The Impact of Purchasing Group on the Profitability of Companies Operating in the Renewable Energy Sector—The Case of Poland

Purchasing groups are multi-entity organisations that operate in practically every sector. Their greatest role is to improve the financial situation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In the case of enterprises operating in the sectors that are just developing, especially those belonging to SMEs, it is particularly difficult to obtain favourable financial results. In Poland, such sectors include, among others, renewable energy, which is slowly developing, but has not yet reached the size set in climate policy. The purpose of the paper is to present how functioning under group purchasing organisations (GPOs) affects the profitability of companies related to the renewable energy sector. For the example of the largest industry purchasing groups, the analysis showed that high profitability results were achieved by enterprises operating in them compared to entities operating independently in the market. In total, 71 enterprises operating in the sector related to the renewable energy sector in Poland were analysed. The enterprises were divided into units operating in the purchasing groups of 46 enterprises, and those that operate independently in the market of 25 enterprises. The research period covered the years 2016–2019. The analysis showed that the scale effect allowed companies to increase profits and had a positive effect on their financial liquidity. The research proved that in the case of commercial enterprises operating in the sector related to renewable energy, functioning within the industry purchasing group allowed high profitability and financial liquidity. There is a dependency that the liquidity increases with a growth in profitability.

The impacts of a new type of actor as an intermediary in public–private collaboration in health-care prevention

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the dyadic relationships of actors engaged in public–private (P-P) collaboration in health-care prevention. The purpose is to characterize a new type of actor as an intermediary that connects different actors in P-P collaboration and to compare P-P collaboration based on results expected with and without the inclusion of this new actor. Design/methodology/approach For the investigation, the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group approach to business relationships is used. The substance (activities-resources-actors) and the functions (dyadic, single actor and network) of business relationships are applied as a research framework. The analysis is based on these theories through a case study. Findings This study delivers four important findings: the relationship with this new type of actor results in new resources for all of the participants that are involved, the new actor is a key channel for generating corporate social responsibility recommendations for private actors, relationships with this new type of actor are a great basis on which private firms may build relationships with the public that involve higher levels of health care and also generate sponsorship for public causes, thereby increasing social welfare and the new type of actor can cause potential tensions that require constant and coordinated management. Originality/value The paper contributes to the conceptualization of the “interacted actor” through characterizing a new type of actor and its renewing network in P-P collaboration.

Exploring the Contribution of Grassroots Innovations to Justice: Using the Capability Approach to Normatively Address Bottom-Up Sustainable Transitions Practices

There is growing interest in the potential of grassroots innovations for the transition towards more just and sustainable societies. Nevertheless, there is lack of clear normative discussion regarding these processes. The paper strives to propose and test a framework that enables an analysis of how and in which sense specific grassroots innovation processes may be contributing to the construction of more just societies. To this end, we connect elements of the multi-level perspective on sociotechnical transitions (frequently used in the analysis of grassroots innovations) with elements of the capability approach, which offers a multi-dimensional perspective to justice. The framework is used to address two purposively selected empirical cases in two key sectors in Spain: an energy cooperative and a food purchasing group. We draw on the information of 25 individual interviews with members of these two cases, on observation, and on secondary sources. Information was processed by means of a qualitative content analysis. We draw on predefined categories from the framework, which was refined during the analysis. The paper illustrates that grassroots innovations may be contributing to justice in several aspects: they expand capabilities in different dimensions, improve public reasoning processes, and create better structural conditions for human flourishing. Nevertheless, these processes are not free of tensions and contradictions.

Relationships and networks as a chiasmic mirroring of ideas/images translated in context through ritual embodied activities

Purpose The purpose of this study is to enhance and further an understanding of business to business (B2B) contexts in relation to sensemaking “translations” between “performing” and “representing” of meanings that evolve within an interacting duality. The implications for research are outlined and a need for a corresponding duality in research methods is emphasised. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper exploring some of the main implications for indistrial marketing & purchasing group (IMP) and other B2B research of abandoning Cartesian privileging of generalised cognitive ideas over embodied activities in context. Findings Dualities of general structures and contextual practices are mutually constituted by performing and representing translations. They are described as “chiasmic” or “polyphonic” and regarded as polyvalent, dynamic and non-linear. Embodied contextual activities are described as of equal importance to de-contextual cognitive structures in meaning-making. Practical implications Practical actors within business networks are encouraged to continue relying upon practical improvisational coping skills that enable them to be effective, embodied “bricoleurs” within complex, often unpredictable and regularly unmanageable, eventful B2B contexts. Originality/value A post-Cartesian focus upon ideas and activities, structure and agency as dynamically evolving multiple dualities promotes an appreciation that contextual practices and decontextualised structures are mutually constituted; supporting a practical and pragmatic turn towards polyvalent and ephemeral, contextualised solutions to a diverse multiplicity of problems and issues. A post-Cartesian focus upon ideas and activities, and structure and agency as dynamically evolving multiple dualities promotes an appreciation that contextual practices and decontextualised structures are mutually constituted and a practical and pragmatic “turn” towards polyvalent and ephemeral, contextualised solutions to diverse problems and issues involving business relationships and interaction.

Measurable Effects of Metropolitan Gas Purchasing Group in the Light of Gas Market Functioning in Poland

As a result of the gas market liberalization, new business models are emerging and one that brings positive effects to market players is purchasing group functioning. This paper adopts the approach of gas market review and provides a synthesis of its functioning in Poland. The review focuses first on the frameworks of the process of gas market liberalization. Next, the author presents gas market structure and lists and comments on its components. Then, the main characteristics of the market are discussed. The author presents a case study of the Metropolitan Gas Purchasing Group—the largest gas purchasing group in Poland with the volume reaching almost 225 GWh of purchased gas. As a result, the author highlights the effects of this coopetitive strategy which reached a value of PLN 3,000,000.

Viewing lean supply from the IMP perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss key elements of lean supply (LS) in light of core concepts in the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group (IMP) perspective. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors examine the literature on LS and identify and discuss important characteristics and key elements of LS. Second, the authors present key concepts in the IMP Perspective, in particular the dyad versus network levels, and the ARA model, capturing activities, resources, and actors. Third, the authors cross-fertilize the concepts from these two streams of research. Findings The authors identify 12 key LS elements. Relating these to core IMP frameworks, they identify areas of LS that can be expanded. First, the authors found that key elements in LS mainly focus on the dyadic level and that the network level is addressed to a much lesser extent and primarily captures serial “chain” connections among relationships. Second, it was found that key elements in LS predominantly focus on the activity layer and pay much less attention to resources and actors. Research limitations/implications The authors suggest that LS theory and practice can benefit from taking a network perspective, and by paying more attention to resource and actor concepts and issues. The study is purely theoretical. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies combine LS and the IMP perspective. The authors add to LS by elaborating how 12 key elements in LS can be expanded.

Organization of Transport in a Commercial Enterprise Operating in a Branch Purchasing Group

La acción conjunta en las organizaciones de múltiples partes interesadas es una de las formas de mejorar la posición competitiva de las empresas. Un ejemplo estándar de organizaciones multi-entidad son grupos de compras. En los grupos de compras, las empresas a menudo ordenan bienes y materiales con existencias excesivas, lo que afecta negativamente el nivel de inventario y los costos de transporte. Sin embargo, la cooperación entre empresas y las transacciones mutuas brindan oportunidades para optimizar el nivel de suministro y los costos relacionados con el transporte. El artículo presenta las posibilidades de organización del transporte obtenidas por empresas que operan en grupos de compras. El objetivo principal del artículo es presentar un modelo óptimo de organización del transporte en una empresa comercial que opera en el grupo de compras de la industria.

Phenotypical Variability of Functional Groups of Plants in an Urban Rainforest

The functional characteristics of plants can be used to understand the changes of vegetation under different environmental pressures, since during the process of succession, the species deal with variations of luminosity, an important resource for the regeneration and growth of plants in humid tropical forests. From the perspective that along the succession there is variation of light availability and that leaf characteristics such as specific leaf area, chlorophyll content and leaf dry matter content are more plastic in groups linked to the rapid acquisition of the resource at the beginning of the succession, it was tested the hypothesis that at the beginning of the succession, where there is greater availability of light, leaf characteristics would be more plastic for the acquisitive group. It was initially found that the geographic distances did not influence the values ​​of the variability indices of the groups, which allows to infer that the distance between the areas does not interfere in the variability of the leaf characteristics. To answer the hypothesis that at the beginning of the succession, in which there is greater light availability, the leaf characteristics would be more plastic for the purchasing group than for the conservative ones, a simple linear regression analysis (ARLS) was performed in the indices of variability for the groups (acquisitive and conservative) and abiotic factor (light) in each area of ​​occurrence. However, the hypothesis that at the beginning of the succession, where there is greater light availability, the characteristics of the leaf would be more plastic for the species was rejected for the species acquisitive, since all indices were reduced for the purchasing group. It is important to take into account that the variation of leaf characteristics as a function of the light availability in an urban tropical fragment is different from what occurs in the classic succession commonly reported, pointing out that possible disturbances caused by the surroundings are the main agents of the functional structure of the community.