Exploring early purchasing involvement in discontinuous innovation: A dynamic capability perspective

This paper aims to address the gap concerning our knowledge about early purchasing's involvement (EPI) in new product development (NPD) projects in contexts characterized by discontinuous innovation. We adopt a dynamic capability perspective to explore how existing sourcing and supplier relationship management capabilities are adapted when purchasing agents become involved in discontinuous innovations projects. We use an embedded case-study approach to study four NPD projects in a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) company. The case studies are based on interviews with managers and staff from the research and development, purchasing, and marketing departments, as well as suppliers involved in the projects. Our empirical findings capture emerging purchasing practices including a “reversed” sourcing process, purchasing-marketing interaction, and the coordination of “a learning atmosphere” between the R&D department and suppliers through proactive innovation meetings and creativity workshops. We derive propositions to conduct further research into the role of the purchasing department in times of discontinuous innovation. We also provide a framework of sourcing and supplier-relationship practices that firms can use when embarking on discontinuous innovation.     

知识共享对企业技术创新能力的影响分析

知识共享是知识管理的核心，企业通过知识共享，运用集体的智慧提高其应变能力和创新能力。但由于企业内外部环境的日益复杂以及知识共享过程中出现的各种不确定因素，从而阻碍了企业技术创新能力的发挥。本文分析了知识共享中态度、主观规范、自我效能对企业技术创新能力的影响。对这个问题的研究，能有效地帮助企业提升企业技术创新能力、构建技术创新能力体系。     

Managing tensions between exploitative and exploratory innovation through purchasing function ambidexterity

This paper investigates how companies can manage tensions between exploitative and exploratory innovation by developing an ambidextrous purchasing function. We identify four types of ambidexterity (structural, sequential, contextual and managerial) and discuss how these can be combined to complement each other. We present an in-depth case study of a large firm (S Corp), which has implemented an ambidextrous purchasing function to contribute simultaneously to exploitative and exploratory innovation. We observe how the four types of ambidexterity were manifested and applied to balance purchasing's contribution to both exploratory and exploitative innovations. The case study shows how the different types of ambidexterity can be combined to mitigate tensions. Based on our case study findings, we identify a two-stage process of developing purchasing ambidexterity, combining the four types of ambidexterity over time. Our findings enrich the understanding of how companies can develop an ambidextrous purchasing function to facilitate purchasing's contribution to exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation.     

The linkage of HRM and knowledge-related performance in China's technology-intensive industries

This study examines the commitment-based and knowledge-based HR types to fully understand the role of HRM in China's technology-intensive industries. The relationships between the knowledge-based HR and commitment-based HR on firm performance were examined by using 156 firms in China's high technology industry in the Pearl River Delta area. The effects of innovation capability and workforce retention between HR and performance were also explored. The firm's innovation capability has been found to be an important determinant of firm performance. Retention has no significant impact on performance outcomes. HR plays a more important role in the growth stage of organizational life cycle. Implications for research and managerial practices are provided.     

创业团队成员信任对社会网络与企业创新能力关系的影响

本文通过对吉林省112家有效样本企业进行调查,将社会网络细分为内部社会网络和外部社会网络,在创业团队的定义下检验了社会网络与信任对新创企业创新能力的影响。研究结果表明,内外部社会网络都会对企业创新能力产生积极影响,而团队成员之间的信任则作为调节变量影响两者之间的关系。创业团队成员之间的信任越高,越有利于知识、信息的传播与交流,内部社会网络对企业创新能力的积极影响越大;但却易产生"非我发明症"现象,导致外部社会网络对企业创新能力的积极影响越小。     

Purchasing orchestration practices – Introducing a purchasing-innovation framework

This research investigates the purchasing role in enhancing an organization's innovation performance. Taking a purchasing perspective, this research introduces a new purchasing-innovation framework and specific purchasing orchestration (PO) practices related to the acquisition, integration, re-configuration, and commercialization of critical resources to enhance innovation performance. A theory elaboration methodology is applied to broaden the scope of resource orchestration theory (ROT) and introduce PO practices as an essential enabler of innovation. Qualitative interviews with managers from different industries enrich the theory elaboration process. This research contributes to theory by developing the concept of PO and enhancing the theoretical understanding of its meaning. Based on theory and empirical data, this research elucidates the PO practices of resource structuring, bundling, and leveraging support. The purchasing innovation framework explains how open-mindedness and technological uncertainty influence purchasing orchestration practices and innovation performance. Purchasing managers benefit from this research by learning to identify and address potential PO capability gaps and take a holistic perspective on resource management, looking both upstream and downstream in the supply chain.     

Drivers of green supply management performance: Evidence from Germany

Five potential drivers of green supply management performance were identified in the literature review: green supply management capabilities, the strategic level of the purchasing department, the level of environmental commitment, the degree of green supplier assessment, and the degree of green collaboration with suppliers. These constructs were used to form a structural model explaining the environmental performance and the purchasing performance. The model was analysed with SmartPLS 2.0 using data collected among German purchasers. The results suggest that the degree of green supplier assessment and the level of green collaboration exert direct influence on environmental performance. These two practices are driven by the strategic level of the purchasing department and the level of environmental commitment of the firm. Whereas commitment influences green assessment directly, the impact of commitment on green collaboration is mediated by the capabilities of the purchasing department. Furthermore, the results show that environmental performance has a positive impact on purchasing performance.     

Managerial hedging ability and firm risk

Modern portfolio theory suggests that undiversified executives would choose to diversify their significant holdings of their firm??s stock if the opportunity was available. Recent work suggests that managerial hedging is more prevalent than in years past as more innovative hedging instruments have become available to executives. Typically, unrestricted shares are used in these hedging transactions whereas restricted shares are not. In this paper, I examine whether a CEO??s composition of firm stockholdings between restricted and unrestricted shares impacts the level of risk undertaken by the firm. I document a negative and statistically significant relationship between firm risk and the proportion of CEO total shareholdings that are unrestricted and this negative relationship holds for alternative measures of firm risk. This result supports the notion that the composition of a CEO??s portfolio of firm stock between restricted and unrestricted shares is a significant determinant of firm risk.     

Studying purchasing specialization in organizations: a multi-agent simulation approach

This paper reports on a series of multi-agent-based simulation experiments. The purpose of these experiments is to investigate how factors like task-complexity, availability of skills and corporate policies determine the degree to which a firm may benefit from a specific, dedicated purchasing department. Particular attention is paid to the purchasing of non-product-related items and services. Among the factors investigated are: corporate purchasing policies, available information, capacity of organizational members and the nature of the various purchasing activities. Preliminary results suggest that most of these factors impact on the degree of involvement of a purchasing department as well as the quality of the purchasing activities carried out. The results show the limits of Purchasing's added value and the importance of organizational learning in that respect.     

External corporate venturing modes as new way to develop dynamic capabilities

Today, firms encounter scarce resources and rapid technology change which render formerly successful business models obsolete. Research shows that some firms perform better than others in continuously discovering, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities in volatile environments and that this is dependent on firm’s dynamic capabilities. Besides obtaining dynamic capabilities through internal R&D activities, firms have open up their innovation process to pursue dynamic capabilities outside their organizational boundaries through external corporate venturing by accessing startup's technological capabilities necessary to innovate. External corporate venturing is a means to develop new distinctive capabilities and businesses by exploring and exploiting business opportunities outside a firm’s existing boundaries. Drawing on the dynamic capability literature, we use a multiple case study approach to examine the contribution of external corporate venturing to firms’ dynamic capabilities. Our results reveal that firms indeed use corporate venturing to identify and exploit startup’s technological knowledge and competencies to increase firm’s dynamic capabilities. But our empirical data also shows that not every firm is fully profiting from all dynamic capability phases as their corporate venturing modes are not linked with each other and cumulative effects are not realized.     

Linking green purchasing capabilities to environmental and economic performance: The moderating role of firm size

This study identifies firms’ green purchasing capabilities, classified into operational capabilities and dynamic capabilities, and measures their effects on the environmental and economic performance of a firm. We developed instruments to measure operational green purchasing capabilities and dynamic green purchasing capabilities. This study also investigates the moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between green purchasing capabilities and firm performance. The structural equation model (SEM) is used to analyse 239 responses from Japanese manufacturing companies. The results indicate that their green purchasing capabilities positively affect environmental and economic performance. Operational capabilities and dynamic capabilities have different levels of effects on green purchasing performance. A further analysis of the moderating effect of firm size shows that the high economic performance of green purchasing relies on the level of dynamic capabilities rather than firm size.     

知识共享与企业技术创新能力分析

当今知识己经成为企业生存和发展的战略性资源,企业的知识水平、技术创新能力成为企业竞争的核心。为了赢得竞争地位,企业需要对各种知识进行有效的管理和利用。企业知识管理的核心是知识共享,因为通过知识共享可构造企业的知识优势。本文分析了企业知识积累和更新、知识共享过程以及智力资本与企业技术创新能力的提升问题。对这个问题的研究,能帮助我们更深刻地认识企业技术创新能力的知识特性,从而为今后从知识角度提升企业技术创新能力、构建技术创新能力体系打好根基。     

Are innovation and R&D the only sources of firms’ knowledge that increase productivity? An empirical investigation of French manufacturing firms

The economic literature presents knowledge accumulation as one of the most important characteristics of innovation. The accumulation of knowledge arises from complex and dynamic interactions between a firm??s own internal capacity and external expertise. Research and development (R&D) remains important in the innovation process, but it must be integrated with knowledge from other sources, such as training and knowledge capitalization. This paper investigates the relationship between such knowledge sources and the productivity of French firms. Using asymptotic least squares, a Cobb-Douglas function including R&D, innovation, training expenditure and ISO 9000 certification is estimated for 1,213 French manufacturing firms. Our results show that innovation, training and ISO 9000 certification have a positive and significant impact on firms?? productivity.     

创新型企业的组织结构设计研究

成功的创新需要合适的组织结构的支撑,而当前的企业组织结构存在阻碍创新的弊端。创新型企业要求的组织结构应具有分权化和开放系统性特征,二元组织(Ambidextrous Organization)思想和生存系统模型(Viable Systems Model,VSM)为创新型企业的组织设计提供了新的思路。创新型企业应进行组织结构的重设,分别设立日常事务部和创新业务部,并将创新业务部分为创新业务经理、信息部、协调部、控制部和操作部,为提高创新型企业的自主创新能力提供组织保障。     

Innovation,agile project management and firm performance in a public sector-dominated economy: Empirical evidence from high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises in China

While agile project management has become increasingly important for high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), firm performance varies greatly due to companies’ different degrees of innovation capability and internal and external environmental dynamics. Drawing on the resource-based view – as well as innovation capability and agile project management theories – a comparative analysis was conducted of two high-tech SMEs. The results were used to develop a theoretical model based on six hypotheses. Empirical research was carried out that included measurement of key variables, data collection and analysis, validity and reliability tests, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling, which confirmed five of the six initial hypotheses. The proposed model incorporates different innovation capability roles, considers project agility enhancement of firm performance, and takes into account interactions between companies’ innovation atmosphere and environmental dynamics in a public sector-dominated economy (i.e., China). The results contribute to project agility management’s theoretical development and refinement by presenting new findings on innovation and environmental dynamics. The results also provide guidelines for project agility practices in high-tech SMEs in China, with the potential to improve these firms’ performance. Implications and limitations are also discussed.     

A contingency-configurational view of purchasing operations: The mediating role between supplier relationship and firm performance

The literature has considered purchasing and supply management activities from a strategic perspective, but the tactical role of purchasing operations has yet to be explored. Purchasing operations represent the internal modus operandi for transactions with suppliers, comprising three main activities – purchasing transactions, purchasing document management, and purchasing assessment – and supportive activities like purchasing knowledge management. Following the contingency theory, we hypothesize that these internal activities mediate between external supplier relationship management and firm performance (financial, customer and delivery performance). Complementarily, we adopt the configurational theory to hypothesize that this link between external and internal activities can be combined to increase firm performance. To test this contingency-configurational view of purchasing operations, we conducted a quantitative survey with 234 companies. The regression results of the contingency analysis show that purchasing operations activities have a full mediation role in most relationships between supplier relationship management and firm performance, while knowledge management positively moderates the association between purchasing assessment and customer performance. Moreover, the cluster analysis for the configurational analysis shows that supplier relationship management and purchasing operations follow maturity levels of joint implementation of internal and external activities. Our findings shed light on the purchasing operations by defining the activities representing this concept and showing their role in supply management. We also contribute to practice by proposing an integrative system that helps managers organize the firm's purchasing and supply management activities.     

The purchasing department's leadership role in developing and maintaining a preferred customer status

Developing and maintaining a preferred customer status is one of the main objectives of organizations that want to obtain a better access to supplier's information, resources, and innovation. This paper addresses the extent and the nature of the purchasing department's leadership role in the process of developing and maintaining a preferred customer status. A qualitative exploratory approach based on eleven cases has been used in order to take into consideration the context specific to the buyer-supplier relationship in a preferred customer scenario.Our study shows that the purchasing department performs four main categories of roles: (1) identifies and selects the best supplier, (2) structures and segments the supply base, (3) builds close relationships with selected suppliers and (4) develops working relationships, using an effective communication. Each of these roles is related to three key components of the purchasing department's capabilities: boundary, relational, and coordination. These four categories of roles illustrate supply's ability to recognize and understand the specifics of the preferred customer situation. Based on our analysis, the purchasing department should be viewed as extending an organization's resource base, making the organization more competitive.Our analysis also shows that the purchasing managers' leadership is critical for the development and the coordination of activities with selected suppliers, as well as proper communication with them. Specifically, the purchasing manager's transformational leadership generates more internal user and supplier involvement through the creation and articulation of a common vision, by establishing shared goals with other organizational units, and by focusing on activities that benefit the organization; this allows to move from initiative-driven efforts to an “institutionalized preferred customer status management” in the organization.     

Organizational structure characteristics’ influences on international purchasing performance in different purchasing locations

This study contributes to the understanding of how firms should structure their purchasing organization to improve their performance. While the research into structural characteristics’ impacts on purchasing performance is evolving, it is still incomplete, especially concerning the contingencies on different purchasing environments. Drawing on ideas from the organizational information processing and contingency approaches as well as the international business literature, the present study proposes a model in which three key organizational structure characteristics – centralization, standardization, and specialization – are associated with purchasing performance. This study posits that the relationships are contingent on a purchasing location’s formal and informal institutional context. Based on a sample of 195 German manufacturers, the model is empirically tested using structural equation modeling. The findings support the relevance of organizational structure characteristics for international purchasing and firm performance and they also support the notion that the effects are contingent on the purchasing location’s institutional context.     

Editorial: Purchasing and innovation: Past,present and future of the field of research

This paper introduces the special topic forum (STF) on purchasing and innovation. Presenting the findings from a systematic literature review, we take stock of the current state of the field, delineating themes, theories and methods, and identifying key trends over time. Our study shows a take-off in research on purchasing and innovation during the last decade. This has predominantly focused on private sector manufacturing firms although a recent expansion into public sector research is evident. Large-scale surveys and case studies are still the dominant research methods where the unit of analysis is typically the ‘firm’ or ‘project’. The findings also show how in the past the field was driven by questions on how purchasing can facilitate different types of innovation projects, seeking to derive practical implications, and rarely making explicit statements regarding theories applied; this still characterises much of the research but we find an increasing focus on theory development. We also see a shift in the type of technological innovation being investigated: past studies tended to focus on the role of purchasing in new product development (NPD) projects, which reflected a relatively low degree of technological uncertainty, but we see a trend towards innovation projects facing technological uncertainty. Research shows how this requires new ways of sourcing innovations and therefore new ways for purchasing to facilitate innovation sourcing. On the basis of the review, we offer our guidance for future research avenues to 1) carry out more research on procurement of innovation in the public sector; 2) consider new theories and research methods, and 3) go beyond firm-level or dyadic analysis to research networks and ecosystems. We conclude by introducing the papers in the STF.     

Navigating the socio-technical impacts of purchasing digitalisation: A multiple-case study

The wave of digitalisation is impacting companies at multiple levels. Beside the most researched impacts on manufacturing, also other business functions are subjected to the change. Among them, purchasing is expected to greatly benefit from digitalisation, if properly managed. This research analyses the digitalisation of the purchasing process, in terms of how and why it happens, and the co-evolution which is triggered on the social dimension. A multiple-case study approach is adopted, analysing eight companies from industries characterized by different digital intensity levels but all at a relatively advanced stage of digitalisation of the purchasing department. The results show how different technological innovation approaches (i.e., automation and/or augmentation) impact the evolution of the purchasing department's social dimension in terms of autonomy, job enlargement, competences, internal and external collaboration. A new framework describing how automation and augmentation impact on purchasing social dimension, as well as purchasing efficiency and effectiveness, is proposed as main theoretical contribution. The study combines the socio-technical systems perspective with the automation-augmentation paradox and describe the strong relationship between purchasing departments' social and technical dimensions, offering managers insights on handling a purchasing digitalisation process, simultaneously managing the technical and social dimensions impacted along the process.