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International purchasing involves a commercial transaction between a buyer and a
supplier located in different countries. A review of the literature indicates that there are a
number of terms used to describe the purchasing process from suppliers outside the
buying firm’s country. For instance foreign sourcing, international sourcing, international
purchasing, worldwide sourcing and global sourcing have all been referred to in the
literature to date. International sourcing has been defined by Johnson and Wood (1996) as
buying components and inputs anywhere in the world in such a way that the manufacturer
puts out a much broader net rather than relying only on local sources. Spekman (1991)
cites global sourcing as the efficient use of worldwide human, material, energy, and capital
resources. Mol (2000) provides a more general definition of global sourcing as ‘finding and
managing sources for production of final products on a world-wide basis.
Trent (1991) argue that international purchasing involves a commercial transaction
between a buyer and a supplier located in different countries. Conversely, global sourcing
differs from international buying in scope and complexity; it involves proactively integrating
and coordinating common items, materials, processes, technologies, designs and suppliers
across worldwide buying, design and operational locations. Furthermore, global sourcing
requires horizontal integration between product design and development groups as well as
between supply and demand planning activities.
Titany answered the question on November 24, 2021 at 11:29