Sustainable purchasing role in the development of business

Abstract

A general preoccupation of many local companies is to design and implement sustainable strategies. In this context, managers are seeking to identify the potential of different factors to facilitate the effective integration of sustainability into their business practices. In the present paper, we clarify the sustainable purchasing concept and we analyse this activity run within several corporations from the local banking field, IT&C and pharma. The literature review served as a basis for an empirical investigation among local large organizations. The methods used were in-depth bibliographic documentation, companies’ analysis and semi-structured interviews performed with purchasing heads. The result of the research confirms the important role of the purchasing activity and shows us how this field can contribute to a sustainable development of business. Despite the general interest and the motivation to use sustainable principles, effective incorporation of sustainable purchasing principles into business practices may encounter some obstacles, raising the need for more research.