Scientific Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, language: English, abstract: Value chain management (VCM) is more than a theory. It is a strategic business approach that is helping a growing number of businesses increase their long-term competitiveness. It would be extremely difficult to achieve such competitiveness by operating as an individual business within fragmented value chain. The primary purpose of this research is to address procurement and value chain impact on organizational performance. The project provides an informed, objective perspective on VCM by demonstrating how value chains and procurement operate at the business level rather than the sector or sub-sector level. Major changes are currently taking place within procurement functions of manufacturing firms. Procurement is shifting its focus from daily purchasing activities to long term, value-adding procurement and supply chain activities. At the same time, it is responding to the challenges and opportunities of electronic procurement (e- procurement), which refers to the utilization of the internet to buy and sell products and services. The responsibilities of procurement have changed over the last few decades, procurement focused heavily on the transactional elements of the purchasing process. Procurement was accepted as a support function that provides for the sourcing needs of other departments within the organisation