The trend in the outsourcing of services is gathering pace. This presents significant challenges for purchasing professionals. The management of these complex interactions is crucial to their on-going success, yet there is little guidance on what facilitates or indeed inhibits the effective and...

This paper seeks to examine the link between the academic debates on obligation contracting and its successful implementation as a mode of governance. The literature reports that firms are increasingly entering into long‐term, high dependency exchanges as a result of: increased demand for...

This paper extends previous literature on the greening of supply chains by giving explicit consideration to two main areas – the role of risk, and the motives for undertaking different sorts of environment‐related supplier initiatives. A model is presented which describes the extent and type...

Purpose – Aims to prove that a firm's perception of the strategic nature of supply depends on how it defines its competitive advantage within the marketplace. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a random stratified cross‐sectional design from 142 large manufacturing...

Purpose – In the last decade there have been dramatic impacts on, and changes within, the field of purchasing/supply management. Given supply management's new strategic role, this research seeks to examine the key skills and knowledge necessary for firms to improve in order to maximize the...