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First, this study expands knowledge on the strategic decision process dimension decision-making speed by analyzing decision-making speed and two possible antecedents in a purchasing context. Second, it takes an additional step toward clarifying the relationship between strategic and lateral integration. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential mediating effect of lateral purchasing integration on the relationship between strategic purchasing integration and purchasing decision-making speed.

This research analyzes survey data of 152 firms from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland using covariance-based structural equation modeling.

The results of the structural equation model provide strong support for the hypothesized relationships. Strategic purchasing integration drives lateral purchasing integration, which in turn positively influences purchasing decision-making speed.

This study focusses solely on internal types of integration. A logical next step would be to further enrich the model by including external dimensions, such as supplier or customer integration.

This study should help managers gain a better understanding of the relationship between strategic and lateral purchasing integration, highlighting their positive impact on decision-making speed. Decision-making speed is particularly important for companies operating in volatile markets and time-constrained business environments.

This study offers new insights into the theoretical and empirical connection between intra-organizational purchasing integration, unpacked as strategic purchasing integration and lateral purchasing integration, and purchasing decision-making speed. Furthermore, it offers insights into decision-making speed in a purchasing context.

The purpose of this article is to generate theory on how functional integration and conflict interrelate by studying the interface between production and purchasing.

An interpretive single case research methodology is adopted. The authors rely on in-depth interviewing of managers in the production and purchasing functions of a construction company, as well as by its suppliers.

Given low functional integration, antagonistic reasoning within each function and resultant conflicting behaviors are allowed to develop in a negative cycle, escalating the conflict between purchasing and production. This process leads to the creation of two opposing functional sourcing models that serve as blueprints for behavior.

The single case methodology was chosen to maximize depth and detail and form an ideal foundation for theory building. Future qualitative and quantitative studies should inquire further into the studied phenomenon to increase analytical and statistical generalizability of the proposed model.

The findings can help managers understand how poor integration between functions can develop into cross-functional conflict. Facing a conflicting functional relationship, managers must resort to conflict resolution methods, instead of attempting to integrate, as several integrative devices are not appropriate in conflicting interfaces.

The proposed model contributes by connecting the constructs of integration, group reasoning, and conflict, thereby generating knowledge on conflict development processes in cross-functional interfaces. Furthermore, the article contributes by uncovering the difficulties associated with implementing spend consolidation, a prevailing sourcing strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of nine hypotheses linking four purchasing and supply management (PSM) practices directly to purchasing performance and indirectly to financial performance.

The authors collected data in a global cross‐industry survey of 148 companies, combining primary interview and survey data with secondary data on firm performance, in order to minimize the impact of common method variance.

Support was found for eight of the nine hypotheses. In particular, a positive impact was found of cross‐functional integration and functional coordination on purchasing performance, and of purchasing performance on firm performance. Both talent management and performance management have a positive impact on cross‐functional integration and functional coordination. Talent management also has a direct impact on purchasing performance, in contrast to performance management.

The association of enhanced PSM maturity levels with financial performance metrics collected from secondary data sources provides robust empirical support for the stated but to this point largely untested positive impact of PSMmaturity on the firm's competitive position.

The interest in global purchasing has increased significantly in recent years, but the impact on product innovation is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse the impact of global purchasing on product innovation sourced from suppliers, while taking into account how firms integrate their suppliers.

The data used in this study are from the International Purchasing Survey, an international online survey on purchasing and supply management conducted in 2009. The data are analysed using factor and regression analyses.

The paper shows that global purchasing has no direct impact on product innovation performance. However, supplier integration is more strongly associated with product innovation performance for firms purchasing globally compared to firms purchasing regionally.

The implication is that when companies purchase globally, they must have a highly developed purchasing department in order to sustain a high level of innovation. For firms purchasing only regionally, the role of the purchasing department is diminished, at least in terms of contributing to innovation.

This paper contributes to the discussion of potential advantages and disadvantages of global purchasing. First, the paper provides an explanation for the ambiguous results of previous research. Product innovation does not depend on whether firms are purchasing globally or not, it depends on how they purchase. This paper has showed that when purchasing globally, the role of the purchasing department becomes crucial for product innovation. The proficiency and activities of the purchasing department largely determine the success, in terms of supplier product innovation, of global purchasing.

This paper revisits Bartlett and Ghoshal’s transnational theory of the MNC in relation to multi-domestic MNCs. We argue that the aggregate level of analysis adopted by Bartlett and Ghoshal is unhelpful for identifying significant changes in multi-domestic MNCs at the level of discrete functions. We argue that a more disaggregated level of analysis is required. Our analysis of two cases of multi-domestic MNCs that have undertaken the global integration of their locally distributed purchasing functions indicates that while significant change to the purchasing function has occurred, at the aggregate level both MNCs remain multi-domestic. In both cases the decision to integrate local purchasing was regarded as having more obvious benefits than integrating other functions such as marketing. While both of our case multi-domestic MNCs may in future choose to integrate other functions and develop into full-fledged transnational companies we argue that there is no inevitability to this. Indeed global integration may cease with the purchasing function. A second theme in this paper is that we argue that Bartlett and Ghoshal’s transnational theory has a biased view of what constitutes effective governance mechanisms for achieving global integration, local responsiveness and worldwide learning and that it would greatly benefit from a more balanced application of hierarchical and relational governance mechanisms.

The objective of this paper is to study the relationship between information technology (IT) investments and performance in the purchasing function. A study is made not only of whether this relationship exists, but also of the mediating role played by both purchasing practices and the strategic integration of purchasing.

Statistical analyses of the data provided by 141 purchasing managers of medium and large Spanish companies in three industrial sectors.

The analyses support the idea that IT investments exert a positive effect on purchasing operational performance. Nonetheless, the results show that this effect arises because IT allows companies to implement certain purchasing practices and, partially, because it facilitates greater strategic integration of the purchasing function.

The results not only reveal the positive effect of IT at the functional level, but they also help us to understand how this effect is produced.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a purchasing-logistics integration (PLI) conceptualization along two dimensions: mutual responsibility and integrative efforts. This conceptualization is then tested as to whether it provides any insights for supplier performance.

Information-Processing Theory is used to posit hypotheses linking the dimensions of PLI with various measures of supplier performance. Hypotheses are then tested with a dyadic data set of purchasing and logistics managers, using multiple regression methods.

Purchasing managers found mutual responsibility to positively influence supplier delivery speed, whereas logistics managers found it to positively influence supplier price performance. Generally speaking, purchasing managers perceived a stronger linkage between formal integrative efforts (liaison roles and joint reward systems) and supplier performance, whereas logistics managers perceived this linkage to be stronger for informal integrative efforts such as information exchange and collaboration.

Study results are cross-sectional in nature and consist of three major industry groupings. The dyadic data were analyzed separately to avoid significant data loss.

Supply chain managers will find the areas where purchasing and logistics managers overlap in their perceptions (as well as where they differ) useful. In addition, an understanding of how PLI influences supplier performance should help improve organizational effectiveness.

PLI is a highly important, yet understudied, internal connection. This study provides a useful framework in helping academics and practitioners better understand this crucial internal connection, and how it relates to the performance extracted from suppliers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the different patterns of purchasing function configuration, and the relationship between such patterns and organisational performance.

Despite considerable attention, there is little evidence showing the current situation toward the development of purchasing functions within organisations. Through quantitative data collected from 151 UK purchasing executives, cluster analysis is used to uncover and characterize four purchasing function configurations.

Four configurations, termed strategic, capable, celebrity, and undeveloped, were identified according to the characteristics they possess. Significant differences in supplier‐ and organisational‐related performance outcomes were found across these four purchasing function configurations. Purchasing skills were also shown to be a precondition for purchasing to exert influence within the organisation.

A cross‐sectional survey provides limited longitudinal insight into the evolution of purchasing functions. Future research could examine how firms move between purchasing configurations. This study does, however, improve understanding of the different types of purchasing functions, their performance outcomes, and makes recommendations for potential strategies to be adopted for purchasing function improvement.

The findings are useful for practitioners seeking to improve the performance and standing of the purchasing function through identification of the characteristics and potential limitations faced at each phase.

This paper is one of few studies to provide an empirical test of purchasing function configuration, and the implications for organisational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the environmental management of purchases and firm performance. The authors examine the moderating role played by two variables: the establishment of long-term relationships with suppliers and the strategic integration of the purchasing function.

The authors conduct an empirical study on a sample of 100 Portuguese firms.

Evidence reveals that green purchasing management improves the performance of the purchasing function, although the impact is greater when the organisation forges lasting alliances with its suppliers.

This paper contributes to the study of the consequences of introducing environmental practices into the purchasing function, especially with regards to the formation of a panel of sustainable suppliers. Specifically, this research provides evidence to show that the implementation of those practices has positive impacts on the operating performance of the purchasing function and that the said effect is greater when a firm establishes long-term relationships with its suppliers.

This paper aims to conceptualize supply market orientation (SMO) for the purchasing and supply chain management function and discusses how SMO capabilities are developed and how their application differs within and across firms. This research can thus be used as a blueprint for the development of a SMO capability that accommodates a firm’s unique contextual antecedents’ profile.

The qualitative research design comprises five in-depth case studies with 43 semi-structured interviews with large manufacturing and service firms.

SMO is defined as the capability to exploit market intelligence to assess, integrate and reconfigure the heterogeneously dispersed resources in purchasing and supply chain management in a way that best reflects the peculiarities of a firm’s supply environment. The empirical analysis shows that although SMO capabilities are configured similarly, their application varies across and within firms depending on the characteristics of a firm’s purchasing categories and tasks. Hence, reactive versus proactive SMO application is contingent upon firm-level and purchasing category–level characteristics.

The study uses the dynamic capabilities view as a theoretical background and provides empirical evidence and theoretical reasoning to elaborate and endorse SMO as a dynamic capability that firms need to have to compete in a complex and dynamic environment. The study provides guidance for supply chain managers on how to successfully develop and deploy a SMO capability.