Stimulation of innovation through strategic sourcing

Strategic Sourcing has been described as the set of methods used to achieve pricing efficiencies by meeting the spending of a company with high-performance vendors. Therefore, thoughtful examination and selection of suppliers becomes a major activity in an organization that wants to attain those efficiencies. Strategic sourcing theory also suggests that vendors should play a fundamental role in a company's effort to develop new products and services. On the other hand, Innovation Systems promote efficient interaction in generation, dissemination and utilization of knowledge among its actors. In a supply chain, suppliers and customers are the main actors; so, in this paper it is argued that innovation management principles must be included in strategic sourcing activities, particularly those used in the supplier assessment and selection process. This article supports this assertion based on the analysis of literature review.