The development of international purchasing capabilities: a comparative study of the four largest Swedish construction firms

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile there is a growing stream of research addressing purchasing issues, we know little about how the internationalization of purchasing activities unfolds. The study contributes to the sparsely empirically and theoretically substantiated field of international purchasing by, based on empirical support, providing an analytical framework which can improve our understanding of international purchasing by offering an integrated view of a business relationship perspective and a capabilities perspective. The purpose of this article is to track the actual prerequisites behind the development of international purchasing capabilities. In this article, we study the nearly simultaneous implementation of international purchasing strategies in the four largest construction firms in Sweden to be able to compare and contrast the underlying mechanisms and outcomes of these processes. We find that the firms that had developed capabilities incrementally in supplier relationships were better able to reap cost--benefits from international purchasing than firms that had not.