Preferred supplier programs for consulting services: An exploratory study of German client companies

Research has recently provided evidence that at least some companies have involved purchasing departments in buying professional services such as management consulting services. Some departments have established preferred supplier programs (PSPs) for consulting services, i.e., programs for consultancies with whom a company seeks to build up long-term relationships. While there are several studies that analyze such programs for suppliers of goods, research on business services is limited. Our aim is to present an exploratory analysis of PSPs for consulting services. Based on a survey of German client companies, we found that the most important reason for establishing PSPs is to reduce costs and transaction costs. Furthermore, our findings revealed that companies with and without PSPs for consulting services apply high significance to relational selection criteria. Moreover, in companies with PSPs, purchasing departments are more frequently involved in selecting consultancies compared to companies without PSPs. Finally, we found that companies with and without PSPs do not differ in their assessment of problems associated with the purchasing of consulting services. The study contributes to research on the purchasing of consulting services by indicating that the consultant–manager relationship should be extended to a service triad, involving purchasing professionals, managers, and consultants. Moreover, we contribute to research on PSPs by extending the focus to PSPs for knowledge-intensive service providers.     

How to leverage a bad inventory situation.

Small manufacturing companies have a hard time taking advantage of the price breaks that result from large purchase orders. Besides the greater amount of money involved, purchasing large quantities of items demands additional space for storing the items. This article describes a company that created separate inventory management and finance company to provide inventory management services to itself and to market these services to other small companies in its area.     

Research in business service purchasing: current status and directions for the future

Management Review Quarterly - This paper provides a systematic literature review and a future research agenda on the topic of purchasing of business services (BuSe). BuSe purchasing has...     

交易所年报问询能提升上市公司盈余质量吗？——基于深交所数据的实证分析

在上市公司公告年报后,交易所会组织专业人员对年报进行审核,并针对可能的疑问向上市公司发放年报问询函,要求公司回复并公开披露。基于这一制度背景,以深交所A股上市公司为研究对象,针对2014年至2017年间年报被问询的上市公司进行研究,发现在控制其他因素后,当年度年报被交易所问询的公司,其盈余管理程度更高、盈余质量更差,表明交易所在年报审核中是有的放矢的,关注到此类盈余质量更差的公司;同时发现,国有控股公司被问询的可能性低于非国有控股公司,表明交易所在年报问询中可能存在偏倚现象;进一步检验发现在年报被问询后,公司次年的盈余管理程度依然较高,盈余质量并未得到改善,年报问询这一非处罚性监管措施在改善盈余质量方面的监管效果有限。     

Purchasing in a supply chain environment

Why the interest in purchasing? In the typical company, material costs are 40% to 75% of the cost of goods sold, labor is 5% to 15%, and the balance is burden. The typical company has $4-$5 in purchased cost to $1 in labor. Most companies are implementing material requirements planning (MRP II) and enterprise resource planning systems to control the $1 in labor and have little expectation in the area of purchasing savings. Yet a dollar saved in purchasing goes directly to the bottom line. I ran a survey of 100 Class A users of MRP II; in all 100 of the companies, the biggest payback was in the area of purchasing.     

A processual analysis of the purchasing and supply organization in transition: the impact of offshoring

Many companies have resorted to offshoring in order to reduce costs and grow their global market presence. Yet it remains unclear what impact the offshoring strategy has on the purchasing and supply organization (PSO) of these companies. In this paper the nature and type of changes offshoring organizations make within the PSO are examined, i.e. how new purchasing and supply management (PSM) structures and practices emerge, are maintained or are discarded as production operations are relocated. The processual perspective is used to analyze empirical data from a rich, in-depth case study within a global engineering company. Results suggest that in line with the law of requisite variety the PSO changes thoroughly when the company relocates its production activities through the captive offshoring mode, but does so in a more disjointed and non-linear manner than the current stage models would suggest. The offshoring process provides momentum for PSO change and influences where and how the change happens. We present five propositions for further research and conclude that offshoring provides managers with opportunities to: (i) change and influence the strategic direction of PSM in their organizations, and (ii) build viable strategies of retaining and managing knowledge and PSM competencies in global operations.     

Managing Legitimacy in Business-Driven Social Change: The Role of Relational Work

This paper examines how companies manage their legitimacy in driving social change, drawing attention to how companies proactively negotiate their involvement with nonmarket actors. Building on the legitimacy-as-process perspective, I argue that companies construct the legitimacy of their involvement by engaging in relational work, that is, by investing efforts in shaping their relations with others and thereby redefining roles and responsibilities. To explore the role of relational work in business-driven social change, I present an inductive, interpretive study of a pharmaceutical company’s efforts to build a market for its products by improving diabetes care in Indonesia. Grounded in the empirical study, I develop a process model to explain how legitimacy is redefined from the bottom-up, that is, how a company’s involvement is re-negotiated in situ and crafted to attain the social approval of a wider audience. Advancing the micro-foundations of nonmarket strategy, the model offers new insights into how companies can organize with nonmarket actors and how they can effectively publicize their involvement as socially responsible. I also discuss the model’s implications for a more critical research agenda on the political responsibilities of companies in social change.     

Organizing IT purchases: Evidence from a global study

Information technology (IT) purchasing is covering an increasing part of companies’ expenditure. Scholars mainly investigated IT purchasing in terms of make or buy drivers from an IT perspective. Similarly, companies have been focusing on make or buy decisions and specifications definition in relation to technological characteristics. This often resulted in failures related to the goods/services purchased due to e.g. lack of negotiation skills, contracting, and suppliers’ relationship management. Accordingly, IT purchasing might require new structures and processes management.The purpose of the paper is to investigate what are the possible configurations for IT purchasing, and how these configurations are characterized in terms of purchasing process (i.e., strategic purchasing, sourcing and supply) and organization (i.e., roles involved, level of centralization, and span of control). Furthermore, the paper asks how IT relevance and purchasing maturity might affect these configurations. Through 12 case studies of leading international companies, four main configurations of the organization and the purchasing process for IT purchasing were identified, namely neutral (no specific approach is in place), IT oriented (the IT department takes the lead over the purchasing department), purchasing oriented (the purchasing department manages the whole IT sourcing process) and IT strategic (IT and purchasing departments jointly manage the IT purchasing process). The choice of the configuration is driven by IT strategic importance (low for neutral and purchasing oriented) and purchasing maturity of the company (low for neutral and IT oriented).     

问询函监管能激发公司利益相关者的治理吗?

问询函是交易所监管上市公司的重要手段.问询函除能起到直接监管作用外,能否激发公司利益相关者的监督从而产生间接治理作用?本文尝试从控股股东掏空视角对该问题进行解答.研究发现,问询函能激发公司外部利益相关者的监督,从而抑制控股股东掏空,但没有发现其激发公司内部利益相关者监督的证据.进一步研究表明,当两权分离度较大和公司信息...     

Managing the global supply base through purchasing portfolio management

‘How to source globally’ has become a critical strategic decision for companies competing on a global basis. Despite an increased focus on global sourcing and supply chain management, little is known about the challenges and solutions surrounding such sourcing practices. Extant literature points at the critical importance of developing and sharing knowledge in multinational companies (MNCs). However, little work has been undertaken to examine the organizational mechanisms used by MNC headquarters for knowledge leveraging across subsidiaries, especially in the area of purchasing and supply management. Based on an in-depth case study, focusing on a chemical company, the actual buying systems for managing the global supply base are explored. Kraljic's purchasing portfolio approach appears useful, both for developing effective purchasing strategies as well as for managing a global supply base.     

中小企业板运输仓储上市企业的财务风险评价

选取了深市中小企业板上市的13家运输仓储企业的2019年年度财务数据,采用主成分分析的方法对样本公司的财务风险进行了评价。研究结果表明:样本公司的财务风险整体较高,且不同样本公司间的财务风险差异较大;各样本公司在偿债能力、营运能力、盈利能力与发展能力四个方面均有所不同,且差异比较明显;财务风险等级为“低风险”的公司有3家,“一般风险”的公司有1家,“较高风险”的公司有8家,“高风险”的公司有1家。最后,基于上述研究结果,对上市公司的财务管理提出了相关建议。     

Boards of directors in SMEs: a review and research agenda

This paper aims at reviewing research and presenting a research agenda on boards of directors in SMEs. While most publications about boards in SMEs focus on the lack of research in the area, this paper presents some of the work that has been conducted. Publications on boards of directors during the 1990s in outlets for SME research are reviewed. Boards of directors in small and medium-sized companies are getting increased attention, but the knowledge about boards in such companies is still fragmented. This paper presents research challenges based on a holistic model of directorates in SMEs that is elaborated from previous research about directorates. The papers selected for this special issue on boards of directors in SMEs are presented in this framework.     

上市公司收购境内企业外资股权的财务绩效研究

以我国上市公司收购海外资本持有内地企业股权的案例为研究对象,采用因子分析法对并购的财务绩效进行分析,结果显示:从样本总体来看,上市公司收购海外资本所持内地企业的股权后财务绩效得到了明显的改善;企业性质、规模和行业类别不同的上市公司样本并购后的财务绩效表现差别很大。     

Designing business models in circular economy: A systematic literature review and research agenda

The concept of circular economy is increasingly receiving attention in different domains, including strategic management, operations management, and technology management. It requires companies to design their business model (i.e., the value network, the relationships with the supply chain partners, and the value propositions towards customers) around a new concept of sustainable development that reduces consumption of natural resources and preserves the environment. However, extant research falls short in terms of explaining how companies design their business model according to the circular economy principles. Starting from this premise, the present paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the design of business models in the context of circular economy, aiming to offer an overview of the state of research and outline a promising research agenda.     

从客货运的选择分析合资铁路社会责任与企业绩效关系

在分析2009年《铁道部统计公告》中铁路客运和货运量数据的基础上,结合利益相关者理论,运用文献综述、数据研究的方法,分析合资铁路公司将经营重点放于货运的原因和合资铁路公司社会责任与社会绩效的关系,得出在一定范围内合资铁路公司履行社会责任有利于公司绩效的增长,超出这个范围则不利于公司绩效的增长;经营客运有使企业绩效更快增长的潜力的结论。最后,结合当前合资铁路的现状,提出合资铁路公司要结合自身情况,从客运和货运2个方面履行社会责任的建议。     

Achieving purchasing competence through purchasing performance measurement system design—A multiple-case study analysis

Purchasing competence, the level of strategic integration and alignment, is a key determinant of the purchasing function's impact on overall corporate success. Previous research has revealed that the implementation of a mature purchasing performance measurement system (PPMS) can be a means to attain a high level of functional strategic integration. In this research, we develop five propositions on how PPMS should be designed to facilitate strategic integration. We challenge these propositions using data gathered from four case studies with German companies from different industrial sectors. While each of these companies pursues multiple strategic objectives within Purchasing, the PPMSs designs focus heavily on cost-related strategy and performance dimensions. Thus, our findings indicate the need to develop PPMS schemes allowing a direct linkage between financial performance and non-financial performance measures in order to incentivize the desired multiple strategic goals beyond periodical cost reduction. Moreover, such measurement systems need to be adapted at the category level of purchasing practices to obtain the desired level of pre-defined strategic performance dimensions. Hence, the level of purchasing competence is determined at category level and a PPMS must transform strategy into measurable goals at this level.     

质量——企业利润之源

企业要生存就要不断创造利润,顾客是企业利润的提供者。本文从质量的含义、质量——市场竞争的焦点、质量——突破国际贸易技术壁垒的利器等方面论述了质量对于利润的重要性,从战略的层面、营销的层面、设计的层面、采购的层面、生产的层面和顾客服务的层面探讨了企业通过质量来获取利润的有效途径。     

强制分红政策与公司代理成本:博弈模型与DID检验

不同于公司自觉的现金分红行为，强制分红政策在矫正公司分红行为的同时，会激起高管的消极抵制，所以它能否有效降低公司代理成本，尚难预料。为此，建立了一个混合策略完全信息静态博弈，说明了强制分红政策影响代理成本的作用机制，并将2011年出台的强制分红政策视为一个准自然实验，实证检验强制分红政策能否降低上市公司的代理成本。实证研究发现，强制分红政策能够显著抑制企业的代理成本。异质性检验结果表明，相对于中小板和微股利的上市公司而言，强制分红政策可以更加显著地降低那些主板上市公司和正常发放股利的公司的代理成本。研究结果不仅支持了股利代理成本理论，而且为进一步完善公司股利政策和保护中小股东权益提供了经验证据。     

从客货运的选择分析合资铁路社会责任与企业绩效关系

在分析2009年《铁道部统计公告》中铁路客运和货运量数据的基础上,结合利益相关者理论,运用文献综述、数据研究的方法,分析合资铁路公司将经营重点放于货运的原因和合资铁路公司社会责任与社会绩效的关系,得出在一定范围内合资铁路公司履行社会责任有利于公司绩效的增长,超出这个范围则不利于公司绩效的增长;经营客运有使企业绩效更快增长的潜力的结论。最后,结合当前合资铁路的现状,提出合资铁路公司要结合自身情况,从客运和货运2个方面履行社会责任的建议。     

上市公司高管薪酬的激励效果及影响因素研究

作为一种重要的激励方式,高管薪酬通过促进其管理能力的发挥,进而影响企业业绩。但实证研究表明,我国上市公司高管薪酬水平与企业业绩不相关,上市公司的薪酬激励效果有限,需要进一步完善。影响上市公司高管薪酬水平的主要因素有:公司规模、第一大股东比例、国有股比例、流通股比例、董事会规模、总经理权限和公司所处的经济地理位置。