The levelof strategic purchasing amongthe firms in Izmir and Manisa

Purchasing, along with selling is a historical activity since the beginning of the trade relations in human history. As the economic evolutions created more complex organizations like companies, several other fundamental functions also came into the picture such as manufacturing, marketing, finance, accounting, logistics, human resources, research and development. Although purchasing, as an activity has a longer history with respect to some of the functions listed above, it's not until the past three decades that it has started to be recognized as an important, actually a strategic function of the company. The major turning point in the recognition of the importance of the purchasing as a strategic function is owed to Porter's five forces that define the competitive environment of an industry. The most progressive firms recognized the importance of the purchasing function for the company performance, started to pay close attention on their purchasing function and focused on how to improve their supplier network management. This thesis aims to give a general overview on what the strategic purchasing is and understand the level of adoption of strategic purchasing practices among firms based in Izmir and Manisa Turkey using the approach and definition of the strategic purchasing that Carr and Smeltzer (1997) described.The study also aims to understand whether there is a positive correlation between the level of strategic purchasing and some of the company profile variables of a company such as the size, the capital structure and the target market.