The Nature of Purchasing

Chapter 1 Elements of Purchasing in Nature

Chapter 2 Upskilling for “Purchasing 4.0”

Chapter 3 Zero Shades of Gray—Reaching Zero Defects by Externalization of the Quality Philosophy into the Upstream Supply Chain

Chapter 4 The Value of Contracts in a Long-Term Context—An Example Based on the Lateran Treaty and the Concordat of 1984

Chapter 5 Creativity in Purchasing—What a Team Can Do

Chapter 6 “En Garde!”—What Business Negotiators Could Learn from an épée Fencing Champion

Chapter 7 The “True” Cost of Mitigating Commodity Price Volatility: Insights from Total Cost of Ownership and Real Options Approach

Chapter 8 Auctions as the Most Efficient Form of Negotiations

Chapter 9 Purchasing’s Role as an Influencer of Business Outcomes

Chapter 10 Towards Efficient Financial Supply Chains: How to Leverage Inter-organizational Working Capital by Digitalizing the Financial Flows

Chapter 11 The Importance of Being Confident: Evidence from a Supply Chain Experiment

Chapter 12 Prospects of Purchasing—An Evaluation Model for Data Mining Approaches for Preventive Quality Assurance

Chapter 13 Ethical Purchasing—Knowledge- and Person-Related Inhibitors to Consumption of Fair Fashion

Chapter 14 Reframing Buyer–Supplier Relationships: Deep, Sticky, Transient and Gracious

Chapter 15 Innovation Scouting: A New Challenge for the Purchasing Function