Viewing lean supply from the IMP perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss key elements of lean supply (LS) in light of core concepts in the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group (IMP) perspective. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors examine the literature on LS and identify and discuss important characteristics and key elements of LS. Second, the authors present key concepts in the IMP Perspective, in particular the dyad versus network levels, and the ARA model, capturing activities, resources, and actors. Third, the authors cross-fertilize the concepts from these two streams of research. Findings The authors identify 12 key LS elements. Relating these to core IMP frameworks, they identify areas of LS that can be expanded. First, the authors found that key elements in LS mainly focus on the dyadic level and that the network level is addressed to a much lesser extent and primarily captures serial “chain” connections among relationships. Second, it was found that key elements in LS predominantly focus on the activity layer and pay much less attention to resources and actors. Research limitations/implications The authors suggest that LS theory and practice can benefit from taking a network perspective, and by paying more attention to resource and actor concepts and issues. The study is purely theoretical. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies combine LS and the IMP perspective. The authors add to LS by elaborating how 12 key elements in LS can be expanded.