In this study, the adaptive behaviour towards sustainability initiatives is investigated in interorganizational exchange relations. To do so, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in a supplier role that experienced a situation where a buyer asked them to adapt to a certain sustainability initiative are asked about their power relation with their buyer. During this process, suppliers perceived dependence and buyers perceived power are compared, and the outcome of these measures on the adaptive behaviour towards sustainability is modelled. In order to explain the power relation in the dyad in more detail, the framework of the bases of power as initially introduced by French Jr. and Raven (1959) is integrated in the analysis. Sustainability in the current globalised business environment needs to be tackled on a systems level rather than by focusing on a site. The purpose of this research is to shed some light on the permeation of sustainability initiatives through the upward supply chain. The current academic literature about the drivers of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) point towards the buyers as a powerful driver. Therefore, this driver is scrutinized in detail with the aims to: a) deliver practical advice on how to improve sustainability permeation from a buyer s perspective; and b) contribute to academic knowledge by dismantling and analysing the mechanism behind buyer power driven sustainability permeation. An online questionnaire was deployed to collect data from SMEs in a supplier role. The participants were contacted and reminded via email. The questionnaire is based on established instruments to measure suppliers dependence (Bode et al., 2011) and the bases of power (Raven et al., 1998). The quantitative analysis of the responses to the questionnaires is built around a mediation model with suppliers dependence as Independent Variable (IV), the binary outcome of sustainability adaptation as Dependent Variable (DV) and two mediators representing the magnitude of hard and soft power bases in the dyadic exchange relation. The established framework of the bases of power is a suitable instrument to explain the relationship between a supplier s adaptive behaviour towards sustainability and its dependence on its buyer. Measurements solely of how a supplier perceives its dependence on the buyer do not explain the adaptive behaviour of a supplier towards a buyer-requested sustainability initiative. Introducing the bases of power framework and distinguishing between soft and hard bases of power explains why suppliers experiencing hard power bases are more likely to reject a buyer-requested sustainability initiative, whereas suppliers experiencing soft power bases show a significantly higher acceptance of buyer-requested sustainability initiatives. Without dismantling the black box power, the observation that the two effects neutralize each other if not distinguished cannot be made. The original contribution to knowledge is the mechanism behind power in dyadic exchange relations and how this mechanism conduces to the permeation of sustainability through the supply chain. Knowing about the different pathways hard and soft, and their opposite effect on sustainability adaptation, advances knowledge in the SSCM literature and provides guidance for practitioners.

<p>Introduction: Already in the 1970’s, internationalisation was noted as a striking trend in business. Since then, the speed of internationalisation has increased as infrastructure, communication, and IT have decreased space and time barriers for international trade. Today, companies must engage in international activities to survive in the competitive environment and researchers argue that firms’ international performance is determined by their ability to establish relationships.</p><p>Problem: In order to facilitate the search for business actors globally, Chamber Trade Business to Business AB offers a database in which companies can post business inquiries. Lately, the number of inquiries published in the database has decreased. Therefore, the question arose what other tools companies use instead when searching for business partners. This empirically driven problem is also matched by a theoretical need for more research about how firms establish international relationships.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how small Swedish B2B companies find downstream international partners.</p><p>Theoretical framework: In order to create a frame of reference for guidance in the collection and analysis of the empirical data, theory has been divided into three sections; Internationalisation theory, Business to Business relationships theory, and Means for international interaction.</p><p>Method: To fulfil the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative study with an inductive approach was undertaken. Secondary data in terms of literature and academic articles were scanned to create a theoretical framework and to facilitate the collection of primary data. Primary data was gathered from ten small Swedish firms in order to find out how their downstream international business relationships had been initiated.</p><p>Conclusion: Our thesis concludes that many Swedish sellers start out their internationalisation to countries with close distance by responding to unsolicited orders from foreign customers. Over time, their proactiveness increases and they primary use the following channels in order to find international partners: networks, trade fairs, trade- and industry organisations, and the Internet. Databases have several defaults for being a useful search tool, mainly their lack of precise search criteria and personal interaction. Further, when companies offer a high quality product, a reputation is created about the company. Consequently, foreign customers pull the company into new countries and the need for external search tools is low.</p>

No description available.

This research investigated whether the buyer-seller interorganizational relationship (IOR) differed between a firm and two classes of customers. The first class used electronic data interchange (EDI) with the firm and the second class used the traditional paper-based purchasing system. IOR characteristics included reputation, skill, direct power, indirect power, reciprocity, and efficiency.

In recent years, a number of researchers have questioned the traditional notion of the producer as the sole generator of innovation in buyer seller relationships. Increasingly, innovation generation has been recognized as an outcome of interaction between a firm and various outside entities. According to this view, supplier involvement and alliances are a route to innovation generation. Clearly, business market relationships provide an important opportunity for interaction between buyer and seller. Despite this realization, only very limited research has focused on innovation generation in business-to-business relationships. To alleviate this important gap in literature, this thesis develops a conceptual model and hypotheses of innovation generation in business-to-buyer seller relationships. The research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques to examine the proposed theoretical model of innovation generation. A pilot case study is followed by development of and purification of measures using the IMP database on supplier customer interfirm relations in Europe and China. The hypotheses and model are tested using correlation and regression analysis. Results suggest that innovation generation is indeed facilitated by buyer seller interactions. Interaction also moderates the effect of other relationship and technology factors and type of innovation generated / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (Marketing)

<p><strong>Background:</strong> In order to survive and attain growth organizations need to make different investments which require that different decisions are being made. It is a process, by which a person, group or an organization identifies a choice or judgment to be made, gathers and evaluates information about alternatives and selects from among the alternatives. Thus, a decision is of great importance for an organization for which it is interesting for us to see how they make their decisions regarding a purchase and foremost how the actual decision-making process is constituted regarding a purchase of a simulation solution offered by our case company FrontWay AB.</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The purpose of this thesis is to examine and understand how a client’s decision-making process looks like, concerning the purchasing of technical complex products in industrial organizations, more specifically in the pulp- and paper industry.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> A qualitative study has been used, based on interviews with the clients of FrontWay who have bough their simulation solution or are in the buying process.</p><p><strong>Result and Conclusions: </strong>The empirical findings that has come to hand shows that the decision-making process actually was shorter than perceived by the case company. One explanation was that the investment was not seen as big. Further we have concluded that the selling organization and the buying organization do not see the same start and end point when a decision is being made. The decision-making process for the buying organization seems to be difficult to shorten down, however, if the selling organization will do some changes maybe it can be shortened down. It is however questionable if FrontWay can make changes at all since it requires a lot of work as well as a lot of resources. As it takes time to make a good decision, and also resources from the buying organization to have someone working with simulations solution fulltime it is unsure if it is of interest to actually shorten down the decision-making process.</p>

<p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to study the interaction between seller and buyer in a mobile phone store. The specific research questions under investigation are:Are there any underlying factors behind mobile purchase, and if so, what are they? Are mobile purchases driven by lifestyle factors and do customers try and create identities when purchasing new mobile phones?</p><p>Material/Method: The study employs an ethnographic method when trying to answer the posed research questions. I have under a period of two weeks studied the seller-buyer interaction in a mobile phone store. In order to further increase the accuracy of my findings, I have complemented my observations with a sample of buyer and seller interviews.</p><p>Main results: The observations and interviews were initially studied in isolation, resulting in different themes. These themes were then collapsed into some common themes pertaining to the different methods. Overall, I conclude three major findings from the seller-buyer interaction which I name, (1) context and influence, (2) status, and (3) social accepting.</p>

Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to study the interaction between seller and buyer in a mobile phone store. The specific research questions under investigation are:Are there any underlying factors behind mobile purchase, and if so, what are they? Are mobile purchases driven by lifestyle factors and do customers try and create identities when purchasing new mobile phones? Material/Method: The study employs an ethnographic method when trying to answer the posed research questions. I have under a period of two weeks studied the seller-buyer interaction in a mobile phone store. In order to further increase the accuracy of my findings, I have complemented my observations with a sample of buyer and seller interviews. Main results: The observations and interviews were initially studied in isolation, resulting in different themes. These themes were then collapsed into some common themes pertaining to the different methods. Overall, I conclude three major findings from the seller-buyer interaction which I name, (1) context and influence, (2) status, and (3) social accepting.

Introduction: Already in the 1970’s, internationalisation was noted as a striking trend in business. Since then, the speed of internationalisation has increased as infrastructure, communication, and IT have decreased space and time barriers for international trade. Today, companies must engage in international activities to survive in the competitive environment and researchers argue that firms’ international performance is determined by their ability to establish relationships. Problem: In order to facilitate the search for business actors globally, Chamber Trade Business to Business AB offers a database in which companies can post business inquiries. Lately, the number of inquiries published in the database has decreased. Therefore, the question arose what other tools companies use instead when searching for business partners. This empirically driven problem is also matched by a theoretical need for more research about how firms establish international relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how small Swedish B2B companies find downstream international partners. Theoretical framework: In order to create a frame of reference for guidance in the collection and analysis of the empirical data, theory has been divided into three sections; Internationalisation theory, Business to Business relationships theory, and Means for international interaction. Method: To fulfil the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative study with an inductive approach was undertaken. Secondary data in terms of literature and academic articles were scanned to create a theoretical framework and to facilitate the collection of primary data. Primary data was gathered from ten small Swedish firms in order to find out how their downstream international business relationships had been initiated. Conclusion: Our thesis concludes that many Swedish sellers start out their internationalisation to countries with close distance by responding to unsolicited orders from foreign customers. Over time, their proactiveness increases and they primary use the following channels in order to find international partners: networks, trade fairs, trade- and industry organisations, and the Internet. Databases have several defaults for being a useful search tool, mainly their lack of precise search criteria and personal interaction. Further, when companies offer a high quality product, a reputation is created about the company. Consequently, foreign customers pull the company into new countries and the need for external search tools is low.

Background: In order to survive and attain growth organizations need to make different investments which require that different decisions are being made. It is a process, by which a person, group or an organization identifies a choice or judgment to be made, gathers and evaluates information about alternatives and selects from among the alternatives. Thus, a decision is of great importance for an organization for which it is interesting for us to see how they make their decisions regarding a purchase and foremost how the actual decision-making process is constituted regarding a purchase of a simulation solution offered by our case company FrontWay AB. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine and understand how a client’s decision-making process looks like, concerning the purchasing of technical complex products in industrial organizations, more specifically in the pulp- and paper industry. Method: A qualitative study has been used, based on interviews with the clients of FrontWay who have bough their simulation solution or are in the buying process. Result and Conclusions: The empirical findings that has come to hand shows that the decision-making process actually was shorter than perceived by the case company. One explanation was that the investment was not seen as big. Further we have concluded that the selling organization and the buying organization do not see the same start and end point when a decision is being made. The decision-making process for the buying organization seems to be difficult to shorten down, however, if the selling organization will do some changes maybe it can be shortened down. It is however questionable if FrontWay can make changes at all since it requires a lot of work as well as a lot of resources. As it takes time to make a good decision, and also resources from the buying organization to have someone working with simulations solution fulltime it is unsure if it is of interest to actually shorten down the decision-making process.