Procurement Maturity, Alignment and Performance: a Dutch Hospital Case Comparison

Abstract

Procurement is an important supporting business function, with which competitive advantage can potentially be achieved. In this paper, the relation between maturity and alignment in procurement on the one hand, and procurement performance on the other, is investigated in the case study setting of three Dutch hospitals. The hospitals are benchmarked and it is shown that an increase in maturity of their organization, processes and IT is needed to achieve more alignment and hence better procurement performance. Our general finding is that there is a positive relation between maturity and alignment and performance in procurement. Possible implications for theory and practice are given, as well as directions for future research in this area.