Advancing purchasing organisations and processes : Current research discussions and their business impact
Abstract
Trends such as newly available data, higher degrees of supplier involvement, new work and digital technologies require transformative action in purchasing organisations and processes to further establish purchasing as an integrated business partner. Currently, Chief Purchasing Officers (CPOs) and supply managers face opportunities as well as challenges that have been unknown so far — at least to such an extent. They are often uncertain about the potentially disruptive impact of these developments on their daily business and require support also from the scientific community. Therefore, this paper consolidates current scientific discussions on purchasing trends and provides a first indication on how they support current problem sets of the purchasing practice. Do the two perspectives match or differ? Does the scholarly debate also cover current practical problems? The topics identified include traditionally established ones, such as new product involvement of suppliers and green supply management, as well as initial publications on customer-centricity and creative methods; however, there is an evident gap. Comprehensive answers and concrete solutions to questions around the impact of digitisation on purchasing are not yet provided by the scholarly debate, but the discussion of current trends becomes noticeable. Therefore, the scope of research should be further widened in order to generate applicable and relevant knowledge, thereby achieving business impact.
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Author's Biography
Anna Quitt received her Diploma in Business Administration at the EBS Business School in Oestrich-Winkel. She subsequently joined the EBS Supply Chain Management Institute as a research assistant and was also a visiting research fellow at Cranfield University. After receiving her doctoral degree, Anna worked as research director at the Strascheg Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at EBS. Before continuing her academic career, Anna worked as senior manager in advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Munich and Boston and was head of corporate development at the CHIRON Group. She is currently Professor for International Management with focus on supply chain management at the International School of Management (ISM) in Frankfurt, as well as head of campus, programme director for the MSc in international logistics and SCM and director of the Institute SCM@ISM.
Matthias Lederer holds a master’s degree in international information systems from the Universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Linz. During his PhD studies in strategic and IT-based process management, Matthias worked as a consultant in strategic development at the industrial company REHAU and as an external IT consultant in the Bavarian Ministry of Justice. As a university lecturer, Matthias has been working and researching at the ISM International School of Management Munich since 2017 in the field of business informatics in addition to his work as chief process officer in the IT Service Centre of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice. Matthias is the author of approximately 60 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Erich Groher studied mechanical engineering with a diploma in engineering at the Technical University of Munich, followed by a postgraduate degree in industrial engineering. After completing his doctorate on the topic of ‘Integration of Suppliers in the Product Development Process’, he worked as a divisional director for the consulting firm TCW with optimisation projects in logistics and purchasing, as project manager for integration modules and the Mini at the BMW Group and as head of international purchasing of WestLB. Since 2009, Erich has been the director of the Finance and Controlling division of Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank responsible for cost management and purchasing. Since October 2017 he has taught supply chain management and corporate management at the ISM Munich.
Citation
Quitt, Anna, Lederer, Matthias and Groher, Erich (2019, December 1). Advancing purchasing organisations and processes : Current research discussions and their business impact. In the Journal of Supply Chain Management, Logistics and Procurement, Volume 2, Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.69554/YCDC8803.
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