دانلود رایگان مقاله بررسی شکاف بین استراتژی ها و واقعیت روزانه

Abstract

A lot has been said about strategic purchasing: it contributes to the firm’s strategic dialogue, acquires important resources from outside the firm, and plays a vital role in the achievement of the firm’s long-term goals. Practice, however, demonstrates the difficulty of translating these intentions into daily reality. In this article, we identify the path between strategic intentions and sustained performance based on a combined quantitative and qualitative research methodology with an embedded level of analysis, including the firm and category level. The implementation of strategic purchasing leverages the liaison role of purchasing when connecting external suppliers with internal clients and ensures the development of purchasing’s learning capabilities so that results do not erode over time. We identify key pitfalls to proceeding along the path: no time for reflection, a lack of scale, a lack of scope, and unaligned incentives. Consequently, we present practical guidelines to purchasing managers for avoiding these pitfalls and developing dynamic capabilities, which are vital in times of continuous and unpredictable change.

5. Conclusions

So, can we bridge the gap between strategy and daily reality? Our final answer to this question is: ‘‘Yes, of course.’’ In this article we have demonstrated that successful companies extend beyond acknowledgment of the strategic nature of purchasing as an important antecedent of sustained performance to nurture the mediating stages of purchasing involvement and capability development. Consequently, we have mapped the path for closing the gap between strategic intention and daily reality by elaborating these mediating stages and their relationship to performance. We have identified several pitfalls, as well as recommendations for actions, based on ample empirical evidence and building upon prior literature. In times of shifting consumer demand and increased dependency on resources from outside the firm, purchasing has become a strategic function that buys these external resources and manages the associated supplierrelationships with a proactive and long-term perspective.In doing so,strategic purchasing goes beyond the search for short-term cash to building long-term capabilities.