European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management最新文献

Supply chain management often requires the integration of inter- and intra-organizational relationships and coordination of different types of flows within the entire supply chain structure. Inter-company integration and coordination via information technology has become a key to improved supply chain performance. Recent advances in information technology enable firms to manage effectively and inexpensively the coordination of not only the physical flow of materials but also the flow of different types of information such as demand, capacity, inventory, and scheduling, through a supply chain. Despite its importance, little attention has been given in the literature to the issue of measuring the magnitude and the effectiveness of available information that logistics information systems provide. This study provides a generic measure to show how well or to what degree a firm is integrated or “coupled” with the members of its supply chain structure from an information flow system perspective. The measure, called degree of supply chain coupling (DSCC), is a 2-tuple index which takes into account both the intensity and extent to which information about demand, capacity, inventory, and scheduling is shared and used by the firm in both directions of the supply chain. We indicate several productive practical uses of the DSCC measure at both macro and micro levels.

The overall purpose of this research was to analyze internal communication patterns, service quality initiatives, supplier management strategies and internal performance in organizations providing high levels of service quality to their external customers. Data was collected from 118 purchasing executives of manufacturing and service organizations. Respondents were asked to assess external and internal service quality as well as identify a number of internal service quality-oriented activities employed in their firms. Data was summarized for respondents stating a high level of external service quality. Comparative information was also supplied for the respondents stating lower levels of external service quality.

The findings of a survey into the outsourcing activities of large organisations in the Edinburgh and Lothian region of Scotland are reported in this paper. The aim was to carry out a study of outsourcing activity against a theoretical framework of practice and problems derived from the literature. It was found that 70% of the organisations outsourced at least one activity, with cleaning, maintenance, catering, security, and manufacturing/operations being the most common areas, the principal motivation being to improve the quality and cost of the activity outsourced. The criteria used for selecting outsourcing contractors were mainly reputation, cost, previous contacts and technical capability. The main benefits of outsourcing were reduced costs, improved quality of service, increased management focus on core activities, and access to new capabilities. The main problems with outsourcing were loss of control, poor supplier management and problems with confidentiality and opportunist exploitation by supplier. This research was supported by Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Ltd.

This paper will discuss the concept of relationship development. It will argue that whilst existing literature focuses on an economic power relationship this is incorrect. The focus should be based on a concentration on the trade off between the level of dependency that a firm is prepared to accept, compared to the level of certainty that they perceive to be realistic.

The paper will explore the literature on relationship management and will take several established frameworks and argue that whilst they have substantial merit their focus is not helpful to relationship implementation and management. A conceptual model is presented which provides a different way of viewing relationships using the theoretical concept of ‘game theory’. This paper suggests that relationships are processes and not entities. As such the unit of analysis should be at the product, service or commodity level and not at the firm level. The approach suggested whilst conceptual, has been developed from several years of research with a variety of firms across a range of industries; some case studies will be used to illustrate the applicability of the framework.

Business-to-business (B2B) marketsites are quickly becoming one of the major issues for companies in their search for opportunities to improve visibility of their trading activities and sources of further cost reduction. The paper begins with a synthesis of potential benefits resulting from participation in marketsites and then provides a number of initial classifications of marketsites. The paper then introduces some of the major inhibitors and enablers of marketsites and views these from a number of perspectives such as the structure of marketsites, the degree of centricity and the types of products purchased through such marketsites. Finally, some recommendations for further research are made.