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The purpose of this study is to better understand the effectiveness of buyers’ defensive measures to thwart bid protests in government procurements.

A sample of 240 sourcing professionals concerning government source selections is used to analyze a logistic regression model exploring 6 antecedents of bid protests.

This research implicates the importance of oral presentations of offers, the type of value procured (i.e. services), protest experience, the quantity of document revisions, transaction costs and cost reimbursement contracts in receiving a bid protest.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to explore sourcing strategy decisions that can contribute to the receipt of a bid protest. It adds clarity to an understudied market of business – the public sector.

The purpose of this research is to explore the effects of supplier selection method on key procurement outcomes such as procurement lead time (PLT), supplier performance and buyer team size.

Data were collected from a sample of 124 archival contract records from the US Department of Defense. A multiple regression model and multivariate analysis of covariance/analysis of covariance models were used to test the effects of source selection method on pertinent procurement outcomes.

The trade-off (TO) source selection method increases PLT, as does the number of evaluation factors and the number of proposals received. Substantially larger sourcing teams are also associated with the TO source selection method. Nonetheless, the TO method results in better supplier performance.

TO source selections yield superior supplier performance than low-bidder methods. However, they are costly in terms of time and personnel. Any assessment of supplier value should consider not only the price premium for higher performance but also the transaction costs associated with the TO method.

Very little research addresses a buying team’s evaluation of supplier-offered value ex ante and whether that value assessment materializes into actual value-added supplier performance. Low bidder tactics are pervasive, but price (i.e. sacrifice) is only one component of value. Benefits from superior supplier performance may yield greater overall value. If value is critical to the buyer, a TO source selection method – versus a low-bidder approach – is the appropriate tool because of higher supplier performance ex post.

Small businesses are critical to economic health and encouraged in government spending by set-asides – annual small business sourcing goals that often are not attained. Little research has explored the negative and risky stigmas associated with small business sourcing.

This research explores reduced transaction costs of small business sourcing to government buyers. A survey of 350 government source selections reveals lower transaction costs derived from lower perceived risk of receiving a bid protest and via more efficient source selection processes.

Contrary to common bias, the performance level of small businesses is no less than that of large business. Thus, small businesses engender lower transaction costs for correcting supplier’s performance. On the basis of these findings, managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.

This paper aims to examine how interfirm transactional and relational assets drive firm performance (FP) in digitally integrated supply chains.

The authors combine the Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and Relational Exchange Theory (RET) frameworks to hypothesize that FP will be a function of Asset Specificity (AS), Digital Technology Usage (DTU) and Collaborative Information Sharing (CIS). In addition, the authors hypothesize that Supply Chain Integration (SCI) will partially mediate the effect of DTU and fully mediate the impact of AS and CIS on FP. A cross-sectional survey of supply chain managers is used to test the hypotheses.

Findings indicate that specific investments in digitally integrated supply chains would increase FP. In addition, SCI fully mediates the relationships between AS and FP and CIS and FP, while SCI partially mediates the influence of DTU on FP.

Managers could strategically engage in the technologies that effectively fit within the firm’s supply chain strategies and seek to develop a pragmatic expertise that enables the effective use of technology in a comprehensive setting.

The study enriches the extant literature by incorporating TCE and RET as contradictory viewpoints on AS and investigating how transactional and relational assets affect FP in digitally integrated supply chains.

Militaries face increasing budget pressures, high operations tempos, a blitzing pace of technology, and adversaries that often meet or beat government capabilities using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies. The integration of COTS products into defense systems has been offered to help meet these challenges, yet such integration suffers mixed results. The purpose of this paper is to offer a knowledge-based conceptual framework for understanding COTS technology integration in the defense sector.

A literature review of 62 sources was conducted with the objectives of identifying antecedents (barriers and facilitators) and consequences of COTS adoption.

Research implicates the importance of knowledge management to successful COTS integration. COTS appropriateness should be gauged, and it is impacted by 14 enabling and five deterrent factors.

The conceptual framework of COTS technology usage enhances understanding of COTS performance. The framework and its propositions should focus, and thus, stimulate increased future research of COTS performance. Limitations common to qualitative methods are disclosed.

By identifying factors that shape COTS appropriateness, practitioners know the factors to manage to hedge toward successful COTS integration. Managers should be aware of the importance of market knowledge for defense COTS innovation, especially for commercial companies that work as system integrators. COTS integrators need to better manage the lessons learned from COTS integration programs.

This research is the first to develop a conceptual framework of COTS product usage and a scale to measure COTS product appropriateness.

This paper aims to derive a model that explores how the interplay between knowledge integration capability and innovation impacts strategic orientation, leading to the attainment of sustainable competitive advantage. The study considers the constituents of strategic orientation, namely, customer orientation, competitor orientation and technology orientation, as the basis for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. The study suggests that the firm’s capacity for integrating external and internal knowledge shapes how strategic orientation influences sustainable competitive advantage through service innovation.

This empirical research relies on qualitative and quantitative data gathered from telecom professionals to assess how knowledge integration and service innovation influence sustained competitive advantage. Structured equation modeling is used to examine the model and its interrelationships.

The research establishes significant relationships between strategic orientations, knowledge integration capability, service innovation and sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge integration capability and service innovation are found to mediate the relationship between strategic orientations and the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage.

The study highlights the significant contribution of a firm’s knowledge integration capability in driving service innovation, especially in technology-intensive service industries facing hypercompetition. It also advocates prioritizing technology orientation and integrating knowledge from internal and external sources for competitive advantage.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to model the effect of knowledge integration capability and service innovation on strategic orientation-led sustainable competitive advantage.

The fear of receiving a bid protest is said to affect acquisition strategies, yet it has not been empirically explored. Based on the Public Value Framework and interviews with contracting personnel, this research tests a model of antecedents to and consequences of the fear of a protest. Survey data was obtained from a sample of 350 contracting personnel. The fear of protest is mitigated by having sufficient procurement lead time and by source selection experience, and increased by protest risk. Fear of protest increases compromised technical evaluations, added procurement lead time, and transaction costs, while it decreases contracting officer authority and is associated with source selection method inappropriateness. Compromised technical evaluations, in turn, decrease contractor performance while contracting officer authority increases contractor performance. Thus, findings suggest that, indeed, the tail is wagging the dog. The research concludes with several managerial implications, study limitations and future research directions.

Alpha contracting is a collaborative effort between a buyer and supplier during contract formation to maximize efficiency and effectiveness. Collaborative efforts between the United States Department of Defense and its suppliers have recently been scrutinized. Although several benefits of Alpha contracting are identified within the literature, the phenomenon is not ubiquitous nor is it well understood. Using the case study methodology, this research explores Alpha Contracting to define success and to identify its contributing factors. Additionally, this research identifies antecedents for and consequences of use, variations of the processes employed, and some misuse. The study culminates in the development of a conceptual model of collaborative pricing, and provides five recommendations for enhanced use.

Knowledge-based services (KBS) comprise a major portion of services acquired by public organizations. However, their procurement is not well managed; consequently, inefficiencies abound. Therefore, this study explores whether and how KBS can be sourced more efficiently by examining best practices and precepts from knowledge management theory. A spend analysis of one agencyʼs spend is used to identify the types of KBS procured. Interviews from 12 cases are then used to identify best practices and cost drivers in sourcing KBS. Twenty one recommendations for improving efficiency in sourcing KBS are offered. The findings suggest that potential is available from demand reduction strategies, and that public policy governing the procurement of knowledge is needed. The research concludes with theoretical implications and suggestions for future research.

Public procurement officials are bound by extensive policies, procedures, and laws. However, procurement professionals perpetually struggle to comply with these vast requirements — particularly in the acquisition of services. The purpose of this research is to explore knowledge-based factors affecting compliance of service contracts. A regression model using data acquired via survey from 219 U.S. Government procurement professionals reveals that the extent of compliance is affected by buyer experience, personnel turnover, the sufficiency with which service requirements are defined, post-award buyer-supplier communication, and the sufficiency of procurement lead time. From these results, implications for practice and theory are drawn. The study concludes with a discussion of limitations and directions for future research.