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Combinatorial procurement auctions are increasingly being employed in the private and public sector as an alternative to simultaneous single contract auctions. This mechanism has the advantage that it enables suppliers to express synergies across bundles of public contracts. This mitigates the exposure problem and also has the potential to both lower the price paid by the procuring authority and to enhance efficiency. This paper provides stylized facts of recently performed combinatorial public procurements in various markets in Sweden.

To investigate the extent to which the contracting mechanisms instituted by the 2004 reform, in particular power auctions, have solved the investment hurdles created by the first reform.

The paper analyses the characteristics of Brazilian contracting and the experience so far with power auctions, concerning investments in generation and electricity prices.

Auctions have been moderately successful, in the sense that they have attracted a fair number of bidders and electric companies have increased their value in the stock exchange, while keeping prices moderate. However, a number of other hurdles to investment – in particular clear and feasible criteria for environmental licensing – have to be solved in order to achieve the reform goals.

The format of power auctions is still going through a learning process; also, the experience has been limited so far, which severely hinders the use of quantitative tools. This could be the object of future research, after more data are available. Of particular interest will be the follow‐up of free bilateral contracting, which has grown significantly.

This could be a useful reference for scholars interested in the recent developments in the Brazilian Electricity Supply Industry.

As far as is known, this is the first paper to systematically analyse the performance of power auctions in the Brazilian market. Its value lies in that it allows an objective evaluation of one central point of the 2004 reform.

The main aim of this paper is to review some of the newest and most promising advances in auction theory with an eye to applications to procurement practice. Here we focus in particular on four topics related to multidimensional auctions: 1) how to define a proper scoring rule when the awarding bodies lack the necessary information regarding its own preferences and suppliers’ technology; 2) how to cope with the information disclosure policy regarding the discretional evaluation of some aspects of each contractual proposal; 3) how to use contractors’ reputations based on their past performance in the awarding process; 4) how to control the risk of collusion and corruption in the awarding phase.

This paper is an empirical analysis of first-price sealed-bid procurement auctions in Sweden, with and without combinatorial bidding. The data comprises procurement auctions of identical contracts (road resurfacing) with identical bidders conducted under the same time period (2009-2011) in two different regions in Sweden. Given the comparison of the suppliersʼ offered price per tons of asphalt, we cannot reject the hypothesis of identical distribution of standalone bids generated in both types of auction. The distribution of package bids within the combinatorial format is significantly lower than the distribution of standalone bids within the non-combinatorial format, suggesting substantial cost reduction of allowing package bidding. Also, within the combinatorial format, our analysis of data indicates higher costs when packages are predetermined by the purchaser rather than chosen freely by the suppliers.

This research aims to contrast bid competitiveness with respect to the average bid auction (ABA) and the non-ABA bidding formats used by the Public Works Department (PWD) of Malaysia.

The research uses the ordinary least square regression and the Monte–Carlo simulation to point out significant predictors which affect the bid ratio and fitting probability distributions to bidding data, respectively.

This research shows that the bidding strategy adopted is dependent on the different formats used. In the ABA format, bidders are more likely to submit identical bid prices. In the non-ABA format, they bid according to the first-price auction strategy, which suggests greater variation between bid prices as a winning strategy and the reduction in the bid price to an estimated price ratio when more bidders bid.

Bidders lose more money when the distance between the project location and a firm’s operational office is greater. Best-fit probability density functions follow a gamma distribution for the ABA format and a Weibull distribution for the non-ABA format. The location and number of bidders affect bidders’ strategy to win.

This research presents empirical insights concerning the comparisons of different type of bidding formats practiced by PWD of Malaysia and its implications on the construction companies’ bidding behaviors especially when it comes to its economic consequences. The significant factors that affect the different auction mechanisms used can serve as a basis for improving the present methods employed by PWD and in other countries.

The performance of public–private partnership (PPP) projects depends on how the project has been structured. The traditional PPP option analysis for structuring project scope and size relating to the bundling of functions concerning a single component of the value chain will need to be extended to handle multi-component sectors such as municipal solid waste (MSW) in formulating the project scope. This analysis is currently missing in the extant literature. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Through a comprehensive literature review as the methodological backbone, this study develops a testable holistic framework for the procurement of MSW PPP projects that examines how various factors of bundling affect the performance of the PPP projects.

Using transaction cost economics, agency and auction theories, the review identifies that innovation, maturity, quality specifiability, scope, competition, information asymmetries and transaction attributes have a significant influence on the performance and success of the PPP projects.

Alternative supply chain management possibilities and firm-level organisational ways can be predicted using this framework to strategize the solutions for the municipal infrastructure. Based on this contribution, future research can test the framework to increase the knowledge of bundling theory about how to structure network infrastructure PPP projects.

Studies on how to bundle/unbundle the projects having components of the value chain are in a nascent stage. The present study attempts to extend the body of knowledge on PPP to the complexity of bundling both the functions and components of the value chain in structuring the PPP project scope.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the opportunity for the energy policy in Brazil to tackle the very high cost-effectiveness potencial of solar energy to the power system. Three mechanisms to achieve ambitious reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by 2030 and 2040 are assessed wherein treated as solar targets under ambitious reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. Then, three mechanisms to achieve these selected solar targets are suggested.

This paper reviews current and future incentive mechanisms to promote solar energy. An integrated energy system optimization model shows the most cost-efficient deployment level. Incentive mechanisms can promote renewable sources, aiming to tackle climate change and ensuring energy security, while taking advantage of endogenous energy resources potential. Based on a literature review, as well as on the specific characteristics of the Brazilian power system, under restrictions for the expansion of hydroelectricity and ambitious limitation in the emissions of greenhouse gases from the power sector.

The potential unexploited of solar energy is huge but it needs the appropriate incentive mechanism to be deployed. These mechanisms would be more effective if they have a specific technological and temporal focus. The solar energy deployment in large scale is important to the mitigation of climate change.

The value of the research is twofold: estimations of the cost-effective potential of solar technologies, generated from an integrated optimization energy model, fully calibrated for the Brazilian power system, while tacking the increasing electricity demand, the expected reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the need to increase the access to clean and affordable energy, up to 2040; proposals of three mechanisms to deploy centralized PV, distributed PV and solar thermal power, taking the best experiences in several countries and the recent Brazilian cases.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate e‐reverse auctions (eRA) implementation experiences across a diverse group of firms and sectors in the Indian context, to derive useful insights for theory and practice.

The paper takes the form of a qualitative multiple case study following direct observation of object reality. The data analysed include written documentation, archival records, physical artifacts and unstructured interviews with key eRA personnel.

eRA work best in a competitive, high capacity marketplace and are the dominant strategy when the focus is on low search cost per supplier, when the percent reduction over time in the price offered by the current supplier is low and when the product is standardized. The optimum number of bidders is five to ten. Most of the findings are in line with literature but some of them differ too. These will add to academic discourse.

The small sample size and case method approach limits the ability to generalize the findings. The firms were selected as a convenience sample and so may not be truly cross‐sectional. Only analytical generalisation is claimed rather than any statistical generalisation.

eRA improve effectiveness of the sourcing process and facilitate access to new suppliers. They also lead to standardization of sourcing procedures, reduced order cycle, reduced prices and generally higher service levels. This paper will help firms in India and other countries to develop policies, strategies and procedures while implementing eRA.

The paper is perhaps the first on eRA practices in India. The author describes the practices in detail and based on this develops a framework for eRA process and provides detailed and concise guidelines for managers.

There exists a tremendous number of studies in strategy and management journals concerning contracting issues between private firms. Those studies are usually grounded in competing theoretical frameworks such as transaction cost economics, the resource-based view of the firm, incentive and agency theories and few others. However, very few studies, especially in those reviews (this is also true to a lesser extent in economic journals), are concerned with the issue of contracting between private firm and government. This is particularly surprising since existing theoretical frameworks qualified to tackle contracting strategies between private firms can also provide insights into issues related to contracting with government.

This paper examines operating performance and corporate governance of 181 companies over the period 2003- 2008 (563 firm-year observations), whose customers are governmental agencies, and contrasts their performance to that of companies that have no governmental customers. The sample firms are classified into firms whose customers are (1) domestic governmental agencies, (2) foreign governmental agencies, (3) state governmental agencies, or (4) different combinations of the 3 types. The results show that firms that supply domestic and/or foreign government customers have significantly higher operating income, profit margin and return on asset and lower operating expenses than firms that supply state government customers and than their matched industry peers who do not supply any government customers. These government-supplier firms have lower managerial ownership than their industry peers which suggests potential room for agency problems to develop. Firms that supply domestic and/or foreign government customers have significantly lower executive compensation than firms that supply state government customers and than their matched industry peers.