Enhancing Purchasing's Strategic Reputation: Evidence and Recommendations for Future Research‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Members of the purchasing profession have, for some time, considered themselves to be strategic and value-adding players within the organization (Carter and Narasimhan 1996; Spekman, Kamauff, and Salmond 1994). However, other members of the organization have not always shared purchasing's image of itself. In fact, in the purchasing literature, several researchers have found that the perception of purchasing by the members of one particular group within the firm, marketing, is similar to that of a clerical function and that purchasing performs essentially low-value-adding activities (Pearson, Ellram, and Carter 1996; Rossler and Hirsz 1996; Williams, Giunipero, and Henthorne 1994).