This study considers the consequences of Inter Organisational relations at two levels: the micro level of the individual, and the macro level of the organisation. Merging Transaction Cost Economics with theories on the Social Embeddedness of relations, the paper tackles several hypotheses about problems in buyer-supplier relations. We amend the general hypothesis, as has been put forward by other researchers, that having a common past in combination with an expected common future in business will reduce the likelihood that problems and conflicts occur. Our focus lies on whether this shared past and future can preclude problems better when the organisational relations are at the micro level. Our analyses of survey data from 448 contractor-subcontractor relations from the contractor's perspective in the construction industry reveal mixed support for effects of a shared past or future. We hardly find any of the expected positive effects of a shared past on supplier performance. However, we do find support for the hypothesis that a larger likelihood of future business with the same business partner has a stronger (negative) effect on the occurrence of problems if the expected future business is at the level of individuals (instead of at the level of organisations). r

This paper shows the evolution of traceability management from 1990-2017 using 124 articles. It lists 73 journals by name, classified in 12 fields of science. We find a dominance of food journals, with journals in supply chain management and IT in a stable second and third position. Articles are coded for nine possible topics and divided into two categories: theoretical and empirical. An increasing Berry index for the nine topics shows an increased dispersion across the various topics. Out of the 43 case studies, 36 relate to the food industry, although more recent publications also deal with other sectors. Various relevant theories are discussed and observed bottlenecks are discussed as well as future potential, like using systems thinking with big data analysis as an enabler.

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The 24st IPSERA conference in Amsterdam addressed the various new competitive challenges organizations face now that business environments are changing. While we can observe an increased role of -but also an increased concentration in -logistic services and IT services acting as a bonding agent of the various business processes, we also see an increased specialisation among suppliers, resulting in roles like capacity supplier, co-maker and broker. In terms of Systems Thinking: the subsystem of 'Suppliers' is breaking up into three sub-systems with distinctive different characteristics, and the traditional sub-system 'Purchasing' has transformed into an aspect-system connecting or involving all other sub-systems, while similarly, 'Logistics' and 'IT' have developed into intertwined aspect-systems, being part of each and every sub-system. These transformations have increased managerial complexity, greatly influencing the purchasing and supply chain functions within firms. The seven papers selected from the conference examine seven aspects of those changes in detail and elaborate on the role of the PSM field in this process: PSM answers to challenges by providing answers on how to move forward in practice.