The Nature of Purchasing: Insights from Research and Practice

Introduction to the Nature of Purchasing.- Elements of purchasing in nature.- Upskilling for "Purchasing 4.0" - How European Automotive OEMs master the future of purchasing with the right skill set.- 0 shades of grey - externalization of the quality business philosophy to reach zero defects.- The value of contracts in a long-term context - An example based on the Lateran Treaty and the concordat of 1984.- Creativity in purchasing - what a team can do.- "En garde!" - What business negotiators could learn from an épée fencing champion.- The "True" Cost of Mitigating Commodity Price Volatility: Insights from Total Cost of Ownership and Real Options Approach.- Auctions as the most efficient form of negotiations.- Purchasing's Role as an Influencer of Business Outcomes.- Towards efficient financial supply chains: How to leverage inter-organizational working capital by digitalizing the financial flows.- The importance of being confident: evidence from a supply chain experiment.- Prospects of purchasing - an evaluation model for data mining approaches for preventive quality assurance.- Ethical purchasing - Knowledge- and person-related inhibitors to consumption of fair fashion.- Reframing Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Deep, Sticky, Transient and Gracious.- Innovation scouting: a new challenge for the purchasing function.