Integration of the buyer–supplier interface for Global sourcing

Lydia Bals () and Virpi Turkulainen
Additional contact information
Lydia Bals: Mainz University of Applied Sciences
Virpi Turkulainen: Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences

Operations Management Research, 2021, vol. 14, issue 3, No 4, 293-317

Abstract: Abstract While global sourcing often implies that the firm needs to, for example, redesign the procurement organization and make decisions on what to centralize and what to manage locally, global sourcing also has direct implications for management of the buyer–supplier interface. This study takes an organization design focus and addresses global sourcing organization design as well as provides illustrations on how to integrate the buyer–supplier interface for global sourcing. Integration is conceptualized as coordination and cooperation. The paper is based on an embedded unit case study of a global technical industrial product and service systems provider, TechInd (pseudonym). Data was collected from TechInd as well as from six of its suppliers. The findings indicate that the global sourcing organization structure, as well as the differences in the buyer’s sourcing and supplier’s sales organizations, pose requirements for management of the interface in terms of coordination and cooperation. Challenges arising particularly due to differences in geographical scope and level of centralization can be managed by introducing the key account role and alignment of incentives.

Keywords: Global sourcing; Buyer–supplier relationship; Integration; Organizational design; Case study; Project-based operations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12063-021-00205-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:opmare:v:14:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s12063-021-00205-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/12063

DOI: 10.1007/s12063-021-00205-z

Access Statistics for this article

Operations Management Research is currently edited by Jan Olhager and Scott Shafer

More articles in Operations Management Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().