Individual competences for sustainable purchasing and supply management (SPSM): A literature and practice perspective
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
ISSN: 0960-0035
Article publication date: 13 March 2019
Issue publication date: 9 April 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Implementing sustainability into global supply networks remains a challenge for companies. Purchasing and supply management (PSM) interacts closely with supply network actors, thus influencing how the firm’s value creation is delivered. While previous sustainable PSM (SPSM) research has shed light on how to manage sustainability on an organizational level, the individual competences PSM professionals require are less understood. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a systematic literature review to determine the current research coverage of specific competences and knowledge required to implement sustainability. The authors complemented this with data from 46 interviews with practitioners. From coding the data with NVivo, a first comprehensive competence overview for SPSM was developed.
Findings
The literature review results, complemented with interview data, highlight that functional-oriented, cognition-oriented, social-oriented and meta-oriented competences form part of a comprehensive SPSM competence model. We propose a framework that includes these, and integrates two behavioral moderators on the organizational level, i.e. situational enabling, as well as empowerment and obligation.
Research limitations/implications
While the proposed framework provides a basic first systematization of SPSM competences, further research is needed to extend it. There is ample opportunity to shed further light on both individual and organizational-level factors that influence the application of SPSM competences, and therefore SPSM behavior.
Practical implications
The results have implications for higher education and professional training programs in companies. The framework provides an overview of competences needed for SPSM. The discussion highlights the need to apply education and training methods for different types of competences that are suitable for conveying implicit knowledge apart from explicit knowledge.
Originality/value
Adressing a current research gap in sustainability-related competences in PSM, the overall framework highlights SPSM competences of interest to both scholars and managers alike.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The empirical data in this paper comes from Project, Purchasing Education and Research for European Competence Transfer, (PERFECT), which was funded by the European Union from 09/2015–09/2018 to establish an empirically validated pan-European PSM higher education curriculum. The project was embedded into the ERASMUS + 2015 KA2 program (Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education) with the project number 2015-1-DE01-KA203-002174. The funding organization played no role in the design of study, review and interpretation of data or preparation or approval of the manuscript.
Citation
Schulze, H., Bals, L. and Johnsen, T.E. (2019), "Individual competences for sustainable purchasing and supply management (SPSM): A literature and practice perspective", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 49 No. 3, pp. 287-304. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-01-2018-0036
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited