Motivations Behind Sustainable Purchasing

Sustainability issues in purchasing are receiving greater attention. Literature is rapidly growing, with several research programs being initiated to investigate the topic. This study presents the results of a research project which aims to reveal and structure the motivating forces leading companies to make efforts in sustainability purchasing and the means used to attain achievements in some fields of sustainability. Results presented in the literature are scattered in terms of the fields of sustainability: most of the studies focus only on green or corporate social responsibility issues and there is a lack of exploratory models. Sustainability in purchasing is addressed in a comprehensive way including green, social responsibility and corporate growth issues. After presenting the results of a literature review, theoretical development was undertaken to create a framework in which it is possible to describe the means of sustainability applied and the motivating forces behind them. This framework serves as the basis for an empirical investigation among Hungarian companies. Empirical results confirm the usefulness of the theoretical framework: the number and the characteristics of sustainability activities were determined by the particular types of motivation – to avoid negative effects, to achieve compliance with expectations and to attain positive effects

Using Total Cost of Ownership to Compare Supplier Product-Service System Offering

Companies plan investments and acquire assets evaluating among different alternatives what is more suitable to satisfy their needs. Management choices should always be forward-looking, accurate, and coherent; otherwise, firm competitiveness in the market may be profoundly affected, or, even worse, its survival may be severely put to the test. In this context, implementing a robust and refined decision-making process is essential. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a reliable approach that can be used to estimate the convenience of an investment in the long-term since it takes into account all costs associated with the entire lifecycle of an asset. The concept of TCO is nowadays well known and widely studied in the literature, and can be used for several purposes, not exclusively related to economic benefits of a managerial decision. Notably, it can be used as a decision making parameter to be evaluated in the selection of the kind of Product-Service System (PSS, e.g. maintenance, training) the customer could buy from a supplier. In particular, a logical process to support the PSS provider to compute TCO is proposed. This would allow the suppliers to compare different PSS offering and propose to their customers the most appropriate and convenient one, as a combination of the asset and a set of services to guarantee to customers cost and operational efficiency in the long-term. The development process is validated by using real data related to alternative PSS scenarios a supplier can propose to the customer