Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 7

Time for Revitalisation of Value Chain Management: A Reassessment of Porter’s View on Procurement Mark Dale Abstract- Purpose: In the light of recent disruptive events, global supply chains have displayed their vulnerability, which has stressed the importance of procurement in modern practice. This study aims to analyse if the procurement function can be reconsidered as a primary activity in Porter’s (1985) value chain. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilises secondary data analysis. Data were collected on the basis of searches with nine keywords, which led to a discovery of 63 sources. Findings: The study has found that the procurement function cannot be regarded as a primary activity. However, it is identified that the unification of fragments of the two activities, inbound logistics and procurement, creates the foundation for a new activity, which mitigates exposure to volatility. Practical implications: This study can be used to re-evaluate up stream activities’ vulnerability to uncertainty. In addition, it provides a contemporary understanding of the necessity to integrate resilience into procurement execution to carry out transparency and communication throughout the value system. Originality: The study makes a twofold contribution to value chain management, firstly by developing a contemporary view of how upstream activities can make allowance for volatility and, secondly, by encouraging future studies to continue reassessing activities; thus, taking into consideration developments in the business environment, to assure that the value chain is up to date. Keywords: value chain, competitive advantage, inbound logistics, procurement, buyer value, agility, covid-19, suez canal blockage, procurement logistics. I. introduction ince the release of Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance in 1985, Porter’s strategic management framework, the value chain, has become a worldwide recognised management tool. Essentially, the framework aims to work as a guidance to identify and understand an organisation’s ability to create value and competitiveness (Aktouf, et al., 2005). Furthermore, as the framework is a natural part of universities’ curricula in various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes (Johnson, et al., 2013), it follows that an Author: Master of Science (MSc) in Management. e-mail: dale28@live.dk encounter with Porter’s (1985) value chain is a given for a student also in the current 21st century. However, beneath the surface of academic acceptance, scholars have started to publish papers with the purpose of reassessing as to whether historical management frameworks, such as the value chain, still can be applied in the business environment of today (Abdelhadi, 2017). An example of such a paper is Abdelhadi (2017). Abdelhadi (2017) initiated an academic discussion about procurement’s function in the value chain, where it was discussed if procurement could be regarded as a primary activity. The incentive to commence the research was the changing business practices in modern time, which, according to Abdelhadi (2017, p. 30), could be explained by: “… the shifts in the commercial and economic practices around the world, particularly the phenomenon of globalisation and its relative impact”. Abdelhadi (2017) concludes that the activity of procurement cannot be regarded as a primary activity in the value chain. Building on Abdelhadi’s (2017) conclusions, this paper still aims to continue his work to understand if the conclusion is still valid when one takes the last years’ disruptive events into consideration. Reflectively, the author believes that Abdelhadi’s original thought of challenging Porter’s (1985) value chain is relevant and pertinent to bridge the gap between contemporary business practices and academia; especially, with regard to the recent market disturbances, such as last years’ global occurrences of supply chain disruption, COVID-19, and the Suez Canal blockage. The author aims to shed light on the procurement function’s importance and its practices to understand if it can be reconsidered as a primary activity in the value creation of a product. This is investigated with a starting point in the following research question: S 1 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue VII Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals Consequently, the findings urge to incorporate procurement logistics into the value chain as a re-modified primary activity. In regard to the last years’ occurrences of supply chain disruption, is it possible to reconsider the procurement function as a primary activity in Porter’s (1985) value chain? With reference to the rising attention to managing competitive supply chains and value chains, it is important to stress that the two terms will be considered interrelated rather than interchangeable. Thus, in order to avoid an ambiguous conceptualisation of one another, the value chain of a company will be