CHANGES IN SUPPLY CHAINS IN THE LIGHT OF EMERGING MARKET PROCUREMENT

Abstract

Purchases and supply chain management are the fields, which have become one of the key element of any business activity in the recent years. Taking into account the beginning of the 21st century and its revolutionary changes in the business management, it is difficult to imagine the successful future of any enterprise operating on the modern market, already involved or integrated into the global competition, without any business support obtained by purchasing procedures. This also applies to the Polish companies, that without any modern purchasing development and widely shaped by the modern logistic megatrends, are currently unable to compete with others anymore. One of such 'megatrend' is transformation in logistics models (placement of business centres in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, namely to emerging markets), which directly influence functioning and the shape of supply chains and their individual elements. Thus, the supply chains have become more multidimensional and complex but still adapted to changing business environment, whereas global purchasing trends have become a difficult challenge for companies in the conditions of a modern, turbulent and very competitive global environment. In this respect, the author of this paper is making a pioneering attempt to indicate the changes in supply chains, which occurred as a result of the development of procurement in emerging markets (as for example modifications of the structure and number of foreign suppliers and ways to obtain general information about them, factors which inspire establishing cooperation as well as changes in the kinds of transport used and kinds of loading units). The above mentioned goal was achieved through comparison of the author's own surveys data carried out in 2012 and 2018. The studies were conducted on a group of 120 people - managers in the manufacturing companies responsible for supply chains management. The research method was based on electronic surveys, while a survey questionnaire made the research tool.