Procurement has been increasingly recognized as a strategic role to help firms navigate environmental shifts by managing supply, cost, and innovation from suppliers. External business environments marked by constant change and uncertainty require firms to continuously adapt, but bringing this adaptation to procurement becomes challenging if knowledge, supplier connections, and resources are missing. In his doctoral thesis, José Garcia studied how firms can be better at adapting their procurement to changes in their business environment.
What challenges do you focus on in your research?
“I focus on the challenge that firms face to adapt their procurement processes and activities to changing conditions in their business environment. In a stable business environment, firms can focus their procurement on optimizing cost and efficiency in their supply chains. However, unfavorable conditions such as material shortages and rapid technological change require supplier connections and knowledge that may be lacking after long periods of stability. Therefore, I focus on the challenge of how firms increase the ability to adapt their procurement when they are faced by business disruptions and by the threat of further disruptions in the future.”
How do you address the problem?
“I address this problem in my research by studying the supply network for electronics and semiconductors of an automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), which is my empirical context. I worked as purchaser for electronic parts at the focal firm before and during the global semiconductor crisis that began in late 2020 and being part of the crisis motivated my curiosity to study this supply network. Through my research as an industrial PhD student at the focal firm, I was able to collect in-depth data to understand this supply network, how procurement evolved in the last almost 30 years, and how a firm adjusts its procurement to respond to a crisis and prepare for future disruptions.”
What are the main findings of your research?
“One of the main findings of my research is that firms need to monitor the shape of their supply network to support timely adaptation of their procurement. For example, being well connected in its supply network improves a firm’s access to information about changes in the network and in the overall business environment. The findings of my research explore what it means to be well connected through network metrics and power dynamics.”
“The other main finding is that a firm’s ability to adapt their procurement goes beyond the reaction to disruptions and benefits from long-lasting changes in the Procurement organization and from investment in knowledge and processes. For example, new supplier connections and investments in resources made during a crisis form an important part of the firm’s preparedness to future disruptions.”
What do you hope your research will lead to?
“I hope that my research will contribute to an emerging view of the role of procurement: one that extends its focus beyond direct suppliers and that accounts for and continuously adapts to changes in the business environment.”
Read the thesis: Procurement adaptability in fast-changing environments: The case of automotive semiconductors and electronics
Public defence: 7 September 2026 at 09.00 (note changed location to Vasa B)
- Doctoral Student, Supply and Operations Management, Technology Management and Economics
Supervisor
- Associate Professor, Supply and Operations Management, Technology Management and Economics