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The purpose of this paper is to use the relative power and total interdependence concepts as an intervening theoretical lens to explain why and how sustainable supply management (SSM) initiatives by manufacturing firms differ across the Kraljic matrix according to purchasing capability.

Tested hypotheses by subjecting survey data from 338 manufacturers on buyer-supplier relationships in Europe and North America to regression analysis.

Shows three situations where relative power and total interdependence determine the effectiveness of purchasing capabilities. First, sustainability programs impact supplier compliance in all Kraljic categories but bottleneck items. Second, there are significant trade-offs between lower cost and higher social and environmental supplier compliance for noncritical components. Third, strategic alignment of sustainability objectives between corporate and supply function levels only leads to improved financial performance for strategic components.

Further research could take power and dependence into account to explain when and how purchasing capabilities focussed on sustainability can be achieved.

Shows how supply strategists could devise-tailored approaches for different purchasing categories with respect to power and dependence when pursuing economic, social and environmental objectives in combination – the triple bottom line – along their supply chains.

Illustrates and provides a theoretical explanation for why SSM is a purchasing capability that must vary across purchasing categories defined by different situations of power and dependence.

It is unclear as to what extent sustainable procurement is being practised in Ireland and what barriers there are to implementing it in organisations. This study provides the first complete insight into the use of sustainable procurement in Irish commercial semi-state bodies. It explores the extent and type of use of sustainable procurement plus identifies and examines the challenges to its use. A deductive approach is utilised to determine the barriers. Eleven participants, nine from the commercial semistate bodies and two experts with knowledge of this subject, are interviewed using semi-structured questions. The research findings show that sustainable procurement is being practised in the majority of the commercial semi-state bodies. Definition of sustainable procurement, the absence of mandatory guidelines, cost, time and a dearth of sustainable procurement knowledge by suppliers are some of the main barriers put forward by participants.

This paper responds to calls from the literature for research identifying the difference between the effect of internal agents and external agents, such as customers, suppliers and government on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). The paper also determines whether there is a dynamic or interactive relationship between the two types of agents.

Activity theory was used as the theoretical framework for understanding how internal and external agents affected both SSCM motivation and facilitation and possible interactions between the two. A cluster analysis identified how internal and external agents affected SSCM initiatives, interactions, the conditions under which this occurs and the mechanisms of this effect.

Internal and external agents differ in the type, sequence and diversity of their effect on SSCM. While external agents had both an SSCM motivating and facilitation effect, internal agents only had a facilitating effect. Customers were only a significant SSCM motivation in 35% of the cases. Government regulations had a dynamic effect, changing from motivation to facilitation as the SSCM initiative developed. External agent SSCM motivation and facilitation were more internalized in organizations which were more internationally oriented.

Local institutional frameworks motivate and facilitate SSCM initiatives, while head office initiatives and international best practice agencies encourage an integrated combination of external agent motivation and facilitation and internal facilitation.

The findings extend the SSCM literature by identifying the processes of agent SSCM motivation and facilitation, the dynamic nature of agent SSCM effects and the mechanism through which externally motivated and facilitated SSCM becomes internalized.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between psychological climate, catharsis, organizational anomie, psychological wellness and ethical procurement behaviour in Ugandaʼs public sector, in order to understand better the conditions that foster or diminish procurement ethics in a developing country. Data for this study were collected from a sample of 1100 respondents out of which 460 usable questionnaires, representing a 42% response rate were received and analyzed. Results reveal that psychological climate, procurement planning and organizational anomie were significant predictors, accounting for 64% of the variance in ethical procurement behaviour. These results have both policy and managerial implications which we present and discuss in this paper.

Asks how does green purchasing change the environmental performance of the firms in a supply chain/network and what is the influence of supply chain and industry structure on that performance? Do such changes contribute to companies’ overall environmental performance and to sustainability? Discusses these, and related questions, by exploring the activities of the UK hardware retailer, B&Q, as an example of green purchasing and supply in action.

This article aims to understand where industry is in terms of digitalizing their operations, what features of this transformation are essential for practitioners, and what barriers they are facing during their journey. In addition, the authors aim to provide recommendations for organization to start their digital transformation.

Through literature review, the authors summarize the emerging tools and technologies in operations and supply chains to inform the practitioners. Then, the authors use surveys conducted on 183 operations and supply chain professionals, and use statistical tools to examine the association between variables of the data set. The authors present real-life case studies to explain important steps of a digital transformation project.

The survey results indicate that real-time monitoring and data analytics are viewed as the most important and needed tools for organizations. High cost, lack of stakeholder buy-in and lack of successful business use cases are major barriers for companies when starting a digital transformation.

The authors provide recommendations for practitioners based on the survey responses, and outline that starting small, focusing on stakeholder buy-in and implementation of software are the three key steps for a successful transformation journey.

Main contributions of this article are to understand practitioner perspectives in digitalization and provide guidelines for organizations to follow when transforming their operations. This research closes the gap between academic research and practice by collaborating with operations and supply chain professionals.

Purpose – The purpose of the chapter is to analyze the factors that lead firms to offshore advanced tasks.

Methodology/approach – The study uses a 1,500-firm survey from Denmark to investigate the offshoring of 12 tradable manufacturing, technical, and service activities across different industries.

Findings – Findings indicate that offshoring of advanced tasks is driven by a different set of strategic motives than previous waves of offshoring, which predominantly included simple and standardized routine tasks. While the lower cost of unskilled, labor-intensive processes is the incentive for firms that offshore less advanced tasks, a desire to broaden and deepen global networks of new knowledge spurs highly knowledge-intensive companies to offshore more advanced tasks.

Originality/value of chapter – We propose that offshoring should be analyzed on a more disaggregated level of analysis than is the norm in mainstream offshoring literature. To reflect the trend whereby firms are “slicing” their value chain in finer and finer parts and locate these in various locations around the world, offshoring should be analyzed at the task level, since this paves the way for a richer understanding of offshoring strategies and processes.