Supplier selection criteria and methods: past, present and future

Sole purpose of supplier selection is not limited to get supply at low cost and at right time. Supplier selection is a strategic decision to fulfil company's goal for long period of time at low risk. To accomplish this objective companies are moving from reactive buying to proactive buying to give more priority to co‐creation of wealth with supplier/s. Considering this issue an attempt has been made in this paper to give systematic review of supplier selection and evaluation process from 2005 to 2012 to answer three main questions: 1) Which method is more appropriate for supplier selection? 2) Which evaluating criteria were most cited? 3) Is present trend of research is adequate enough to support proactive buying? In this regard, 78 papers are classified into ten categories to identify factors affecting supplier selection and evaluation process. Statistical analysis has been conducted with software 'R' to have better insight on the trend of research. Recommendations and future work is also included to verify inadequacy of existing methods, if any, to support proactive buying process.