Based on engaged scholarship, this study empirically advances our understanding of the weighting of decision criteria used by procurement executives to assess strategic suppliers’ on-going attractiveness in practice, and the extent to which the decision criteria that they apply are consistent with three theoretical perspectives: transaction cost economics, capability theory, and social capital theory. Using a policy-capturing technique, we examine the relative weights placed on decision criteria that significantly explain and predict when suppliers are reassessed as attractive strategic suppliers. We find empirical evidence that all three theoretical perspectives significantly contribute to executives’ reassessments of strategic supplier attractiveness. By employing engaged scholarship methods involving academics and practitioners applying multiple theoretical perspectives, we illustrate how knowledge can be developed, addressing the dual hurdles of relevance and rigor for theory and practice.
