The present work by Sascha Weber addresses procurement which deals with business partners beyond the boundaries of one's organization. Procurement refers to the function of purchasing goods and services from suppliers, whether raw material used to manufacture an organization's final products, maintenance and repair supplies, or capital goods such as machinery and buildings. Major decisions in procurement concern the selection of the right suppliers with whom to establish a business relationship, the design of purchasing contracts, and the selection of information technology used to support the procurement process. In recent years the progress in information technology not only provided opportunities to rationalize the existing way of organizing procurement, but also opened up new ways of conducting business as the emergence of virtual enterprises and electronic markets may indicate. The objective of Sascha Weber's research is to analyze and answer the question of how the use of information technology and expected progress influences procurement decisions of an organization. The analysis is conducted identifying important parameters which describe the relevant properties of information technology and supplier relationships. Information technology is distinguished flrstly in terms of the task which is supported between information technology used to support the evaluation of potential suppliers and information technology for the support of the execution of a supplier relationship.

1 Introduction.- 1.1 Research motivation.- 1.2 Research objectives.- 1.3 Research benefits.- 1.4 Structure of the thesis.- 2 Supplier Relationships.- 2.1 Basic aspects of supplier relationships.- 2.2 Assessment of supplier relationships.- 3 Information Technology.- 3.1 Basic aspects of information technology.- 3.2 Information technology for the support of supplier relationships.- 3.3 Information technology and changing supplier relationships.- 4 Decisions about Supplier Relationships and Information Technology.- 4.1 The progress of information technology and the state preference approach.- 4.2 The basic model of supplier selection decisions.- 4.3 Extending the basic model: the selection of information technology.- 5 Conclusion.- 5.1 Summary.- 5.2 Implications for the management of supplier relationships.- 5.3 Outlook.- 6 References.- 7 Appendices.- 8 List of Figures.- 9 List of Tables.- 10 List of Used Symbols.- 11 List of Abbreviations.