An evaluation of participation by the purchasing function in the corporate strategic planning proces

This study examines the role of the purchasing function in the corporate strategic planning (CSP) process of 219 southeastern U.S. firms, including manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms, representing both the private and public sectors. The research focuses on six research questions to expand the body of knowledge in the area of strategic planning.;The study found that 95% of the responding firms do have a formalized CSP process of some type. Of those firms with a formalized CSP process, 82.78% of the responding purchasing managers indicated that their purchasing departments were involved in the process to some degree, with the majority having some involvement in both development and implementation of strategic plans. In addition, 46.7% indicated their involvement increased in the past 5 years. These findings support claims of substantial increases in purchasing involvement in CSP over the past 10 years.;Conflict reduction appears to be an additional benefit of CSP participation. In concert with the increased participation levels, 57.3% of respondents reported that conflict between purchasing goals and corporate goals seldom occurred.;This increase in purchasing CSP participation may be attributed to a combination "pull and push" phenomena. The purchasing function has been pulled into greater participation by management through improved perceptions of purchasing's ability to contribute to the long range competitiveness of the firm. While simultaneously pushed into greater participation through improved professionalism and self-awareness on behalf of purchasers themselves.;The study found no significant differences in degree of purchasing participation in CSP between manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms, except in the medium involvement category, where purchasers in non-manufacturing firms were significantly more involved than their counterparts in manufacturing. No significant difference was found between private and public organizations.;The study also found that purchasing managers still saw room for improvement in participation levels, with 66.4% working in firms at actual involvement levels lower than the purchasers' opinion levels.;Six performance measures were correlated with CSP involvement levels; however, no significant relationships were found between any of these measures and purchasing participation in CSP.