Year: 2014
Type: other
Abstract: Engineers who can't add, operators who can't run their equipment, and accountants who can't foot numbers become purchasing professionals"-Jack Welch, Former CEO at GE (Fuchs, Pais, and Shulman, 2013) al., 2013).From a practitioner's point of view, this endeavor is valuable.In a recent report, managers report that the most important factors for successful purchasing are purchasing capabilities (Fuchs, Pais, and Shulman, 2013) and today purchasing is also perceived to be one of the functions with the highest potential to impact on long-term profitability in firms (Quintens, Pauwels, and Matthyssens, 2006a).In order to ensure that a firm reaps full benefits of their investment in and development of purchasing capabilities, the research agenda needs to address at least two key points: first, we need to understand what performance benefits can be reached by investing in capabilities, and second, we need to understand what those capabilities are.This thesis aims to contribute this this agenda.This introductory chapter contains five sections.The first section introduces the reader to the purchasing and supply management literature research domain.The second part presents a brief introduction to the theoretical lens -the capability-based view.The third section discusses the need for theory in PSM.Based on the preceding sections the overall research question is clarified in section four.The fifth section describes the overall research design and the final section summarizes each of the papers in the dissertation.The introduction is not meant to be a contribution in itself, but merely serves as a way of preparing the reader for what follows by setting the scene with respect to the empirical and theoretical domain.The three individual papers should be thought of as independent pieces of work and can each be read outside the context of this introductory chapter.2009) and Johnsen's (2009) review of purchasing's involvement in new product development, or on related disciplines such as SCM (e.g.Giunipero et al., 2008).Ellram and Carr (1994) conducted the first general literature review on PSM (Spina et al., 2013).In this review, the authors divided the literature into three streams of research: purchasing's strategic concerns, purchasing's role and the evolution of the purchasing function to a strategic level.The authors identified five issues of concern to purchasing: the make or buy decision, supplier technology, supplier relationship, the external environment, and the purchasing functions support of corporate strategy (Ellram and Carr, 1994 p. 17).The review identified no papers which focused on purchasing's capabilities, but noted that purchasing operations had not yet developed the skills to contribute to corporate strategy (Ellram and Carr, 1994 p. 17).Ellram and Carr (1994) stress the perceived role of purchasing as something requiring increased consideration by future researchers.At the time of conducting and writing their literature review, empirical PSM research relied heavily on case studies, which also led the authors to call for more quantitative empirical research.Quintens, Pauwels, and Matthyssens (2006b) review of the global purchasing literature divided the literature into three basic streams relating to either a) the antecedents of global purchasing (drivers, facilitators and barriers), b) those dealing with the consequences (product, firm and network level) and c) research relating to the global purchasing process (stage models).The review encompassed 123 research papers published in 31 academic journals.The authors argue that purchasing has transformed into a competitive weapon and has thus succeeded in getting the strategic attention of managers and researchers alike.However, the authors conclude that the literature remains stuck in a Spina et al. (2013) note that the least researched topic was the organization of the purchasing function.This contrasts with Schneider and Wallenburg's (2013) review of the literature from the same year, which questions whether more research on organizing the purchasing function is needed.Schneider and Wallenburg (2013) identified twelve areas of research on purchasing organization: structure and formalities, relationship management, strategic performance and measurement, everyday processes and policies, evolving responsibilities, strategic alignment, buying centers and purchasing status, HR and change management, decision making, organizational learning, leadership and culture, and finally IT and e-business.The authors conclude that there is still room for more research on the organization of the purchasing function, and especially on that which is motivated by changes in the environment (Schneider and Wallenburg, 2013 p. 6).The review indicated that quantitative research methods were used more than theoretical and qualitative studies in some areas of purchasing organization.It is clear that no unequivocal categorization can be made as to what composes the body of literature that is PSM.In the reviews presented here, several different classifications of topics have been proposed.Most of the literature reviews seem to concur that the field of PSM is in a nascent stage.Quintens, Pauwels, and Matthyssens (2006b) go so far as to claim that the literature remains stuck in a premature discourse.With some notable exceptions (Quintens, Pauwels, and Matthyssens, 2006b; Wynstra, 2010), most authors seem to agree that the PSM literature could benefit from more quantitative theory testing research.The skeptics base their concerns on the level of theoretical maturity of the field, and note that a way in which PSM could overcome this obstacle is through the infusions of different theoretical perspectives from adjacent fields.Even though Spina et al. (2013) summary.The questionnaires were administered in Danish through an online self-administered questionnaire using an online soft-ware tool from Rambøll Management (SurveyXact).The first round of data was collected between October 2011 and January 2012.The second round of data collection was collected between January 2012 and March 2012.Only respondents who had replied to the first questionnaire were invited to participate in the second round of data collection.For both surveys, two reminder emails were sent out to respondents who had not completed the questionnaire after one and three weeks. Summary of the papersAs stated earlier in the introduction, the dissertation is written as a collection of papers.The theoretical point of departure for the thesis is the capability-based view of the firm.The papers themselves are written as independent pieces of research, each focusing on a different topic in PSM.As a collective piece of work, they all contribute to advancing capabilities as a theoretical lens in PSM.Capabilities can improve efficiency (of other capabilities), alter the resource base, or create market change.The three papers in this dissertation each address these performance outcomes, albeit with a different focus in each paper.Paper 1, focusing on capabilities contribution to innovation primarily addresses what purchasing capabilities contribute to firm innovativeness, and through what mechanism.Paper 2 focus on improved delivery performance which can be seen as an alteration of the resource base constituted by the firms supply base.This paper also address the effect of the Chopra, S. and Sodhi, M. M. S. 2004."Managing risk to avoid supply-chain breakdown."MIT
Author: Astrid Hanghøj
Institutions: Aarhus University, VIA University College
Language: English
Subfield: Management Information Systems
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2189207386