Purchasing and supply management in an industrial marketing perspective

This paper reflects on purchasing & supply management (PSM) research in an industrial marketing perspective, using Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) as a proxy. A systematic review of IMM papers is conducted, demonstrating that a large and growing number of PSM papers have been published in IMM and that a large proportion of these rely on the IMP Interaction Approach as theoretical perspective. The paper discusses themes of PSM research and proposes three avenues of future PSM research for industrial marketing scholars: 1) theorizing on the concept of supply networks, 2) revisiting the notion of managing supply networks and 3) debating established “best practices” in PSM. The proposal is therefore to dedicate more research to develop further theory on supply networks and how to manage within supply networks, because there is a surprising lack of conceptual clarity as to the meaning of supply networks and the notion of managing supply networks. The paper argues that as increasing supply network complexity and risks, especially concerning sustainability, requires new thinking about how best to influence and manage supply networks.