You'll never walk alone: Why we need a supply chain practice view on digital procurement

This paper conceptualizes digital procurement readiness as a dyadic construct and introduces the supply chain practice view (SCPV) as a theoretical lens that can help guide future research on digital procurement. We build on a literature review and on dyadic, explanatory case studies to provide a nuanced understanding of how the digital readiness of supply chain partners—on both sides of the dyad—needs to co-evolve for the implementation of digital procurement practices. Specifically, we outline how the SCPV can serve as both a holistic and a supply chain-specific framework for future research on the following: 1) the antecedents that help explain why supply chain partners adopt inter-organizational digital procurement practices, and 2) the relational performance outcomes derived from their use. For managers, this study implies the need to explicitly consider interactions with and influences of supply chain partners in their quest to rapidly and effectively digitalize procurement.     

Supply chain risk management in India – practical insights

This paper reviews the supply chain risk management (SCRM) literature to identify as well as to discuss and elaborate on the impact and origin of major supply chain risk factors in an Indian context. Through a combination of existing literature and a survey instrument, we identify major SCRM issues including underlying supply chain risks and thereafter identify gaps, issues and opportunities for further research. SCRM has become a popular research topic, in part owing to increased globalisation of business. Moreover competitive factors such as shorter product life cycles, technological innovations and changing government policies have brought this topic more sharply into focus. We carried out a survey among Indian supply chain professionals, based on supply chain risk constructs developed from a literature review. Statistical analysis utilised exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to determine the major risk factors in the Indian supply chain sector. We found a range of supply chain risks prevalent in Indian supply chains, classified here as cultural, operational, infrastructure, economic, forecasting and supplier-related risks. However, for a variety of reasons and as discussed in the paper, the implications can vary considerably. Based on the findings we provide a future SCRM research agenda from an Indian perspective. As international supply chains increasingly have Indian partners and domestic firms within India seek to be globally competitive, the risks need to be better understood. This is the first detailed study on SCRM practices in an Indian context.     

Information and communication technology in green logistics: status quo and research gaps

The purpose of this paper is to determine the status quo of research on applications of information and communication technology (ICT) in green logistics (GL) and offer recommendations for future research. We determine that research about political interaction is needed to design new standards and regulations for GL. We also recommend that this work be extended by behavioural research to both identify factors that influence society’s sustainable behaviour and determine whether the current digitisation of society leads to more sustainable transport. In addition, this paper provides an overview of types of software applications that may be beneficial to GL. These benefits usually relate to the strategic management of freight transport and supply chains and the provision of software for executing or monitoring passenger transport. As such, further research on sustainability measures is also needed to identify important sustainable indicators in transport. Existing reviews mostly concentrate on either a specific logistics area or supply chain management; as far as we are aware, no studies focus on the use of ICT in GL at a superordinate level. This paper’s holistic evaluation of the state of research in this underexplored area and its propositions for future research help to fill this gap in the literature.     

The role of artificial intelligence in the procurement process: State of the art and research agenda

Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely adopted in many areas, but it is still in its infancy in procurement, despite its potential. To map the state of the art of both research and practice and identify future research directions, this paper presents a mixed methodology exploratory study of the role of AI in the procurement process. The paper combines a systematic literature review, a mapping of the offerings of providers of AI-based procurement platforms and a focus group with procurement managers. Results map the functionalities of AI-based solutions throughout the procurement process, describe benefits and challenges to their adoption and identify future research directions.     

基于供应链的电厂煤炭采购订货优化研究

企业之间的竞争已经转变为供应链之间的竞争,而采购工作是供应链的源头,采购成本的节约是供应链成本控制的重要环节。文中针对燃料煤供需紧张问题,把供应链管理的思想引入电厂的采购订货中,采用综合考虑供应链上的供方(煤炭供应商)及需方(电厂)的一体化采购策略,以期为供需双方建立战略合作伙伴关系。通过建立供需双方的综合采购数学模型,为电厂提供了最佳的订货量,实现供应链整体利益最大化,最后利用算例验证模型的有效性。     

U.S. chief procurement officers’ perspectives on public procurement

Each year public procurement officials in the United States spend trillions of dollars to purchase goods and services for public use. The volume of public procurement spending compels public administration and supply chain management scholars to examine these procurement practices. Based on a unique dataset composed of a series of qualitative and quantitative interviews with chief procurement officers (CPOs) and their team members from 45 states and 2 territories in the United States, this paper explores the key institutional factors affecting state-level public procurement in the U.S., explores variation in the definition of contract performance, and assess the importance of multiple factors in creating procurement contracts. We present an agenda for future research on state-level public procurement in the U.S that has important implications for the theory and practice of public procurement.     

Supply chain finance schemes in the procurement of agricultural products

Product, information, and finance flows are all interrelated within the modern supply chain; thus, it is now more than ever of paramount importance for practitioners to integrate procurement and financial decisions. This challenge is exemplified in many agricultural supply chains, where operational risks are significant and access to capital differs sharply across firms. We study three management tactics that some large food/beverage manufacturers – situated downstream in these chains – have used to meet the challenge: ordinary fixed price contracts (or soft tolling) with direct suppliers, hard tolling and contract farming where the manufacturer intervenes upstream, providing capital, and coordinating procurement decisions. We place these upstream intervention schemes in the theoretical context of supply chain finance (SCF) and model their application to a three-echelon agricultural supply chain. We perform a numerical study in order to understand how the structure of capital constraints in the chain may influence the manufacturer's choice of SCF scheme. The numerical study is based on a business case that reflects the barley–malt supply chain of Heineken N.V. Despite greater coordination opportunities, we show that upstream intervention is not necessarily preferable for the manufacturer. Nevertheless, the preferred SCF scheme can be inferred on the basis of relatively simple characterization of the capital constraints in the supply chain.     

Sustainable supply chains: An introduction

Consideration is given to the convergence of supply chains and sustainability. In doing so, the focus on environmental management and operations is moved from local optimization of environmental factors to consideration of the entire supply chain during the production, consumption, customer service and post-disposal disposition of products. This is a critical and timely topic that captures increasing concerns over sustainability, whether driven by current legislation, public interest, or competitive opportunity. As such, sustainable development is a rich area for academic research that is still in its infancy and has the potential to affect future government policy, current production operations, and identify new business models. This paper provides a background to better understand current trends in this multidisciplinary field that intersect with operations management, and the research opportunities and challenges it presents.     

跨国企业采购中心业务研究——以A公司为例

跨国企业面对不断变化的经济环境,一直在探讨如何深入优化供应链以应对市场变化。研究的目的是希望通过调研的方法,对跨国企业的采购中心的产生历程和现状发展进行深入分析,识别出采购中心业务模型存在的问题,并给出如何实施相适应的战略采购策略来实现优化供应链的战略目标。通过A跨国企业采购中心的案例分析,得到结论:对于跨国企业实现优化供应链的目标,核心任务是采购部门一方面要投资正确的技术和资源来实现战略采购,另一方面需要从业务角度和商业模型角度寻求降低成本、提高企业价值的方法。     

Exploring the circular economy paradigm: A natural resource-based view on supplier selection criteria

The paradigm of circular economy and the transfer of its principles to supply chain management has recently received much attention from researchers and practitioners. Limited natural resources, governmental legislation, and social responsibility for environmental preservation are the main factors for the development of circular supply chains. Especially in the automotive industry, critical materials are used to produce electric vehicles, reinforcing the importance of circularity for the industry. As the first stage of the supply chain, suppliers have a considerable influence on creating self-sufficient production systems, and in the automotive sector, a low level of vertical integration is important. Therefore, selecting suppliers is an enabler for circular supply chains, but this decision is a complex process due to multiple, partly conflicting criteria. To contribute to the knowledge in this research area, this study applies a fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach for supplier selection in a circular supply chain in a case study of electric vehicles. First, a set of criteria for supplier selection in circular supply chains was identified based on a literature review and was systematically categorized based on the natural resource-based view. Afterward, the criteria were assessed and refined by experts with a strong procurement background in the automotive industry. Second, the experts were interviewed for value collection, and finally, the mutual influence of the criteria was determined. The results show that the most important criteria for circular supplier selection in electric vehicle supply chains are environmental standards, environmental-related certifications, resource consumption, and waste generation. Regarding the natural resource-based view, short-term focused criteria addressing the capability of pollution prevention have a higher importance compared to long-term criteria that drive sustainable development. In addition, this study classifies the criteria into the categories of causes and effects, discusses the prominence of the criteria, and presents a strategic map showing the mutual influences of the criteria. The results contribute to the theoretical and practical discussion on circular supply chains by identifying the key criteria for circular supplier selection and providing decision-making support for procurement managers.     

木质林产品供应链碳足迹研究与展望

以木质林产品供应链为研究对象,归纳总结了常用的碳足迹核算标准和核算方法,并从森林生产、采购与运输、林产品加工、仓储与配送以及废弃回收等方面对木质林产品单一供应链环节的碳足迹研究进行综述;从企业内部供应链和外部供应链的角度对木质林产品全供应链的碳足迹的相关研究进行总结,阐明了木质林产品碳足迹因供应链环节的不同而产生的差异。最后基于当前木质林产品碳足迹的研究现状提出了展望,旨在为木质林产品供应链低碳化发展和有关绿色经济政策制定提供借鉴和参考。     

供应链中信息共享价值与激励机制研究综述

信息共享是实现供应链管理的基础,因此如何激励供应链上的成员进行信息共享成为对这一问题研究的焦点。文章通过对供应链信息共享价值和激励机制的相关文献进行分析总结,指出相关研究中所存在的问题,并就进一步研究提出展望。     

Acquisition of supply market intelligence – An information processing perspective

The capability to develop and sustain superior knowledge of markets and supply chains, or supply market intelligence (SMI), is an important element in increasing the strategic relevance of purchasing and supply management (PSM). This study draws on information processing theory (IPT) to shed light on how firms acquire SMI. In particular, the study aims to identify the drivers and mechanisms of information processing in SMI acquisition and to explore how the two constructs are related. Our findings emerged from an abductive multiple case study including 22 SMI tasks in eight case companies operating in various manufacturing industries. We find that the drivers of information processing needs in SMI acquisition are related either to uncertainty or equivocality. Uncertainty describes a situation in which decision-makers may be ignorant of a variable's value while equivocality describes a situation in which they may be ignorant of the variable's existence. We identify four structural mechanisms and three information technology mechanisms for information processing in the SMI context. We also find that equivocality seems to trump uncertainty in determining the use of the identified SMI acquisition mechanisms. In addition to elaborating IPT in the SMI context and exploring the theoretical foundations of SMI, we offer practitioners a framework for supporting the design of SMI practices in procurement organisations.     

Innovation and public procurement: Terminology,concepts, and applications

The growing awareness of public procurement as an innovation policy tool has recently sparked the interest of both policy makers and researchers. While an increasing number of studies is being published every year, an overview of the field is missing. Researchers, practitioners, and policy makers are often using ambiguous wording and have not yet reached consensus on the terminology and concepts involved. This state of affairs leads to research fragmentation and lack of knowledge convergence. For the purpose of contributing to knowledge synthesis and consolidation, this article provides a structured review of the literature on innovation in public procurement. From categorizing publications based on innovation drivers, concepts, and research approaches, the emerging structure of the field is described and synthesized into a framework of innovation in public procurement. The proposed framework differentiates between literature streams on (1) innovations in the public procurement process, (2) innovation of public services by means of procurement, and (3) the use of public procurement as a tool for demand-side innovation policy-making. For each of these streams of literature, different focus areas as well as research gaps and opportunities for future research are identified. Based on analysis of existing research, the proposed framework provides an overview of state-of-the-art knowledge, a unified terminology, and a holistic understanding of innovation in public procurement. The framework is both a point of departure for future research and a source of knowledge for practitioners.     

Internet-of-things enabled supply chain planning and coordination with big data services: Certain theoretic implications

Recent advances in information technology have led to profound changes in global manufacturing. This study focuses on the theoretical and practical challenges and opportunities arising from the Internet of Things (IoT) as it enables new ways of supply-chain operations partially based on big-data analytics and changes in the nature of industries. We intend to reveal the acting principle of the IoT and its implications for big-data analytics on the supply chain operational performance, particularly with regard to dynamics of operational coordination and optimization for supply chains by leveraging big data obtained from smart connected products (SCPs), and the governance mechanism of big-data sharing. Building on literature closely related to our focal topic, we analyze and deduce the substantial influence of disruptive technologies and emerging business models including the IoT, big data analytics and SCPs on many aspects of supply chains, such as consumers value judgment, products development, resources allocation, operations optimization, revenue management and network governance. Furthermore, we propose several research directions and corresponding research schemes in the new situations. This study aims to promote future researches in the field of big data-driven supply chain management with the IoT, help firms improve data-driven operational decisions, and provide government a reference to advance and regulate the development of the IoT and big data industry.     

Exploring internal and external supply chain linkages: Evidence from the field

In their pursuit of improved operational performance, organizations in supply chains have sought to develop external information-based linkages with their customers and vendors. Has this course of action been at the expense of developing similar internal information-based linkages? This research explores the specific roles of internal and external information-based linkages in achieving improved operational performance. Based on a single case study that comprises a supply chain containing twenty-four internal and fourteen external linkages this research develops a series of propositions. We find that the individual internal linkages may be useful for extending externally derived visibility, and for addressing to some extent, “structural holes” in the supply chain. Additionally, to extend visibility across the entire supply chain, organizations need to recognize the combining role of internal and external information-based linkages. Finally we offer some thoughts for future research in this area.     

The Art and Science of Procurement: Revisiting Leonardo da Vinci: Editorial of the 2019 IPSERA Conference Special Issue

The IPSERA 2019 conference called for papers examining ‘the Art and Science of Procurement’ to explore the breadth of procurement research in a time of increasing focus on science and the scientific method. Taking a systems approach, a conceptual framework of procurement is presented as a multi-level field of study embracing art and science. Selected papers from the conference are summarised and positioned in the framework to explore how procurement research takes both art and science perspectives. This editorial concludes that, in the spirit of the IPSERA 2019 conference hosted in Milan on the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death, revisiting more eclectic, holistic thinking might benefit the field of procurement to encourage both art and science in future research.     

Managing supply chain resilience to pursue business and environmental strategies

Resilience has become a crucial topic in the field of strategic management as it requires companies to design resilient business models to tackle managerial and environmental disruptions of individual firms and supply chains. However, extant research still lacks deep insights into how companies design and manage supply chains according to the resilience principles. With this premise, this paper aims at conducting a state of the art review on supply chain resilience (SCR) considering 125 relevant papers collected from Scopus and Web of Science academic search engine. Starting from the results of the literature review, this study proposes a systemic framework of SCR assessment and contributes to improve the understanding of the impact of different empirically tested constructs on the development of the resilience concept. Further, the findings are summarized in several areas including barriers in developing resilience, metrics to measure the resilience performance, and effective strategies to foster the SCR. Finally, this study outlines promising future research directions for scholars and practitioners.     

Low power,high ambitions: New ventures developing their first supply chains

This paper investigates sourcing decisions for new ventures. Sourcing decisions are especially problematic for start-ups because they lack resources, knowledge and legitimacy to evaluate and interact with suppliers. We develop and apply a framework that connects global sourcing, relationship development and attractiveness. Further, we investigate how new ventures develop their first supply chains by conducting an exploratory multiple case study of six Norwegian start-ups. Based on our findings, we develop three propositions regarding how start-ups mediate their lack of attractiveness through pre-sales and by choosing shorter supply chains and smaller suppliers. The implications for practice include emphasizing the importance of developing a business relationship with the supplier in parallel with making sourcing decisions. This study is a novel contribution to an underexplored topic, and we conclude by proposing a research agenda for future explorations of start-ups and supply chain development.