Cooperative Purchasing Micro-Evolutions: A Longitudinal International Study

This paper deals with the evolution of relatively young purchasing groups. Although previous research focussed on macro-evolutionary phases of purchasing groups, no attention has yet been paid to the intra-phase developments, the so-called ‘micro-evolutions’. Insight into micro-evolutions is crucial to better understand how purchasing groups (can) develop over time. We conducted three in-depth case studies in different countries and identified five dimensions of micro-evolutions: member relationships, objectives, activities, organisation, and resources. For each dimension, we provide an overview of micro-evolutions to guide purchasing groups in developing the dimension. We conclude that the dimension ‘activities’ is very important and that purchasing groups do not have to develop the dimensions simultaneously

Auswirkungen von Schulungen auf den Reifegrad von Lebenszykluskostenwissen: Ein Beitrag zur Kostenkultur in der öffentlichen Beschaffung?

Bei öffentlichen Großprojekten kommt es systematisch zu Kostenüberschreitungen. Als mögliche Ursache wird in der Forschung u.a. eine "fehlende" Kostenkultur bei öffentlichen Auftraggebern mit ihrer regulierten Beschaffungsumgebung vermutet. Kostenkultur drückt die gemeinsamen Werte und Normen zum Kostenverständnis und -verhalten einer Organisation aus und prägt Organisationsmitglieder im Umgang mit knappen Ressourcen. Die Kostenkulturforschung bedient sich zahlreicher Operationalisierungsansätze, jedoch gibt es nur wenige Aussagen darüber, wie die Kostenkultur im Zeitverlauf verändert werden kann. Vorliegender Beitrag untersucht die Wirkung von Kostenschulungen auf ein verbessertes Lebenszykluskostenwissen. Dafür wird ein Reifegradmodell zum Lebenszykluskostenwissen entwickelt. Dieses Reifegradmodell erfasst zu Lehrgangsbeginn und -ende von Kostenschulungen die Einstellung der Schulungsteilnehmer zum Umgang mit Lebenszykluskosten in einer Organisation. Am Beispiel einer großen öffentlichen Beschaffungsorganisation lässt sich empirisch nachweisen, dass Kostenschulungen helfen, das Lebenszykluskostenwissen in Organisationen positiv zu beeinflussen. Kostenschulungen können zu einem höheren Reifegrad an Lebenszykluskostenwissen führen, aber nicht zwangsläufig zu einer ausgeprägteren Kostenkultur in einer hoch regulierten Beschaffungsumgebung.Cost overruns occur systematically in major public projects, presumably due to a "missing" cost culture in public procurement with its regulated environment. Cost culture expresses an organization’s shared values regarding cost understanding and behavior. Despite attempts to operationalize this concept, evidence on how cost culture can be changed in the long-term is limited. This paper investigates the impact of cost training on an improved lifecycle cost knowledge and develops a maturity model for life-cycle cost knowledge. This maturity model captures the participants' attitudes towards life-cycle costs within an organization at the beginning and at the end of a cost training. Using the example of a large German public procurement organization, empirical evidence supports the positive impact of cost training on life-cycle cost knowledge in the organization. Cost training can lead to a higher maturity level of life-cycle cost knowledge but not necessarily to a more pronounced cost culture in a highly regulated procurement environment

Economic Sustainability by Using Life Cycle Cost Information in the Buying Center: Insights from the Public Sector

Following the triple-bottom-line approach, sustainability comprises not only an ecologic and a social dimension but also an economic one. In that sense, economic sustainability (ES) tries to achieve a state in which present economic activities do not place a disproportionate burden on future economic activities. The time-related dimension of ES is of interest for this research, because procurement management makes use of life cycle cost (LCC), which is an instrument to measure long-term economic effects. LCC information could help to consider ES, but practice struggles to consider the information. This research addresses this issue and merges organizational information processing with organizational buying behavior theory. Empirically, it reports original insights into eight cases in the public sector. Decisions in the cases are usually made by councils (buying centers); as such, a group of people with different backgrounds must be informed with ES LCC information. The findings show ES LCC information requirements, capabilities, and fit, as well as information distribution and perception in buying centers. As such, the cases provide indications as to which decisions in the project are influenced by ES LCC information. Overall, the analysis integrates two theoretical perspectives and provides strong indications that LCC is a promising instrument to link decision making with a sustainability rational

Negative effects of opportunism across buyer‐supplier relationships

Opportunism is ubiquitous in B2B relationships. Consequently, scholars have repeatedly called for both more nuanced research on different forms of opportunism and empirical investigations that go beyond dyadic relationships. Surprisingly, however, only few studies follow these two calls in conjunction. By investigating information leakages as a specific form of opportunism as well as their effects in the wider B2B network, the present work aims at filling this research gap. Additionally, it outlines different approaches that researchers can follow to strengthen their methodologies when studying sensitive topics such as opportunistic behaviors, aiming at the mitigation of potential social desirability bias in empirical studies

Towards a social exchange theory perspective on preferred customership — concept and practice

In the situation of an increase of the role of suppliers, for instance in innovation processes and a scarcity of suppliers, buying firms find themselves in competition for the benevolence of suppliers. In this conference contribution, we introduce the concept of preferred customer status, i.e. a buyer is awarded preferential treatment by its key suppliers when compared to the supplier’s other customers. As there is a lack of knowledge of what motivates suppliers to treat certain buyers better than others, our research focuses on the suppliers’ evaluation of customers and how it can be influenced by buyers. Based on social exchange theory, we propose a conceptual model that contains customer attractiveness, supplier satisfaction and knowledge of alternative customers as factors influencing suppliers to award preferred customer status to a certain customer. Besides, based on a novel World-Café method, we show what practices CPOs and consultants experience to be important in increasing attractiveness of customers and satisfaction of suppliers. We conclude by suggesting future research directions in this field

Purchasing and supply management's identity: crisis? What crisis?

\u3cp\u3ePurchasing and Supply Management (PSM) has been subjected to a number of examinations, all concluding that PSM is not an academic discipline as it lacks its own theories and common themes of research. It is perceived by many as an applied social science and field of research applying theories from other disciplines. But, to date, these examinations have not revealed more definitively what PSM is, i.e., its identity. This Notes and Debates paper was stimulated by two focused meetings, a question panel at IPSERA 2019 and solicited views from IPSERA participants. These were synthesized and developed through grounding them in identity and social identity theories. They are provided to stimulate the debate on PSM's internal and external identity coherence and legitimacy.\u3c/p\u3