Title: The shrinking professional realm of the industrial buyer - a transaction cost view on organisational and infrastructural changes in a Norwegian high-tech industrial cluster

Authors: Jørn Longva

Addresses: School of Business and Faculty of Social Sciences, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, P.O. Box 251, N-3603 Kongsberg, Norway

Abstract: Based on a qualitative case study in a Norwegian industrial cluster dominated by firms manufacturing technologically highly advanced products, the research can report that several procurement managers believe their buyers are seeing their suppliers too seldom, while buyers report that their negotiations with suppliers are often hampered by design engineers who have promised the supplier the contract beforehand. A transaction cost analysis provides an explanation why, in the case of high-tech industrial procurements, design engineers are taking over parts of the buyers' responsibilities and why the buyers tend to have looser personal contact with the suppliers. Seen as an information infrastructure (II), the electronic data systems and office tools as a whole, contribute to the transformation of the buyers' responsibilities in the direction of mercantile deskwork.

Keywords: e-procurement; transaction cost economics; TCE; transaction cost analysis; TCA; supply chain management; SCM; supplier relationship management; SRM; high-tech clusters; industrial clusters; industrial procurement; sourcing; purchasing; Norway; electronic procurement; online procurement; high technology; procurement management; design engineers; buyer responsibilities; personal contact; supplier contacts; information infrastructure.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2016.077704

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2016 Vol.9 No.4, pp.444 - 454

Received: 19 Dec 2014
Accepted: 06 May 2015

Published online: 13 Jul 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article