NELFCRO Acquisition Process Research: An integrated theory and practice study to improve acquisition process of NELF Contract Research Organization (NELFCRO)

NELFCRO Acquisition Process Research: An integrated theory and practice study to improve acquisition process of NELF Contract Research Organization (NELFCRO)

Asrianti, M.

Van der Sanden, M. (mentor)
Flipse, S. (mentor)
Wehrmann, C. (mentor)

Applied Sciences

Science Education and Communication

Science Education and Communication

2010-09-28

Nowadays, industries are become more open to conduct part of their research outside of their own companies. The industries can work together with an independent research institute like NELF Contract Research Organization (NELFCRO), the problem owner of the case that is used in this thesis research. The management of NELFCRO is aware of the emergence of many potential partnerships between contract research organizations and the industries. Moreover, the management considers improving NELFCRO’s acquisition process in order to successfully enter the market. According to NELFCRO’s experience, the acquisition phase of NELFCRO usually takes a lot of time before the customer makes a decision to cooperate. NELFCRO’s management mentions that a significant percentage of company’s time is used for reducing perceived barriers and negative thought of the customer towards NELFCRO. In order to assist NELFCRO to improve their acquisition process, this research was initiated. The main research question of this thesis is: “How can the acquisition process of NELFCRO be improved by integrating theory from academic literature and practice from NELFCRO employees’ perspective?” To answer this question, this research was conducted in different phases, namely analysis and synthesis phases. As part of the analysis phase, context analysis and concept analysis were carried out. In the context analysis phase, interviews of NELFCRO’s employees and NELFCRO’s flyer analysis were conducted. The main results of this phase are the company context which emphasized the perceived positive aspects and perceived negative aspects of NELFCRO based on its employees’ perspective. Next to the context analysis, a concept analysis was conducted by a literature study on acquisition process in order to develop the ground of this research. The results of this literature study are theoretical framework of acquisition process and list of aspects that are theoretically involved in acquisition process. As part of synthesis phase, the integration of the context analysis result and the concept analysis result were carried out. Validation of the research results on context analysis and concept analysis were conducted. The validation was part of the focus group activity with NELFCRO’s employees as participants. The focus group was also aimed to enrich the concept of the integrated frameworks and NELFCRO’s context with new ideas. The main result of the synthesis research phase is an integrated matrix of theoretical framework and NELFCRO’s context. This matrix was used to analyze the NELFCRO’s perceived aspects, which are closely related to acquisition process. Furthermore, it was used to generate possible unique selling propositions (USPs) of NELFCRO. Then, possible solutions to generate company’s proposed-USPs were discussed and some recommendations were generated. In this research phase, the validation of the research results was carried out. Also, in the focus group, NELFCRO’s employees were involved to think together about their company’s acquisition case based on the research result. To conclude, as the answers to the main question, the acquisition process can be improved by making NELFCRO’ employees aware of their perceived positive aspects and making them focus on those perceived positive aspects of the company. These perceived positive aspects of the company are possible to become NELFCRO’s unique selling propositions (USPs). These USPs are important to be emphasized to the potential customer, especially in the acquisition process. Beside the perceived positive aspects, emphasis could be given to the improvement of the company’s perceived negative aspects into more positive aspects, eventually making them potential company’s USPs. Besides the recommendations that are generated from the discussion on possible solution for NELFCRO, further recommendations are also presented in the end of the research. The results of this research can be used as the start for further study of NELFCRO in its acquisition process.

acquisition
marketing
Unique Selling Proposition

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Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2010 Asrianti, M.