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Sagar, Rajesh (2012) How does purchasing behaviour vary between SME companies and larger companies? MSc(Res) thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Background problem: Procurement has been recognised as important to small companies. However, there remains a lack of focus in the literature on procurement for SMEs and purchasing within the smaller firms themselves receives little or no attention. The literature on purchasing practices in SMEs has typically drawn from work on larger firms. Prior research has not sufficiently explored what small firms ‘do’, consequently critiquing SME practices without fully appreciating what these practices are. Models and approaches used to describe an organisation’s position and progress in procurement are focused too much on large organisations and are not sufficiently relevant to SMEs.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the purchasing behaviour of large enterprises is transferable into the world of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Method: In this thesis secondary data was collected. The study focused on existing literature from various purchasing professionals and SME owner managers to form an in-depth comparison of the different facets of the purchasing department and how they impact upon the overall success of a firm. Data from both SME and large enterprises from different business sectors were compared to obtain a general overview of differing behaviour and how firm size influences this.

Findings: The research reveals that that there are a number of significant factors that differentiate the behaviour of SMEs from those of large enterprises. The major obstacles that SMEs face when trying to adopt the purchasing practises of large enterprises are attributed to: lack of access to resources, management competence, lack of skilled labour, lack of trust amongst suppliers etc.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (MSc(Res))
Supervisors:	Karjalainen, Katri
Keywords:	Purchasing, management, small business
Subjects:	H Social sciences > HF Commerce
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Social Sciences, Law and Education > Nottingham University Business School
Item ID:	12823
Depositing User:	EP, Services
Date Deposited:	13 Aug 2013 08:51
Last Modified:	15 Dec 2017 22:08
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/12823

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