Where we are heading and the research that can help us get there - Executive perspectives on the anniversary of the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management

Procurement is a young field with much potential for further business impact in industry and insight generation through research. In this article four executives from different industries and continents offer their perspective on procurement, purchasing and supply management (PSM) capability development potential and research that can support this. These executives each addressed one of the following important themes and provided candid comment regarding the nexus between academia and practice. (1) Emerging industry 4.0 technologies that can enable new PSM capability development. These technologies should be evaluated in terms of what PSM challenges they can help resolve, not just in terms of how technically promising they may be. (2) PSM talent is key to the realization of new PSM capability and the development of this talent will require executive engagement in creating lifelong learning opportunities for PSM professionals to ensure new competencies and capabilities. (3) Sustainability efforts that are often housed in PSM organizations have much potential to expand these efforts more comprehensively throughout the supply chain and to expand the scope of the efforts. (4) Supplier enabled innovation (SEI) offers a pathway for PSM to meet current business needs with suppliers but also to collaborate with suppliers to create new revenue and customer value. The successful achievement of future PSM capability will require leadership in industry and research to help close the gap between known opportunity areas and actual real-world accomplishment. These executive perspective help us to realize that simplified roadmaps and maturity models underestimate interrelations between these four areas of opportunity and no "single path" currently exists.