The use of secondary data in purchasing and supply management (P/SM) research

The use of secondary data, data that has been gathered for another purpose but may be suitable for research, is growing in relevance and importance in purchasing and supply management research. This paper presents issues associated with using secondary data as a principal source of data or as supplemental to other data or methods. As editors increasingly call for multiple data sources in research publications, secondary data become even more relevant. Secondary data have many benefits, and some secondary data sets are well established and highly credible. The authors describe some of the ways that secondary data has been used in purchasing and supply management research, as well as some of the sources of data. Secondary data does have its limitations, ranging from bias in collection and reporting to difficulty in identifying and accessing appropriate sources of secondary data to dealing with its predominantly unstructured nature. Suggestions for improving the reliability and validity of secondary data are provided, as well advice for dealing with big data.