Procurement adaptability in fast-changing environments: The case of automotive semiconductors and electronics

Doktorsavhandling, 2026

This thesis explores how buying firms can adapt their procurement activities to shifts in their business environments, both within their supply network and in the broader industrial and macroeconomic environments. This need for adaptation within procurement first became clear when buying firms struggled to respond to supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and has been reinforced by uncertainties caused by trade sanctions, wars, and rapid technology development that marked the first half of the 2020s. This is especially true for the automotive industry, and its supply network for semiconductors and electronics: the global shortage of semiconductors in the years 2020-2023 turned the automakers’ procurement focus to increase resilience for semiconductor supply; at the same time, trends of automation, connectivity, and electrification maintain pressure on automakers’ procurement to secure cost and innovation of electronics and semiconductors amid an uncertain business environment marked by geopolitical and technological developments.

To address this need for adaptation within procurement, this thesis applies the concept of adaptability from the socio-ecological view of resilience, which focuses on learning, combining experience and knowledge, response adjustment, and continuous development. This view emphasizes that any system faces pressures from within and from an external environment under constant change and therefore, the system must “change in order not to be changed”.

Procurement’s adaptability to environmental shifts is investigated through a case study of an automaker’s quest to adjust its procurement to shifts in its business environment. Research was conducted in an industrial PhD project in the Procurement function of a commercial vehicle manufacturer in Sweden and leveraged the access to the case company to obtain in-depth data through internal documents, interviews, internal reports, and historical data. Of the papers presented in this thesis, findings from two of them are analyzed to characterize the supply network in relation to adaptability and findings from the other two are analyzed to shed light on how actions by the studied buying firm enhanced its procurement’s adaptability.

This thesis reveals that procurement’s adaptability is influenced by supply network characteristics that enable the acquisition of new knowledge and information flows, fast and effective response adjustment and the match between network structure and procurement focus. Building on the understanding of the supply network, this thesis also shows that a buying firm enhances its procurement’s adaptability by combining experience from internal functions and suppliers, adjusting activities, processes and interactions in the supply network, and making lasting changes in the scope of procurement activities. The findings contribute to our understanding of supply networks that face uncertain environmental shifts and how buying firms can enhance their procurement’s adaptability.