Local Purchasing Initiatives:a review

Abstract

The objective of this research is to evaluate the different types of Local Purchasing Initiative that have been operated in the UK. As far as it is known this is the first attempt to draw together the academic work relating to firms’ sourcing strategies and the experiences of initiatives that have attempted to influence these strategies in order to increase the amount that firms purchase locally. The research involved investigating academic sources, purchasing journals, and sources relating to economic initiatives, as well as interviews with initiative operators and surveys of initiative users. The information gained from the interviews and surveys allowed the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches to be analysed. A number of alternative approaches are available to stimulate local purchasing, requiring various levels of resources. However, none of the initiatives studied could provide evidence that they generated many links between local companies. The findings of there search suggest that this is largely due to the purchasing practices adopted by large companies, which no longer provide opportunities for the small local supplier. In view of this it was concluded that Local Purchasing Initiatives should focus on encouraging inter-trading between companies of all sizes, rather than just large buyers and small suppliers.