TO ALL:
with either an interest in New Zealand;
purchasing/procurement; disruptive innovations; or managing a PhD; to all good friends, good
colleagues, professionals/researchers.
Where to begin this blog?
My family and I are making a journey. We started from a
cosy village in Northern part of The Netherlands, flew around the globe and settled
in Auckland New Zealand. We love the climate and the relaxed way of living.
What would we want more: a nice &
clean (though small) house, a bay view with only 200 mtrs from the Takapuna beach
& cliffs & islands, and the stunning Hauraki Gulf.
Kiwis are a friendly folk, and Auckland is full of friendly
folk from all over the world. Not a bad
place to live and to study. We hope to
make many trips with our old Honda 4WD (nicknamed Honnepon, which means sweetheart in Dutch) and long strolls
along the beach.
Parallel to this physical journey I started my journey on
my PhD.
In fact this journey had started much earlier, somewhere
in 2009. At that time I was lecturing undergraduates at Stenden University on what
we had coined “Green Logistics”. When our students calculated the milage of an
average food basket, we realised that big improvements on sustainability would
take a long time. A step-by-step approach seemed most feasible (and more convenient).
Later-on at the Institute of Facility Management of Hanze University I became more involved in applied purchasing and supply research supervised by Professor Gert Walhof.
My focal area was (and still is) on: How
small firms (SMEs) can improve their purchasing capabilities.
We conducted some interesting case-studies, read some articles and soon realised that this purchasing research area was both relevant to business and new to academics. (See publications of Paik, Ellegaard, Ramsey, Pressey, Morressey).
In 2012 I attended the IFPSM PhD Summer School in
Salzburg. (As a matter of fact: now listening
to Mozart while writing this blog). This was a mind-breaking experience with a good mixture of experienced professors and ambitious PhD students. I
had prepared a powerpoint presentation on “How do small firms (SMEs) purchase
innovations”.
However my most important two slides where the famous quote
from Alice in Wonderland: If you do not know where you are going – any
road will take you there. And the poem of Robert Frost on Two roads diverged in a wood … And I did not
know which one to take….
I came back in Holland exhausted, but then knew I wanted
to start a PhD.
I received a good lot of support from many people within the Hanze University. In late November 2012 my wife Aletta and I flew to Australia &
New Zealand where I discussed PhD possibilities at a number of great
universities. Nice weather, interesting people, good
discussions.
My subject was by then narrowed down to: “How do SMEs purchase
patented innovations”. My research proposal
was later reviewed at the WION, the annual Dutch workshop on academic purchasing
research. (People were more enthousiastic than I was at the moment, my proposal arriving at its 10th version). The WION is a wonderful environment to discuss research with colleagues.
In May 2013 Professor John Tookey of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) invited me to submit a (yet amended) research
proposal more focused on sustainable innovations in the New Zealand construction industry,
which got accepted. My research will [somehow] relate to current SME purchasing research conducted at Hanze University
and Windesheim University as sponsored by the Dutch Purchasing Association
NEVI.
Meanwhile (still somewhat to my own surprise) the pieces of the
jigsaw puzzle came together as my Hanze dean mr. Ron van der Weerd arranged funding by Hanze
University, and as John Tookey arranged a scholarship. Together with the family
savings this allowed the four of us to walkabout to New Zealand. (Kiwis: sorry for this nice Australian
phrase).
We have said good bye to all our good friends, family,
colleagues. Departed our save Dutch harbour and landed up North Shore. The
academic weather is fine; with some good sailing winds for e.g. editing our South Africa IPSERA
paper and reading interesting stuff. Lots and Lots of PhD-things to do in the coming 36
months. My (current) research question:
“What is the role
of procurement on disruptive waste-reducing innovations in
small New Zealand construction
firms?”
With this research I hope to give a better understanding of
the adoption of radical innovations in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The context is the currently booming New Zealand construction industry. After my literature research I intend to conduct a survey amongst SME owners/users of (non)-patented radical waste-reducing innovations. Being mode II innovations I will also scan other stakeholders and hope to conduct (action-research) case studies. Meanwhile I will draw parallells to NZ and e.g. Dutch practices. I plan to conclude my PhD in the end of 2016.
My next 400-word blogs could cover some thoughts &
ideas on:
Dec: Rigor and
relevance in academic research.
Jan: Purchasing in Small
firms / SMEs.
Feb: Purchasing in
Holland; versus procurement in New Zealand.
Mch: Procurement in
Construction Industry.
Apr: Innovation with(out)
procurement.
May: On IPSERA in
South Africa.
Jun: Purchasing / Procurement Education.
etc.
In parallel we run a Dutch language family blog called
Staaltjesdownunder.
Hope you enjoy reading my blog. Look forward to your comments!
Best regards
Anne Staal
The synergy between these two streams of research and my PhD
may seem obvious. However this synergy is limited by the variety of SMEs and the exact
research questions. There is much we have yet to learn about SME procurement,
let alone how SMEs procure innovations, let alone how (SME) construction firms
procure green-tech innovations. I see green-tech innovations quite broadly, for example product innovations used in New Zealand Prefab construction, or innovations from companies who are member of the NZ Green Building Council. 
Writing conference papers related to my research has been prolific during 2015. In October I
presented my research design at the conference Understanding Small Enterprises
(USE 2015) which was hosted by my Dutch Hanze University of Applied Sciences.
In February 2016 I will present a paper at the conference Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Exchange (ACERE 2016) in Brisbane on how to
design procurement management tools for SMEs. The ACERE again promises to be a relevant and an interesting conference. (Both papers will also be published via the AUT
researchgateway.ac.nz in FEB 2016). 
For my PhD I am currently conducting interviews with experts
& professionals here in Auckland. These interviews so far reveal some interesting
procurement practices one would not always expect in relatively small
companies. But then these companies are perhaps front-runners in how they
manager their suppliers for successful innovations. Such topics will be
discussed with more experts and professionals during a round-table discussion
at the AUT. This discussion will be done in a specific setting, also called world(research) café. The planning is to organize this in the 4th week
of February 2016. 