The IPSERA special interest group on "Purchasing and Innovation" has gathered for the second time after its initiation at the 2018 IPSERA conference in Budapest. This time the group was invited by its member Dr. Florian Schupp, vice president purchasing automotive and aftermarket, to the Schaeffler site in Bühl (Germany) on February 17 and 18. The group gathered for an informal dinner at Burg Windeck on Monday evening and had a 3-hour tour through the production facilities in Bühl where Schaeffler. Afterwards, about 40 of Schaeffler's purchasing and R&D managers joined the presentations of Thomas Johnsen ("An overview of recent research on purchasing involvement in product development & innovation"), Richard Calvi ("Innovation Scouting: A new challenge for Purchasing")

Nadine Kiratli ("The impact of perceptual differences of governance on team creativity during co-innovation projects")

Holger Schiele ("Evaluating startups as partners for innovation" )

Robert Suurmond ("Interface between startups and incumbent suppliers").

The SIG members enjoyed the constructive, value-adding and inspiring discussions with Schaeffler employees. During the SIG meeting, the upcoming Special Topic Forum (STF) on "Purchasing and Innovation" in the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management was announced. The guest editor team around Thomas Johnsen is complemented by Marie-Anne Le Dain (Grenoble INP), Nadine Kiratli (Maastricht University) and Holger Schiele (university of Twente).

The SIG would like to thank Florian and Schaeffler for hosting us and would also like to express its gratitude towards IPSERA for sponsoring the event.

In case you are interested to join the SIG, please contact Thomas Johnsen or Marie-Anne Le Dain.