Abstract
The purpose of the present investigation is to examine the perceptions of managerial practices regarding issues surrounding strategic sourcing (SS) across different industries. The two industries examined in this study are the manufacturing and the service industries. Although arguably these industries are different in terms of industry practices and culture there has been a trend toward convergence of managerial practices. Major items such as VMI, education, risk assessment, and social responsibility appear to have the same importance in both the manufacturing and service industry. The findings also indicate some support for the divergence view. Issues such as diversity, collaboration in reducing costs, and communication with upper management, exhibit some differences in opinion among manufacturing executives and service oriented executives. These differences may be attributed to the services industry still being in its infancy stage in the sourcing arena. This can have implications for both industries as they are becoming more hybrid in nature and at times becomes challenging to distinguish between a good or a service.
Highlights
There were quite a few similarities in the perceptions of manufacturing and service industry managers. Both groups closely agree on the importance of sourcing strategy supporting overall corporate strategy. Both groups see Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) as an important component of strategic sourcing and agree that strategic goals are well understood throughout their organizations
With respect to the latter, while managers are in agreement that total cost of ownership is well-understood within the organization and performance objectives in sourcing are based on total cost of ownership, there were some differences on whether Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was well-articulated within the sourcing function
Respondents agree on the cost of environmental innovation is included in the total cost of ownership as well as Supplier Ethics Management (SEM) is an important component of sourcing in determining total cost of ownership
Summary
Using a sample of 129 survey respondents, the survey responses were analyzed using the statistical software SAS. 56 respondents were from the manufacturing industries and 73 from the service industries. 56 respondents were from the manufacturing industries and 73 from the service industries. Data were grouped into Manufacturing and Services industries. Group numerical averages for each item were calculated. These averages were correlated between the two groups. Between group t-tests were conducted on all of the items in the questionnaire. These t-tests helped determine whether the two groups differed in their responses on strategic sourcing. Percentage response distribution is indicated in table 2.
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