Vision 20/20: Preparing today for tomorrow’s challenges Frank Rozemeijer a,n , Lieven Quintens a , Martin Wetzels a , Cees Gelderman b a Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics, Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands b Open University of The Netherlands, Faculty of Management Sciences, P.O. Box 2960, 6401 DL, Heerlen, The Netherlands article info Available online 2 June 2012 Key words: Purchasing Supply Management Future IPSERA abstract This special issue includes five of the best papers presented at the 20th IPSERA conference. This conference was organized by Maastricht University and took place in Maastricht, The Netherlands. The conference theme was: ‘Vision 20/20: Preparing today for tomorrow’s challenges’. In this editorial we discuss the future challenges in Purchasing and Supply Management and how one can prepare for these today. We make use of the concept of weak signals to detect a number of emerging future trends. All abstracts of the 110 conference papers were analysed using text mining and tag clouds. Also we introduce the five papers that were selected by the conference reviewers and track chairs as the best papers of the conference. & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In 1992, IPSERA started as a small-scaled conference in the UK. Now, 20 years later, the conference has evolved into one of the largest international conferences on Purchasing and Supply Man- agement (PSM hereafter). It is tempting to give an overview in this editorial on how we evolved from almost scratch to the academic discipline that we are today. Indeed, we have come a long way, from where PSM was considered to be an operational function, to today where more and more people perceive PSM as a strategic contributor to firm success. PSM serves a key role in helping suppliers contribute directly to the competitive advan- tage of the buying firm. However, this transformation from operational towards strategic is already well known and dis- cussed in JPSM. For a good example, see Wynstra (2010), who provided us with an excellent overview of fifteen volumes of JPSM. In this editorial, we will take a different perspective; we will look at where we currently are and what the future might bring to us. Often we are so consumed with what we are doing today, that we forget to think about tomorrow’s challenges. Think a moment about how the world might look like 20 years from now? Will there still be academic journals, or do we share our research findings and publish primarily through open access websites? What about social media; how will that change the PSM profession? Will Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC countries) lead the global economy? Will there be enough oil, water and other resources for all our needs? Will Neuroscience change the way we do research in PSM? Are we living in a better world? It is easy to ask the questions, but very difficult to come with solid answers. A few years ago the article ‘‘How will Procurement have changed by 2082?’’ was published in Supply Management (Ellinor, 2007). Although it is extremely challenging to look 75 years ahead, different futurologists and academics were consulted to see what they predicted for the future and what it might hold for the purchasing profession. It was expected that by 2082 almost all procurement activities will be done by artificially intelligent machines and a new breed of young independent ‘‘deal shapers’’ who control access to market and supplier infor- mation. Also, there will be new business models based around closely connected networks of companies (including buyers, suppliers and other partners) competing against other networks. Purchasing as a function will not exist any longer. Instead, collaborative inter-organizational teams will plan across the value network to optimize total end-to-end cost, value and risks. Whether this will become reality in 75 years is difficult to say, but it is clear that we may expect more collaboration internally across hierarchical levels with different business functions, as well as externally with suppliers and customers. 2. About the Conference This special issue of JPSM contains a selection of the best papers presented during the 20 th Annual IPSERA Conference. The conference attracted 210 academics and practitioners from 19 different countries to Maastricht University (The Netherlands) to present the results of their research oriented toward the theme: Vision 20/20: Preparing today for tomorrow’s challenges. In total, Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pursup Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 1478-4092/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2012.04.005 n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ31 43 38 83839; fax: þ31 43 38 84918. E-mail addresses: f.rozemeijer@maastrichtuniversity.nl (F. Rozemeijer), l.quintens@maastrichtuniversity.nl (L. Quintens). Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 18 (2012) 63–67