EIPM is a school dedicated to Purchasing & Supply Management (PSM). Our mission is to serve our clients by deploying knowledge in PSM to contribute to sustainable value creation for different stakeholders. With branches in Geneva and Shanghai and partnerships in Brazil, India, Mexico, North America, Poland and the United Arab Emirates, the Institute has developed a complete range of solutions to meet the training and development needs of its large base of international clients in all sectors of industry. EIPM is also operating the EIPM Peter Kraljic award that requires company to go through a demanding assessment process that include a validation visit by two trained assessors.

On the research side, EIPM is making continuous investment in and contribution to research.  In 2020, we have been celebrating the 5^th anniversary of the EIPM Value Creation Observatory. Over the past years we have addressed a diversity of topics including Innovation, The internet of Things, Shared Value Creation or Open Hardware. Our research builds on our network of CPOs and Practitioners but also on academic collaborations that have involved other IPSERA members. As we believe in openness and collaboration, we also support IPSERA SIGs whenever possible.

While 2020 has led us to study the response of PSM organisation to the pandemic and the lockdowns; it is also the year we launch our new book “Fifth Generation Purchasing” that describe our vision for the profession. The changing business landscape calls for new ways of thinking and acting within purchasing. Purchasing organisations cannot focus purely on leveraging scale and power to optimise costs they also need to work in sync with both their stakeholders and external partners to deliver timely value. They need to harness pace and speed to obtain an advantage for the business and capture opportunities in the market at the right time. The book describes six work modes and offers a wealth of interviews and practical tools. We hope this will inspire further debates and research as temporal perspective deserves more study in the PSM research community.

For any questions, feel free to contact us. Hervé Legenvre will be glad to answer you hlegenvre@eipm.org

The world has certainly changed in the past few months! Throughout these changes, hopefully all of you are safe and healthy. We wanted to send a brief note to let you know that we are managing the increasing flow of manuscripts at JPSM and hope that you will consider your own submissions. With these very interesting times comes interesting research opportunities. Our journal impact factor was announced in June and has increased to 4.640 putting us in the middle of the pack with the top supply chain journals.

We highly value JPSM’s close relationship with IPSERA, which dates back to the two institutions’ founding. For us, it means that there is a close-knit community of scholars that contribute to the success of JPSM through authorship, engaged editorship and reviewing. We highly value this community and hope to continue our strong and engaged relationship.

We very much missed catching up with the IPSERA-JPSM community in Knoxville, and hope you, your family, friends and colleagues have been spared the suffering experienced by so many during the ongoing pandemic. Had we met in Knoxville, we would have had the pleasure of announcing this year’s JPSM awards at the conference dinner on Monday night at Jackson Terminal. The night would have included line dancing, “real” east Tennessee cooking, and a moonshine tasting!

We also missed the JPSM annual meeting, traditionally held immediately before the conference opens. Here are a few facts and figures from the annual report we would have presented. Since 2016, the metrics are quite stable. The number of submissions remains just short of 300 per year, though for 2020 we already have 265, suggesting academics are catching up on their writing while in lockdown. Desk reject rates rose to 72%. At 40 weeks, the average time from submission to final editorial outcome in 2019 is much the same at in 2018 and 2017. This is higher than we would like ideally, but reflects the considerable effort by authors, reviewers and handling editors to develop submissions, often over several rounds - high added-value but not quick to deliver!

Having risen steadily, JPSM’s ISI Impact Factor dipped for 2018, and then risen again significantly for 2019. This is pleasing, but not a primary focus. We continue to aim towards:

• a steady increase in the quality of articles (significance, originality, rigour)
• alongside empirical articles, publishing a range of other articles which, for example, make conceptual contributions or develop research agenda
• publishing articles which ‘push boundaries’, through novel topics or methodologies, through interdisciplinary research etc

The world of academic publishing is undergoing a huge transformation affecting all journals, driven in part by technology and in part by changing policy among governments, HE institutions and research agencies. Our decisions to accept papers are not constrained by article or page budgets. We can accept as many (or few) as the editorial team agree, and these are now published online as soon as the proofs are corrected. Articles are now numbered (rather than labelled with volume + issue + page numbers), and where appropriate collated into ‘virtual special issues’ (VSI) available via ‘Article Collections’ [https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-purchasing-and-supply-management/special-issues].

One area that we know is causing some confusion is open access and fees to publish. JPSM authors have never had to pay, and still don’t. For most papers we publish, full text access is restricted to readers with subscription access to JPSM. Authors can however choose to pay a fee when their paper is accepted, and then the full text of the article is available without charge via the JPSM website. [https://www.elsevier.com/journals/journal-of-purchasing-and-supply-management/1478-4092/open-access-options]. Open Access, Plan S etc. will drive further change in the sector, some of which will no doubt affect JPSM – we will keep you posted!

Our first VSI was published recently, to mark JPSM’s 25^th anniversary. It provides a great mix of articles, some looking back, others looking to future, some empirical and others focused on theory, method or pedagogy. The editorial and all the articles can be accessed here [https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-purchasing-and-supply-management/special-issue/100LPLQLBQJ] directly, without subscription (till April 2021). For an overview of the various articles see pages 1 to 4 of the editorial. Do take a look!

In the latter part of the editorial, we reflect on JPSM progress and our plans for its future development. In our view, the PSM academic community has developed the scope and quality of its research and teaching enormously in the last 25 years. Now we need to take this still further, and do so faster than before. We need to broaden the portfolio of topics and methods in use, to strengthen the impact and influence of PSM research and pedagogy. We need to contribute effectively to addressing grand challenges and developing new ways of doing business. In the editorial, we wrote of ‘business-not-as-usual’, having in mind in particular climate change. Since then, of course, we now face the covid-19 pandemic, which gives even greater import and urgency to developments within our field. We aim to support and guide this development by continuing to encourage ‘boundary pushing’ research.

We look forward to receiving many submissions in the year to come, whether more traditional or innovative, and either for our regular issues or in response to one of our open calls on PSM & innovation, or on learning from the pandemic [Call for Papers: Purchasing and Supply Management learning from the pandemic: transforming for better crisis management]

Best wishes --

Louise Knight and Wendy Tate --
Co-Editors-in-Chief and members of the JPSM editorial team

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-purchasing-and-supply-management/editorial-board

Please join the editors of leading operations and supply chain journals as they host a workshop entitled, “Crafting an Effective Review.” This workshop is designed for participants who are interested in becoming involved with a journal as a reviewer, as well as for experienced reviewers who would like to hone their reviewing skills. Topic that will be covered include:

• Why serve as a journal reviewer?
• Ethical responsibilities of reviewers
• Developmental reviewing
• Plagiarism and other wrongdoings
• Key questions to ask when doing a review
• How to effectively structure a written review
• Q&A

This workshop will take place on Thursday, August 20 at 9:00 am EDT (15:00 CET). There is no charge, and pre-registration is not required. You can join the workshop by clicking on the following Zoom link: https://iu.zoom.us/j/98329791422?pwd=b05SbFp6ZzByUkdPVlN2RDl4ZTdlUT09.

If asked for a password, please use ‘review.’ Please make sure that you save this information on your calendar if you would like to participate in the workshop.

Participating editors include:

International Journal of Operations and Production Management
Constantin Blome
Rob Klassen

Journal of Business Logistics
Beth Davis-Sramek

Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management
Louise Knight
Wendy Tate

Journal of Supply Chain Management
Barbara Flynn

If you have any questions or would like further information about the workshop, please contact Barb Flynn (bbflynn@indiana.edu).

Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business, Department of Supply Chain Management, has an opening for a tenure system assistant professor to start in the 2021-2022 academic year. The department will consider all candidates with expertise in any of the three primary supply chain areas i.e., logistics/transportation, operations, sourcing. Depending on the candidate’s qualifications and fit, the individual will be housed in one of these areas. As part of the application packet, candidates should include a cover letter that clearly indicates the specific supply chain area that they wish to be considered for. While expertise in multiple areas, and their interaction, would be an asset, please choose only one area of primary focus in the application.

Duties include research, teaching, and service. All candidates must have the ability to teach at the undergraduate and MBA levels and a demonstrated record (or potential) of research excellence in supply chain management. Salary and terms are negotiable depending on experience. The position requires a Ph.D. or equivalent degree from an accredited university.

Specific expertise that MSU is seeking in the three areas include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Logistics/transportation: contemporary logistics managerial decision-making, strategic warehousing/distribution management, last mile logistics fulfillment, maritime and port logistics management, logistics strategy
• Operations: process improvement & design; innovation & new product development; emerging technology management; sustainability; service operations in contexts such as healthcare, retail; humanitarian operations; behavioral operations
• Purchasing/procurement/sourcing: supply chain risk management, supply networks, leveraging supplier capabilities, buyer-supplier relationships, green procurement, electronic sourcing

For all three areas, candidates with business analytics among their research methods expertise will be given priority.

Review of applications will begin August 12, 2020 and continue until the position is filled. Applications must be submitted online at: http://careers.msu.edu. Refer to posting #663149.

For additional information, please contact Dr. Yemisi Bolumole (bolumole@msu.edu) or Dr. Tobias Schoenherr (schoen48@msu.edu), Search Committee Co-Chairs.

More information on the SCM Department is available at https://broad.msu.edu/supply-chain-management/ MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity. The university actively encourages applications/nominations of women, persons of color, veterans, and persons with disabilities.

Dear IPSERA friends and family,

Now my IPSERA presidency is over, three wonderful years have come to an end. My last official appearance was at the end of May in the virtual AGM, where - due to the Corona pandemic a bit different than usual - I passed the baton on to Donna, a certainly excellent new president! Donna gave a great farewell speech with voices from the Committee, which I really enjoyed and which I will look back on from time to time in the future.

Long before that I was already a member of the Executive Committee. I have always wished to bring IPSERA to Dortmund and in 2016 we organised the IPSERA Annual Conference here, part of the programme took also place in the stadium of Borussia Dortmund J One year later, in 2017, I became President and was able to lead through the conferences in Hungary, Athens and Milan. All in all I gained a lot of amazing experiences and learned a lot at IPSERA. I have also made many new friends. It was an honour and a pleasure for me to give IPSERA back a little bit of what I got from this unique network. It was fun with you, colleagues!

I will not withdraw completely, I will remain active. I hope to see you again in person in Knoxville next year at the latest.

Yours, Michael.

Dear IPSERA friends,

For many reasons, 2020 will be remembered as a special year. COVID-19 confronted us with unique challenges, both in our personal and professional lives. It made us realize that despite all the progress we have made in science, the world is still not malleable. Never before we had to cancel an IPSERA conference…, it was a wise and brave decision that was made by the organizing committee in the uncertain early days of the pandemic. On the upside, however, never before did so many world leaders spoke about purchasing and supply chain management. The spotlight is on our profession! Many organizations are reconsidering their global supply chains, and/or developing new (local!) sourcing strategies for key spend categories. Most likely, academics will be contacted to provide evidence and/or inspiration for these new strategies. If not, make yourself heard!

Half of the RICC team (and RICC dog) discussing bottleneck sourcing of face-masks during COVID-19 - With at least the prescribed 1,5 distance

Since March 2019, we are a Regional IPSERA Center of Competence (RICC) and we are very happy that we invested in developing our team just before the pandemic. Our PSCM team almost doubled in size!

Beginning of RICC team - today the group is double the size!

We launched our Brightlands Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (BISCI) which is aimed at stimulating digital and sustainable supply chain innovations in our region. We couldn’t be more happy to have recruited Professor Bart Vos (former Tilburg University and winner of IPSERA 2020 Best Paper Award) and Ton Geurts (former CPO of Bekaert, DSM and AkzoNobel) as our BISCI leaders.

Snapshots from the BISCI opening at the Villaflora in Venlo, NL

Something else that we are proud of is that we were invited by Professor Finn Wynstra (RSM Erasmus University) to take over the organization of WION. This annual 2-day ‘mini IPSERA conference’ (>40 participants in 2020) brings together PSM academics that are working for BeNeLux Universities and/or Universities of Applied Sciences.

Taking over the chairing of the annual WION meeting in Lunteren, NL

In 2019, we contributed to the IPSERA community in many ways (e.g. serving on the executive board, participating in the SIG ‘Purchasing and Product Innovation’, acting as financial auditor, serving on the conference scientific committee, and more). Next to all of the above, we conducted our research and (digitally) delivered our educational programs. Our bread and butter.

What’s on our agenda for 2021? With the RICC it is our ambition to build and sustain a regional PSCM practitioner and academic community with an interest in digitalization, sustainability and innovation. BISCI will start up several new projects with public and private organizations to stimulate innovation in logistics and SCM. Further, we will start up new PhD research (e.g. Digital Procurement) and contribute to IPSERA where we can (e.g. host a SIG meeting).

But, let’s not forget our students! The spotlight is on PSM and students might be attracted by the promising career opportunities. Therefore, we decided to fully redesign our Supply Chain Management Master program in Maastricht, with new courses and content. It will keep us busy in 2020 and beyond!

Robert Suurmond and Bart Vos (Program leaders) working hard on revamping the SCM M.SC. programs 

Let’s all meet in Knoxville at the 2021 IPSERA Conference and make 2021 a year to remember as well. In the meanwhile, stay healthy!

With kind regards, on behalf of Bart, Diogo, Janjaap, Kars, Kris, Lieven, Max, Nadine, Robert, Simon, Tom and Ton,

Frank Rozemeijer

RICC Coordinator
NEVI Professor Purchasing and SCM
Maastricht University

For more than 25 years now, Nevi has been supporting scientific education and research in the field of procurement, coordinated by the Nevi Research Committee (NRC). Our joint mission is to raise the procurement profession to the next level for the benefit of society, organisations and individuals. We focus principally on four sectors: the public sector/government, the healthcare sector, industry and the service sector, within which our social themes for the coming period are affordable healthcare, professional commissioning, socially responsible procurement, and future procurement.

Stimulate research and education
We approach the development of our procurement profession from a scientific angle, and for this reason we invest in scientific education and research, academic chairs and doctoral research. Since 1956 Nevi has financed a total of 11 professors, of which Arjan van Weele (Eindhoven University of Technology) was the first. Other former professors: Jan Telgen (Twente University), Jacques Reijniers (Nijenrode University), Sicco Santema (TU Delft), Bart Vos (Tilburg University), Dirk Jan Kamann (Groningen University), Finn Wynstra (Rotterdam University) and Jeroen Harink (UvA). Over the past 30 years, this funding has resulted in about 30 PhD students At the moment, we are involved in funding professorships and PhD candidates at four Dutch universities: Wendy van der Valk (Tilburg University), Fredo Schotanus (Universiteit Utrecht), Frank Rozemeijer (Maastricht University) en Erik van Raaij (Rotterdam University). . Fredo Schotanus  and Wendy van der Valk are new in this list. We translate the results of the various studies and the knowledge obtained into applicable theory for procurement professionals and organisations to use in practice.

When allocating funding for PhD research, NRC is guided by Nevi’s social themes, the four sectors mentioned above, and the Nevi Knowledge Roadmap.

Knowledge Roadmap
The Nevi Knowledge Roadmap encompasses four ‘worlds’ based around two axes. The horizontal axis has to do with the future value chain for organisations. Decisions that organisations make in choosing suppliers have a direct impact on matters such as sustainability (Socially Responsible Procurement (MVI)), innovative capacity, risk management, customer friendliness, costs, etc. There is therefore great responsibility and strategic importance involved in organising this well throughout the entire organisation and between organisations (suppliers and chains of suppliers).

The vertical axis concerns the role of procurement and supply management within an organisation. The way in which procurement and supply management are organised will increasingly be determined in a situation-specific manner and will no longer be the role of the procurement department alone (for example, the social domain).

By elaborating upon the four worlds: (1) Buying for better business & world, (2) Smart Supply Chains, (3) Value Chain Innovation & Co-creation, and (4) A New Society/ Economy, we provide insights into and inspiration for the future for both research and practice.

Trends external to procurement
Which external trends do we need to take into account? The change to “Society 3.0” is already underway and we are all already experiencing it on multiple fronts when it comes to digital and communication revolution, globalisation, innovation, changes in standards and values and the new economy. Tomorrow’s successful organisations embrace the changes and assume that today’s world (truth) is no longer tomorrow’s world (VUCA world). They have their sights fixed on their goals and know how to achieve them with the right expertise, information and people. When translated to procurement, this means that agile procurement and other organisations and supply chains will become increasingly important through collaboration and partnerships.

Worlds for procurement and supply chain management
The world of procurement and supply management will therefore need to evolve too. Suppliers play a critical role in this because this flexibility has to be realised together with them through means such as undertaking successful collaborative relationships. In this respect, the capacity of organisations to realise flexible supply chains is an important and strategic success factor for organisations. This is a challenge that we will be tackling in the coming years through scientific research directed towards the practices of organisations and procurement professionals.

IPSERA community
Nevi professors are always present at the IPSERA conference and they consider these meetings very valuable, interesting and inspiring. Check the contribution of Dutch research in the list of IPSERA Best paper awards. Not only Nevi professors attend IPSERA, we also attend the IPSERA Conference to gain inspiration for new purchasing themes.

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If you would like to know more about our activities or the Nevi Research Committee, please feel free to contact Erik van Assen, e.vanassen@nevi.nl

Supply chain risk and resilience has become a significant concern in business and a core area of research in academe. The purpose of the Supply Chain Risk and Resilience Special Interest Group (SIG) is to share knowledge throughout the IPSERA community on identifying, assessing, and managing supply (chain) risk and ensuring supply chain resilience, using operational, financial and supply chain approaches. The SIG was initially formed in November, 2019 by George Zsidisin, Michael Henke, Christine Harland, Federico Caniato, Jukka Hallikas, Veli-Matti Virolainen, Barbara Gaudenzi, and Roberta Pellegrino.

The COVID-19 pandemic is illustrating many examples of how firms are able to address one of the most significant challenges in supply chain management at a global level. In tandem, a plethora of research ideas and programs are beginning to emerge for better understanding how organizations and supply chains operate and maintain resilience from this historic catastrophe. Several of these projects are being conducted by current members of the Supply Chain Risk and Resilience SIG. Professor Christine Harland is working on the role of public procurement in resilience in crises and also an action agenda for post-COVID-19 supply chain management. Professor George Zsidisin recently moderated a panel session on how Missouri companies are managing risk due to COVID-19 https://youtu.be/1kDRQiWn_aE; https://youtu.be/5dOuP-sEgxQ. Others research programs by members of the Supply Chain Risk and Resilience SIG are just starting to form.

Although we are saddened we were not able to meet this past April at the IPSERA conference, we do look forward to seeing you in Knoxville in 2021, and will keep the IPSERA community informed of upcoming Supply Chain Risk and Resilience SIG activities. 

Nominations and applications are invited for the position of Director of the Centre for Building Sustainable Value at the Ivey Business School at The University of Western Ontario. The Director will be appointed as a regular faculty member at the Associate or Full Professor level with tenure. An appointment as Director will normally be for a three-year term, renewable. The ideal candidate will have a PhD in management, business or a related social science discipline, will have published in the highest quality academic outlets and is a recognized expert in sustainability research, widely defined. The preferred candidate is also a team-builder, appreciates interdisciplinary research, has excellent communication skills, can be a change agent, and is a decisive leader. Although not necessary, some administrative experience would also be asset. The position is available to begin on January 1, 2021, although alternate start dates may be arranged.

Read more on http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/faculty/career-opportunities/

or on this PDF; Ivey_Sustainability_Director_Faculty Job Ad.pdf

Within the next five years there will be billions of things represented by digital twins. These representatives of the physical world will lead to new possibilities for collaboration between experts of the physical world and data scientists. Digital twins are strong thought leaders who drive innovation and performance. Digital Twin technology helps companies improve the customer experience through a better understanding of customer needs, develop improvements to existing products, processes and services and can even help drive innovation in new business models.

That's why we are focusing on this topic in this year's PhD SUMMER Webinar Weeks.

The Graduate School of Logistics is offering PhD SUMMER Webinar Weeks from June 15 to 26, 2020. Free webinars and digital lectures by top-class, international scientists are on the agenda. Not only PhD students are addressed, also company representatives, post-docs, students or general interested parties are invited to register for the program or individual elements. The offerings are part of the Digital Transfer Weeks of the Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) Dortmund.

Participation in the individual webinars is free of charge, but we ask for a binding registration.

Join us!

www.gsoflog.de

(https://gsoflog.lfo.tu-dortmund.de/phd-summer-webinar-weeks/)