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The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of how purchasing can become meaningfully involved in complex business-to-business service purchases.

A single in-depth case study method of an exemplar organization was applied to better understand the purchasing function’s role in adding to the value proposition in complex, non-traditional business-to-business service purchases.

Powerful allies or advocates can mediate purchasing involvement in service procurement. However, once the involvement is initiated, purchasing must make a positive contribution with respect to the specific needs and expectations of the budget owner to retain its influence.

This research extends institutional theory to show how powerful allies or advocates can mediate purchasing involvement in the complex services spend.

This study describes the potential impact of purchasing’s involvement in complex services spend and highlights the opportunities for purchasing managers to improve supplier management and drive out additional costs.

For the business practitioner, this research provides evidence regarding how individual functions can gain influence in the organization. A conceptual model describes the meaningful involvement of purchasing in complex business-to-business service purchases.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/EUM0000000000348. When citing the article, please cite: Lisa M. Ellram, Bernard J. La Londe, Mary Margaret Weber, (1989), “Retail Logistics”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Materials Management, Vol. 19 Iss: 12, pp. 29 - 39.

Interest in reverse logistics (RL) as a critical component of supply chain management (SCM) is gaining more traction with both practitioners and academics. Because of RL’s growing strategic importance, it is imperative to conduct a timely and comprehensive literature review and to identify associated opportunities for future research. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the researchers conduct an extensive bibliometric analysis of published academic articles on RL for the period of 1992-2015. Specifically, the CiteSpace software is utilized to conduct document co-citation analysis and burst detection analysis on 912 selected RL articles and their 22,642 references.

This research identifies the most influential RL research publications/citations in each of the five periods and their research contribution. Using co-citation analysis, the authors are able to identify and illustrate major research themes, knowledge groups, and future research opportunities in the RL field.

In contrast to existing literature review studies in the logistics field, the study uses impact factor as a key article selection criterion. The influential articles identified in this process well represent the core literature and RL body of knowledge and have important implications for future research.

International purchasing partnerships are becoming an increasingly common and attractive way to procure goods and services in the global marketplace. Yet these complex relationships may require special effort and attention in order to be successful. A review of the relevant literature and case studies of firms actively involved in international purchasing partnerships is used to highlight and discuss the key factors which contribute to international purchasing partnership success and failure. The implications of these factors for purchasing managers are also discussed.

Many firms have experienced significant benefits from engaging in supplier alliances. However, alliance relationships do not evolve in isolation. Support factors for supplier alliances include purchasing’s accountability for their actions, the use of information technology, the perceived importance of the purchasing and supply management (PSM) function, and the degree of participation in strategic purchasing activities. In addition, PSM engages in cost and price‐related activities associated with supplier alliances, including total cost of ownership, understanding specific supplier costs, target costing, and market monitoring. Empirical results from a survey indicate that significant relationships exist between support factors, cost and price activities, and supplier alliance involvement by the PSM function. The exploratory findings suggest that support factors must be in place and continually improved to facilitate purchasing’s involvement in alliances. PSM involvement in cost and price activities is also strongly related to supplier alliance participation. For purchasing firms to obtain long‐term benefits from alliances with suppliers, purchasing professionals must continually provide valuable input into these relationships through their corporate influence, use of information technology, and participation in various proactive purchasing activities.

The use of a life‐cycle framework is explored as a means of describing the evolution of partnership relationships between industrial buyers and sellers. Based on case studies of eight manufacturing firms, industrial buyer‐seller partnerships evolve through four stages: development, commitment, integration and dissolution. In addition to exploring a “traditional” life‐cycle pattern, case studies are used to illustrate and support examples of variations on the traditional partnership life‐cycle pattern. The life‐cycle analogy is useful to both practitioners and theorists in developing, understanding and influencing the patterns which industrial buyer‐seller partnerships may follow.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate research trends observed in the International Journal of Logistics Management (IJLM) during its first 20 years of publication.

A content analysis was conducted of the IJLM's first 20 years of publication (330 articles in total) to identify changing trends in subject matter, use of theory, type of research methodology, and author, institution, and country contributions.

IJLM has evolved in every dimension evaluated. Specifically, content follows macro‐economic world events and reflects the emergence of supply chain management as an interdisciplinary domain. Recent research demonstrates a greater emphasis on theory development as well as more rigorous methods. Importantly, the increased theoretical grounding and rigor provides greater confidence in research that continues to be highly managerially relevant. Author, institution, and country findings are also discussed.

The study is limited to an analysis of IJLM's publications.

The research provides valuable insights into the evolution of articles published in IJLM. For managers, the findings suggest that readers can place greater confidence in the findings and recommendations proposed by current research published in IJLM. For researchers, the findings provide guidance regarding the types of research that are likely to be accepted for publication in IJLM. The findings also represent a call for more forward‐looking research.

The comprehensive review of IJLM's publications provides a longitudinal perspective on the evolution of research in IJLM.

This paper aims to present a managerial framework that facilitates successful supplier selection and ongoing management for purchasing services from offshore suppliers.

This research is grounded in transaction cost theory and developed using data from case studies of six Fortune 500 firms that have a minimum of three years experience purchasing services from suppliers located in India.

Viewing the selection and management of suppliers for the purchase of offshore outsourced services as strategic in nature helps organizations ensure quality and low cost in the service delivery and also reduces complexity and associated risk to the organization.

The overarching limitation is the number and size of the companies being researched.

This research presents a framework to guide managers in reducing risk and improving performance in these complex service purchases. Formalizing the selection and management of offshore outsourced services and investing in supplier improvements/measurement was found to improve operating relationships and enhance the business‐to‐business relationship.

This research provides a supply management perspective on a relatively new phenomenon. There has been little academic research on business process offshoring and few theoretical insights to guide managers in the purchase of services from suppliers located in different geographies with different cultures and operating structures. This paper looks at this phenomenon from a US‐based perspective and provides guidelines for managers.

Total cost of ownership is a concept which strives to analyze and understand the true cost of doing business with a supplier, going well beyond price. This paper briefly explores trends which have increased interest in total cost of ownership analysis. Barriers and benefits of total cost of ownership are also discussed. The main thrust of the article is to present an eight stage framework for total cost of ownership implementation. This framework was developed based on case studies of seven firms which use total cost of ownership in purchasing. The framework includes a number of decisions that firms considering total cost of ownership must face, and a discussion of how these decisions were resolved by some of the case study companies. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the framework, and some suggestions for future total cost of ownership research directions.

In this exploration of formal international purchasing alliances, a broad overview of why firms become involved in international purchasing alliances is developed. Then, using a data base developed based on formalized international alliance activity reported in The Wall Street Journal, characteristics of international alliances are explored. The research also uses exploratory case studies to corroborate and develop a deeper understanding of international purchasing alliances. Implications of international alliance involvement for the purchasing function are also discussed.