CONTINGENCY FACTORS OF PURCHASING – A CONCEPTUAL MODEL TO SUPPORT PROCUREMENT DECISIONS

Abstract

Because of serious changes in environment, it is vital to ensure continuous supply. It is thus necessary to analyse business processes such as procurement in-depth to determine whether any tool exists to help in decision-making. The key objective of this study is to support more conscious management of the purchasing area based on the literature and professional knowledge gathered (by qualitative research methods) at five multinational and large companies over the course of two decades. This paper therefore defines a conceptual model that depicts the complex environment of procurement, synthesising its features and identifying factors as forces and drivers. The developed model identifies four forces – requestors, suppliers, internal and external rules – and four drivers – strategies, IT solutions, cross-functional integration and supplier management. The resulting model could guide scholars and practitioners in how to identify deficiencies, and it can support its audience in analysing, managing and increasing the strengths of procurement.