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Lean supply ‐ the system of purchasing and supply chain management required to underpin lean production ‐ has been characterized as "beyond partnership". Re‐examines this idea, comparing the techniques which constitute lean supply with those contained in supply chain management, partnership sourcing, and strategic purchasing. The observations and conclusions are based on research principally in the automotive and electronics industries in the UK, Italy, Scandinavia, the USA and Japan.

For advanced manufacturing technologies to be exploited fully in the UK automotive industry strong, long‐term links must exist between the vehicle builders and their component suppliers. The resolved model presented here approximates to these links, but is itself affected by new technologies to the extent that new developments in the technical field provide opportunities for co‐operation in the operational areas. If the links between vehicle builders and their suppliers are to become stronger then points of contact between the organisations must reflect a strategic partnership and not a purely commercial connection. Contact is required at the engineering level, the purchasing level and the policy‐making level. The nature of purchasing changes in this situation from a price‐fixing operation to a capacity/technology matching function.

PurposeInter‐firm learning, or dyadic learning, has been studied extensively in recent years: however very little attention has been devoted to extending the concept to an international context and no formal definition exists. The purpose of this paper is to propose "cultural adaptation" as a special form of international dyadic learning and link it to supply relationship performance.Design/methodology/approachCase studies were conducted in four Chinese‐Western buyer‐supplier relationships, providing cross‐case replication, employing qualitative and quantitative methods. Data were triangulated by questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews, and documentation.FindingsQualitative and quantitative evidence shows that cultural adaptation can lead to mutual benefits (relationship rents) and inbound spillover rents for both parties in a supply relationship.Research limitations/implicationsUsing four cases and a small sample of key informants completing the questionnaire limits generalisability of findings.Practical implicationsThe paper develops the causal relationship between cultural adaptation and mutual benefits motivating managers to adapt culturally. It emphasizes that the current relationship performance measures should includeguanxiquality in order to adapt to the Chinese context.Originality/valueBuilding on extended resource based theory, stating that strategic resources may lie beyond a firm's boundary and that relational and inbound spillover rents may be obtained from the relationship, the research contributes to dyadic or inter‐organisational learning literature by empirically building causal relationships between cultural adaptation (as a form of international dyadic learning) and associated mutual benefits (relational and inbound spillover rents), using multiple data sources and methods and tentatively redefining the dyadic learning concept.

AbstractWithin an innovation system, institutions may contain the ability not only to support but also to restrain the coordination of knowledge and skills in inter‐organizational relationships.

As firms struggle to cope with an increasingly turbulent and uncertain economic environment there is widespread recognition of the importance of organisational learning. One option is to look at the potential of shared learning between firms, where common interests and interdependence provide motivation for experience sharing and other forms of synergy in learning. A particular version of inter‐firm learning is the use of supply chains as a mechanism for upgrading and transferring "appropriate practice" and this article reports on exploratory research on this theme. It draws on a literature survey and a detailed study of six UK supply chains at various stages of implementing supply chain learning.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the influence of political goals and behaviour on the outsourcing decision process and outcomes.Design/methodology/approach– The research used an exploratory longitudinal case-based approach. Eight outsourcing projects in three telecommunications companies were analysed from the initial decision to the outcome of the case.Findings– The authors show how political goals and behaviours influence the outsourcing decision process and inductively develop four political goals: personal reputation, attainment, elimination and control. The authors also identify three dynamic outsourcing paths: the personal reputation path, which leads to successful outcomes; the short-term attain and eliminate path leading to unsuccessful outcomes; and the destabilised path, which leads to mixed outcomes. All of these can be tested in other empirical settings.Research limitations/implications– The implications for outsourcing literature are that political intentions influence the decision process and outcomes. For theorists, the authors provide an understanding of how political and rational goals and behaviour interact to impact outsourcing outcomes: with political and rational goals and behaviour complementary in some instances. The limitations are that with a small sample the findings are generalisable to theoretical propositions rather than to a population.Practical implications– The implications for managers are the ability to identify and manage political goals that influence outsourcing decision process and outcomes.Originality/value– For the first time, the authors uncover the political goals that impact the outsourcing decision process and outcomes. The authors add to the outsourcing literature, transaction cost theory and resource-based theory by defining and understanding the political goals that complement these theories.

PurposeThis research aims to assess the risks and benefits of outsourcing for organisations, sectors and nations. The literature on outsourcing contains little evidence of research on holistic issues of its impact at systems levels beyond the firm, notably sectors and nations.Design/methodology/approachA Delphi study with senior strategists from private and public sectors captured perspectives and specific observations on benefits and risks of outsourcing. Emergent issues on outsourcing policy, strategy and decision‐making processes were synthesised into a framework for analysing factors associated with outsourcing.FindingsThe findings suggest that a more holistic view of outsourcing is needed, linking local, organisational issues with sector and national level actions and outcomes. In this way, aggregate risks and benefits can be assessed at different systems levels.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research might address the motivations for outsourcing; currently there is little research evidence to assess whether outsourcing is a mechanism for failing to solve internal problems, and moving responsibility and risk out of the firm. Additionally most outsourcing research to date has concentrated on an activity either being "in" or "out"; there is little research exploring the circumstances in which mixed models might be appropriate.Practical implicationsThe framework provides an aid to research and anaide memoirefor managers considering outsourcing.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to knowledge on understanding of outsourcing at different systems levels, particularly highlighting the implications of outsourcing for sectors and nations. Previously most research has focused at the level of the firm or dyadic relationship.

The articulation of supply networks, as an extension of supply chains, seeks to accommodate and explain the commercial complexity associated with the creation and delivery of goods and services from the source of raw materials to their destination in end‐customer markets. In place of the simplistic, linear and unidirectional model sometimes presented for supply chains, the supply network concept describes lateral links, reverse loops, two‐way exchanges and so on, encompassing the upstream and downstream activity, with a focal firm as the point of reference. A review of classifications of supply networks reveals that none of the existing approaches appears adequate for managers facing the practical problems of creating and operating them on a day‐to‐day basis. This research identifies differing emphases that may be required for managing within supply networks, according to the nature of the products for which they are created. Taking an established categorisation of supply chains as its starting point, the research first develops the conceptual basis, using strategy literature, and then tests the resultant initial model in 16 case studies. Finally, a new categorisation for supply networks is presented, using the type of product as a differentiator.

This article proposes a conceptualisation for supply strategy – an explanation for how organisations arrange and conduct themselves within modern economic environments, in order to satisfy markets in the long and short terms. After an explanation of the emerging global environment within which organisations must compete, the previous approaches to explaining this area of business are explored and found to be insufficient for the new context. There follows a conceptualisation and an account of new, supporting research – a Delphi survey, conducted to test, extend and validate some of the features of the concept. Finally, some suggestions are made for the further development of supply strategy as a useful subject area for managers and researchers.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to address global sourcing organisational design through the following research questions: how do the roles performed by International Purchasing Offices (IPOs) change over time?; what are the resources/capabilities required by an IPO for an effective performance and how do they change over time?; and what are the contingent factors affecting such changes?Design/methodology/approach– The authors employed an exploratory multiple case study approach and analysed 14 Western IPOs located in China for a period between 2007 and 2012. The data were primarily collected through 34 direct, semi-structured interviews of IPO heads and sourcing managers or senior buyers.Findings– The authors identify and discuss the importance of ten roles played by IPOs and 12 required resources/capabilities. Furthermore, considering the changes that occurred to these IPOs over a five-year period (2007-2012), the authors observe three distinct evolutionary behaviours (i.e. "overall development", "selective development", and "stable configuration") and highlight three contingent factors that jointly affect these behaviours (i.e. the architectural and technological complexity of the sourced items, annual volume sourced abroad, and experience in the foreign context).Originality/value– This paper contributes to the resource-based view of the firm in a global sourcing context by highlighting the resources/capabilities required by IPOs and discussing their characteristics. Furthermore, it proposes a typology of IPO micro-organisational evolutionary behaviours. Finally, it applies contingency theory and identifies three factors that might affect the evolutionary behaviours.