Abstract
The results of empirical research on strategic alignment between top management and purchasing are highly inconsistent. Such alignment also is not prevalent in practice. Our conceptual paper tries to explain this gap and positively guide future research in alignment. We define match based and fit based alignment and use organizational theories to state that top management and purchasing are independent agents. We show that matching their strategies is not essential to performance. We further show that strategy linkage between purchasing and top management is buffered by manufacturing. The nature of this manufacturing buffer essentially decides the type of alignment between top management and purchasing.