Research Projects

This observatory is a hub for sharing experiences and knowledge. Through active monitoring, it provides greater visibility on the subject of the Purchasing IS market and current trends.

One of the first objectives is to develop, test and publish a classification model for Purchasing Information Systems, including extended classification criteria, that will allow the dynamics of the Purchasing IS market to be represented. The model will then be used to maintain and expand the knowledge base.

Periscope is an ERASMUS+ funded European project involving Audencia and two members of the Purchasing and Digital Innovation Chair.

The goal of the project is to gain a better understanding of the skills that tomorrow's buyers will need to develop, and to create a training and educational tool to educate future buyer students.

Partner Institutions:

• Audencia Business School (France)
• Copenhagen Business School (Denmark)
• ESSCA Business School (France)
• University of Graz (Austria)
• University of Twente (The Netherlands)

In an earlier European project, researchers empirically identified the skills characteristic of successful buyers and developed a program and massive open online course (MOOC) to teach them (www.project-perfect.eu).

The Periscope project aims to prepare students to acquire future purchasing skills, including key competencies in purchasing's contribution to innovation and sustainable development.

http://eu-periscope.essca.fr

The Chair was approached by the incubator of B4IG, a coalition of 36 major international companies in favor of inclusive growth, initiated by DANONE and hosted by the OECD. The purpose of this collaboration with B4IG is to work on the definition of inclusive sourcing supported by B4IG, to provide useful academic references, and to enrich the inclusive sourcing model by identifying new indicators to measure commitment to an inclusive sourcing approach.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming the most important and transformative technology of our time. Recent advances, particularly in machine learning - the ability of a computer to improve its performance without human guidance - have led to a rapid proliferation of new, game-changing applications for businesses in almost every sector. AI can help perform many activities in the purchasing process with greater accuracy than it would take a human to do in a fraction of the time.

The impact of AI will only increase over the next decade as industries transform their purchasing processes and supply chain management models. Organizations that want to take advantage of these opportunities need to develop an AI strategy to govern and manage these complex challenges and changes.

This research project aims to gain a better understanding of AI from a process and systems perspective, the problems and opportunities associated with innovation through AI technology, and the resistance to adoption, particularly for SMEs/SMIs.

The PurCIED project is the study of the impact of digitalization on the contribution of purchasing to technological innovation.

There is a growing interest, both in academia and in business, in the role of purchasing in exploring technological innovation with suppliers. While the involvement of purchasing in contributing to the development of new products has long been recognized, the idea that purchasing can contribute to innovation is much more recent.

Recent research shows that companies have begun to evolve their purchasing departments, creating dedicated purchasing roles to source innovation from suppliers, including potential new suppliers in distant supply markets.

As part of this evolution, some companies are developing new digital tools to support purchasing's contribution to innovation exploration. This includes the development of e-tools and the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

The PurCIED project focuses on understanding these new e-tools and how AI can be applied to enable the innovation exploration process.

Purchasing organizations are facing radical changes in their environment, and business leaders expect the best from their purchasing function. The old maturity models used to assess the performance of this function have become obsolete, in particular because they do not sufficiently integrate the notions of global risk, CSR, innovation and digitalization.

The MACH 4.0 project aims to develop, test and publish a Purchasing Maturity Model 4.0, including criteria for digitalization, contribution to innovation and CSR, as well as new buyer skills. This model is valid for industrial, service and commodity purchasing and aims to show the strengths/weaknesses of a purchasing organization for a large group or SME/SMI.

The model is now operational and the students propose to test it on your purchasing function and to make recommendations to improve your organization.