Global sourcing strategy alignment using business intelligence: A conceptual framework

Many organisations do not have well-developed global sourcing measurement strategies in place, and thereby lose out on attractive business opportunities. Realising these opportunities requires a detailed understanding of global sourcing performance, which can be facilitated through Business Intelligence (BI) concepts applied in other areas of supply chain management. This requires amending inadequate one-dimensional cost accounts of global sourcing with BI-based inferencing. In this regard, this study aims to answer three questions: what are the determinants of successful global sourcing, what are the characteristics of such a BI system, and how can BI applications and strategies leverage global sourcing to achieve better performance? A conceptual framework is developed that integrates BI within the larger global sourcing framework, including macro- and microenvironmental factors, supply chain structure, optimisation and control, and global sourcing performance.