Search results

The purpose of this study is to elaborate on how analytics capability develops within the PSM function. This study is an in-depth exploration of how analytics capability develops within the purchasing and supply management (PSM) function.

A multiple case study was conducted of the PSM function of six case firms, in which primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with PSM analytics stakeholders. The data were analyzed based on an analytics capability framework derived from the literature. Cases were chosen based on them having advanced PSM practices and ongoing analytics projects in the PSM area.

The findings shed light on how the firms develop their analytics capability in the PSM functional area. While we identify several commonalities in this respect, the authors also observe differences in how firms organize for analytics, bringing analytics and PSM decision-makers together. Building on the knowledge-based view of the firm, The authors offer a theoretical explanation of our observations, highlighting the user-driven side of analytics development, which has largely been unrecognized by prior literature. The authors also offer an explanation of the observed dual role that analytics takes in cross-functional initiatives.

The exploratory nature of our study limits the generalizability of our results. Further, our limited number of cases and interviewees indicate that there is still much to explore in the phenomenon of developing analytics capability.

Our findings can help firms gain a better understanding of how they could develop their analytics capability and what issues they need to consider when seeking leveraging data through analytics for PSM decisions.

This paper is, to the best knowledge of the authors, the first empirical study of analytics capability in PSM.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the sales-, rental- and sharing-focused business models for industrial markets by analysing interactions and environmental sustainability efforts within them.

Case studies are conducted at two world-leading manufacturing firms of complex industrial products. The analysis compares how interaction takes place in sales-, rental- and sharing-focused business models in industrial markets for high-technology products in connection with environmental sustainability outcomes.

The findings show the need for different interaction patterns in sales-, rental- and sharing-focused business models at firm, relationship and network levels. The implementation of sharing-focussed business models requires new interactions with actors within firms, between firms and key collaborators and in networks. The firms in our study have made a wide range of efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of their products. Sharing-focused business models have the potential to be environmentally sustainable if products can be shared among customers. However, under-usage of products and the increased need to transport them may reduce environmental sustainability.

This study reveals that although manufacturing firms and customers are willing to implement sharing-focused business models, there are obstacles to achieving the expected environmental sustainability associated with this business model. These are due to the high-technology nature and level of customisation of the associated firms’ products and services, which make it difficult to share resources across firms without advanced adaptations to products such as re-programming. This study contributes to the sharing-focused business model literature for the business-to-business context, by pointing to the pivotal role partnerships with new actors and closer collaboration with existing actors in supply chains can play in enabling sharing-focused business models in the future.

This study investigated how organizations can maintain their supply chain (SC) resilience in situations where high-impact shocks cannot be absorbed and what capabilities are needed. The article is an empirical exploration of a socio-ecological view of resilience in the SC context.

The case under study in this article is that of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and MSF's reconfiguration of its supply management processes in response to the supply shocks during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In total, 503 internal documents and ERP extractions from six databases from late 2019 to September 2020, 43 semi-structured interviews and a 3-round policy Delphi process were used to investigate this phenomenon.

The authors' results show that throughout the pandemic, MSF adapted its procurement and supply processes to cope with supply shortages at both the international and local levels of the SC. This was possible due to the organization's capacity to use its exploitation and exploration capabilities of the organization at the same time.

This research is based on the single in-depth case study of a medical aid organization. Further research should investigate this phenomenon in commercial companies with similar or different organizational structures.

This study constitutes a first attempt to empirically demonstrate that the four phases of the adaptive cycle put forth in the panarchy theory constitute a suitable representation of the reconfigurations that SCs follow in response to a high-impact shock. The study also adds to the growing body of knowledge on resilience by including ambidexterity as a mechanism to achieve resilience.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how a seller can use interactions to respond to public procurement needs for innovation when the buying side is restricted by public procurement regulations.

The authors collected data using qualitative semi-structured interviews of different empirical examples, in which private–public interactions of four different high-technological products are studied. Two products belong to the defence industry and two to the civil industry.

The findings point to three types of innovations in public procurement: product, service and business model. The empirical examples further indicate, as suggested in previous studies, that innovation is hindered by regulations that limit interaction between suppliers and the public. In addition, the empirical examples indicate that firms mobilize actors in their network when the buyer is restricted in regard to interaction. The findings also add to the IMP literature by comparing interactions in the three types of innovations in the public procurement context.

Public procurement is an area where innovations are lagging behind, compared with private procurement. Research points to limited interaction between actors as an obstacle to innovation in public sector collaborations. This paper extends the literature on how organizations interact in the setting of public procurement. The authors identify demand and supply triggers for three types of innovations: product, service and business model innovation.

The growing presence of projectification is affecting more than its cradle, the industry, characterizing it as a broader phenomenon than initially envisioned. This study aims to provide a literature review on the concept.

The sampling process includes articles from two databases, Web of Science and Scopus, and a backward snowballing sampling through the references, entailing the analysis of 103 documents. The publications were analyzed applying bibliometric, content and semantic analyses both manually and with the assistance of VOSViewer, Bibliometrix, NVivo11 and Tropes v.8.

The results identified 55 definitions of projectification. The study synthesizes them in five levels of analysis to capture their main distinctive aspects, as follows: (1) Private Organizations; (2) Public Sector; (3) Academy; (4) Individuals (work and private life); and (5) Society. The paper concludes by depicting factors as general effects, negative effects, tensions, funding and knowledge, embedded within each level of analysis.

This work sheds light on the evolution of projectification concept, presents a multilevel analysis of its consequences and brings forward the related topics, which still require further investigation.

The main aim of our study is to demonstrate that the Italian way to marketing included not only the “advertising artists” but also what can be labelled as the social network approach, which was mainly used by cooperative enterprises. Focussing on the case study of the Granarolo co-operative, the paper discusses the social network method of marketing as it emerged during the 1950s and 1960s in Italy.

The research draws on different types of primary sources, including co-operative business records, interviews, publications, newspaper articles and advertisements.

In the age of mass consumption, the Granarolo co-operative developed an original marketing strategy based on social networks. This strategy can be considered a kind of community brand based on shared values pre-existing to the brand itself and a kind of viral marketing put in place before the electronic revolution.

The research focusses on the Granarolo case study. It can be extended to other co-operative enterprises. However, it is unknown whether the anticipation of viral marketing has also been used by private enterprises.

The marketing strategies analyzed in the paper could be a interesting solution for undertakings strictly connected and rooted in their local community or in their Web community.

In today’s world of the Web, this physical constraint no longer exists, and the social method of marketing exceeds the regional and even the national level. In conclusion, this was an innovative method of marketing and advertising that came into being, ahead of its time, about a half a century before modern Web-based social networks were conceived, yet uses the same concepts, hence its extraordinary originality.

This study is the result of an original research which tries to highlight what we could label the Italian way to marketing. Taking into consideration the first two decades of the Granarolo history and focussing on the marketing strategy, our contribution seeks to examine how the social networks approach worked and in what it differs from today brand community and viral marketing.