Services procurement: A systematic literature review of practices and challenges

Abstract

Organizations are paying greater attention to the potential advantages that can be achieved by adopting a more strategic approach to the procurement of services. Despite services being very different from physical items in many respects, and despite their outsourcing having achieved limited gains, the procurement of services remains under-researched. To address this challenge and develop a strategic platform for new directions in future research in the area, this paper undertakes a systematic literature review of 51 articles published in 21 peer-reviewed academic journals. It reviews the applicability of supply theories to services sourcing, and compares and demonstrates the distinctiveness of services purchasing through problematizing the literature reviewed. A descriptive and thematic analysis concluded that services procurement can be classified into seven research domains: 'service production', 'governance', 'purchasing approach', 'supplier selection', 'performance management', 'the service triad' and 'specification of requirements'. We offer a comparative framework of the services procurement process and emphasize different supply practices. The provided research directions assist scholars in identifying avenues for integrating and expanding existing knowledge.

A Systematic Review of 50 Years of Human Resource Management Research in Bangladesh: Retrospective Reflections and Forward Trajectories

“…Scopus is a broad curated abstract and citation database created by Elsevier (Pickering, 2004) with regional and global coverage of peer-reviewed scientific works (Valenzuela et al, 2017), and intensive content selection and re-evaluation by an independent content selection and advisory board to ensure that only high-quality data are indexed (Baas et al, 2020). Previous studies by Heinis et al (2021), Kohtamäki and Rajala (2016), and Mustapha et al (2021) used the Scopus database to derive data for a systematic literature review. Seventeen keywords associated with HRM were used in addition to ‘Bangladesh’ and ‘Bangladeshi’, namely (a) ‘Strategic HRM’; (b) ‘human resource management’; (c) ‘HR practices’; (d) ‘high-performance work system’; (e) ‘high-involvement work system’; (f) ‘high-commitment management’; (g) ‘participatory HRM’; (h) ‘HRM systems’; (i) ‘human resource planning’; (j) ‘training and development’; (k) ‘performance management’; (l) ‘employment security’; (m) ‘employee participation’; (n) ‘recruitment and selection’; (o) ‘compensation management’; (p) ‘sustainable HRM’; and (q) ‘socially responsible HRM’.…”

“…Scopus is a broad curated abstract and citation database created by Elsevier (Pickering, 2004) with regional and global coverage of peer-reviewed scientific works (Valenzuela et al, 2017), and intensive content selection and re-evaluation by an independent content selection and advisory board to ensure that only high-quality data are indexed (Baas et al, 2020). Previous studies by Heinis et al (2021), Kohtamäki and Rajala (2016), and Mustapha et al (2021) used the Scopus database to derive data for a systematic literature review. Seventeen keywords associated with HRM were used in addition to 'Bangladesh' and 'Bangladeshi', namely (a) '; and (q) 'socially responsible HRM'.…”

Research on truckload transportation procurement: A review, framework, and future research agenda

“…While these factors set TL transportation procurement apart from the procurement of many other products and services, the TL context offers a unique opportunity to study certain aspects of procurement highlighted in the more general literature streams. Heinis et al (2022) suggest that service procurement can be classified into a set of research domains. Four of these domains are especially pertinent to TL transportation: governance (the "make" vs. "buy" decision), purchasing approach (the reverse auction), supplier selection (the winner determination problem resulting in carrier assignment to lanes), and performance management (the execution stage of transportation).…”

“…Procurement requirements have become increasingly challenging (Choy & Lee, 2003; Dumond, 1994; Ellram & Krause, 1994; Lawson et al, 2008) as they have evolved to a strategic business decision (Hong & Kwon, 2012). In the broader procurement literature, however, procurement of services is largely underresearched (Heinis et al, 2022; Hong & Kwon, 2012; Kleemann & Essig, 2013; Molin & Åge, 2017). Li and Choi (2009) argue that service procurement can be more challenging than procurement of manufactured products due to the dynamic nature of the interactions between buyer and service provider.…”

Buyer–supplier interactions in business services: variety in relational interfaces

“…Services are processes in which the resources of both buyers and suppliers interact to create value. Buyers and suppliers are often involved in the production process of the services that aim to improve the overall effectiveness or efficiency of the buyer (Madhavaram and Hunt 2017;Heinis et al 2021;Mota and Santos 2021). While the research on business services is limited (Madhavaram and Hunt 2017;Van der Walk and Axelsson 2015), business services have a growing importance since they have increasingly become a considerable share of many firms' external resources (Van der Valk 2008;Van der Valk and Rozemeijer 2009).…”