<p><p>The rising globalisation, supported by rapid technology innovations has changed our current business environment within the last years. As a result, especially SMEs have to cope with a higher pressure of maximising their efficiency and competitiveness in order to survive on the market. Nevertheless, many managers recognised the great potential of outsourcing to utilise the enormous benefits of external suppliers to solve this problem. For instance, it enables the SMEs to concentrate on their core capabilities combined with exploiting synergy affects of the supplier cooperation as costs savings, access to R&D knowledge etc. But the outsourcing dimension changed as well, due to the increased globalisation, companies are not hesitating anymore to step over their country boundaries and offshore to high promising emerging countries like China. However, offshoring cannot perform miracles, more it presents one of the most strategic and complex decisions affecting the whole company.</p><p>Based on these facts, this Master Thesis investigates how an SME should outsource to China. The basis of the outsourcing decision is examined to make the right strategic decision, which is illustrated with a developed model. More, the supplier selection and maintenance are explained, followed by the description of the facts which have to be considered when offshoring to China. Particularly due to the focus on offshoring to China, this thesis will further look into the affects of the Chinese culture on the companies’ networks. The research is based on a case study, which is further used to derive general conclusions for other SMEs.</p><p>The result of the investigation is that SMEs should decide which parts to outsource from a strategic point of view. Further to cope with the lack of resources and the Chinese cultural issues the cooperation with an intermediary is recommended.</p></p>

<p>Den här uppsatsen är skriven på uppdrag av GrenseTjänsten Morukulien, vilken är en organisation som hjälper personer, företag och andra organisationer som har ärenden i både Sverige och Norge.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att jämföra levnadskostnaderna för en tvåbarnsfamilj i Arvika- och Kongsvinger Kommun. Detta görs genom att se vilken familj som har störst köpkraft. Med köpkraft menas hur mycket man kan konsumera för sin disponibla inkomst.</p><p>Levnadskostnaderna jämförs för en genomsnittlig tvåbarnsfamilj. Undersökningen bygger på att alla kostnader läggs i boendelandet. Vidare utgås det ifrån att båda familjerna har samma konsumtionsbeteende som en genomsnittlig svensk tvåbarnsfamilj med jämförbar inkomst. Dessa antaganden förenklar undersökningen men riskerar samtidigt att undervärdera den norska familjens köpkraft.</p><p>Den disponibla inkomsten är nästan 40 procent högre för den norska familjen än för den svenska. Då är inte växelkursen medräknad. Därmed skiljer det ännu mer om man går till banken och växlar pengarna.</p><p>Men när det gäller köpkraften är vi intresserad av vilken mängd varor familjerna kan köpa i hemlandet för sin disponibla inkomst. Då de genomsnittliga kostnaderna är 22,2 procent högre i Norge än i Sverige utan hänsyn till växelkursen, blir slutsatsen av den här uppsatsen att den norska familjen har 14,0 procents större köpkraft än den svenska familjen.</p> / <p>This paper is written at the request of GrenseTjänsten Morukulien, which is an organization that helps people, companies and other organizations that have commisions in both Sweden and Norway.</p><p>The purpose of this paper is to compare the cost of living for a family with two children in Arvika and Kongsvinger and to find out which family who has the biggest purchasing power. The purchasing power is how much you can consume for your disposable income.</p><p>The cost of living is compared to a family with two children. The survey is based on the assumption that everything you consume, you consume in your native country. Furthermore it is assumed that both families and have the same consumption behavior as an average Swedish family with two children with a comparable income. These assumptions simplify the survey, but on the other hand, the risk of underestimating the Norwegian family´s purchasing power arises.</p><p>If you exclude the exchange rate, the disposable income is almost 40 percent higher for the Norwegian family than for the Swedish family. Therfore there´s an even bigger difference if one goes to the bank and exchanges money.</p><p>But when it comes to the purchasing power we are interested in how much the families can consume for the disposable income in their native country. The average prices are 22,2 percent higher in Norway than in Sweden, without consideration to the exchange rate. The conclusion of this paper is that the Norwegian family has 14,0 percent more purchasing power than the Swedish family.</p>

<p>According to the different studies regarding customs unions and monetary unions, both these types of economic integration will lead to increased trade which in turn affects the price level.</p><p>In this study, the changes in the price levels across Europe are investigated in order to see if the changes can be attributed to the EMU and the Euro. By using the PPPs calculated by OECD based on the theory of Purchasing Power Parity price levels in different countries become comparable between the countries and over time. The result is that there seems to be a clear convergence towards an average European price level in the observed period 1980-2005.</p><p>In order to investigate if this convergence is an effect of the EMU a panel regression on relevant data is run and the result shows that there has been a convergence in the EMU-price level, but it can most likely not be attributed to the Euro, but other factors like for example increased degrees of openness.</p>

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine the process of creating values in a purchasing organisation; meaning in which areas created values can be added and what affects the possibility to do so. In addition, the study looks into what can be improved to further enlarge the business spectrum. Through these outlines, a survey has been made to investigate the view on created values from a purchaser, management and supplier perspective. This gives several aspects of within which areas you can work with added values. The study is based on a questionnaire to 60 purchasers at Scania CV AB. The thesis demonstrates that to a certain extent sourcing managers already work with increasing the business spectrum by adding values. But even though Scania is a company with a mature purchasing organisation there are still several areas where the work with created values can be improved, for example within process development and administration.

According to the different studies regarding customs unions and monetary unions, both these types of economic integration will lead to increased trade which in turn affects the price level. In this study, the changes in the price levels across Europe are investigated in order to see if the changes can be attributed to the EMU and the Euro. By using the PPPs calculated by OECD based on the theory of Purchasing Power Parity price levels in different countries become comparable between the countries and over time. The result is that there seems to be a clear convergence towards an average European price level in the observed period 1980-2005. In order to investigate if this convergence is an effect of the EMU a panel regression on relevant data is run and the result shows that there has been a convergence in the EMU-price level, but it can most likely not be attributed to the Euro, but other factors like for example increased degrees of openness.

Problem: Environmental awareness was rated as the most current trend in 2006 by the readers of Swedish newspaper DN (Olausson, 2007), and in 2005 97 per cent of the Swed-ish population thought that environmental issues will have or already have had an influence on Sweden (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2005). Higher awareness about environmental issues leads to more environmental friendly products and new processes by companies for lower consumption of energy and harmful materials. However, the impor-tance of the contribution of households and electronics on the environment seems to be underestimated. Therefore, it is of importance to understand how consumers consider the environmental friendliness of electronic products, and computers in specific for this thesis. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how consumers value environmental friendliness when buying computers and how this influences their purchase decision. Method: In order to achieve the purpose stated, a conjoint analysis was first made through an experiment in order to see how the consumer make trade-offs between certain attributes of computers. After the experiment, respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire which has been used to connect computer purchasing and environmental values to con-sumer behaviour theories. Conclusions: The assumption on environmental friendliness being the least valued attrib-ute by consumers has not been supported by the results of the conjoint analysis done; in fact it has instead portrayed environmental friendliness as the second most important, be-fore price and performance, only after accessories. The results have also shown that envi-ronmental friendliness was appreciated in a computer, and that its existence in a computer affects the purchase decision positively. The results of the post-experiment questionnaire have illustrated that environmental friendliness of computers has a strong effect on the purchase decision when combined with other attributes, although it may not be regarded of high value by itself. While a computer by it self are likely to satisfy needs as low as social need, the environmental friendliness of computers appears to satisfy esteem needs. It has also been demonstrated that social factors could have strong effects on purchasing of green computers if more and better information were available. Further, moral obligations and at-titude to behaviour factors concerning green computers seem to be strong, while perceived control and subjective norms appear to be low in today’s society.

Problem: There has been a limited amount of study in procurement within SMEs (Quayle, 2002). In general, for all sizes of organizations, the procurement function has often been regarded as a transactional based function and plays a supporting department to the value-adding process. These organizations view procurement as a simple function of the entire firm (Hutchins, 1992). It is more commonly found that procurement in SMEs tend to be fragmented and non-strategic (Zheng et al., 2007). Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate innovation in procurement in small and medium-sized enterprises Method: A qualitative research method with an abductive approach was used to conduct this research. A primary and secondary material was gathered from Sensys Traffic AB which was used as a case study in investigating into the innovation in procurement within small and medium-sized enterprises. Theories: The theoretical framework that was utilized in this investigation consisted of procurement processes, strategies, roles, and innovation. Conclusion: An organization can compete for the present and the future by placing more emphasis and priority within procurement in SMEs, developing the procurement department and employment skills, coordinating and collaborating within both internal and external members, forming 'win-win' relationships with suppliers, and proactively looking for ways to innovate. Furthermore, by specifically looking to innovate within these areas the procurement function can leverage itself and its firm to be able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership and higher quality products/services. These special areas which were outlined by Spray (2009) are new sourcing ideas, new insights, new partnerships and new technologies.

Den här uppsatsen är skriven på uppdrag av GrenseTjänsten Morukulien, vilken är en organisation som hjälper personer, företag och andra organisationer som har ärenden i både Sverige och Norge. Syftet med uppsatsen är att jämföra levnadskostnaderna för en tvåbarnsfamilj i Arvika- och Kongsvinger Kommun. Detta görs genom att se vilken familj som har störst köpkraft. Med köpkraft menas hur mycket man kan konsumera för sin disponibla inkomst. Levnadskostnaderna jämförs för en genomsnittlig tvåbarnsfamilj. Undersökningen bygger på att alla kostnader läggs i boendelandet. Vidare utgås det ifrån att båda familjerna har samma konsumtionsbeteende som en genomsnittlig svensk tvåbarnsfamilj med jämförbar inkomst. Dessa antaganden förenklar undersökningen men riskerar samtidigt att undervärdera den norska familjens köpkraft. Den disponibla inkomsten är nästan 40 procent högre för den norska familjen än för den svenska. Då är inte växelkursen medräknad. Därmed skiljer det ännu mer om man går till banken och växlar pengarna. Men när det gäller köpkraften är vi intresserad av vilken mängd varor familjerna kan köpa i hemlandet för sin disponibla inkomst. Då de genomsnittliga kostnaderna är 22,2 procent högre i Norge än i Sverige utan hänsyn till växelkursen, blir slutsatsen av den här uppsatsen att den norska familjen har 14,0 procents större köpkraft än den svenska familjen. / This paper is written at the request of GrenseTjänsten Morukulien, which is an organization that helps people, companies and other organizations that have commisions in both Sweden and Norway. The purpose of this paper is to compare the cost of living for a family with two children in Arvika and Kongsvinger and to find out which family who has the biggest purchasing power. The purchasing power is how much you can consume for your disposable income. The cost of living is compared to a family with two children. The survey is based on the assumption that everything you consume, you consume in your native country. Furthermore it is assumed that both families and have the same consumption behavior as an average Swedish family with two children with a comparable income. These assumptions simplify the survey, but on the other hand, the risk of underestimating the Norwegian family´s purchasing power arises. If you exclude the exchange rate, the disposable income is almost 40 percent higher for the Norwegian family than for the Swedish family. Therfore there´s an even bigger difference if one goes to the bank and exchanges money. But when it comes to the purchasing power we are interested in how much the families can consume for the disposable income in their native country. The average prices are 22,2 percent higher in Norway than in Sweden, without consideration to the exchange rate. The conclusion of this paper is that the Norwegian family has 14,0 percent more purchasing power than the Swedish family.

Many researchers have contributed to the field of international purchasing; but there are no consistent findings to illustrate particular connections within the field. This particular research studies the ways that two Iranian producers of polymer piping systems handle international purchasing in current complex Iranian economic circumstances. By going beyond macroeconomic theories of international trade and using three-factor model of international industrial purchasing this particular study aims to reveal how international industrial purchasing is handled by Iranian producers of polymer piping systems under current Iranian economic and politic circumstances. A case study approach employing face-to-face semi-structured interview method is designed. A set of interview questionnaires was designed to gather empirical qualitative and quantitative data. A narrative analysis was then conducted to lead the discussions and to draw conclusions. The results of the study show that international purchasing in both firms is influenced by internal factors including attitudes and competence as well as external factors including market conditions and regulations. The levels to which the first three mentioned factors influence international purchasing varies between the studied firms; but regulations have similar effects on the ways the studied firms handle international purchasing. Also, the modified three-factor model is perfectly applicable to the studied cases under current circumstances of Iranian economy.

During the summer 2012 a bachelor’s thesis was performed at Autoliv Sweden AB inVårgårda regarding potential improvements on launches, with focus on the purchasingprocess. The activities that were needed to be able to reach the main goal, proposals ofpotential improvements, were divided into three interim goals. The interim goals can beseen as activities along the way containing necessary information that was needed to beable to come up with potential improvements. The approach for the thesis was to first do a literature review on value stream mapping, how development projects at Autoliv Sweden AB are performed and on launches in theautomotive industry based on scientific articles. After the literature review a case study wasmade, using value stream mapping as a tool, on one development project at AutolivSweden AB for investigation of the launch. The result of the case study was presented intwo maps over the administrative stream for the components in the development project;one according to project time plan and one according to how the activities in the launchactual were performed. Based on the literature and the maps from the case study, three potential improvements, that would be relatively easy and inexpensive to implement, were found; (1) Involve thesupplier more and at an earlier stage in the development project, (2) involve the Logisticsdepartment more and (3) implement control level definition on the development projectsas well, not just the parts. The conclusion for this thesis was that if Autoliv Sweden AB decides to implement allproposed improvements both money and time will be saved.