Purchasing And Supply Management Research Research Articles

The role of purchasing and supply management in diffusing sustainability in supply networks: A systematic literature review

AbstractOne of the most difficult supply network challenges facing companies today is how to diffuse sustainability not only among their direct (first‐tier) suppliers but also throughout their supply networks. Although a growing body of research has been dedicated to addressing this challenge, the role of purchasing and supply management (PSM) in sustainable supply network development remains underexplored. In this paper, we present a systematic review of the literature on the role of PSM in the diffusion of sustainability in supply networks. We analysed 133 peer‐reviewed papers published in 21 journals in the field of PSM. We scrutinized the theories, methods and levels of analysis used in sustainable PSM research, classified the practices for diffusing sustainability in supply networks and identified the role of PSM in the diffusion of sustainability. Accordingly, we put forward a set of propositions that link diffusion practices—and the role of PSM in these practices—with embedded and peripheral sustainability and suggest future research directions.

Developing design principles for the implementation of AI in PSM: An investigation with expert interviews

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in purchasing and supply management (PSM) has great potential, e.g. for automating processes and supporting PSM employees. Nevertheless, the number of realized AI use cases in PSM is still limited, and mostly in large companies. This paper examines first requirements for the implementation of AI in PSM. Second, design principles are developed on the basis of the identified requirements. Third, exemplary AI use cases in PSM are presented. For this purpose, a literature analysis is first conducted and followed by interviews with 17 PSM and technology experts. Finally, 40 requirements for the implementation of AI in PSM are developed from the conducted expert interviews. Based on these 40 requirements, ten design principles are developed in the sense of the design science research (DSR) approach to describe the relevant activities for the implementation of AI in PSM. The artifacts developed in this paper will contribute to the implementation of AI in PSM. The applicable research results should facilitate the transfer of knowledge into practice and contribute to the establishment of the DSR method in PSM research.

Information Asymmetry in Business-to-Business Negotiations: A Game Theoretical Approach to Support Purchasing Decisions with Suppliers

The digital transformation confronts purchasing and supply management (PSM) with numerous new challenges, such as digital procurement objects and the information asymmetry between buyers and suppliers. Existing approaches contributing to PSM research (e. g., the selection of suppliers or the calculation of equilibrium prices) have in common that information regarding suppliers (e. g., production costs) must be well-known. However, this information is rarely accessible to purchasers due to the existing information asymmetry. This problem is addressed by a game-theoretical model based on a Stackelberg game to assist PSM in dealing with the information advantage of software suppliers. The applicability in practice is evaluated by a real-world case study from the automotive industry. The results show that the presented model can support decision-making in purchasing by a qualitative analysis of profit scenarios for different negotiation strategies. The model contributes to dismantling the information asymmetry and provides a basis for determining negotiation prices, also for digital procurement objects. This research motivates both supply and purchase managers to jointly optimize their product costs and thus increase their competitiveness on the market.

Advancing purchasing as a design science: Publication guidelines to shift towards more relevant purchasing research

Due to rapidly changing business environments, purchasing and supply management (PSM) organisations are constantly confronted with new problems impacting organisational performance. PSM research can address these problems through design science research. Design science is also regarded as the science of the artificial. Design science research is a methodology that aims to systematically generate knowledge for the design, synthesis, testing, and evaluation of human-made artefacts (e.g., tools, interventions, policies) that solve practical problems. PSM artefacts such as the purchasing portfolio matrix invented by Kraljic (1983) represent a valuable opportunity to solve problems in the PSM discipline. However, our artificial-intelligence (AI)-based analysis of the discipline's flagship journal, the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management (JPSM), indicates that design-oriented publications in PSM are underrepresented, accounting for less than 4% of the total publications. We argue that existing PSM research should be complemented with more design-oriented research, and address the following research question: How can PSM scholars publish more design-oriented research? Our objectives are to (1) provide arguments for advancing PSM as a design science, (2) nurture a better understanding of design science research as a methodology, and (3) propose publication guidelines that enable researchers to present design-oriented research in a management journal.

Implementing sustainable purchasing and supply management (SPSM): A Delphi study on competences needed by purchasing and supply management (PSM) professionals

This research is about a Delphi study that was conducted in the context of the development of a competence model for sustainable purchasing and supply management (SPSM). Based on the findings of a systematic literature review (SLR), it addresses the research gap in this area with the aim to foster the integration of sustainability in purchasing and supply management (PSM) in higher education and in professional training approaches for PSM professionals. The qualitative study was conducted with 16 Delphi experts in the field of PSM and sustainability, applying the critical incident technique (CIT). Together with the findings of the SLR, it led to a specific set of SPSM competences. The theoretical background is based on PSM research, educational sciences and organizational psychology.

Researching the future of purchasing and supply management: The purpose and potential of scenarios

Drawing on prior research, the value of scenario planning as a methodology for researching the future of purchasing and supply management (PSM) is explored. Using three criteria of research quality – rigour, originality and significance – it is shown how developing scenarios and analysing their implications present new, important research opportunities for PSM academics, practitioners, and leaders of the profession. Researching the future of PSM supports the identification of uncertainties and anticipates change across many units and levels of analysis of interest to PSM scholars and practitioners, such as the profession/discipline, markets/sectors, or organisations. Scenarios are particularly effective for: considering how the complex interaction of macro-environmental factors affects the PSM context; avoiding incremental thinking; surfacing assumptions and revealing significant blind spots. PSM research using scenarios aligns with Corley and Gioia's (2011) call for prescience-oriented research in which academics aim for more impactful research, enhancing sense-giving potential and theoretical relevance to practice, to better perform their adaptive role in society.

Purchasing and supply management as a multidisciplinary research field: Unity in diversity?

Since the 1960s, research on Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) has grown substantially, but in recent times various scholars have challenged the actual progress and coherence of the field. In delivering such critiques, the underlying, dominant view of PSM research is that it constitutes an academic discipline. In contrast, we offer an alternative perspective that views PSM as a multi-disciplinary field of research, drawing from Operations Management, Marketing and Strategy & Organization as reference disciplines. Adopting this perspective, we conduct a review of 2522 purchasing and supply management publications in a multi-disciplinary set of 18 high-impact management journals, published in the period 1995–2014. We analyse how PSM research has developed over time; quantitatively and content-wise, in terms of the topics and theories being addressed. We find that across the three reference disciplines and the specialist PSM journals, there is diversity, with distinct features of each journal group in terms of the one or two most popular topics or theories. Still, considering the full base of PSM publications in each journal group, there is considerable overlap. Supplier Relationship Management is a popular topic throughout, and the top-5 of topics for each of the journal groups demonstrates a high degree of overlap, in any given lustrum period. With one exception, TCE is the most popular for all journal groups for all periods and of the 17 different theories identified, only four have been applied by just one journal group. Thus, we conclude that PSM research is characterised by ‘unity in diversity’: “E Pluribus Unum”, and offer recommendations how this multi-disciplinary composition of the field can be leveraged in future research.

Individual competences for sustainable purchasing and supply management (SPSM)

PurposeImplementing sustainability into global supply networks remains a challenge for companies. Purchasing and supply management (PSM) interacts closely with supply network actors, thus influencing how the firm’s value creation is delivered. While previous sustainable PSM (SPSM) research has shed light on how to manage sustainability on an organizational level, the individual competences PSM professionals require are less understood. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a systematic literature review to determine the current research coverage of specific competences and knowledge required to implement sustainability. The authors complemented this with data from 46 interviews with practitioners. From coding the data with NVivo, a first comprehensive competence overview for SPSM was developed.FindingsThe literature review results, complemented with interview data, highlight that functional-oriented, cognition-oriented, social-oriented and meta-oriented competences form part of a comprehensive SPSM competence model. We propose a framework that includes these, and integrates two behavioral moderators on the organizational level, i.e. situational enabling, as well as empowerment and obligation.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the proposed framework provides a basic first systematization of SPSM competences, further research is needed to extend it. There is ample opportunity to shed further light on both individual and organizational-level factors that influence the application of SPSM competences, and therefore SPSM behavior.Practical implicationsThe results have implications for higher education and professional training programs in companies. The framework provides an overview of competences needed for SPSM. The discussion highlights the need to apply education and training methods for different types of competences that are suitable for conveying implicit knowledge apart from explicit knowledge.Originality/valueAdressing a current research gap in sustainability-related competences in PSM, the overall framework highlights SPSM competences of interest to both scholars and managers alike.

Prerequisites for performance measurement supporting purchaser-supplier collaboration

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to clarify the prerequisites for performance measurement supporting purchaser-supplier relationships and value co-creation. It also explains the causes for the limited use of collaborative measurement.Design/methodology/approachFour case companies representing different contextual settings are studied. The primary source of empirical material is an interview study addressed to 24 interviewees. The empirical data are analyzed according to the constructs created as a result of the literature review.FindingsThe results reveal that prevailing performance measurement practices represent a more transactional than relationship-oriented approach to purchaser-supplier collaboration. The technical prerequisites for collaborative performance measurement are mostly not fulfilled, inhibiting the use of performance measurement in a collaborative manner. It is proposed that the differentiation between project and process production types has implications on the importance of collaborative performance measurement.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper illustrates the desirable characteristics of performance measurement supporting collaboration. It also presents an application of collaborative performance measurement in a single case context. The research reveals the need to develop non-financial performance measures further in order to facilitate the more proactive use of performance measurement supporting true value co-creation between purchaser and supplier companies.Originality/valueThe empirical research on the topic of performance measurement in purchasing and supply management (PSM) is often limited to intra-organizational measurement and highlights transactional approach to collaboration between parties, although PSM research has otherwise acknowledged the importance of value creation and relationships between organizations.

Conducting multilevel studies in purchasing and supply management research

Purchasing and supply management (PSM) research commonly covers multiple levels of theory and analysis. The theorizing and simultaneous testing of hypotheses across multiple levels is referred to as multilevel analysis (MLA) and is commonly performed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Researchers in the PSM domain have paid little attention thus far to the topic of multilevel studies. Although MLA holds the potential to yield novel insights into PSM issues, it also generates new challenges for authors and reviewers alike. We contribute to this methodological dialogue by examining reasons for conducting multilevel PSM research and offering practical guidance for increasing its methodological rigor.

The character and significance of Nordic purchasing and supply management research: A systematic review of the literature

This paper evaluates the character and significance of Nordic contributions to purchasing and supply management (PSM) research. The paper is based on a systematic analysis of the literature, focusing on the contributions of authors with a Nordic affiliation to PSM. We seek to identify the themes in focus of Nordic PSM research, the research methods and theories that are typically employed; ultimately we discuss if a Nordic PSM school of thought or approach can be discerned and evaluate if or in which areas Nordic PSM research has made significant impact. We conclude the paper by outlining and discussing important future avenues of research for Nordic research in PSM.

The Future of Purchasing and Supply Management Research: About Relevance and Rigor

The Journal of Supply Chain Management (JSCM) is a hallmark in the academic field of operations and supply chain management. During the past 50 years, it has contributed substantially to the recognition and adoption of purchasing and supply management (PSM) as an academic and strategic business domain. Having been invited by the JSCM editors to provide some ideas on the future directions of PSM research, the authors discuss what can be done to further increase both its relevance and rigor. Rigor and relevance in academic research are interconnected. To improve its relevance, the authors argue that future PSM research should better reflect the strategic priorities raised in the contemporary strategic management literature. Next, future PSM research should be much better embedded in a limited number of management theories. Here, stakeholder theory, network theory, the resource‐based view of the firm, dynamic capabilities theory, and the relational view could be considered as interesting candidates. Rigor is connected with robustness of academic research designs and projects. To foster its rigor, future PSM research should allow for an increase in the number of replication studies, longitudinal studies, and meta‐analytical studies. Future PSM research designs should reflect a careful distinction between informants and respondents and a careful sample selection. When discussing the results of quantitative studies, future PSM research should report on effect sizes and confidence intervals, rather than p‐values. Adoption of these ideas would have some important implications for both the academic PSM community and academic journal editors.

Past, present and future trends of purchasing and supply management: An extensive literature review

This research aims to evaluate the state of the art of Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM). This is carried out through a wide, in-depth, and structured examination of published works. More than one thousand papers (i.e., 1055) published in 20 peer-reviewed journals were collected and analyzed to provide a snapshot of PSM research, including the extent of the overall production, the background theory used, the unit of analysis, the research method, and the main topics investigated. Other literature reviews related to PSM have been conducted in the past but have focused primarily on specific topics and/or considering a narrower set of publications. Furthermore, the authors define a framework useful for analyzing the PSM literature and outline the state of the art of PSM research from a content-specific perspective, including an evaluation of the maturity of PSM research as a discipline.

Research opportunities in purchasing and supply management

Purchasing and supply management (PSM) are crucial for the effective and efficient operation of manufacturing firms, now more than ever. The PSM function has evolved from being routine and mechanical to a function that can deliver true competitive advantage. The trend toward increased globalisation and outsourcing, along with a focus on innovation- and capability-driven supply management, has led to an increased reliance on suppliers. This has significantly enhanced the importance of PSM for manufacturing companies. The heightened significance in practice has been paralleled by an increasing attention of researchers in developing theories and chronicling best practices. At the same time, the rapid rate of change represents both daunting challenges and exciting opportunities for research in PSM. It is the goal of this article to highlight such challenges and discuss ensuing opportunities in PSM research. This objective is accomplished via the nominal group technique involving a panel of leading scholars in the purchasing and supply management field. As such, the article presents a synthesis and discussion of important research themes, poses a set of intriguing research opportunities, and serves as a motivation for future investigation.

Systematic literature reviews in purchasing and supply management research: a tertiary study

This paper studies systematic literature reviews (SLRs) in purchasing and supply management (PSM) research. First, a process-oriented framework for conducting SLRs in PSM research is developed and criteria for evaluating SLRs in this domain are defined. Subsequently, the framework is applied in a case study and the state of the art of reviewing the literature in PSM research is presented and evaluated. The results of our study show that literature reviews are becoming more and more popular in the PSM domain, but that reviews in this area often lack methodological rigour. The framework presented in this paper may assist researchers in writing high-quality SLRs in PSM research in the future.

Evaluation criteria development and assessment of purchasing and supply management journals

Although purchasing and supply management (PSM) is a business function that is critical to supply chain management, a direct examination of the academic journals representing leading PSM research outlets has not been available. Further, most prior studies that compare journals have relied on single-item measures of such evaluation dimensions as quality and relevance. In order to address these research gaps, a survey instrument targeted to purchasing and supply management academics was implemented to explore how they evaluate and rate journals considered important for advancing the field of PSM. The three highest-rated journals in this study that publish PSM research are the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of Business Logistics, and the Journal of Supply Chain Management. Four journal evaluation constructs emerged: Journal Quality, Journal Reputation, PSM Practitioner Relevance, and PSM Research Relevance. The results provide guidance for PSM scholars with respect to journals that contribute to the knowledge base in PSM, as well as support an extended understanding of conceptual bases for how scholars evaluate the journals they read and in which they publish.