Purchasing and supply management skills revisited: an extensive literature review

• Published in: Benchmarking : an international journal Vol. 25; no. 9; pp. 3906 - 3934
• Main Author: Karttunen, Elina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 29.11.2018; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Citation indexes; Classification; Communication; Cost analysis; Decision making; Government purchasing; Human resource management; Information technology; Internal customers; Intrapreneurs; Keywords; Literature reviews; Managerial skills; Managers; Problem solving; Procurement management; Project management; Purchasing; Skills; Social responsibility; Supply chain management; Supply chains; Systematic review; Teamwork; Literature review; Skills categorization; Purchasing and supply management; Purchasing skills
• ISSN: 1463-5771; 1758-4094
• DOI: 10.1108/BIJ-03-2017-0047

Purpose Research on purchasing managers and their skills requirements supports the training and education of purchasing professionals. This paper offers an in-depth analytical review of the purchasing skills reported in the supply chain management (SCM) literature. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the most important skills and factors that influence these skills. Design/methodology/approach This paper employs a systematic literature review methodology. Two databases, Scopus and Web of Science, are searched for relevant articles. The selected journal articles are used as sources to obtain a view not only on the relevant purchasing and supply management (P/SM) skills, but also on factors that emphasize certain P/SM skills. This paper also summarizes the ten skills ranked as most important (often described as the “top ten”) among the sample articles. Findings The paper highlights the essential skills for purchasing professionals, verified both by their frequent appearances in rankings and by citation frequency in the literature. Generic managerial skills, such as communication, cost analysis, teamwork, problem-solving, negotiation, influencing, and persuasion, as well as information technology skills, received the most attention in the literature and rankings of the “top ten” P/SM skills. This paper provides a refined categorization of purchasing skills, which have merged recently with other discussed skills, such as political and entrepreneurial ones, into this categorization. This paper identifies factors that affect purchasing managers’ skills requirements. Originality/value This paper presents a structured overview of 57 peer-reviewed articles from high-quality journals about purchasing skills. The review contributes to the purchasing skills literature by showing the most relevant skills and the factors that influence skills requirements. These factors also provide arenas for further research related to purchasing skills.