The focus of purchasing and supply management (PSM) is no longer just on
short-term cost savings, but is also on long-term goals such as
innovation and renewal. Because of this new dual role PSM needs to
balance the short-term goals referred to as exploitation, and the
long-term strategic goals referred to as exploration. However,
developing in-depth knowledge of the supply markets in order to achieve
PSM ambidexterity is challenging, as it requires much managerial
attention that is limited in nature. This research draws on the
attention-based view (ABV) to study the antecedents of ambidexterity in
PSM. Based on a survey of 154 Finnish manufacturing firms, a set of
hypotheses was tested using structural equation modeling. The results
indicate that bottom-up supply market attention has a stronger
association than top-down supply market attention with all three PSM
goals: exploitation, exploration and ambidexterity. PSM status is
positively associated with both bottom-up and top-down supply market
attention. Top management should support activities aimed at capturing
supply market opportunities by ensuring that the PSM staff is not
overburdened and have enough time to focus on supply market intelligence
gathering and analyses. This research is among the first to study the
role and enablers of attentional mechanisms that underpin ambidexterity
in PSM. A contribution to the ABV theory is made by suggesting
operationalizations of managerial attention constructs.