Features of supplier management and its mechanisms – insights in Hungarian practice: how to enhance the effectiveness of procurement procedures?

Abstract

Considering the risk how serious consequences could occur in case of supply problems, the increasing importance of suppliers in supply chains is indisputable; therefore, management of relationships and selection and evaluation of suppliers are seen as crucial strategic issues (Araz & Ozkarahan, 2007). The practice/activity – and theory – how to handle the suppliers is the so-called Supplier Management (SM). The article presents the findings of research investigating the actual practice of SM in the inquired procurement organizations. The theoretical contribution of the paper is to compare the practice of these particular organizations with the literature in order to state the coincidences with it or the discrepancies between them, in other words, to reveal the status of purchasing work. The managerial implication – on this basis – is to be a compass for practitioners where to find the deficiencies (if any) and how to strengthen the effectiveness of procurement by a better understanding of the problems; also, the paper formulates suggestions for a more efficient SM practice. The author argue that the procurement processes in terms of SM have deficiencies which can be originated from its component parts: i) supplier evaluation; ii) cooperation; and iii) IT platforms. She applied survey research while the answers of the survey were analyzed applying comparison to the literature and using Cross-table analysis to reveal the connection among the stated SM factors.