The aim of this paper is to investigate drivers and barriers to circular purchasing perceived by purchasing professionals within companies in the construction industry. Focus is on circular purchasing and the integration of circularity in purchasing and purchasing work. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with persons working with purchasing in companies located in different parts of the construction industry value chain. The focus on construction is due to that the industry is resource-intense and has a large ecological footprint and needs to become more sustainable using circular solutions. Findings show organizational-, personal/individual- and external drivers and barriers to circular purchasing. 

This paper aims to examine the use and implementation of electronic procurement for indirect material in eight large global companies, and investigate what kinds of barriers exist towards electronic procurement. The empirical evidence comes from interviews with e-procurement experts and operatives in eight global firms. Results show that three out of eight companies are using e-procurement and four are planning to do so in the future. Barriers shown by the empirical material are lack of technological standard, different IT-maturity among suppliers, resistance among users to leaving old suppliers, lack of support from top management, differences in language, culture and legal systems. Other barriers found are getting suppliers to update and control the electronic product catalogues and to monitor them and getting the users in the organisation to use the system.

Organizations have spent and continue to spend millions of dollars on information systems (IS) in order to enable business success. Information systems have long been used to help managers make better decisions, better understand the nature of customers and improve employee productivity. They have enabled transformations in organizations, such as simplification and acceleration of work processes, and contributed to continued improvement and innovation in these processes. It is not that easy however to make this simplification and acceleration of work processes to happen. A common problem is that individuals that are supposed to use these systems do not use them, and if an information systems is to contribute to business success it has to be adopted and used. The question is therefore, how do we get individuals to adopt and use systems that are implemented?

This dissertation focus on what influences individual adoption and use, and how we can get individuals to adopt and use systems that are implemented. The information system under investigation is an electronic ordering (e-ordering) system. E-ordering systems are used by individual end-users (requestors, authorizers and goods receivers) in an organization when ordering products and services. The system aims at contributing to reduced maverick (i.e. wild= purchases and increased compliance with a few centrally chosen suppliers, thus facilitating lower purchasing prices and a reduction of the costs for purchasing. The thesis also discusses the relative difficulty in getting individuals to continue to use the systems compared to get them to adopt it. Another issue that is discussed is that the acceptance process does not have to happen gradually, it can instead happen in short spurts. It is further discussed what can influence these spurts.

Implementing an e-ordering system in a successful way, i.e., managing the implementation process, overcoming the barriers that occur and achieving a satisfactory compliance rate, is not as easy as some consultants and software companies claim. Understanding how a given organisation has managed the implementation process (resulting in a satisfactory compliance rate) may help other organisations achieve the successful implementation of e-ordering systems. The present paper describes the implementation of an e-ordering system in a large pharmaceutical organisation, discussing the problems it faced and how those were overcome. An analysis of the success factors found in previous research is presented, revealing one area that influences implementation success to a larger extent: the end user uptake. A four-year longitudinal case study is presented, which is based on interviews, observations made in daily work, at meetings and training sessions, and other documentation.

Electronic ordering (e-ordering) systems are currently being implemented in both private and public organizations. The advantages of these systems are widely acknowledged: increased compliance with use of fewer suppliers and improved efficiency. However, realizing these benefits is difficult due to end-user resistance to adopting and using such systems. The present paper proposes a framework inspired by adaptive structuration theory (AST) that functions as an analytical framework that helps to understand what structures and factors influence adoption and use of an e-ordering system. To the adapted AST framework is added factors of influence found in previous purchasing research, resulting in a framework that helps to understand adoption and use of an e-ordering system over time. The framework is tested using empirical data from a 4-year longitudinal case study. The paper embeds purchasing theory within the structuration framework of AST.

Electronic marketplaces are a popular phenomenon, both for academics and for practitioners. One of the most discussed e-marketplace is Covisint, the 'big' e-marketplace of the automotive industry. This paper analyses Covisint via transaction cost economics, the tool of choice when analysing e-marketplaces in academia. The empirical material consists of interviews with operatives and managers from customers and owners of Covisint, suppliers, potential customers that have chosen not to join Covisint, and Covisint themselves. The results indicate that Covisint has several problems: lack of incentives for suppliers to join the initiative, lack of participating organisations on the supplier side and an overall lack of ability to balance interests and objectives of the actors involved.

The seemingly paradoxical phenomenon of workers’ resistance to health and safety measures has been explained in various ways, for example through production or efficiency pressure, risk-taking behaviours or problematic safety cultures. This article addresses resistance but analyses it through the lens of hierarchical and social accountability. In a case study of a Swedish paper mill, a health and safety programme is resisted by workers even though it enjoys support from the local trade union. Explanations for this is found in the socialising form of accountability that conditions how workers perceive of work-related health and safety. The aspects of work identity, facilitation and visibility are identified and understood in terms of accountability. Who you are, how you perform work, and what is visualised is filtered and evaluated through horizontal relationships rather than in terms of hierarchical accountability to the company.

The book's title metaphor "Beyond Mobility" brings forth a number of questions and potential deve-lopments for the future. Mobile telephony has evolved beyond voice communication and on to further services, such as basic Internet access, mail, and mobile TV. It is however still unclear what value this development creates, and for whom. There is reason to talk about a new phase, bound to encompass a far more complex set of market situations. The technological changes are undisputable, but what markets are being collapsed or expanded are still very much under debate. The new wireless world looks bound to provide an ever-increasing number of different market offerings, rather than services delivered solely over one specific kind of telecom network. A situation has arisen similar to the pattern for physical transportation where the use of cars, buses, trains, and airplanes often combine. The sixteen chapters in this book aim to give a comprehensive view of Mobility and Value, based on extensive empirical studies as well as on the application of theoretical tools and the develop-ment of those tools. There seems to be a need for new, dynamic business models and value creating constellations of firms, adaptable to ever-changing technologies and markets. The concept of mobility is clearly more than just a fancy word for mobiles. Rather, it is an intriguing umbrella concept embracing the complexities of a new economic landscape. The connection between mobility and value is dynamic; it is inherently unstable. 

The role of the Sustainability Manager (SM) is expanding. Whether SMs are turning into a new profession is under debate. Pointing to the need for a distinct professional logic to qualify as a profession, we identify what is contained within a professional logic of SMs. Through analyzing ambiguities present in the role of the SMs, we show that there is no specific distinct professional logic of SMs, but rather a meta-construct building on market, bureaucratic, and sustainability logics. In addition, we point to the complex configurations of and relationships between these underlying logics. The complexities also explain why the SMs differ from traditional professions and why it is problematic to talk about a ‘SM profession’. Rather, SMs are ‘organizational professionals’. The article builds on 21 interviews with SMs working for Swedish companies.

In the literature, organizational sustainability identity tends to be treated as something that is ‘engineered’ within business organizations through control, reporting, target setting, strategic communication, and other instruments. Through a case study of a company mainly active within the recycling industry, an alternative understanding is given. A distinct organizational sustainability identity is, rather, a social construct based on perceptions of the core operations as “sustainable in themselves” and collaborative work with customers that is perceived as entailing sustainable solutions. Understood in this way, organizational sustainability identity has relatively little to do with formal controls such as codes, policies, reports used by management to position the company as sustainable. Rather, for organizational members, the process of constructing oneself as sustainable builds on convictions about the core operations and the possession of specific capabilities manifested in customer relations. The article adds to current literature through its constructivistic approach and through identifying underlying beliefs that condition the process of forming an organizational sustainability identity.

Inköp och supply chain management ger en introduktion till de centrala principerna inom området genom att anlägga ett brett ledningsperspektiv.

Denna nya utgåva beskriver den senaste utvecklingen inom inköp och supply chain management och presenterar en rad relevanta och intressanta fallstudier tänkta att berika läsningen. Med hjälp av exempel från företag som Shell, Hewlett Packard, Mattel och Nespresso illustreras de typiska utmaningar som dagens globala organisationer ställs inför varje dag när det gäller inköp och supply chain management.

Centrala områden:

• En grundlig redogörelse av den senaste utvecklingen inom inköp och supply chain management, inklusive den cirkulära ekonomin.

• En mer ingående genomgång av inköp och affärsstrategi samt CSR (corporate social responsibility).

• Nya fallstudier som ger en ökad förståelse av inköp i praktiken.

• De senaste förändringarna i europeisk upphandlingslagstiftning.

• Utförliga diskussioner om partnerskap och samarbetsinriktade leverantörsrelationer.