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Journal of purchasing and supply management
Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 21 (2015) 153–154
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pursup
Editorial
Journal of purchasing and supply management
Introduction This guest editorial reflects on the 23rd annual IPSERA (2014) conference hosted in South Africa by the Department of Business Management in the School of Management Sciences, at the University of South Africa (Unisa), and introduces specially selected papers from this conference. The overall conference theme was ‘Purchasing and Supply Management in difficult times: the sky is the limit’ as the expected improvement of economic conditions since the major global financial crisis in 2007–2008, seemingly did not materialise. Since we believe that there is a major contribution that the inbound supply chain can make to value creation, the idea was to stimulate innovative thinking in research and education. This aim was reflected in the variety of papers that were received.
The conference: purchasing and supply management in difficult times: the sky is the limit Like for the past 23 years, the annual IPSERA conference is a focal point for the exchange of the latest research findings, but during the 2014 conference networking and social interaction took place under the African sky in the bush! 205 Academics and practitioners attended the 2014 Conference from 23 different countries and once again, the conference reflected the international reach of IPSERA. although many of the distinguished professors, which we are privileged to have as leaders in our subject, attended the conference, it was positive also to see how many younger academics and practitioners have started attending the conference, which brings a new welcome dynamic in the association and assures the sustainability of IPSERA. Davide Luzzini took the chair and the leadership at our highly regarded Ph.D. workshop, assisted by the faithful and experienced discussants. In 2014 we also saw a renewed focus on the education part of our mandate when Donna Marshall and Steve Kelly organised the first Educators' Conference that took place simultaneously with the Ph.D. workshop. The papers delivered by the different speakers opened up lively debate and innovative ideas. Thirty five people attended this lively conference workshop. The Conference was opened by the outgoing IPSERA President, Veli-Matti Virolainen, Vice-Rector of Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. His welcome address was followed by a keynote address by Prof. Baijnath, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of South Africa, titled ‘Purchasing and Supply leadership: Lessons learned from the University of South Africa’. He highlighted the role of public institutions to execute supply chain http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2015.05.003 1478-4092/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
management activities in a manner that adheres to and supports the government's objectives for growth, development and the equitable redistribution of wealth in South Africa. Another address was presented by Mr. Kevin Brown, Chief Procurement Officer of National Treasury, in which he highlighted public sector procurement problems in South Africa. He particularly highlighted the consequences of unskilled and uneducated public procurement staff. The last keynote address was presented by David Berdish, former Manager, Social Sustainability, Ford Motor Company (USA) titled ‘Emerging processes of sustainable supply chain management and business integration’. He highlighted the role of global supply chains operating in less developed counties to ensure social justice. The underlying theme of all three key note addresses was that purchasing and supply chains can and must make a difference in the less developed countries and skilled human resources are a necessity. Prof. Michiel Leenders chaired a lively panel discussion on a perceived diminishing importance of purchasing and supply titled ‘Country specific feedback regarding the current state of supply with respect of academia and practise’. We were fortunate to have received outstanding academic papers. 110 papers were received of which 52 working papers and 44 competitive papers had been approved and presented.
The selected papers included in the special issue All competitive papers were subjected to a double-blind review process so that even before being short-listed for this special issue of the Journal, these papers had already been thoroughly reviewed according to the standard JPSM review criteria. 15 of the 44 competitive papers were shortlisted for this special issue of the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management; as usual, the short-listing was based on the results of the conference paper reviews, where reviewers scored papers and also indicated if they thought the paper might be suitable for the special issue. 11 papers were actually submitted and were again distributed for doubleblind reviews, to new reviewers, according to the specific subject or methodological expertise required. 7 papers received a major revision feedback in the first round of review, and one of them was subsequently withdrawn by the authors. At the end, after a second and, in some cases, a third round of review, 6 papers have been accepted. The following is a brief summary of the six papers that have resulted from this process and which addressed the aim of the conference theme to explore the value that purchasing and supply can create and the innovativeness in uncertain times: Maren Schenkel, Harold Krikke, Marjolein Caniëls and Erwin
154
Editorial / Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 21 (2015) 153–154
van der Laan contributed in a unique way to the underlying theme of the conference with their paper titled ‘Creating integral value for stakeholders in closed loop supply chains’. They investigated the process of integral value creation by closed loop supply chain (CLSC) activities. They provided insight into how focal companies create value for themselves and other stakeholders by means of conducting four in-depth case studies in CLSCs within the high capital goods context. They also discussed how strategic success factors affect CLSC activities and value creation and how stakeholder relationships affect these factors. In their paper ‘Supply market uncertainty: exploring consequences and responses within sustainability transitions’ Louise Knight, Alexandra Pfeiffer and James Scott addressed the impact of supply constraints on the long-term viability of sustainability innovations, using the case of bioenergy from organic waste. The uncertainty stems from the pricing and continuous availability of organic waste. They drew on prior research to conceptualise the problem and identified the steps to be taken to address the uncertainty. They proposed a research agenda aimed at purchasing and supply scholars and centred on the need to understand the interplay between market evolution and supply uncertainty and ‘market shaping’ to support the adoption of sustainability related innovation. Another paper on sustainability included in this special issue is ‘Love me, love me not: A nuanced view on collaboration in sustainable supply chains’ by Anne Touboulic and Helen Walker. They explored collaborative sustainable supply chains (SSC) through a qualitative study of a large multinational in the food sector working with small agricultural suppliers. They found that there are supporting and hindering factors in collaborative SSCM. Their study reveals the dynamic nature of SC relationships for sustainability and that collaboration can be developed over time by investing in both formal relationship building mechanisms and more relational aspects. Maarten Dirk Sjoerdsma and Arjan van Weele provided new insights into early supplier involvement (ESI) in new product development (NPD) in their paper ‘Managing supplier relationships in a new product development context’. They developed an integrated framework that explains outcome effects of relationship quality and knowledge transfer in collaborative new product development from literature and used four in depth case studies in complex consumer goods innovation projects to validate these findings.
In their paper ‘An exploratory analysis of the relationship between purchase category strategies and supply base structure’ Melek Akin Ateş, Finn Wynstra en Erik van Raaij examined 13 purchasing categories by means of the multiple case study method and found that the ideal supply base structure to successfully manage a purchasing category, depends not only on purchase category strategy, but also on purchase impact and supply risk to some extent. They developed seven detailed propositions that illustrate the complex interplay between purchase category strategies, supply base structure, purchase impact and supply risk, and purchase category performance. In the last paper ‘Dynamics of service definitions – an explorative case study of the purchasing process of professional ICT services’ Cees Gelderman, Janjaap Semeijn and Anton de Bruijn linked contractual and relational governance to the process of stabilisation/destabilisation of ICT service specifications. They contributed in the understanding of the interplay between contractual and relational governance in the procurement of professional ICT services.
Acknowledgements We are grateful to the following colleagues at Unisa who were instrumental in ensuring the successful event: Alicia Snyman, Themari Eicker, Adele van Lill, Nadia van Huyssteen, Elsabé Scholtz, Orpha Cilliers, Marcus Ambe and Beverley Waugh. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers who provided invaluable critique and advice on the papers selected for the special issue. We would also like to thank the Department of Business Management and the Centre for Business Management at Unisa for their sponsorships.
Johanna A. (Hannie) Badenhorst-Weiss Department of Business Management, University of South Africa, South Africa Federico Caniato School of Management, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Available online 29 May 2015
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pursup
Editorial
Journal of purchasing and supply management
Introduction This guest editorial reflects on the 23rd annual IPSERA (2014) conference hosted in South Africa by the Department of Business Management in the School of Management Sciences, at the University of South Africa (Unisa), and introduces specially selected papers from this conference. The overall conference theme was ‘Purchasing and Supply Management in difficult times: the sky is the limit’ as the expected improvement of economic conditions since the major global financial crisis in 2007–2008, seemingly did not materialise. Since we believe that there is a major contribution that the inbound supply chain can make to value creation, the idea was to stimulate innovative thinking in research and education. This aim was reflected in the variety of papers that were received.
The conference: purchasing and supply management in difficult times: the sky is the limit Like for the past 23 years, the annual IPSERA conference is a focal point for the exchange of the latest research findings, but during the 2014 conference networking and social interaction took place under the African sky in the bush! 205 Academics and practitioners attended the 2014 Conference from 23 different countries and once again, the conference reflected the international reach of IPSERA. although many of the distinguished professors, which we are privileged to have as leaders in our subject, attended the conference, it was positive also to see how many younger academics and practitioners have started attending the conference, which brings a new welcome dynamic in the association and assures the sustainability of IPSERA. Davide Luzzini took the chair and the leadership at our highly regarded Ph.D. workshop, assisted by the faithful and experienced discussants. In 2014 we also saw a renewed focus on the education part of our mandate when Donna Marshall and Steve Kelly organised the first Educators' Conference that took place simultaneously with the Ph.D. workshop. The papers delivered by the different speakers opened up lively debate and innovative ideas. Thirty five people attended this lively conference workshop. The Conference was opened by the outgoing IPSERA President, Veli-Matti Virolainen, Vice-Rector of Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. His welcome address was followed by a keynote address by Prof. Baijnath, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of South Africa, titled ‘Purchasing and Supply leadership: Lessons learned from the University of South Africa’. He highlighted the role of public institutions to execute supply chain http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2015.05.003 1478-4092/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
management activities in a manner that adheres to and supports the government's objectives for growth, development and the equitable redistribution of wealth in South Africa. Another address was presented by Mr. Kevin Brown, Chief Procurement Officer of National Treasury, in which he highlighted public sector procurement problems in South Africa. He particularly highlighted the consequences of unskilled and uneducated public procurement staff. The last keynote address was presented by David Berdish, former Manager, Social Sustainability, Ford Motor Company (USA) titled ‘Emerging processes of sustainable supply chain management and business integration’. He highlighted the role of global supply chains operating in less developed counties to ensure social justice. The underlying theme of all three key note addresses was that purchasing and supply chains can and must make a difference in the less developed countries and skilled human resources are a necessity. Prof. Michiel Leenders chaired a lively panel discussion on a perceived diminishing importance of purchasing and supply titled ‘Country specific feedback regarding the current state of supply with respect of academia and practise’. We were fortunate to have received outstanding academic papers. 110 papers were received of which 52 working papers and 44 competitive papers had been approved and presented.
The selected papers included in the special issue All competitive papers were subjected to a double-blind review process so that even before being short-listed for this special issue of the Journal, these papers had already been thoroughly reviewed according to the standard JPSM review criteria. 15 of the 44 competitive papers were shortlisted for this special issue of the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management; as usual, the short-listing was based on the results of the conference paper reviews, where reviewers scored papers and also indicated if they thought the paper might be suitable for the special issue. 11 papers were actually submitted and were again distributed for doubleblind reviews, to new reviewers, according to the specific subject or methodological expertise required. 7 papers received a major revision feedback in the first round of review, and one of them was subsequently withdrawn by the authors. At the end, after a second and, in some cases, a third round of review, 6 papers have been accepted. The following is a brief summary of the six papers that have resulted from this process and which addressed the aim of the conference theme to explore the value that purchasing and supply can create and the innovativeness in uncertain times: Maren Schenkel, Harold Krikke, Marjolein Caniëls and Erwin
154
Editorial / Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 21 (2015) 153–154
van der Laan contributed in a unique way to the underlying theme of the conference with their paper titled ‘Creating integral value for stakeholders in closed loop supply chains’. They investigated the process of integral value creation by closed loop supply chain (CLSC) activities. They provided insight into how focal companies create value for themselves and other stakeholders by means of conducting four in-depth case studies in CLSCs within the high capital goods context. They also discussed how strategic success factors affect CLSC activities and value creation and how stakeholder relationships affect these factors. In their paper ‘Supply market uncertainty: exploring consequences and responses within sustainability transitions’ Louise Knight, Alexandra Pfeiffer and James Scott addressed the impact of supply constraints on the long-term viability of sustainability innovations, using the case of bioenergy from organic waste. The uncertainty stems from the pricing and continuous availability of organic waste. They drew on prior research to conceptualise the problem and identified the steps to be taken to address the uncertainty. They proposed a research agenda aimed at purchasing and supply scholars and centred on the need to understand the interplay between market evolution and supply uncertainty and ‘market shaping’ to support the adoption of sustainability related innovation. Another paper on sustainability included in this special issue is ‘Love me, love me not: A nuanced view on collaboration in sustainable supply chains’ by Anne Touboulic and Helen Walker. They explored collaborative sustainable supply chains (SSC) through a qualitative study of a large multinational in the food sector working with small agricultural suppliers. They found that there are supporting and hindering factors in collaborative SSCM. Their study reveals the dynamic nature of SC relationships for sustainability and that collaboration can be developed over time by investing in both formal relationship building mechanisms and more relational aspects. Maarten Dirk Sjoerdsma and Arjan van Weele provided new insights into early supplier involvement (ESI) in new product development (NPD) in their paper ‘Managing supplier relationships in a new product development context’. They developed an integrated framework that explains outcome effects of relationship quality and knowledge transfer in collaborative new product development from literature and used four in depth case studies in complex consumer goods innovation projects to validate these findings.
In their paper ‘An exploratory analysis of the relationship between purchase category strategies and supply base structure’ Melek Akin Ateş, Finn Wynstra en Erik van Raaij examined 13 purchasing categories by means of the multiple case study method and found that the ideal supply base structure to successfully manage a purchasing category, depends not only on purchase category strategy, but also on purchase impact and supply risk to some extent. They developed seven detailed propositions that illustrate the complex interplay between purchase category strategies, supply base structure, purchase impact and supply risk, and purchase category performance. In the last paper ‘Dynamics of service definitions – an explorative case study of the purchasing process of professional ICT services’ Cees Gelderman, Janjaap Semeijn and Anton de Bruijn linked contractual and relational governance to the process of stabilisation/destabilisation of ICT service specifications. They contributed in the understanding of the interplay between contractual and relational governance in the procurement of professional ICT services.
Acknowledgements We are grateful to the following colleagues at Unisa who were instrumental in ensuring the successful event: Alicia Snyman, Themari Eicker, Adele van Lill, Nadia van Huyssteen, Elsabé Scholtz, Orpha Cilliers, Marcus Ambe and Beverley Waugh. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers who provided invaluable critique and advice on the papers selected for the special issue. We would also like to thank the Department of Business Management and the Centre for Business Management at Unisa for their sponsorships.
Johanna A. (Hannie) Badenhorst-Weiss Department of Business Management, University of South Africa, South Africa Federico Caniato School of Management, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Available online 29 May 2015