Purchasing's strategic irrelevance

Abstract

The resource based perspective (RBP) is an area within strategy theory dealing with the effects of resources and their management on company financial performance. One sub-set of the RBP literature deals with the effects of resources on strategic performance through the generation of competitive advantage. This paper explores the implications of the RBP for purchasing and its potential contribution to sustainable competitive advantage. It is concluded that purchasing typically has no significant strategic role to play, and that the function's activities are operational in nature.