we also found new trends regarding nearshoring, inventory management and the usage of new technologies to present samples, thus providing new insights to the research area. Our paper also provides practical recommendations to sourcing managers within the apparel industry who are seeking to engage in procurement risk management strategies to reduce supply disruptions, as our findings can be used as a basis for decision making. Furthermore we recommend managers to firstly identify the root of the disruptions to find the proper responsive action using our proposed model to implement both proactive and reactive strategies to reduce the impact of the supply disruptions. Finally, we recommend companies to start the process to digitalize their procurement process. This has been a necessity for most apparel companies during COVID-19 and we believe that it can have a positive effect in the post-covid world as well.

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Expression globalisante des moyens d’action du secteur privé au service du secteur public, le partenariat public-privé pourrait être appréhendé comme révélant l’effritement des catégories notionnelles des contrats de commande publique. Cependant, le partenariat public-privé n’a pas remis en cause l’unité de la matière. Au contraire, les instruments juridiques du P.P.P. la renforcent. Cette analyse se vérifie aussi bien en France qu’en Italie et cette étude se propose d’analyser la signification juridique du phénomène dans ces deux pays. Les évolutions induites par la notion s’inscrivent dans cette logique. La démarche comparatiste utilisée permet alors de comprendre les tenants et les aboutissants de cette évolution et s’inscrit dès lors comme une contribution à la théorie générale des contrats publics. / Holistic expression as a means of action by the private sector to further the public sector, the publicprivate partnership could be perceived as revealing the erosion of the notional categories of public procurment contracts. However, the public-private partnership has not called into question the subject unity. In fact, on the contrary, the legal instruments of the PPP strentgthen it. This analysis can be verified in France as well as in Italy and the present study offers to analyse the legal signification of the phenomenon in both countries. The development induced by this notion confirms this trend. The comparative approach enables to understand the whys and wherfores of the development and formspart of the general theory of public contracts. / Espressione globalizzata dei mezzi d’azione del settore privato al servizio del settore pubblico, il partenariato pubblico-privato potrebbe essere visto come rivela la dislocazione delle categorie del diritto dei contratti pubblici. Tuttavia, il partenariato pubblico-privato essa non pregiudica sulll'unitàdella disciplina. Invece, gli strumenti giuridici del P.P.P la rafforza. Questa analisi è confermata in Francia e in Italia ed lo studio permette di analizzare l'importanza giuridica del fenomeno in i due paesi. L'approccio comparativo utilizzato permette di capire questa evoluzione e può essere percepitocome un contributo alla teoria giuridica dei contratti pubblici.