Industry 4.0 and how purchasing can progress and benefit from the fourth industrial revolution

Since its’ announcement in 2011, the number of scientific publications on Industry 4.0 is growing exponentially. Significant investments by industrial firms, at present and planned for the coming years, indicate the expectations by the industry in terms of increased productivity because of the fourth industrial revolution. However, the link between purchasing and Industry 4.0 is largely lacking in scientific literature, despite the high financial impact of procurement for organizations. The fourth industrial revolution – cyber-physical systems with autonomous machine-to-machine communication – could enable several possibilities for purchasing. On the one hand support systems for purchasers are conceived, such as contract analysis software. On the other hand, the scenario of digital negotiations emerges, which could revitalize e- marketplaces. Operative processes can act autonomously, with automated demand identification in cyber-physical systems. In order to support the development of I4.0 strategies in purchasing, this paper further contributes by presenting the result of a project on developing a specific purchasing I4.0 maturity model

Managing Buyer‐Supplier Conflicts: The Effect of Buyer Openness And Directness On A Supplier's Willingness to Adapt

Conflict has received much attention in the supply chain management literature, as it appears to be an inevitable aspect of buyer–supplier relationships. While previous studies mainly focused on preventing or mitigating conflict, this study examines the micro‐processes of buyer–supplier conflicts and the mechanisms that facilitate functional conflict processes. Specifically, we examine how a buyer’s conflict expression in the way disagreements are conveyed influences a supplier’s willingness to adapt its internal processes in favor of the buyer. By means of a multi‐method, sequential research design, combining insights from a case study and a scenario‐based experiment, we found that expressions of entrenchment by the buyer negatively affect supplier adaptation. In addition, a buyer that is direct, while at the same time expressing openness to the supplier’s position, is shown to positively influence supplier adaptation. We also demonstrate the mediating effects of the supplier’s emotions in these relationships. Our findings contribute to the supply chain literature by demonstrating the relevance of conflict expression in enabling adaptive processes. In addition, our insights into the interplay between different expression dimensions extend conflict expression theory

Likeability and its effect on outcomes of interpersonal interaction

Interpersonal interactions between boundary spanning individuals have a fundamental role in how interorganizational interactions develop. This study examines interpersonal interaction and the effects of likeability on two attributes that are central to many organizations: commodity prices as negotiation outcomes and a partner's willingness to engage in collaboration. Specifically, we aim to answer: how does interpersonal likeability impact negotiation outcomes in terms of commodity prices and how does it affect a partner's willingness to engage in collaboration? Based on social exchange theory we draw hypotheses that are tested using data gathered from experiments with 220 participants. The findings indicate that likeability significantly influences a partner's willingness to engage in collaboration but does not significantly influence negotiation profits. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed

Identifying innovative suppliers in business networks: An empirical study

In the literature, considerable attention has been given to the role of supplying firms in the context of innovation. However, not every supplier is capable of contributing to a buyer's innovation performance. In addition, the willingness and commitment of suppliers to collaborate with buyers is not always apparent. Thus far, the literature has not given a conclusive description of the nature of innovative suppliers due to a lack of empirical evidence. In this study, we seek to identify a set of characteristics that can identify those suppliers that can make significant contributions to a buyer–supplier collaboration. Our statistical analysis of survey data shows that a supplier's technical characteristics and collaborative attitude, and the buyer–supplier relational characteristics on buyer–supplier relationships explain an important part of a supplier's contribution to buyer innovation. At a theoretical level, the findings of this study explain why some suppliers contribute more effectively than others to buyer–supplier innovations. At a practical level, the findings provide managers with a more complete picture of those suppliers with the highest expected innovation contribution in their network

The Interplay Between Supplier-Specific Investments and Supplier Dependence: Do Two Pluses Make a Minus?

Supplier resources are critical to the success of downstream firms. The relational view and resource dependence theory predict how supplier-specific investments and supplier dependence make the supplier more willing to allocate its best resources to the focal buyer relative to other buyers. However, these theories are ambiguous regarding the interplay between these two constructs. Specifically, the combination could either create relational synergies that benefit the focal buyer or create a situation in which the supplier reconsiders its resource allocation decisions and potentially allocates its resources to the accounts of other buyers. We investigated these competing views by building on two independent dyadic datasets. We found positive effects for both a buyer's supplier-specific investments and supplier dependence on supplier resource allocation, which is measured as the supplier's allocation of physical and innovation resources to the focal buyer relative to competing buyers. However, we also found evidence that supplier dependence negatively moderates the effect of supplier-specific investments on supplier resource allocation. Hence, the effect of supplier-specific investments weakens when the supplier is dependent on the buyer's business volume. These findings make an important empirical contribution to the literature by clarifying the dual workings of supplier-specific investments and supplier dependence as mechanisms to influence supplier resource allocation. We discuss several implications for the buyer-supplier relationship literature and the broader management literature