Purchasing realized absorptive capacity as the gateway to sustainable supply chain management

Abstract

PurposeCompanies' ability to build sustainable supply chains and achieve strategic sustainability objectives largely depends on their supply network characteristics and the nature of the relationships with strategic suppliers. This poses the question of how purchasing departments can help to translate this sustainability commitment into performance benefits. The authors focus the attention on buyer-supplier information sharing practices and study how the availability of information interplays with the purchasing realized absorptive capacity (PRAC) to positively impact performance (operational, environmental and social).Design/methodology/approachThe study collected data from 305 procurement executives in four European countries and tested the hypotheses empirically using structural equation modeling. Mediation analysis is used to test the effect of PRAC on the relationship between buyer-supplier information sharing and performance.FindingsThe results show that increasing buyer-supplier information sharing is sufficient to obtain a positive impact on operational performance. To improve purchasing sustainability performance, companies need to develop their PRAC to adequately transform and exploit external information and identify opportunities in the environmental and social areas. Thanks to these purchasing capabilities, organizations can overcome potential trade-offs between different performance dimensions.Originality/valueIn the context of collaborative buyer-supplier relationships, this study is one of the first to propose purchasing knowledge management capabilities (i.e. PRAC) as a key factor to improve multiple performance dimensions. Additionally, it captures different sustainability aspects, concluding that organizations can improve purchasing operational, environmental and social performances by implementing appropriate information sharing mechanisms with suppliers and developing their PRAC.

Quality functions' use of customer feedback as activation triggers for absorptive capacity and value co-creation

“…As displayed in Table 1, all but one of the included studies use a survey methodology to establish causal links between the function's absorptive capacity and performance (e.g. Difrancesco et al, 2022;Lin et al, 2016) or to evaluate how external information availability impacts a function's absorptive capacity (e.g. Bogers and Lhuillery, 2011;Patrucco et al, 2017;Difrancesco et al, 2022).…”

“…As displayed in Table 1, all but one of the included studies use a survey methodology to establish causal links between the function's absorptive capacity and performance (e.g. Difrancesco et al. , 2022; Lin et al.…”

“…Difrancesco et al, 2022;Lin et al, 2016) or to evaluate how external information availability impacts a function's absorptive capacity (e.g. Bogers and Lhuillery, 2011;Patrucco et al, 2017;Difrancesco et al, 2022). The studies in Table 1 neglected the role of activation triggers, and in the cases where customers were considered, it was the customers' knowledge that was positioned as the external knowledge to be absorbed.…”

How blockchain technology improves sustainable supply chain processes: a practical guide

“…3 presents the performance implications of blockchain technology implementation across the supply chain processes. These performance implications are derived primarily from case studies' analyses and supported by the literature (e.g., Di Vaio and Varriale 2020 ; Kumar et al 2021 ; Difrancesco et al 2022 ).…”

“…Lastly, it is also found that only a few studies include reverse logistics and sustainability aspects. Given the increasing relevance of sustainability within supply chains (Di Vaio and Varriale 2020 ; Ada et al 2021 ; Kumar et al 2021 ; Difrancesco et al 2022 ), it is evident that this represents a significant gap that urges to be addressed.…”