Cost management practices for supply chain management: an exploratory analysis

Abstract

Cost management within a supply chain management domain has lately received a great deal of interest from academics and practitioners; however, the literature is still dominated by conceptual and anecdotal work. The major issue is that it is difficult at best to draw conclusion with any level of confidence concerning the actual degree of usage of various cost management practices. The study reported in this article uses split sample analysis to determine the extent to which firms actually use 18 SCM-related cost management practices. The sample that was developed included 126 medium-and large-sized Swiss firms. The results show that only supplier evaluation and purchasing performance benchmarking are regularly employed by companies and that cost management practices linked to integrated logistics are applied only rarely in corporate practice. In this study, seven of the cost management practices were associated with higher supply chain performance, which suggests that firms should carefully consider their implementation.

Financing buyer–supplier dyads: an empirical analysis on financial collaboration in the supply chain

“…After excluding cases with extensive missing data, a sample of 145 cases was available for data analysis. Therefore, we achieved an effective response rate of 15.7%, which is generally accepted to be an appropriate value for surveys in the area of SCM (Bernardes and Zsidisin 2008;Wagner 2008). A detailed breakdown of the sample can be found in Table A2.…”

“…Having a very similar business culture to the UK or Germany (Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov 2010), business activities in Switzerland can be regarded as highly developed and representative for other Western economies (Wagner 2008). Data were collected through an online survey, in cooperation with the Swiss national purchasing and supply management association (i.e.…”

Tactics at the category level of purchasing and supply management: sourcing levers, contingencies and performance

“…This study, however, indicates that 'price evaluations' contain further information that can be used to enhance innovation with suppliers. This confirms recent findings that found that early cost and value analysis may help to build trust in the value proposition and cost impact of unfamiliar, innovative products (Anderson and Wynstra, 2010) and build the basis for a fruitful discussion about product design and functionality with suppliers (Monczka et al, 2011;Vrat, 2014;Wagner, 2008;Zengin and Ada, 2010). …”

“…However, this chapter presents findings confirming that 'price evaluations' contain further information that can be used to enhance innovation with suppliers. This confirms recent findings arguing for a value analysis approach in purchasing to build a fruitful basis for discussion with suppliers about the value propositions, product design and functionality of the offered concepts early on in the process (Monczka et al, 2011;Vrat, 2014;Wagner, 2008;Zengin and Ada, 2010).…”

Open-book accounting: Reason for failure of inter-firm cooperation?

“…"It is usually taken for granted that it [OBA] yields positive effects for all network members" (Kajueter and Kulmala, 2005, p. 183). Aside from case-study-based research, one exploratory study of OBA has been conducted in Switzerland (Wagner, 2008) and two in the UK (McIvor, 2001;Munday, 1992). The UK research findings indicate that cost-data disclosure repeatedly leads to pressure on quoted prices.…”