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The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences in preferred supplier choice criteria between food purchasing agents who focus on supplier security and those that do not. Specifically, this research determines the relationship between purchasing agents’ supplier security preferences and their preferences for product quality, delivery reliability, price, and supplier location. The influence of international sourcing on demand for increased supplier security is also explored.

Choice-based conjoint analysis with hierarchical Bayes (HB) estimation and t-tests are used to assess and compare the utility food purchasing managers derive from different supplier attributes.

Purchasing managers that place a higher priority on security when choosing suppliers were willing to pay suppliers a higher price and receive lower levels of delivery reliability in return for higher security but placed less emphasis on suppliers’ product quality. Firms that source internationally do not have a significantly greater preference for advanced supplier security. However, purchasing managers that value supplier security were more likely to source internationally, potentially indicating that security allows for global sourcing by mitigating the increased vulnerability inherent to sourcing abroad.

This research was limited by its focus on the food industry and a relatively small sample size.

This work illustrated that food purchasing managers can be segmented by the emphasis they place on security. Food industry managers will find results useful in formulating their future service offerings with respect to security and other supplier choice criteria.

This is one of few works investigating security as a supplier choice criterion and utilizing HB estimation of choice-based conjoint data.

Procurement by executing agencies, statutory organisations or departments in developing countries responsible for procurement against aid‐funded projects, has received little attention from academic researchers. This study found that executing agencies’ buying decisions are primarily influenced by economic criteria, with most emphasis on price and timely delivery. The reliability of the supplier is the next most important aspect. Suppliers need to design their offers to these organisational buyers, with due consideration of these criteria. Along with these, the offer also needs to project the supplier's proven ability to supply quality products.

China′s foreign trade and investment policies have appeared more attractive to Western marketers in recent years. China presents an opportunity for huge market potential and rapid growth for American multinational firms. However, Western marketers have only limited knowledge about Chinese purchasing decision making, particularly the supplier selection and evaluation criteria of Chinese purchasing managers. Highlights six key criteria of supplier selection and describes the responses of a sample of Chinese purchasing managers. Segments the respondents into three clusters, based on similarities in their supplier evaluation processes and differentiates these clusters in terms of whether the managers emphasize reliable deliveries, price/cost considerations, or product quality. While these findings are of a preliminary nature, they reveal that service/responsiveness of a supplier is not a high priority as opposed to purchasing managers in Western industrialized countries. As China moves rapidly towards a market economy, many Chinese purchasing managers will require suppliers to improve their responsiveness, given comparable levels of price and quality. An understanding of this transition will help Western marketers to enhance their market positions in China.

To investigate the influence of supplier‐performance criteria on importers' decisions to repurchase from the same source, in the context of wine‐importing.

Selection criteria were derived from the literature and preliminary discussion with importers. Hypotheses were formulated, linking criteria and performance attributes to post‐purchase re‐buying intentions. Data were collected by self‐completion questionnaire from 152 UK‐based wine importers, and analysed by multiple regression.

Supplier performance with respect to relationship commitment, payment facilities and product quality has a positive impact on repurchase intentions; the influence of price and brand recognition was found to be insignificant.

The study was limited geographically and by questioning only importers. Future study should investigate relevant behaviour across a wider spread of countries, business types, decision parameters and external variables, and collect data from exporters as well as importers.

It is concluded that suppliers should focus strategy on all the decision‐criteria investigated in the study, rather than on the narrow base typically found in practice. Exporters should nurture strong relationships with importers, emphasise consistent product quality, and offer flexible payment arrangements. Branding is a route forward, and price will be an issue in the highly competitive UK market.

This is the first study to empirically test the effect of suppliers‐performance criteria on importers' repurchase intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to present a four‐phase dynamic feedback model for supply partner selection in agile supply chains (ASCs). ASCs are commonly used as a response to increasingly dynamic markets. However, partner selection in ASCs is inherently more complex and difficult under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity as supply chains form and re‐form.

The model draws on both quantitative and qualitative techniques, including the Dempster‐Shafer and optimisation theories, radial basis function artificial neural networks (RBF‐ANN), analytic network process‐mixed integer multi‐objective programming (ANP‐MIMOP), Kraljic's supplier classification matrix and principles of continuous improvement. It incorporates modern computer programming techniques to overcome the information processing difficulties inherent in selecting from amongst large numbers of potential suppliers against multiple criteria in conditions of uncertainty.

The model enables decision makers to make efficient and effective use of the vastly increased amount of data that is available in today's information‐driven society and it offers a comprehensive, systematic and rigorous approach to a complex problem.

The model has two main drawbacks. First, practitioners may find it difficult to match supplier evaluation criteria with the strategic objectives for an ASC. Second, they may perceive the model to be too complex for use when speed is of the essence.

The main contribution of this paper is that, for the first time, it draws together work from previous articles that have described each of the four stages of the model in detail to present a comprehensive overview of the model.

To propose a framework for purchasing and outsourcing decisions together with a process model for evaluating and assessing possible suppliers. The paper focuses in particular on the “planning” and “qualifying” phases of the process which, respectively, set the criteria and prepare a shortlist for invitations, before the final selection.

By reference to the literature, past experience and a priori reasoning, a conceptual framework and quantitative model are combined in a checklist to guide responsible managers through a formal, systematic decision‐making procedure.

The model is fully described, its strengths and weaknesses are discussed, and the modus operandi of the derived decision‐making framework is explained. The system and process are strongly advocated as the most appropriate instrument for the selection of suppliers of outsourced products and services in the contemporary business environment.

The system suffers to an extent from one of its defining strengths: relative simplicity, which may limit its applicability in more complex situations. This emphasises the importance of the procedures undertaken in the “qualification” phase. Assigning evaluative values codes to the various decision parameters involves a good deal of subjectivity, which could lead to misguided decisions. Further research and development is needed.

The advocated selection offers outsourcing decision makers a structured and systematic selection framework, which does not compromise their own professionalism, but rather encourages imagination, innovation, investigation and opinion based on critical observation. Its potential applicability covers the full range of industry sectors, beyond the outsourcing of product and component manufacture which have been the focus of the great majority of published studies.

The paper examines a widely investigated “hot topic” that is in fact surrounded by confusion and misunderstanding. It focuses on aspects of outsourcing practice that have so far attracted little attention from researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to study if the performance history impacts supplier selection in the French public sector context. While French public procurement legislation forbids consideration of the past contract wins in supplier selection, public contractors may still rely on contract win history for highly complex transactions.

Using French Official Journals (BOAMP), the authors collected all public procurement transactions of 976 suppliers that had at least one transaction per year, over a period of six years (between 2006 and 2011). The authors conducted a two-level hierarchical linear auto-regression analysis and a feature evaluation analysis for all transactions.

The paper finds significant variation between the transactions of different markets, as well as in the overall positive impact of past wins and in the detailed impact patterns and thresholds of each market. The findings may allow refinement of existing contract awarding strategies and of current legislation.

The paper aims at empirically testing whether a supplier’s degree of success in any given year, measured by the number of public contracts won, may have an impact on the likelihood that the same supplier is awarded a public contract the following year. The authors conclude that suppliers retained for public contracts could benefit from building public buyers’ loyalty using a key account selling approach rather than systematically seeking to acquire new contracts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the various supplier selections construct impacts on firm’s operational competitive capability as well as an overall performance from a developing country’s environment.

Structural equation modeling was used to study the relationship between supplier selection criteria, competitive operational capabilities and overall organizational performance using survey of informants.

In this work, the authors demonstrate that an effective supplier selection will lead to an enhanced competitive capability of the buying firm. Specifically, the authors show that selecting suppliers based on quality will lead to an improved quality of the buying firm, service will lead to improved delivery time and supplier strategic fit will lead to reduced cost, improved delivery time and improved flexibility of the buying firm. Furthermore, the buying firm competitive operational capabilities in terms of improved delivery time will lead overall performance from the Ghanaian business environment. The results indicate no significant difference between the manufacturing and service sectors.

The results indicate the relevance and the implications of the various supplier selection criteria from a developing country’s environment such as Ghana.

The research shows how supplier selection criteria should be structured to enhance operational competitive capabilities and overall performance of the buying firm.

The work illustrates and provides some insights and build on the literature in the area of supply selection strategies from a developing country’s environment.

Examines alternate segmentation strategies in the standard industrial products market. Using data obtained from 164 Indian industrial buyers, provides several empirical tests of a widely held belief that traditional segmentation approaches may serve as effective surrogate measures for distinct benefit segments. Results suggest that the link between traditional and benefit segmentation approaches are far weaker than might be expected. There is no strong empirical evidence supporting the proposition that benefit segments derived from cluster analysis are dependent on sales volume, industry type, characteristics of purchasing agents, and other potential correlates of benefit segments. The findings have implications for both academics and practitioners in industrial marketing.

Discusses a proposed model which presents various possible modes of behaviour during the implementation of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) and highlighting different interaction approaches between suppliers and users of technological innovation. Presents three models of interaction processes covering different technological settings and argues for their limited applicability in the context of AMT innovation. Discusses the proposed model and its applicability to a wide range of organisational settings and covering different types of technological systems of varying degrees of complexity. The model is based on a comprehensive research project. This is based on empirical evidence originating from the study of 30 organisations representing ten suppliers and 20 users. By scrutinising the various modes of interaction during the implementation of various technological innovations, various key factors have been highlighted, which are thought to be influential in the degree of success or otherwise for the implementation of AMT. In all, seven different types of innovation were scrutinised, including: plastics injection moulding machines; CNC machines; computerised information systems; flexible manufacturing systems; material handling and supply; CADCAM; automated control systems.