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Since 1973–74, the beginning of the so‐called resources crunch, there has been an increased emphasis upon the role of the procurement function in strategic corporate planning and management. The role of procurement has begun significant change in a number of companies, yet remains in basically an operational mode in others. However, strategic management has often been “borne” out of situational crises imposed by changing environmental factors, rather than as a result of recognition of the strategic potential which management has. In essence, changes often come through reaction to problems, rather than through positive recognition and implementation of strategic management as an initiative itself. This has been particularly true of procurement.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships among strategic sourcing, e-procurement and firm performance, along with the moderating effects of business characteristics and environmental factors on these relationships.

This empirical investigation relies on structured survey responses from 137 managers of US manufacturing firms. The partial least squares-based structural equation modeling approach is used for data analysis.

The research results confirm that both strategic sourcing and e-procurement have a positive effect on firm performance. In addition, e-procurement is also found to have a positive impact on strategic sourcing. In addition, the research results suggest that business characteristics and the environment, especially the degree of competition, market turbulence, firm size and stage in product life cycle moderate these relationships significantly. The positive effects of strategic sourcing and e-procurement on firm performance are particularly enhanced under the right conditions.

This research is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to provide insights into the joint effects of strategic sourcing and e-procurement, and how business characteristics and the environment affect their roles on firm performance. In addition, firm performance is evaluated as a multi-dimensional construct involving financial, operational and supply chain aspects, with the measurements consisting of several second-order constructs. The study makes both theoretical and practical contributions.

In the EU and especially in Germany, public procurement is bound to a tight legislation that also sets and enforces strategic goals such as innovation or sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether different archetypes of public procurement organizations (centralized or decentralized; state-level or local-level) perceive and implement strategic goals differently. A survey with data from 104 entities is used for this purpose. The findings reveal that the implementation of strategy is different in centralized or state-level organizations compared with decentralized or local organizations. Centralized organizations give goals such as innovation, transparency, and sustainability a high priority, while local ones highlight regional development and SME support

This paper is concerned with the potential role of elected members in the UK local government strategic procurement process. Strategic procurement and the best value regime are discussed. A working definition of strategic procurement in local government is then provided. The rationale for councils to review member involvement in strategic procurement follows. Observations from action learning case studies are discussed prior to proposals being offered as to what might represent appropriate new roles for elected members in the UK local government strategic procurement process.

While the need for strategic alignment in public management has been recognized, there is a lack of conceptual clarity to support its application in practice. Focusing on the specific field of public procurement, this paper clarifies and illustrates how the concept of strategic alignment can be applied when strategizing the public procurement process.

The current literature on strategic alignment in public procurement is critically reviewed to identify ambiguities that hamper its application in practice. Based on this review, an analytical framework is developed that conceptualizes strategic alignment as that between the procurement instruments used in a sourcing project and the corresponding higher-level strategies. The framework is empirically illustrated by applying it in a case study that reconstructs the procurement strategy for an innovation project

Strategic alignment in the public procurement process can be demonstrated by identifying, explicating and logically linking reasoning and trade-off decisions on competing priorities across multiple levels and dimensions of strategy

Although creating alignment between policy and public procurement practice is generally held to be important in the public management literature, it is only discussed on high levels of abstraction. This paper provides clarity by investigating alignment in greater detail.

Efficient and effective knowledge transfer is important in complex building renovation projects. The addition of sustainability requirements in building renovation adds complexity. This paper aims to investigate the development of innovative public procurement schemes to support sustainable building renovation projects. These blueprints for procurement innovation can support similar efforts in other countries.

This study is based on a longitudinal case study using interviews with primary stakeholders and workshops with industry practitioners to supplement the analysis of public tender documents from the Danish public building clients.

The key tenants of the Danish model for strategic partnerships are a single strategic partner, systematic conflict resolution, framework agreements, risk management and joint educational programs. Three phases in the development of the procurement scheme are identified: experiment, definition and replication.

Strategic partnerships and other types of relational contract schemes are not very prevalent in most countries. How these contracts are developed and defined is not well understood. This paper shows how one such contracting scheme is developed, how it is defined and replicated.

E‐auctions have had a big impact on procurement over the past decade. Despite the benefits, there has been well documented resistance to this procurement medium. There is a need to understand factors which influence motivation to use and attitude towards e‐auctions, in order to facilitate practitioners' ability to develop and adapt e‐auctions into an effective procurement tool. This paper seeks to address this issue.

A model of the inter‐relationships between e‐auction drivers is derived from an analysis of the literature. Data from a sample of senior procurement professionals across several industry sectors were collected by online questionnaire and a structural equation model was fitted using PLS.

The study reveals that e‐auction use for procurement is motivated by building relationships with suppliers and not solely as a means of optimising prices of goods and services. Where attitude towards e‐auction use is negative, this is mainly driven by a strategic approach to procurement.

Nowhere in the extant literature has there been a study on the impact of how the organisational role of procurement by the organisation impacts e‐auctions use and attitudes. Furthermore, by distinguishing between motivations for using e‐auctions and attitudes towards them, procurement professionals are found to have a negative attitude to e‐auctions, but at the same time their motivations for using them are significantly linked to building relationships with their suppliers. This suggests that the potential of e‐auctions as a powerful procurement tool is being realised, but as yet has not been fully developed and implemented. The implications are that procurement managers should focus on developing the use of e‐auctions in a more strategic way to maximise both their effectiveness and the investment in them for the longer term.

This paper aims to demonstrate how public procurement can be strategic.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted following the protocol from Pagani, Kovaleski and Resende (2015), called Methodi Ordinatio, to select the relevant literature on this topic. The analysis of papers selected was carried out following the procedures of categorical content analysis (Bardin, 1977).

In all, 68 full papers were analyzed from Science Direct and Web of Science. The results present the main characteristics of publications analyzed and the authors propose some categories of strategic practices related to public procurement that are in turn related to: sustainability, partnerships and supplier management, information systems and technology and other issues.

The main limitations of this paper are: the publication period considered of the articles selected is from January 2012 to March 2017; the databases Science Direct and Web of Science are selected as the sources of articles; the Methodi Ordinatio is used as the basic protocol of the SLR and, consequently, the inclusion and exclusion criteria described in the steps of the protocol are used.

Showing how the public procurement can be strategic, this paper highlights the benefits of best procurement practices; similarly, it highlights those practices adopted by the private sector, which can highly contribute to the creation of value in public services that are aligned with the concept of obtaining “the best value for money”.

The incorporation of strategic practices in public procurement can result in the best expenditure of public resources and the reduction of corruption in the process of procurement.

This paper contributes to synthesize the knowledge on strategic procurement, a topic exploited by few people in the public organizations. It differentiates from other literature reviews already published, considering that these studies do not deal, specifically, with public procurement and, also, do not use protocols of SLR. Moreover, this paper indicates a future agenda of research, which can aid researchers and practitioners acting in this field of knowledge.

The increasing global competition, worldwide economic and political uncertainities, and continuously changing dynamics in business environment require companies act differently and differentiate via smart strategies in order to have sustainable operations, growth, and profitability. Therefore, firms should be more agile, creative, and adaptive in planning and strategizing their mid- to long-term business objectives.

In that regard, for the last decade globally many firms across all industries seek opportunities to utilize benefits of digitalization. Lately, COVID-19 has also accelerated companies' efforts and investments in digital platforms.

Today, supply chain and procurement functions are expected to have a strategic role for organizations contributing to management decisions. The digital transformation in procurement is promising to enhance and lean the total workflow of operations. Data analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging digital technologies are all highly powerful tools supporting strategic supply and supplier management, providing predictability for demand planning as well as value-based negotiation power to buyers.

On the other hand, there are still challenges and conflicts throughout this transformation process. Level of technological maturity, infrastructure and investment decisions, expertise and competency of procurement professionals, cultural adaptation, and compliance of related stakeholders are some of the key barriers that are addressed with a unique model in this chapter.

Digital era offers a lot of advantages to firms to improve their procurement facilities and practices while it may still take time both for the technologies to fully evolve and also for companies to adapt and embrace digitalization on their benefit.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze e-procurement in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its relationship with top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing and the effect of e-procurement on performance (procurement performance and business performance).

The hypotheses were tested using a sample of 199 managers from SMEs in manufacturing.

The results indicated a significant relationship between e-procurement in SMEs and top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing. Similarly, the authors found a positive relationship between e-procurement and procurement process performance and business performance.

The findings stress to SME managers, the need to pay attention to top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing when implementing e-procurement. Similarly, it provides evidence of the benefits of e-procurement on procurement process performance and business performance.

This study fills a gap in the literature regarding e-procurement in SMEs and its impact on performance. SMEs constitute a significant part of today’s economies and e-procurement can significantly impact the performance of these organizations.