Kari Tanskanen

• Professor (Full) at Aalto University

The capability to develop and sustain superior knowledge of markets and supply chains, or supply market intelligence (SMI), is an important element in increasing the strategic relevance of purchasing and supply management (PSM). This study draws on information processing theory (IPT) to shed light on how firms acquire SMI. In particular, the study...

The COVID-19 crisis heavily tested grocery supply chains and supply chain management capabilities. Swift response practices proved to be more valuable than ever before, as the grocery retailers faced sudden, unanticipated, and simultaneous shocks both on the demand and on the supply side. At the same time, the virus posed and new bottlenecks emerge...

The focus of purchasing and supply management (PSM) is no longer just on short-term cost savings, but is also on long-term goals such as innovation and renewal. Because of this new dual role PSM needs to balance the short-term goals referred to as exploitation, and the long-term strategic goals referred to as exploration. However, developing in-dep...

Drawing on the literature on supplier innovation, supplier development, and the relational view, we bring forward the concept of stimulation of supplier innovation, which refers to the buyer company's actions which aim to enhance its suppliers' innovativeness, guide its suppliers' innovation processes, and/or encourage its suppliers to share their...

In the current hyper-competitive economy, it is increasingly important to understand how firms can and should access and leverage external resources, such as customer knowledge or supply-chain partners' capabilities. In this paper, we report the results of bibliometric analyses on external resource management (ERM) research in nine representative j...

Prior literature suggests that significant internal R&D resources are needed to leverage suppliers for innovation and that external knowledge sources can be used to complement the internal knowledge base. Based on the analysis of four inbound open innovation projects at Fortum, a multinational energy utility company, we argue that companies with lo...

The general question of how best to access and leverage resources that reside outside the boundaries of the focal firm has become increasingly important for companies during the last decennia, and scholars across management disciplines have responded with increasing research efforts. However, managers still seldom base their decisions on scientific...

The purchasing and supply management (PSM) field is criticized for being poorly connected to major management theories. In this paper, we choose a key construct – absorptive capacity (AC) – used by several such theories, and compare it with supplier involvement in new product development – a significant research stream within PSM. We identify simil...

Service quality plays an important role in service providers’ success and survival in the competitive business environment. The relationship between customer-perceived service quality on customer repurchase intentions has been well demonstrated in B2C service contexts, but in-depth knowledge of this relationship in B2B service contexts remains scan...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding on the essential managerial and technical decisions in the design of IOIS for supply chain integration (SCI). Toward this end, the authors elaborate on IOIS constructs in the SCI context, and propose a framework on the design of IOIS for SCI based on the current literature. Design/me...

Empirical studies of logistics innovations have focused on the innovation process, bypassing much the innovative artifact or solution design itself. Focusing on the artifact and solution design in a case study, we contribute to the emerging theory of logistics innovations through articulating the generative mechanisms of the adoption of logistics i...

In a strategic buyer–supplier relationship (BSR), both the buyer and the supplier aim to leverage the relationship for gaining competitive advantage. Since strategic BSR requires a lot of effort from both parties, firms have become very selective in terms of with whom they engage in a strategic BSR. Therefore, both buyers and suppliers must shape t...

Purpose – In complex buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs), contracts are always incomplete and many of the exchanges non-contractual. Because they occur over a long period of time and include unspecified obligations, non-contractual exchanges might be asymmetrical. The purpose of this paper is to examine BSRs with the aim of identifying the mechanis...

In long-term complex buyer–supplier relationships, many exchanges are non-contractual, a factor that emphasizes the social dimension of the relationship. Previous studies have shown that attraction is a fundamental aspect of the social dimension and a main driver in non-contractual exchanges. Although attraction is a determinant of a relationship,...

Control of supply chains has been discussed in supply chain literature from various viewpoints. While previous studies have generally examined only buyer's perspectives of control, we expand on such previous research by comparing both the buyer's and supplier's views. In this paper our objective is to analyze why the control is distributed in a cer...

Purpose This work aims to combine the perspectives of logistics‐service providers (LSPs) and small and medium‐sized enterprises (SME) in the development of value‐added logistics services. The purpose was to create a theory‐based and initially tested framework that could help both service providers and SMEs identify new opportunities for developing...

The focus of logistics research and development has during last ten years shifted clearly from logistics functions towards logistics processes, and from company viewpoint to supply chain and network viewpoint. A wide array of general principles and guidelines have been presented about taking a holistic view to supply chains, integrating supply chai...

A major challenge facing contemporary industrial organization lies in effective supply chain integration. Toward this end, developments in e-business technologies and standards have made the creation of operational linkages--the linking of systems, procedures, and routines of buying and selling organizations--increasingly affordable. In this paper,...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenge of managing logistics at corporate level in construction industry; and to present and evaluate vendor-managed-inventory (VMI) as a potential solution for small item logistics. Design/methodology/approach – The study has a design science approach. It describes and tests a possible solu...

The use of information technology (IT) is considered a prerequisite for the effective control of today's complex supply chains. Despite the acknowledged importance of the use of IT in supply chain management (SCM), the number of empirical studies assessing the use of IT in the supply chain context is limited. Based on empirical data from 16 Finnish...

Purpose To provide empirical evidence of benefits from IT in supply chain management. Design/methodology/approach Data in this qualitative study were collected through multiple enquiries. SCM consultant interviews gave an understanding of the current state of practice. A survey of 48 progressive companies was conducted to identify what IT solution...

We illustrate how new service concepts, where product suppliers are integrated and more involved in customers' operations, enable suppliers to organise their own supply chains more efficiently, while simultaneously providing better service to customers. A case study of a process equipment supplier illustrates how the company's new value-added maint...

Whilst mid in an era of rapid development in information technology (IT), companies face increasing need to coordinate their logistics activities with their up- and downstream counterparts, that is, in their supply chains. New technological solutions have provided companies with completely new ways for information sharing in support of coordination...

Outsourcing is expanding from parts and components to include services and process management. The question is no more just who designs and manufactures the goods, but also who manages the logistical processes along the supply chain. In this paper, we argue that this approach to outsourcing provides new opportunities for those retailing and grocery...

Recent research into last mile e-grocery logistics has revealed that goods reception mode is one of the key issues for the operational efficiency of home deliveries. Hitherto, the research has considered home delivery concepts using attended reception and concepts enabling unattended reception based on customer-specific reception boxes and delivery...

The launch of a wave of Internet grocery retailers over the last five years was a serious attempt to challenge the dominant supermarket business model. However, after a string of business failures, it is evident that the task of selling groceries on the Internet and delivering to the home of the consumer is more difficult than was anticipated. Six...

Managing the order-delivery processes between organizations is a key issue in supply chain management. Despite the increasing application of just-in-time (JIT), lean and agile practices and new information systems that increase the visibility in supply chains, a lot of problems still remain. Surveys among European companies indicate that no signifi...

During the Internet boom of the late-1990s, electronic grocery shopping services attracted huge investments, especially in the US, based on estimates claiming that close to 20 per cent of the $500 billion grocery market would be Internet-driven by 2007. Since then, every “pure play” e-grocer has either ceased operations or been taken over, and inve...

This paper presents a case study with several managerial actions having an impact on the improvement of both time performance and productivity in logistics chains. It is based on in-depth analyses of the development of speed, delivery performance and productivity in the logistics chains of a paper mill. During the analysis period both time performa...

The future of the European industry is in its capability to innovate and upgrade. This requirement concerns products, manufacturing and the underlying support systems ranging from organizational arrangements down to decision support systems. Europe has a desperate need for effective and flexible innovation, improving industrial infrastructure where...

It is commonly acknowledged that information technology (IT) is and increasingly will be an essential element of managing logistics operations in networks. However, there is less empirical evidence describing of the actual benefits of IT in supply chain management (SCM). This study, by means of a small survey and case-interviews, examines within se...

Internet shopping is generally considered to grow in the future, however, the forecasts about the growth rate vary a lot (US Department of Commerce, 1998; OECD, 1998). So far the main focus in electronic shopping has been on the marketing, ordering, and paying processes. Logistical processes have most often been based on the existing distribution s...

This multiple case study describes the use of www systems in distributed engineering project (DEP) networks. The aim is to identify what kind of impacts new www systems have on the operative effectiveness for different project stakeholders and how these systems contribute to the competitive advantage in distributed engineering projects. The study r...