Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 31, Number 2
Spring 2000
Organizational Learning in Global Purchasing: A Model and
Test of Internal Users and Corporate Buyers
G. Tomas M. Hult
College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
32306-1110,
email: thult@cob.fsu.edu
Robert F. Hurley
Graduate School of Business, Fordham University, 113 West 60th
Street, New York, NY 10023, email: hurley1@ix.netcom.com
Larry C. Giunipero
College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
32306-1110,
email: lgiunip@cob.fsu.edu
Ernest L. Nichols, Jr.
Fogelman College of Business and Economics, The University of
Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, email: nichols@memphis.edu
ABSTRACT. This research examines a model centered on
organizational learning in purchasing. Two different studies
are conducted to test the hypotheses among purchasing users (Study
1) and buyers (Study 2). The user sample consists of users representing
355 strategic business units of a Fortune 500 multinational corporation.
The buyer sample consists of corporate buyers of 200 multinational
corporations drawn from the membership directory of the National
Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM). In each study, the
focus is on the learning relationships between corporate buyers
and internal users in the purchasing organization. Based on the
two studies, the results suggest that organizational learning
in the purchasing process is influenced by the organizational
culture factors of localness, transformational leadership, and
openness. Organizational learning has a positive effect on information
processing in the purchasing system, which, in turn, has a positive
influence on the cycle time of the purchasing process.
Subject Areas: Multivariate Statistics, Organizational
Learning Systems, Sourcing, and Supply Chain Management. |