Einkauf, Logistik und Supply Chain Management – serie

Supply management has received increased attention both in research and practice only recently. For decades, purchasing management was considered one of the least complex business functions. However, in a world of decreasing in-house value add in nearly all industries, it has become strategically critical for most companies to pay closer attention to purchasing spend. Many companies found that there is a lot more to have from suppliers than "the right goods at the right place at the right time". Several researchers investigating the transition from traditional purchasing to strategic supply management found a discrepancy between the general discussion of strategic supply management and reality in most companies. Given the well-known examples of high-performing purchasing organizations and the myriade of books both by researchers and practitioners on what good practices in supply management look like, this is an interesting observation. This dissertation investigates reasons for this discrepancy to help companies overcome the barriers of purchasing evolution. Michael Stolle combines organizational theories on organizational learning, resource-based view, and principal-agent conflicts to explain the challenges such a profound change of mindsets and culture presents. He develops a theoretical framework of purchasing evolution that shows the complex interactions of different driving factors that have to go together to make a successful transition possible. Finally, an interview-based empirical study is used to verify this framework empirically.

Die vorliegende Arbeit verbindet zwei Themen, zu denen jeder Manager oder Berater auf Grund tiefer praktischer Einblicke eine Meinung hat: Einkauf und Hotels. Jeder kennt die Aussage: „Im Einkauf liegt der Gewinn.“ Jeder versucht, bei der Hotelbuchung den besten Preis auszuhandeln. Jeder Gast hat höchste Ansprüche an Räume, Ausstattung, Servicequalität und Hotelpersonal – unabhängig vom bezahlten Preis. Dies gilt erst recht für den Hotelbesuch im gehobenen Preissegment ab 3 Sterne. Christine Schüffler beleuchtet dieses Spannungsfeld mit unmittelbarer Auswirkung auf die Profitabilität von Hotel erstmals in diesem Umfang wissenschaftlich. Die Arbeit untersucht den Status Quo von Einkauf und Supply Management in einer besonders dienstleistungsintensiven Branche – der Hotellerie in Deutschland. Basis der Arbeit ist eine empirische Untersuchung deutscher Drei- bis Fünf-Sterne-Hotels, die am Supply Management Institute (SMI) der European Business School (EBS) 2006 abgeschlossen wurde und derzeit bereits zum zweiten Mal durchgeführt wird. Ganzheitliches Supply Management gewinnt in einer Informations- und Dienstleistungsgesellschaft zunehmend weit über klassische Anwendungsfelder und Branchen hinaus an Bedeutung. In Bezug auf dienstleistungsintensive Branchen wie Tourismus oder Hotellerie wird ein Nachholbedarf bezüglich des vorhandenen und angewandten Managementwissens deutlich. Gerade moderne Methoden und strategische Ansätze in Einkauf und Supply Management werden häufig nicht hinreichend berücksichtigt – und bleiben als Effizienztreiber daher unberücksichtigt. Bisher liegen kaum empirische Untersuchungen oder theoretische Konzepte zu diesem Thema vor. Christine Schüffler bearbeitet damit ein sowohl aus Sicht der Forschung als auch aus Sicht derPraxis relevantes Thema.

Seit einigen Jahren wird in Forschung und Praxis vor dem Hintergrund der sinkenden Wertschöpfungstiefen die Weiterentwicklung des Einkaufs von Supply Management diskutiert. Um die Potenziale der externen Wertschöpfung für das Unternehmen nutzbar zu machen, rückt die Frage nach der Messung und Steuerung der Performance des Supply Managements in den Mittelpunkt des Interesses. Die Etablierung derartiger Supply Performance Measurement-Systeme stellt allerdings bislang Forschung und Praxis vor erhebliche Herausforderungen.Basierend auf der Methodik der angewandten Managementforschung entwickelt Aiko Entchelmeier einen ganzheitlichen Supply Performance Measurement-Ansatz. Hierzu erarbeitet er eine theoriebasierte Konzeption, die er anhand von ausgewählten Fallstudien mit Entwicklungen in der Unternehmenspraxis abgleicht und deren Beitrag zum Erfolg des Supply Managements er auf Basis einer empirisch-quantitativen Untersuchung nachweist. Der Autor stellt dar, wie die Leistung des Einkaufs gemessen werden sollte und zeigt auf, wie Supply Performance Measurement-Systeme entwickelt und im Unternehmen etablieren werden können.

Foreword Among researchers in the business and management disciplines, there is some kind of a common understanding that research should provide models, concepts and solutions for practical problems. In other words: research is practice-oriented and, personally, I subscribe to this maxim. Still, sometimes, it is important to pause for a moment and reflect upon one’s own activities. The present thesis is one of those comparatively few pieces of research that do so by dealing with the scientific side of research and by asking a number of questions that target at the identification of the nature of a very recent subfield within business and management, namely Supply Chain Management. In particular, the author seeks to understand the processes that characterize the evolution of Supply Chain Management research throughout the past sixteen years and reflects upon avenues for future research - feeling that SCM research seems to have come to a crossroads. The systematic reprocessing of Supply Chain Management literature and the methodologically sound approach are impressive and enable Julia Wolf to contribute a valuable component to scientific practice and debate in this area. Her work also illustrates that, in terms of philosophical underpinnings, research in Supply Chain Management is still at the very beginning and I hope that this thesis gives rise to more work of similar kind.

Foreword In today’s markets, companies face ever growing international competition, radical technological change, and increasingly demanding customers. These developments force managers to focus on core competencies and result in decreasing in-house val- add across industries. Adequate supplier selection and competent management of the supply base have thus become key firm success factors. As a consequence, purchasing and supply management (PSM) has developed into a powerful weapon for contributing to a firm’s competitive advantage along dimensions such as cost, quality, and inno- tion. Such a contribution, however, critically depends upon the alignment of purch- ing strategies and practices with the company’s overall business strategy. Only if the purchasing function supports the firm’s competitive position can it effectively improve profitability. Unfortunately, existing research still lacks both the theoretical concepts and empirical foundation to provide detailed guidance to practitioners regarding how such alignment can be achieved and what impact it should have on firm performance. The doctoral thesis presented by Christian Baier develops and tests a comprehensive model of the alignment-performance link in PSM in order to close this knowledge gap. Drawing on insights from the market-based view, the resource-based view, princip- agent theory, and contingency theory, the author derives a solid theoretical understa- ing of the relationships between business strategy and strategies and practices at the functional level. By applying the theory of production competence to the PSM context, two critical levels of alignment are identified: strategic alignment, i. e.

Peter F. Drucker, one of the world’s most influential management gurus of all times, once said that “the best way to predict the future is to create it”. In other words, those managers who systematically study the future have also the power to shape and influence the future. By the means of anticipation they can prepare for the expected as well as the unexpected which allows them to react more flexible and faster than competitors. Futures research, i.e. the interdisciplinary and systematic analysis of the future, has matured to both a theoretic- conceptual and application-oriented research discipline. In his dissertation, Dr. Heiko A. von der Gracht concentrates on its most prominent and powerful tool: the scenario technique. The future of the logistics service industry is characterised by many upcoming challenges and opportunities. The industry experiences strong growth rates, but is also confronted with high complexity and dynamism. Intensifying globalisation, stronger competition, and higher customer demands are just some of the factors that lead to a more turbulent and uncertain environment. Against this background, there is a considerable need for futures orientation and innovation in logistics in order to establish flexibility, creativity, and the ability to adapt to changes quickly. The scenario technique is in fact one of the best tools to support decision making under uncertainty and can therefore be considered of high value for the logistics environment. Nevertheless, its proliferation among logistics service providers is low.

Although services make up an increasingly larger share of global economies, how to source services is still a rather scarcely investigated field. The p- chasing of services from an international supplier landscape has increased dramatically in the last years, but this practical relevance has not yet echoed in academic research fully. The academic, professional and also political discussions around terms and phenomena such as “offshoring” are still ch- acterized by a lack of clarity and delimitation of (seemingly) competing terms. Another issue worth highlighting in this field is that despite the g- graphical dimension of this topic, how to best source certain complex service categories, such as for example marketing services, is still particularly under researched. Therefore, the dissertation of Ms Bals was on the one hand particularly concerned with bringing clarity into these terminological issues in the field of international sourcing of services. On the other hand, it focused to further develop the field of complex categories by highlighting specific aspects of sourcing marketing services. These goals have been accomplished exc- lently. Prof. Dr. Christopher Jahns Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to take the opportunity to state my thanks to the people, who have significantly supported and enabled this thesis.

Durch die abnehmende Wertschöpfungstiefe und die gleichzeitig zunehmende Fragmentierung von Supply Chains erhöht sich für Unternehmen die Gefahr, durch kritische Ereignisse in der Lieferantenbasis beeinträchtigt zu werden. Ein effektives Supply Risk Management ist daher für eine strategisch ausgerichtete Einkaufsorganisation unabdingbar. Supply Frühwarnsysteme fokussieren den Ausgangspunkt eines ganzheitlichen Risikomanagements: die Risikoidentifikation und -analyse. Marco Moder entwickelt ein Modell eines Frühwarnsystems, das eine Prozess-, Aufgaben- und Methodenebene unterscheidet und somit zahlreiche Techniken strukturiert aufbereitet. Auf Basis dieses Modells führt er umfangreiche empirische Untersuchungen durch. Es wird deutlich, welche Risiken für Einkauf und Supply Management relevant sind und welche Risiken in Wissenschaft und Praxis vernachlässigt werden können. Ein Strukturgleichungsmodell gibt wichtige Hinweise auf den Nutzeneffekt von Supply Frühwarnsystemen bezogen auf die Einkaufsdimensionen Kosten, Qualität, Zeit und Flexibilität sowie den Einfluss von Umweltfaktoren.

Im stark wachsenden Luftfrachtmarkt konkurrieren die Unternehmen der klassischen Luftfracht Supply Chain und die Unternehmen der Integrator Supply Chain mit steigender Wettbewerbsintensität um die Marktführerschaft. Die klassische arbeitsteilige Luftfracht Supply Chain wird dabei zunehmend durch die integrierte Leistungserstellung der Integratoren in Frage gestellt. Marco Linz erarbeitet die zentralen wettbewerblichen Herausforderungen für die Unternehmen der klassischen Luftfracht Supply Chain. Auf der Basis von Experteninterviews und Strukturgleichungsmodellen untersucht er zudem die Potenziale einer verstärkten Supply Chain Collaboration zur Steigerung der logistischen Effizienz und Sicherung der langfristigen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der klassischen Luftfracht Supply Chain. Seine Ergebnisse überführt er abschließend in konkrete Implikationen und Handlungsempfehlungen.

Global sourcing has become an intended practice for the majority of multinational companies. Due to increasing competition, companies seek to exploit global purchasing synergies across geographical and business units. This requires an organisation that emphasizes the value of shared interest while granting each purchasing unit the necessary flexibility to adapt to their particular environment. Gerhard Trautmann focuses on how companies can balance this trade-off in purchasing exploring the organization design requirements of a global sourcing strategy. The first essay presents a comprehensive framework for the analysis of integration mechanisms in hybrid purchasing organizations and empirical evidence for their application in MNCs. The second essay sets the focus of analysis at the category level providing a portfolio management approach for global sourcing. Finally, the third essay analyzes how global integration is carried out for different types of categories and provides explanations for the empirical findings by elaborating the information processing framework.

Der Logistiker sieht die Welt durch die Brille der Logistik, kalkuliert auch private Termine mit Zeitpuffern oder just-in-time, Grenzen der Anwendbarkeit scheinen nicht vorhanden. Und tatsächlich: Logistische Prinzipien vereinen Effektivitäts- und Effizienzdenken, stetiger W- del ist zu antizipieren, neue Konzepte sind an Kundenanforderungen anzupassen. Logistik und IT determinieren in Industrie und Handel den Erfolg des Kerngeschäfts der Unternehmen. Die Logistik ist – wissenschaftlich und praktisch – aber unter Berücksichtigung spezifischer R- menbedingungen zunehmend auch auf Dienstleistungsunternehmen wie Banken und Ver- cherungen, jedoch gerade auch für den öffentlichen Sektor übertragbar. Die vorliegende Dissertation ist ein Beispiel für die zunehmende wissenschaftliche Bearb- tung dieser neuen Themenfelder. Sie beschäftigt sich mit der Dokumentenlogistik in der - fentlichen Verwaltung und adressiert dabei ein hoch relevantes und aktuelles Phänomen für Wissenschaft und Praxis: Die Relevanz der Ressource Information und des mit ihr einher- henden Wissens wird in der Privatwirtschaft aber auch in öffentlichen Institutionen immer deutlicher, sodass Informationen und Daten in Form von papiergebundenen oder digitalen Dokumenten ständig gezielt abrufbereit vorgehalten werden müssen. Folglich gewinnt die Betrachtung der physischen und elektronischen Dokumentenflüsse in privatwirtschaftlichen Unternehmen und öffentlichen Institutionen aus einer logistischen Perspektive seit einigen Jahren zunehmend an Bedeutung. Aus diesem Zusammenhang entstehen neue Aufgaben- und Funktionsfelder sowie neue Formen der Kooperation und Interaktion für die Logistik.

Bedingt durch den immateriellen Charakter der Dienstleistungserstellung in Banken werden originäre Informations- und Datenströme sehr selten aus logistischer Perspektive betrachtet. Auf der Basis einer empirischen Untersuchung zeigt Gernot Kaiser die strategische Erfolgswirkung der Logistik in Banken sowie eine bisher kaum beachtete Möglichkeit zur Differenzierung im Wettbewerb auf. Konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen für die praktische Gestaltung der Dokumentenlogistik runden die Arbeit ab.

Falk Werner Raschke gibt einen umfassenden Überblick über das Clusterkonzept nach Michael E. Porter, das zu den wichtigsten Instrumenten der strategischen Unternehmensführung und der politischen Gestaltung von Wirtschaftsräumen gehört. Das Buch kann als Einführung in die mikroökonomischen Grundlagen regionaler Wettbewerbsfähigkeit gelesen, als Vorlage für quantitative und qualitative Clusteranalysen genutzt und als Leitfaden für das strategische Clustermanagement angewendet werden. Der Autor liefert den statistischen Nachweis der Erfolgswirkung der Clusterpräsenz und erstellt eine Fallanalyse des Logistikclusters im Rhein-Main-Gebiet.

Performance Measurement is currently one of the most talked about topics in Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) – in research as well as in business practice. However, it is not simply a business fad; researchers already introduced the Balanced Scorecard, a performance measurement method, to PSM a few years ago. A more novel idea in this context is measuring the budget impact of PSM – its financial effectiveness. In business practice, only 10-20% of supply management’s effectiveness can be identified retrospectively in the P&L account with current measurement methods. Thus, PSM is often criticised for only being able to demonstrate its efforts on presentation charts, so-called “powerpoint savings”. Therefore, researchers were requested to support practitioners in finding a solid and feasible solution to the problem of savings measurement. The derived solution measures PSM’s financial effectiveness by integrating the function in the budgeting procedure, based on the following hypothesis: Only when supply management addresses its planned savings potential already in the budgets, it can show its comprehensive bottom line effect.

Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) is still not considered a strategic function in many companies although on average more than half of a company’s value proposition stems from its suppliers. In today’s economy, companies which neglect the strategic management of their supply base fall behind their competitors. In many boardrooms, PSM is currently on top of the agenda. However, PSM can only create the advantages necessary to stay ahead of the competition when a company’s supply base is managed according to its overall strategic objectives. Roger Moser analyses the relationships between business priorities and PSM strategy and shows in detail how business strategies influence PSM, in particular supplier selection. He shows how a strategy-based selection of suppliers can generate competitive advantages in PSM and for the company. His work contributes to a research stream which aims at integrating PSM more closely into strategic management. Furthermore, the author develops a PSM strategy concept which enables supply managers to break down strategic priorities from a business strategy level to a PSM level and to define appropriate actions when dealing with suppliers, supply markets and internal customers.

Low-cost country sourcing has for long been one of the hottest buzz words in the purchasing and supply management community, especially among practitioners. The lack of coverage in the academic field can potentially be explained by the complexity and the breadth of the topic. Although companies in most industries have sourced on a global level for decades or even centuries in order to reduce cost, the subject have received increasing attention over the last few years in a sense that the concept has become more and more institutionalized as part of the overall sourcing strategy. The developments are welcome – especially since the field of purchasing and supply management traditionally has been lagging behind other, more “acknowledged” disciplines such as finance, accounting, and marketing, among others. This lag is glaring if one considers the absence of faculties involved in the discipline among many universities. Therefore, the initiative of Supply Management Institute to build a worldwide research and training network has proven to be highly attractive for both scholars and practitioners. Furthermore, the discipline has also become increasingly complex due to globalization effects, where business networks become increasingly intertwined and the flow of goods, services, money and human capital grow exponentially over time. To handle the situation, companies are in desperate need for knowledge and information that can help them to crafting effective strategies that can secure supply, reduce risk and ultimately translate into competitive advantage.

st Since the beginning of the 21 century, three key business trends have been identified with a pronounced influence on future microeconomic and macroeconomic developments across the globe: Firstly, with the advent of the network economy, int- organizational relations and structures are increasingly becoming the object of analysis. Successful companies have extended the concept of an appropriate organizational structure beyond internal relationships to those spanning across the entire business network by taking the country specific institutional context into consideration. Secondly, with slowing growth in the developed markets and abundant growth opportunities in the developing economies, companies are turning to these markets for new business expansion. Finally, during the last number of years, so called ‘emerging giants’, which are strong local players from developing economies, have started to globalize and to expand into the developed markets. Among other reasons, these firms have edged themselves into the limelight by maintaining the right fit between their strategy type and inter-organizational structures in their home markets.