Browsing by Author "Norrman, Johanna"

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    Improving Supply Chain Collaboration through Planned Change Towards an approach for change management in supply chains
    (2021-06-28) Norrman, Johanna; Franke, Julia; University of Gothenburg/Graduate School; Göteborgs universitet/Graduate School
    To mitigate disruptions in supply chains, organizations must consider not only risks affecting their operations but also those which affect their partners. As a consequence, supply chain disruptions can only be dealt with through a collaborative effort by the supply chain as a whole. To improve their management of disruptions and ensure their continued existence, organizations need to increase collaboration in their supply chain. This requires changes to be made both internally and externally in the supply chain. Yet scholars provide little advice regarding how planned changes can be implemented and maintained outside organizational boundaries. This thesis aims to help organizations improve their supply chain collaboration by attaining an increased understanding of how planned changes can be implemented in a supply chain context. The results of the study show that an extraordinary event, such as a major disruption, was sometimes required for the change process to start. A crisis may thus present an opportunity for organizations to improve their supply chain collaboration. Furthermore, the process of improving collaboration differed when buyers and suppliers were more or less dependent on each other. Collaboration improved with more ease when there was a mutual dependency between partners, while independence prevented it from developing. Practitioners have to consider this when implementing planned change initiatives, preferably by using different strategies for different partners. However, this approach means that some existing change models may become difficult to apply in practice. More research needs to be conducted to make these applicable to supply chains.
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    The effect of ICT on trading companies in Sweden. A case study of four trading companies
    (2020-02-13) Lindergren, Axel; Norrman, Johanna; University of Gothenburg/Department of Business Administration; Göteborgs universitet/Företagsekonomiska institutionen
    Over the years there has been an increasing amount of literature regarding the effect of information and communication technologies (ICT) on trade. These technologies cause disruption in the way that companies do business by increasing the amount of information available. By facilitating the sharing of information, ICT reduce information asymmetries between businesses. Furthermore, studies show that ICT can perform the same intermediary task as a trading company, possibly even more effectively and at a lower cost. This has led experts to believe that trading companies might lose their intermediary position through disintermediation. Despite this, the trading companies still prevail. This thesis aims to study the effect that ICT has on the continued relevance of the Swedish trading companies’ business models. By performing a case study and interviewing representatives from four Swedish trading companies we have managed to draw some conclusions regarding this effect. The study concludes that while information and communication technologies has affected the modern supply chain, the Swedish trading companies have not been disintermediated. The continued existence of trading companies is due to successful adaptation of their business models to fit the new context in which they exist. This adaptation has shown to be enabled by trust and the inherited flexibility of trading companies’ contact network.