1,721,116 research outputs found
Purchasing Managed Innovation
No full textInnovation is by far one of the most important competitive priorities in the current business context. Like every other top-level objective, it has to be drilled down into sub-objectives for all the organizational units of a given company. Among others, the Purchasing Department plays a critical role: it is the firm interface with the supply network and it is able to affect the firm output innovativeness in several ways: by selecting the most innovative suppliers and by managing the relationships with them; by involving suppliers into new product development; by internally coordinating contributions of various actors (such as R&D, Quality or Marketing Departments) and so on. This paper aims at investigating – through a multiple case study approach – how the Purchasing Department could foster and manage innovation. In particular, two aspects are taken into consideration: the choice of the most suitable Technological Collaboration agreement with suppliers and the organizational structure of the department
Purchasing management in the luxury industry: organization and practices
No full textTraditional supply chain models were developed mainly for non-luxury companies and
find very little correspondence in the field of luxury, which is considered here as a
business super-area including heterogeneous enterprises, belonging to different sectors,
which have in common customers characterized by the “need for luxury”. The objective
of this paper is to investigate, through a multiple case-study research, peculiar
purchasing and supply management practices put in place by luxury firms and to
provide a classification of the most recurring approaches
Organizing the Purchasing Department for Innovation
No full textInnovation is by far one of the most important
competitive priorities in the current business context.
Companies increasingly rely on their supply base to support
their innovation potential. As a consequence, the purchasing
department might dramatically affect the firm’s innovation
capability. This paper aims to investigate—using a
multiple case study approach—how the organizational
design of the purchasing department could determine a
firm’s capability to foster and manage innovation. Seven
highly innovative companies were visited and the structures
of their purchasing departments were analyzed. Three
different configurations for the purchasing department were
identified and described
Defining the purchasing strategy: an empirical exploration of its content and the relation with purchasing status and maturity
No full text
Research perspectives on public procurement: Content analysis of 14 years of publications in the journal of public procurement
No full textThe paper aims to evaluate the state of the literature on public procurement through examination of the works published in the Journal of Public Procurement from 2001 to 2014. 231 research outputs were collected and analyzed (with regard to, e.g., the background theory used, research method, and content of the papers), providing a structured overview of prior research topics and findings and identifying main gaps in the existing literature. This type of study is unique, as a broad literature review related to public procurement does not currently exist; therefore, the work has been designed with the intention to a) synthetize the prior research on public procurement; b) provide researchers with a structural framework in which future research on public procurement topics may be oriented; c) identify promising and active areas for future research
Cinderella purchasing transformation: linking purchasing status to purchasing practices and business performance
No full textInternational audienceThis paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the relevance of the purchasing function for the firm value creation. We empirically examine the role of the purchasing function in improving business performance through an international survey based on 653 responses. Results suggest that purchasing practices related to spend rationalization have a positive impact on the overall business performance, whereas supplier development & integration and sustainable purchasing have not. Moreover, the purchasing recognition by top managers and other organizational units emerge as a powerful antecedent of all purchasing practices. Instead, pure formal authority provided by the position in the organization chart (i.e. the report level) does not have any influence on purchasing practices adoption
Purchasing Performance Management Systems and Strategy: classification of KPIs and empirical analysis
No full textThis paper investigates the topic of purchasing performance management and its relationship with purchasing strategy. A hierarchical classification framework for purchasing Key Performance Indicators is proposed, linking overall purchasing
performances perceived by the internal customer to their determinants, i.e. internal purchasing processes and suppliers' performances. Subsequently, 8 case studies in large multinational organizations are analyzed, in order to investigate the relationship
between purchasing strategies and performance management systems. Results show different stages of development of such systems and in general a higher focus on traditional performances such as cost, quality and time. Less diffused are indicators related to flexibility, innovation and corporate social responsibility, despite the relevance of such performances in today's competitive environment
Purchasing realized absorptive capacity as the gateway to sustainable supply chain management
Full text linkPurpose: Companies' ability to build sustainable supply chains and achieve strategic sustainability objectives largely depends on their supply network characteristics and the nature of the relationships with strategic suppliers. This poses the question of how purchasing departments can help to translate this sustainability commitment into performance benefits. The authors focus the attention on buyer-supplier information sharing practices and study how the availability of information interplays with the purchasing realized absorptive capacity (PRAC) to positively impact performance (operational, environmental and social). Design/methodology/approach: The study collected data from 305 procurement executives in four European countries and tested the hypotheses empirically using structural equation modeling. Mediation analysis is used to test the effect of PRAC on the relationship between buyer-supplier information sharing and performance. Findings: The results show that increasing buyer-supplier information sharing is sufficient to obtain a positive impact on operational performance. To improve purchasing sustainability performance, companies need to develop their PRAC to adequately transform and exploit external information and identify opportunities in the environmental and social areas. Thanks to these purchasing capabilities, organizations can overcome potential trade-offs between different performance dimensions. Originality/value: In the context of collaborative buyer-supplier relationships, this study is one of the first to propose purchasing knowledge management capabilities (i.e. PRAC) as a key factor to improve multiple performance dimensions. Additionally, it captures different sustainability aspects, concluding that organizations can improve purchasing operational, environmental and social performances by implementing appropriate information sharing mechanisms with suppliers and developing their PRAC
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