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Performance-based contracting (PBC) is a business model for the adaptive and innovative delivery of product-service systems. In PBC, the provider is paid according to the service performance with the aim of providing monetary incentives to safeguard possible outcomes as much as possible for the PBC customer. Performance measurement and its management are crucial for PBC success and, in particular, for the pay-for-performance link. However, the literature on PBC performance management is rather sparse, and there has been no systematic review on the topic. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to fill that gap and to present a comprehensive and systematic review of performance measurement and management in the PBC context.

The paper builds on a literature review based on a sample of 102 subject-relevant articles from academic journals. The content analysis follows a two-step procedure. First, the articles are coded following a process-based research framework. Second, the content of each process step is assessed in a qualitative text analysis.

The results show a surprising scarcity of papers that explicitly address performance management topics in the context of PBC. Only the topics of performance specification and performance indicators are broadly addressed, whereas in all of the other areas, e.g., strategic alignment, data capture and reporting, only limited specific findings could be found.

The paper concludes that future research on performance management in PBC should expand its theoretical framework and empirical efforts in four specific proposed directions.

The paper provides an up-to-date review that is focused on performance management and measurement in the emerging context of PBC.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had severe effects on economies worldwide and, in particular, on public institutions that must keep their operations running while supply chains are interrupted. The purpose of this study is to examine how public institutions act during a pandemic to ensure the security of supply.

The distinct focus is if, why and how public institutions have adopted additive manufacturing (AM) – a production technology colloquially known as three-dimensional printing in which a product is created by joining raw material layer by layer based on a digital model (computer-aided design [CAD] file) of the product – in reaction to supply disruptions caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. For this purpose, four cases within the context of the pandemic supply disruption are used as the units of analysis.

The findings are twofold: public institutions reacted, on the one hand, with a behavioral solution approach, trying to solve the supply disruption with new or changed forms of cooperation and collaboration. On the other hand, public institutions used a technical solution approach (TSA) as a supply disruption response and intensified their use of AM.

This research derives an implications model that focuses on the TSA. Considering the ex ante and ex post phases of the disruption, several effects of AM on resilience are identified. The most relevant is the long-term learning effect (i.e. AM data created during this disruption might also help in a new disruption).

Practitioners who act under extreme pressure and uncertainty are informed by cases that have managed to close bottleneck situations with either a behavioral or TSA. Specific strategies are given for how public buyers could use AM within a pandemic situation to mitigate supply bottlenecks, such as increasing their robustness by localizing sourcing and increasing agility by combining traditional and additive supply sources. Additionally, insights are provided into how public organizations can increase their level of preparedness by including disruption paragraphs, establishing CAD databases, in contract clauses and keeping reserve contracts with AM service providers.

This research contrasts behavioral and technical solution concepts for a pandemic in the public sector. Thus, it provides insights into the relative benefits of AM and causes and effect with regard to how AM affects supply robustness and agility.

In the EU and especially in Germany, public procurement is bound to a tight legislation that also sets and enforces strategic goals such as innovation or sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether different archetypes of public procurement organizations (centralized or decentralized; state-level or local-level) perceive and implement strategic goals differently. A survey with data from 104 entities is used for this purpose. The findings reveal that the implementation of strategy is different in centralized or state-level organizations compared with decentralized or local organizations. Centralized organizations give goals such as innovation, transparency, and sustainability a high priority, while local ones highlight regional development and SME support

Inaccurate capturing and processing of customer requirements result in negative economic and ecological effects. Digital twins of customer demands promise to remedy these issues. However, successful implementation necessitates users' technology acceptance. This study contrasts three hierarchical digital twin levels with different degrees of user integration and examines determinants for their respective acceptance.

A structural equation model is applied in a comparative manner, considering different levels of digital twin radicalness. A multidimensional approach is used to measure attitudes towards usage. Data are collected in the context of organisational supply management.

Results show harmonious effects across digital twin levels. This indicates that technological radicality plays only a subordinate role when assessing acceptance determinants such as user perception on ease of use, usefulness, trust and risk.

Rather than focussing solely on technological factors, findings suggest that users prioritise the actual outcome and efficiency of the system. This perspective offers practical implications for organisations seeking to implement advanced systems and emphasises the significance of user perceptions beyond technological features.

The societal impact of this research are an appreciation of customer roles in the supply chain where an enhanced detection of customer needs and preferences aligns businesses with the dynamic and evolving demands of a diverse and a continuously environmentally-conscious consumer base.

This study applies a measurement model for technology acceptance in a unique and multidimensional manner. Thereby, a comparative analysis of user perceptions across different digital twin levels sheds more light on a nascent, promising and underexplored technological method. This interdisciplinary research combined knowledge from the supply chain management and management information systems fields by highlighting key factors for the adoption of complex technological methods.

Performance-based contracting (PBC) links pricing with performance objectives in service business relationships. Although interest in PBC has surged recently, there is still great uncertainty about the risks, opportunities and challenges. This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the contextual factors of PBC and how providers assess them.

This paper includes conducting a multiple-case study evaluation and analyzes data from 21 cases. Risks, opportunities and contextual factors are identified through interviews, and the case data are analyzed with several methods, including Borda count and cross-tabulation.

The results show that the most important factors of PBC are clear responsibilities, clear performance indicators, transparent measurement, cooperative culture and a precise utilization profile of core assets. Surprisingly, incentives are of minor perceived relevance. The analysis supports the differentiation of PBC into two subcategories: lean (low integrated) and customized (high integrated) PBC.

While many studies stress the uniqueness of PBC in accordance with the “one-size-does-not-fit-all” mantra, this research differentiates the standardized PBC from a customized one. The findings face the limitations of case study research and qualitative data analysis in general.

Practitioners are provided with guidance to develop either a customized or a standardized PBC.

Previously, broader empirical insights have still been rare; thus, this paper contributes to the PBC literature, as it provides data from multiple cross-industry cases. The findings (e.g. the minor relevance of incentives) stand in contrast to parts of the academic literature and contribute also to the wider service management field.

Given the high importance of information systems for procurement, surprisingly there have been little efforts to analyze the process and the relevant reasons for the procurement decision of such systems from a stakeholder perspective. The purpose of this paper is to explore these aspects in the context of low-value (C-)parts.

Research is based on a case study in a pre-fabricator company in Germany and analyzes the process to procure a system for sourcing low-value parts.

As a finding, the procurement process and decision attributes have been integrated into a framework which supports corporate decision-making considering the procurement reasons of all involved stakeholders (internal departments, external customers and suppliers).

Research is based on case study analysis. Findings are specific to case companies and the environment in which they operate. The framework should be tested further in different contexts.

The developed decision frame supports the evaluation of different sourcing information systems, including clearly measurable criteria but also qualitative or company-strategic decision attributes.

The combination of financial and other perspectives (operations, information technology (IT)-administration, system users, etc.), is used to evolve a robust ex-ante instrument for supporting buying decisions for procurement information systems. The case description also illustrates the findings and develops new insights about stakeholders and buying groups decision-making for information systems.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of publications in the Journal of Public Procurement (JoPP) from 2001 to 2021. The study provides insights into trends in publications, prominent publication themes, influential authors, institutions and countries that have prominently been associated with the journal’s journey.

The study used a bibliometric and content analysis approach using the VOSviewer software to develop insights into the trends, structures and patterns in publications in the journal. Data for the study was extracted from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases.

The study established that there has been consistent growth in the number of papers published by the journal within the last two decades. Yearly average publication by the journal stood at 14 papers between 2002 and 2009, with the annual average rising to approximately 18 papers between 2010 and 2021. The trend in publication has been established and identified the influential citations and contributors to the journal. The study has also clustered out the thematic structures in journal’s publications. The prominent and emerging research issues in the public procurement environment needing immediate research attention have been highlighted.

The study is a one-journal bibliometric analysis and subsequently ignores publications on public procurement from other journals.

The findings of this study highlight to the research community the contributions of JoPP to the public procurement discourse and present important avenues for future research agenda.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first bibliometric study for the JoPP, providing detailed bibliometric indexes of the 21-year period of the journal’s publications. The study comprehensively analyses the contributions in the JoPP to assess the trend and scope in publications in the field of public procurement and draws attention to emerging concerns and critical issues of neglect requiring research attention in the journal.

Faced with reduced budgets and rising service expectations, public authorities are increasingly cooperating with private businesses. This paper examines an alternative procurement- and service delivery concept, Performance-based Logistics (PBL). It has been introduced by the US and UK armed forces. However, other nations, such as Germany, are still reluctant to follow. This article has two aims: First, to identify the conceptual characteristics of PBL, and second, to analyze potential reasons why although PBL is popular in some nations, others are so reluctant to introduce it. This will be done using a mixed method approach. The concept of PBL will be introduced by deductively developing a conceptual model of PBL using a business model framework. The analysis of PBL application will be performed using an in-depth case study from the German defense sector. This will be framed by a literature review and concluded by managerial recommendations.

In performance-based contracting (PBC), the provider is paid according to outcomes for its customer, and therefore assumes responsibility for customer risks. Previous studies have revealed that risk exposure is a fundamental influencing factor. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze how previous experience with PBC influences the perception of risks.

This research is based on a cross-industry study. Factor analysis and discriminant analysis are used to reveal to what extent experience influences PBC risk factors.

It is confirmed that risk perception differs significantly according to previous PBC experience. Thus, significant learning effects are identified in the PBC context.

Experiential learning in PBC can explain entry barriers to PBC faced by new buyers with low levels of experience. Although the internal validity of the sample is high, as all analyzed cases represent PBC buying companies, there are limitations related to external validity.

To manage risks this study provides a structure (12 risks, 3 aggregated factors), which could be used for risk evaluation and strategic and operative risk management. Other implications recommend, e.g., to collaborate with a PBC “veteran” when entering into PBC, as this boosts the level of PBC-related experience.

The findings of this study contribute to identifying PBC risks through the explorative statistical assessment of these PBC risk factors.

One of the major methods to promote small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in public procurement is to split tenders into lots. The basic assumption is that SMEs have better chances of awarding smaller or more specialized contracts. This paper aims to investigate whether this widely accepted assumption is correct.

This article examines four hypotheses about the factors that influence SME success in public procurement. The empirical analysis uses real data from 380 contract award files and logistic regression to test the hypotheses.

The results show that a higher number of lots in a tender does not significantly increase the success rate of SMEs, and other factors, including the type of public procurement procedure, the number of participating companies and the overall tender volume, significantly influence SME success.

There are several implications for theory and practice, including the need to further strengthen the academic evaluation of public procurement policies, the suggestion to implement SME support instruments in public legislation with the utmost caution in practice and the managerial indication that SME competitiveness is more relevant to their success in public bidding than public support policies.

The findings stand in fundamental contrast to the legal regulations, which postulate that lots are the driving force for SME promotion in public procurement. This is also in contrast to public procurement policies that, for many years, have recommended splitting contracts into smaller lots to become SME-friendly.