Rigour versus relevance for purchasing trends and processes : An analysis of how research trends and business needs are in line

The purchasing function is driven by recent trends such as sustainability, supplier integration, digital technologies, trade wars, etc., which result in continuous process optimisation efforts and fluctuating requirements to secure supply and save cost. At least, this is what the scientific discussion suggests through its broad coverage of diverse topics in leading scientific journals in the operations management context. The question arises, however, whether these comprehensively discussed topics in literature, ie rigour, have a direct impact on the concerns and topics discussed by the purchasing practice, ie relevance. This paper is based on a previous study conducted by the authors that consolidates current scientific discussions on purchasing trends and provides a first indication on how they support current problem sets of the purchasing practice. The topics identified include traditionally established ones, such as new product involvement of suppliers and green supply management, as well as initial publications on customer-centricity and creative methods. By integrating in this paper the perspective of purchasing practitioners from the financial services industry through a survey and workshop feedback, a first gap between rigour and relevance becomes evident.