A proposal for research in Purchasing and Supply Management

This working paper is intended to present to the research community the first edition of a research project focused on Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM), namely the International Purchasing Survey (IPS). IPS is designed to investigate on a world basis how companies define their purchasing strategies, what are their purchasing skills and capabilities, how the purchasing activities are carried on and what is the effect on performances. Moreover, we aim at setting up a permanent data collection program in several countries to establish a common database regarding the purchasing function that can be used for research purposes over years. This project is the result of a proficient collaboration among many partner universities: the research team listed below jointly designed the research framework and methodology and is currently committed in starting the data collection. The paper is organized as follows: after an introduction to the research idea, we provide a literature review on PSM functional to the project scope. Afterwards, research framework, objectives and the chosen methodology are described. At the end, we conduct an overview of open research streams and future developments.