Purchasing structures, centralized

The behaviour of the individual actors in the chain is in turn affected by both internal and external structures and factors. For example employers, employees, purchasing departments for substance input and waste management for output as well as the various specialised divisions in companies using chemical products thus pursue entirely different interests and strategies. A central concern of the SubChem project was how the interaction of all actors inside and outside the supply chain can accelerate or hamper innovations. 

As a corollary to the observations about niche markets, it also appears that vehicle fleets are a bad place to try uneconomical fuels. Fleets were originally considered one of the best niche markets to become "early adopters" of alternative fuels. Fleets, it was assumed, had centralized refueling, centralized purchasing, and cost structures that would allow them to absorb the incremental cost of adopting alternative fuels and vehicles. 

Chakravarty (2013) establishes that the BOT possesses a special structure that ensures that the buyer s decision to purchase the facility (yes/no) is not impacted by demand uncertainty, although the uncertainty is central to the determination of the size, productivity, and the price of the facility. While decisions are sensitive to the respective reservation values, the two parties react differently - principal buys a smaller facility if supplier desires a higher profit, and the supplier cuts price if principal wishes to reduce her cost. The author also establishes that the principal and supplier can both be better off if the principal is more experienced in offshore operations. 

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