Total cost of ownership as a tool for inter-firm cost management: a case in the Belgian utilities industry.

In today's environment, communicating what your products and services are worth to customers' business has never been more important. Customers increasingly look at purchasing as a way to increase profits and to reduce costs. To persuade customers to focus on the total costs rather than simply on acquisition price, a supplier must have an accurate understanding of what his customers value. In this case study, we demonstrate how a utility supplier performed a Total Cost of Ownership analysis for one of his customers. The case study offers insights in how an inter-firm Total Cost of Ownership analysis can be beneficial to the buyer as well as to the supplier by optimising and better coordinating the performance of operations across the value chain and by facilitating further initiatives to intensify the buyer-supplier relationship.Product; Purchasing; Costs; Cost; Value; Case studies; Studies; Utilities; Performance; Management; Industry;

Imitation of Management Practices in Supply Networks: Relational and Environmental Effects

This study investigates the imitative use of management practices across a multitier supply network. Although imitation may take the form of any management practice, operationally, we focus on whether the buyer’s control practices used with first-tier suppliers results in similar control practices being used by these first-tier suppliers with the second-tier suppliers. Drawing on institutional theory, we identify relational context (i.e., affective commitment) and environmental context (i.e., environmental uncertainty) as two important factors influencing the extent to which such imitation takes place. Using unique survey data of vertically linked supply chain triads, we generally find support for the occurrence of imitation and more so in cases of high affective commitment. The results regarding environmental uncertainty further reveal selectivity in imitative behavior, calling attention to the level of deliberateness in imitation decisions in supply networks. Besides contributing to theory on imitative behaviors in the supply chain, this study also generates practical implications on the spread of management practices across multiple tiers

Total cost of ownership as a tool for inter-firm cost management: a case in the Belgian utilities industry

In today's environment, communicating what your products and services are worth to customers' business has never been more important. Customers increasingly look at purchasing as a way to increase profits and to reduce costs. To persuade customers to focus on the total costs rather than simply on acquisition price, a supplier must have an accurate understanding of what his customers value. In this case study, we demonstrate how a utility supplier performed a Total Cost of Ownership analysis for one of his customers. The case study offers insights in how an inter-firm Total Cost of Ownership analysis can be beneficial to the buyer as well as to the supplier by optimising and better coordinating the performance of operations across the value chain and by facilitating further initiatives to intensify the buyer-supplier relationship.status: publishe