Although the understanding of decision-making as a key aspect of highperformance supply chain operations is not new, context variables that interfere with the decision process are still a relevant aspect to expand. Specially in Latin America, where mature supply chains are a goal but not the norm, the majority of the companies are SMEs that do not hold a formal decision-making process to support logistics and operations decisions. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze the decision cycles applied in operations for international purchase transactions. Data collection was conducted with a total of 86 companies currently operating in Buenaventura Port, Colombia. Results show the visibility of each of the critical processes that articulate the decision-making process within the import process, thus, identifying all logistic process associated in three cycles: (i) purchase process, (ii) international physical distribution process and (iii) customs clearance process. Lack of operations planning and high focus on the same incoterms without proper context assessment are the most critical issues found on the sample companies. Based on the data obtained, a model is proposed to estimate the costs and risks and support formal decision-making processes while taking context variables into consideration.