Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide a brief summary of all the articles in this special issue. Design/methodology/approach – Briefly discusses each article in this special issue. Findings – This special issue of Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing aims to understand...

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to introduce strategic purchasing (SP) and supplier development (SD) as constructs that could have the potential to contribute to the success of relationship marketing efforts. Based on the relational view of the firm, the authors propose that SP is an...

Purpose – Purchasing has emerged as a key source of competitive advantage. This paper aims to explore how different purchasing strategies are connected to complex supply relationships and to the goal of purchasing. Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on the literature on industrial...

Purpose – During the industrial purchasing process of high‐tech, innovative products, various decision‐influencers within buying companies evaluate the attractiveness of the manufacturer's market offering; namely the “value” of the offering. This paper aims to identify the various...

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the evolution of buyer‐supplier relationships from adversarial toward relational, or service‐centered, emphasis for large‐scale organizations. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses the historical method to review historical changes through...

Purpose – The aim of this article is to identify the motivations driving the process of changing sourcing strategy from single sourcing to multiple sourcing or vice versa. Design/methodology/approach – Ten cases of sourcing strategy change were investigated. A qualitative research method is...

Purpose – This paper aims to present a managerial framework that facilitates successful supplier selection and ongoing management for purchasing services from offshore suppliers. Design/methodology/approach – This research is grounded in transaction cost theory and developed using data from...

Purpose – This paper aims to propose the framework of a decision support system (DSS) to select the optimal number of suppliers that are candidate to join a supply chain network. Design/methodology/approach – The DSS bases the decision on the cost evaluation of the transaction among the...

Purpose – The literature holds few contributions regarding purchasing practices of small companies, despite the impressive size of this customer segment. Hence, this paper seeks to identify the purchasing orientation of small company owners. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies an...