Organizational determinants of time‐based strategies and tactics

Firms have shifted their competitive emphasis from quality in the 1980s to time in the 1990s. While initially, managers concentrated on reducing manufacturing cycle time, recently managers and researchers have come to realize that manufacturing accounts for only a small proportion of total cycle time. Managers and academics have also recently realized that purchasing and supply management can play a critical role in reducing total cycle times. A time delay made at this early stage will ripple throughout the remainder of the organization as well as the entire supply chain. Combines the findings from practitioner interviews, existing time‐based research, and the literature from organizational behaviour to develop a grounded model of organizational factors that impact the adoption of time‐based strategies and tactics by a firm’s purchasing and supply management functions. Uses a survey instrument to empirically complement the statistical findings. Discusses the results and implications from the model testing and suggests avenues for future research.