Monday 15 December 2014

Purchasing within SMEs - IPSERA 2014 Abstract


 A Conceptual Model & Analytical Framework for Studying
                                          Purchasing & Supply Management within SMEs

The central objective of this conceptual paper is to gain a better understanding under what circumstances purchasing and supply activities within Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are managed.
Purchasing & Supply Management (PSM) within SMEs differs from that in large enterprises. SMEs have different organisational settings and are not small versions of large enterprises. Whilst there is abundant literature on SMEs as well as on PSM, there is only little literature on PSM within SMEs. PSM research within SMEs must consider specific characteristics such as informal organisation, less specialization in business functions and less available resources. SME management focuses more on the overall operations and less on specific business functions. Their approach to inward-bound purchasing and supply activities is often holistic; their approach to outward-bound purchasing and supply activities is characterized by a relative dependent position in supply chains.
This paper proposes a conceptual model to explain the relationship between the governance of purchasing and supply activities and their purchasing and supply performance. The paper adopts the Transaction Cost Theory (TCT) with levels of integration to describe five governance types. To explain the relation between these governance types and performance, the paper includes the TCT-related moderating variables general uncertainty (macro and meso environment) and asset specificity (meso environment). It also introduces the moderating variables SME characteristics and management characteristics and business model. From this conceptual model the paper then develops an analytical framework which describes the five governance types and the circumstances under which they are ideal-typically sustained.  This framework can be used as a segmentation tool.
The conceptual model and analytical framework combine different domains of literature to enhance the understanding of the different forms of purchasing and supply activities within an SME context. Combining these different domains gives beneficial insights that cannot be found in the separate literature domains. In the empirical research the applying model and framework will enable the design of management instruments. Hence this paper forms a starting point for our purchasing and supply management research within SMEs aimed at supporting SMEs in their performance. (Back to posting).

This competitive paper was presented at the IPSERA 2014 conference in South Africa. 
Authors:  Dr. Geoffrey Hagelaar, Professor in Purchasing and Supply Management at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle (NL), email j.hagelaar@windesheim.nl. Mr. Anne Staal BEng MA DMS MBA, PhD researcher at Auckland University of Technology in Auckland (NZ) and senior lecturer at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, (NLD), email astaal@aut.ac.nz. Mobile phone: 0064 22 38 944 62. (AUT City Campus; WD209; 55-57 Wellesley Street Auckland 1010 New Zealand), corresponding author. Mr. Richard Holman, Assistant Professor in Purchasing & Supply Management at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, (NL), email rdp.holman@windesheim.nl. Mr. Gert Walhof MBA, Professor in Purchasing Management at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen (NL), email g.h.walhof@pl.hanze.nl. The research is supported by theDutch  NEVI Research Foundation.

Kiwi XMAs and our PhD journey


Time really flies when we are having fun. Our second KIWI Xmas is now approaching fast. The family and the PhD have both been on a fast-lane lately. Sibren reached the finals with his Belmont Intermediate water-polo team; Edsard survived a set of daunting rugby matches & Aletta is busy working in Devonport Pharmacy. Guess they are all having great fun although Edsard decided to switch from rugby to sailing or to football. Which I can quite understand.

We are busily planning our first KIWI walkabout in the holiday season – Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier, Rotorua and Hobbiton with our Honda Honnepon. The boys and I have been sailing in the Hauraki Gulf in our Hokie-Pokie, our 40+ year trailer sailor. She’s a fair-weather Magnum 20 and the crew is a fair-weather crew. (So not exactly as on the famous picture). We will sail around Waihiki island during the first part of our Xmas break. To me the Hauraki seems like the best sailing water in the world. Beautiful islands all over, a blazing sun and water with the distinct colour of old Roman glass. Good water for swimming, snorkeling and fishing.
Teaching-wise has been quite busy as well. I lectured Asset & Facilities Management for 30-odd AUT postgrad students from the Master in Construction Management or Master in Engineering Project Management. Students said they very much enjoyed the classes and the interaction with Facilities Management practitioners. More or less in parallel I ran FMANZ master classes. Both the Built Asset & Facilities paper and the FMANZ master classes will continue to run in 2015. I really love the interaction and discussions in the class room – and always learn some new things myself. Moreover I met quite some nice people! (We feel less like a tourist now-a-days, but more like a Dutch Kiwi).
Our Dutch research on procurement within SMEs makes steady progress. Our IPSERA paper was ranked TOP 10 (see abstract) at the IPSERA 2014 conference. Unfortunately the paper was not accepted for publication in the Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management. The up-side is that we gained some valuable feedback which we use for the next phase of our Dutch case study research and the upcoming Delphi study, which have both been planned in 2015.

 My own PhD research has of course taken most of my time & efforts. In November I submitted my doctoral research proposal (PGR9 in good AUT jargon) to my supervisors which both signed the beast off. Hence I will present and defend my proposal on 28 January 2015. I guess I am on schedule but condensing an 80 page text back to 20 pages was quite some work. Nevertheless writing a shorter text sharpened the structure, and also sharpened my thoughts on research design and topic. The research title now is: Procurement of non-incremental sustainable technology innovations - the case of entrepreneurial firms supplying the New Zealand construction industry.

I will present this research proposal as a conceptual paper at the upcoming entrepreneurship ACERE conference (Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Exchange) in Adelaide Australia.
For any European blog-readers: this is a 5-hour flight to a totally different country. Again palm trees, but then also roos and bears.
I hope to learn as much at the upcoming ACERE as I did at the past IPSERA conference, and meet lots of nice and interesting people. As I will return the 8th of February, I will also bring some birthday gifts home for both Aletta and Edsard. They both have their birthday on that same day.

But first we will have our second KIWI Xmas. Without snow, slate, cold rain, slippery roads, and dark wet-windy evenings. To a certain extent we will miss that good old Dutch feeling. However, we hope to compensate that with a traditional KIWI XMAS beach pick-nick.

The Staal-family-downunder wishes you a good 2015!

Abstract for ACERE 2015 conference


Traditionally construction industries in New Zealand and abroad have a low track record for successful sustainable innovations. This has a negative impact on private and government spending, and on quality, society and the environment.
This conceptual paper posits that the construction industry needs non-incremental (i.e. architectural, system, radical, modular) sustainable technology innovations to make drastic improvements. Such innovations often come from entrepreneurial (small) firms from other industries or at the beginning of supply chains and must be procured and adopted further into such chains. However, after an extensive literature review it remains unclear how entrepreneurial firms procure non-incremental sustainable technology innovations for the construction industry. The paper focuses on procurement activities of entrepreneurial firms in the New Zealand context. These activities interact with (internal and external) innovation activities for an optimal firm performance. They are affected by clusters of internal and external variables.
The ACERE paper discusses extant literature, a conceptual framework, main propositions, research aims and the choice for a focus group method.  The picture below shows the current conceptual framework with dominant variables as found in literature. These will be tested in alternating rounds of focus group studies and case studies. The research is part of a doctoral project. (Back to XMAS post).