Purchasing performance evaluation: with data envelopment analysis

Because of supply chain management and other factors, purchasing's performance is considered an important element of corporate performance. Nonetheless, the measurement of purchasing performance, and comparing that performance to other purchasing departments has proven to be very difficult. These difficulties stem from the lack of valid measurement criteria and adequate methodologies to aggregate individual performance measures into a single index of overall performance. Many methodologies are unable to account for the relative importance of performance measures, which varies among firms.This paper examines the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which has demonstrated potential as a management tool to overcome the shortcomings of other techniques and to help purchasing executives improve the efficiency of their operations. A DEA model was developed to compare the purchasing efficiency of firms in the petroleum industry. The model introduces one more method by which managers can obtain information to assist in the decision making process.     

Environmental purchasing: a framework for theory development

This paper examines environmental research in the supply chain management literature in order to establish a framework for current and future development of environmental purchasing theory. As the purchasing function takes on a more strategic role in forming trading partnerships with others in their supply chains, it is in a critical position to influence responses to concerns about the natural environment. Definitions of environmental supply chain management and environmental purchasing are offered and the literature is reviewed. Linkages of environmental purchasing with transaction cost analysis are established and future research is described to enhance the study of purchasing's ability to effect the natural environment.     

An Empirical Study of Business-to-Business Electronic Marketplace Usage: The Impact of Buyers' E-Readiness

This study addresses critical questions regarding the extent of business-to-business electronic marketplace usage for purchasing, and the degree and impact of buyers' e-readiness on the range of electronic marketplace usage. The data from a Web-based survey of 359 purchasing professionals in the United States suggests that buyers with more experience in using information technology, the Internet to facilitate purchasing, and information systems for enhancing supply chain management would more likely use electronic marketplaces for purchasing. This study has significant theoretical implications because it confirms the important role of e-readiness in the electronic marketplace usage model. The practical implications of this study are also discussed.     

Purchasing Competence: A Stakeholder‐Based Framework for Chief Purchasing Officers

A specific research stream within the purchasing and supply management literature focuses on the development of purchasing competence frameworks. We apply stakeholder theory and multiple methods of data collection to develop and confirm a hierarchy‐specific purchasing competence management framework for Chief Purchasing Officers and validate it using confirmatory factor analysis on empirical data from 124 multinational companies. The results reveal a significant relationship between Chief Purchasing Officers purchasing management competence and different purchasing performance measures confirming the appropriateness of stakeholder theory for such a competence framework.     

采购战略管理如何提升国家与企业绩效

本文认为,采购管理是指需要采购的企业与供应商或供应市场之间的关系管理,对于企业和国家经济发展具有非常重要的作用,是国家和企业增强绩效的一种手段。加强采购管理,可以在企业与政府之间建立适当的合作模式,确保采购开支合理化,优化企业采购目标与金额,保证供货商提供最优质服务,提高市场分配决策过程的透明度,使客户与供应商在平等、公正的基础上进行合作,更好地表达企业或政府组织的需求及利益。文章提出,充分发挥采购职能,必须建立强有力的采购组织机构,提高采购部门级别;招聘专业的采购人员,提高采购人员的执行力;制定现代化和国际化的采购方法与流程;实施有效的采购战略等。     

基于供应链战略联盟的供应商管理

近几年来,随着供应链管理的不断发展,采购供应管理成为企业实现柔性化经营、有效应对市场的重要手段,在这一发展背景下,供应商作为供应链战略的重要参与者如何有效地加以管理,从而确立起及时、动态地与下游企业有效沟通的机制,真正实现供应链管理绩效,已成为当今供应链管理的重要课题。本文从理论和实证的角度分析了供应链战略联盟背景下,供应商的评价维度、细分管理的原则以及相应的规制形式,从而使企业真正确立起行之有效的战略供应链体系。     

Procurement commodity structures: issues,lessons and contributions

Little attention has been given in the literature on how to involve suppliers in technological development, especially from the purchasing organisation perspective. In researching how to involve the suppliers, we explore the purchasing structure, particularly the role-played by the “commodity managers”. The data for this exploratory study was collected through in-depth interviews and observations made in the case study Company (a global automotive OEM located in Europe) and two of its critical suppliers also located in Europe. The end result of this study is the development of a conceptual model for the organisation and management of purchasing projects in outsourced product development through commodity managers.     

The Coevolution of Relationship Dominant Logic and Supply Risk Mitigation Strategies

How and why do risk mitigation strategies evolve? And which resources are needed for engaging in such changes? This paper contributes to the understanding of risk management in supply chains by developing theory about the interplay between supply risk mitigation strategies and the purchasing team's relationship dominant logic (RDL), which we define as the purchasing team's orientation toward and shared cognitive map of the management of its supply chain relationships. Specifically, we propose that RDL and supply risk mitigation strategies are fundamentally intertwined. Following a Straussian approach to grounded theory, this study analyzes data generated from the purchasing teams of Western green‐tech firms trying to mitigate supply risk for technically indispensable rare earth metals from China. Our findings from this context that is heavily shaped by state‐influenced supply chain members show that the firms chose their mitigation strategies in line with their RDL. Human capital, social capital, and financial capital seem to moderate the link between RDL and mitigation strategies. We link our findings with the strategic management literature in deriving theoretical propositions concerning these relationships.     

基于供应链环境的采购管理策略研究

在供应链环境下,采购商与供应商之间的关系已经发生了深刻变化,双方之间开始形成合作共赢的关系。在供应链环境下,采购活动已转为以订单驱动方式进行,采购管理的重点转向了外部资源管理,并且促进了采购流程增值,库存管理方式也发生了重大改变。在供应链环境下,采购管理策略的制定应考虑价格等关键因素;要深刻认识采购方与供应商间的建立战略合作关系;库存管理应趋向精细化发展。从而更好地提高企业竞争力、降低总成本,实现采购方和供应商的双赢。     

A framework of supply chain management literature

Over the past decade, the traditional purchasing and logistics functions have evolved into a broader strategic approach to materials and distribution management known as supply chain management. This research reviews the literature base and development of supply chain management from two separate paths that eventually merged into the modern era of a holistic and strategic approach to operations, materials and logistics management. In addition, this article attempts to clearly describe supply chain management since the literature is replete with buzzwords that address elements or stages of this new management philosophy. This article also discusses various supply chain management strategies and the conditions conducive to supply chain management.     

Supply-chain corporate venturing through acquisition: Key management team retention

Acquisitions are often used as a way to engage in corporate venturing. The value of these ventures tends to reside in the knowledge and capabilities of the key management team members who have and maintain key inter-organizational relationships. Because their knowledge and/or relationships may be tacit and therefore difficult to transfer, retaining the key managers in the acquired organization is often a critical issue for the human resource management of the acquiring organization. They are also frequently thought to be critical elements in the future performance in global supply chains and therefore, should be a key concern of human resource management after the acquisition has been culminated. Using a unique dataset of corporate acquisitions in supply-chains, we examine how the development of the psychological contract elements affects retention of critical key global managers. We find that higher retention of the key management team members leads to higher performance after acquisition. We also find that the development of the psychological contract has a positive impact on the retention of key managers with global supply-chain relations.     

THE DOMAIN AND SCOPE OF SCM'S FOUNDATIONAL DISCIPLINES — INSIGHTS AND ISSUES TO ADVANCE RESEARCH

The authors examine and take stock of the changing nature and landscape surrounding supply chain management, and the related disciplines of purchasing, operations management, logistics and marketing channels of distribution. They identify, describe and synthesize the nature of research in those academic disciplines that are identified to be some of the objectives with respect to supply chain management's integration goals. Their examination highlights the considerable evolution and significant advances occurring within and among these disciplines. Additionally, they find this new landscape to provide both insights and issues for scholarship to those attempting to understand the evolving nature of supply chain management and its related fields. Such insights and issues suggest a number of proposals for progress with regard to SCM's future development.     

Modelling the Impact of Environmental and Organizational Determinants on Green Supply Chain Innovation and Performance

Both customers and suppliers are becoming increasingly concerned about environmental issues in modern food chains. A firm’s decision to implement green supply chain management is based on the social objectives of the firm and its management, its desire to pursue corporate social responsibility, its relationships with channel partners, and environmental determinants such as government legislation. The speed at which green supply chain management is implemented within an organization depends on its agility and its ability to facilitate innovation. Innovation may take the form of new product development or new process development, including the introduction of environmental management systems and total quality management in both production and purchasing. This article presents a conceptual model to explain how the various theoretical constructs are related and how innovation effects green supply chain management and performance.     

Critical elements of supplier development The buying-firm perspective

Supplier development is defined as any effort of a buying firm with its supplier to increase the performance and/or capabilities of the supplier and meet the buying firm's supply needs. From the buying firm's perspective, effective two-way communication, top management involvement, teams, and purchasing a relatively large percentage of the supplier's output are critical to the supplier development effort. This article (1) discusses the importance of supplier development, (2) reviews literature to identify potential critical elements of supplier development, and (3) reports the results of an analysis of survey data from US buying firms that explored these critical elements.     

Implementing reverse e-auctions: A learning process

Reverse e-auctions, which enable suppliers to compete on-line in real-time, are changing the way organizations select their suppliers. We explore how five large firms in different industries learned to use e-auctions, and how e-auctions were integrated into their purchasing processes. To successfully implement e-auctions, organizations should: (1) build e-auction competencies; (2) organize for knowledge management; (3) create a holistic sourcing process; (4) focus on the total cost of ownership; and (5) experiment with e-auction designs. Key observations are drawn from the case studies, and implications for supply managers are presented.     

Knowledge Management in Supply Chains: The Role of Explicit and Tacit Knowledge

We theorize, building on the knowledge‐based view and the theoretical distinction between explicit and tacit knowledge, that knowledge management capability across the supply chain manifests itself in explicit and tacit knowledge, which in turn effectuates supply chain performance. The model is tested with survey data from 195 small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises reporting on their primary supply chain. The results indicate that the supply chain's knowledge management capability manifests itself in both explicit and tacit knowledge, with the latter being influenced more strongly. Moreover, it was found that while both explicit and tacit knowledge influence supply chain performance, the latter exerts a significantly greater impact than the former. Exploratory post hoc analyses add robustness to these findings and investigate mechanisms inherent to the transformation of tacit into explicit knowledge. Overall, this research contributes to academic theory development in logistics and supply chain management by the dichotomization of knowledge types and the demonstration of their differential magnitude of effects, and to managerial practice by providing important guidance for logistics managers structuring their knowledge management efforts across supply chains.     

A Multinational Comparison of Key Ethical Issues, Helps and Challenges in the Purchasing and Supply Management Profession: The Key Implciations for Business and the Professions

This paper presents the findings of a study of purchasing and supply management professionals in India conducted to identify the key ethical issues they face in carrying out their work related responsibilities as well as to determine the extent to which various factors appear to be helpful or to present challenges to their efforts to act ethically in the course of their work. The Indian findings are then compared to those for studies conducted among purchasing and supply management professionals in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Key findings for the four studies are summarized and implications for business and the professions are presented.     

Innovation sourcing excellence: Three purchasing capabilities for success

Innovation sourcing has become more critical across many industries. As global value chains have become more fragmented, change and opportunity comes from all sides. As a result, companies need to excel at capturing innovation opportunities with existing and potential supply chain members. This article describes a simple framework with three essential innovation sourcing capabilities needed to excel in purchasing: (1) Purchasing needs to explore unmet needs and anticipate future competitive advantages by working closely with other functions and clients; (2) it needs to explore external opportunities beyond first-tier suppliers; and (3) it needs to involve suppliers in innovation projects that consistently deliver results over time. Our framework has been developed based on a combined qualitative and quantitative research methodology that takes into account practices and results at the purchasing and company levels. The framework will help C-level managers and purchasing teams benchmark their progress in innovation sourcing and understand what steps need to be taken to achieve excellence.     

Attitudes of students and accounting practitioners concerning the ethical acceptability of earnings management

There are many ways that accountants and managers can influence the reported accounting results of their organizational units. When such influence is directed at changing the amount of reported earnings, it is known as earnings management. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of surveys of undergraduate students, MBA students, and practicing accountants concerning their attitudes on the ethical acceptability of earnings management. Analysis of the survey results reveals how the attitudes of the three groups differ and what variables are associated with these differences. Based on the analysis, the authors suggest changes in accounting education curriculum and ethics awareness programs in business which might increase students' and practitioners' sensitivity to the ethical ramifications of earnings management.Marilyn Fischer, is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. She specializes in workplace ethics, particularly in the nonprofit sector, and has published articles in business ethics, and social and political philosophy.Kenneth Rosenzweig, is Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. He specializes in teaching management accounting, and has published articles in a wide variety of accounting areas.