The impact of organizational alignment at the purchasing & logistics interface

ABSTRACT Companies continue to report a deep divide between purchasing and logistics, resulting in dysfunctional supply chain operations. This research seeks to add to growing research stream that has begun to look specifically at purchasing-logistics alignment. In particular, this research investigates the impact that both strategic alignment with top management priorities and operational alignment between purchasing and logistics have on the performance of each function. Analysis suggested that purchasing performance was strongly influenced by operational alignment between purchasing and logistics, but that strategic alignment with top management had little appreciable effect. The reverse was found for logistics: strategic alignment had a strong impact on logistics performance while operational alignment between the functions had little impact. While not definitive, the results are thought provoking in that they run counter to established narratives in the literature about which dimension of alignment is expected to be most relevant for driving purchasing and logistics performance, respectively.