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Organizations increasingly manage innovation projects jointly with suppliers to use external resources to fill internal competencies. However, little is known about the practices of how companies configure internal and external resources to enhance competitiveness. Drawing on resource orchestration theory, this study aims to propose a novel approach to explain organizational performance using purchasing orchestration (PO) as an antecedent. The paper then tests an empirical model to assess the impact of PO practices on innovation and financial performance.

Cross-sectional survey data from 247 supply chain managers are used to test hypotheses relating PO to performance. SPSS PROCESS is applied to test conditional direct and indirect effects.

The positive impact of PO practices on innovation and financial performance is confirmed. Results indicate an organization’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) can strengthen the positive relationship between PO and financial performance. Structuring, bundling and leveraging external resources are introduced as new organizational capabilities.

This research is based on cross-sectional data, and unidimensional constructs are used.

This research guides managers on the innovation process in light of the growing importance of external resources. The manuscript highlights the role of strategic purchasing in establishing new resource capabilities as a competitive advantage.

This research provides new insights into the relationship between purchasing practices and organizational performance and helps better understand the implications of orchestrating supply chain resources. A novel construct, PO, is introduced as a theoretical basis for studying supply chain-enabled innovation.

Using a soft-hard continuum of drivers and barriers, this research seeks to explain wood companies' adoption of circular economy (CE) practices.

Multiple interviews, complemented by secondary documents and site observations were used to investigate three wood-based companies that have adopted CE practices. The 10R framework and soft-hard continuum are used to guide data analysis.

The adoption of 10R practices were explained by soft-factor incentives of leaders' values and vision and openness for innovation, all within a regulatory void, and eventually overcome hard-factor barriers of process development, supply chain capability and customer behaviours at product end-of-life.

Crucial for CE model adoption are leaders' positive attitudes, subsequently grown across the companies. The 10Rs are a prompt for CE practice adoption to capture and retain value and generate revenue. Collaboration across the supply chain, including customers and other value capture companies (e.g. repurposing companies), is essential to maximise value retention. Government should play an increased soft-factor incentive regulatory role and support CE practices to overcome hard-factor barriers.

This study contributes an explanation of CE adoption within a relatively unsupported context. Despite the regulatory void, CE practice adoption was driven by leader values. To achieve their vision and overcome the numerous barriers, suppliers and customers required a large investment in education. Indeed, customer behaviour, previously thought to be an incentive for CE adoption, is also identified as a barrier.