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.