1.1. Project topic
Regarding nowadays economical difficulties, companies try to adjust budgets. This aspect
particularly concerns purchasing professionals. In addition to cost reductions, purchasers
pursue many other objectives and cannot be seen just as the "traditional" buyers. Increasing
liquidity, increasing competitiveness, necessary product quality, reducing risk, innovation and
other potentials can be carried out by the purchase departments. Therefore, purchasers do
not solely stick to buying processes. Today, value manager is the concept in more detail and
includes more than just the purchasing activities.
In order to meet all these requirements, certain competencies are essential. In this study,
competencies are charged for technology-oriented purchases from the literature and through
qualitative interviews and furthermore will be empirically tested. A personality analysis to
personality traits and motivation factors for technology-oriented buyers will be collected and
will be predictive for modes of action of incentives in purchasing.
The final objective of the PhD research is to help companies to identify which skills of
technology-oriented purchaser are beneficial and how working conditions can be designed in
an efficient way for purchasing people.
1.2. Objective
The objective of this Master Thesis was to participate in the development of Volker Koch’s
PhD, focused on personal competencies and motivational factors of purchasing
professionals in technology-oriented businesses.
After a first introduction to the topic, my role was to support the on-going research while
participating in different activities with various responsibilities.
1.3. Limitations
Significant constraints limit this submission. On one hand, not being able to express all the
research hours really diminishes the undertaken work, missing to reflect a broad part of my
activity.
On the other hand, this academic work shows only two official papers due to confidentiality
agreements. In this sense, also a lot of gathered information is disregarded.
All in all, the documents appearing in the following lines are only the very final result of a
combination of diverse activities.
