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In prior work, GAO found that contractors were paid billions of dollars in award fees regardless of acquisition outcomes. In December 2007, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued guidance aimed at improving the use of award fee contracts. GAO was asked to (1) identify agencies’ actions to revise or develop award fee policies and guidance to reflect OMB guidance, (2) assess the consistency of current practices with the new guidance, and (3) determine the extent agencies are collecting, analyzing, and sharing information on award fees. GAO reviewed the Departments of defense (DOD), Energy (DOE), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-agencies that constituted over 95 percent of the dollars spent on award fee contracts in fiscal year 2008.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects that the framing of contractual performance incentives have on supplier’s behavioural and relational responses and on the buyer–supplier relationship.

The authors conducted three in-depth case studies of contractual relationships, which exhibit differences in terms of how performance incentives are framed, i.e., using promotion, prevention and “hybrid” frames, respectively. The study involved 38 semi-structured interviews and content analysis of contract agreements.

First, while promotion-framed incentives lead to positive supplier responses and improved relationships, prevention-framed incentives result in negative responses and deteriorating relations. Second, hybrid-framed incentives can lead to productive supplier responses when positive ex ante expectations are met, although the creation of such positive expectations in the first place depends on the proportionality of bonus and penalty elements. Third, promotion- and hybrid-framed incentives do not by default lead to positive effects, as these are contingent on factors pertaining to contractual clarity. Fourth, the overarching purpose of the contract moderates the effects of contract framing on supplier responses.

The study contributes to contracting research by showing how the framing of performance incentives influences supplier behavioural and relational responses. It also extends the existing literature on contract framing by examining the effects of hybrid-framed incentives, and stressing that contract framing should be considered in joint with the clarity and overall purpose of the contract to elicit desired supplier behaviours.

Managers of buying firms may differentiate their approach to contract framing depending on the type of supplier relationship in focus. Furthermore, effective design of promotion- and hybrid-framed incentives requires attention to: realistic performance targets (on the short, medium and long term); salient bonuses related to these targets; incentive structures that appropriately balance rewards and risks; and: mechanisms that explicate and consider uncontrollable factors in the calculation of bonus–malus payments.

The paper extends the literature stressing the psychological impact of contracts on buyer–supplier relationships by highlighting that contractual clarity and the overarching purpose of the contract moderate the effects of contract framing on supplier behavioural and relational responses.

A national survey of small manufacturing businesses (fewer than 100 employees) reveals prevailing attitudes about doing business with public agencies. Respondents describe a two tiered, nine variable model as representative of the public sector procurement process. Findings provide government agencies and private sector marketers with operational clues on what may help initiate and sustain procurement relationships with smaller suppliers.

Construction projects generate large volumes of data which can be used for better management of projects. In this paper, key project data is manually extracted from project site meeting minutes. Knowledge discovery technologies are then used to predict the final project duration of active projects.

Project planning and effective leadership/governance were identified from literature as the most significant factors that impact the duration of projects. These factors were hence considered as the main features for a data mining process. Items supporting these factors were extracted from site meeting minutes to create a database of 27 civil engineering projects executed over the last ten years. Data mining algorithms were used to predict from this data whether or not an active project will be completed on time.

The research showed that information from project site meetings can be used to predict final project duration of active projects with accuracy of above 80% when using random forest algorithms from Orange and RapidMiner data mining applications. The value of data to predict project duration from project site meeting minutes is demonstrated but it only becomes practically useable if the format of minutes is suitably standardised.

Some of the data mining algorithms provided accuracies of above 80% in predicting final project duration and proved the value of project data from site meeting minutes. The random forest algorithms are particularly suited to this type of data. The factors with the highest impact on the prediction of the project duration are those related to the progress of the project.

This study for the first time shows that data from site meeting minutes of past and current projects can be used to make accurate predictions of final project duration of active projects and serve as a project management tool to activate remedial measures.

Inter-organisational governance is an important enabler for information processing, particularly in relationships undergoing digital transformation (DT) where partners depend on each other for information in decision-making. Based on information processing theory (IPT), the authors theoretically and empirically investigate how governance mechanisms address information asymmetry (uncertainty and equivocality) arising in capturing, sharing and interpreting information generated by digital technologies.

IPT is applied to four cases of public–private relationships in the Dutch infrastructure sector that aim to enhance the quantity and quality of information-based decision-making by implementing digital technologies. The investigated relationships are characterised by differing degrees and types of information uncertainty and equivocality. The authors build on rich data sets including archival data, observations, contract documents and interviews.

Addressing information uncertainty requires invoking contractual control and coordination. Contract clauses should be precise and incentive schemes functional in terms of information requirements. Information equivocality is best addressed by using relational governance. Identifying information requirements and reducing information uncertainty are a prerequisite for the transformation activities that organisations perform to reduce information equivocality.

The study offers insights into the roles of both governance mechanisms in managing information asymmetry in public–private relationships. The study uncovers key activities for gathering, sharing and transforming information when using digital technologies.

This study draws on IPT to study public–private relationships undergoing DT. The study links contractual control and coordination as well as relational governance mechanisms to information-processing activities that organisations deploy to reduce information uncertainty and equivocality.

This Case Study sets out to show how one local personal social services authority, the city of Sunderland, approached the task of developing a mixed economy of social care through contracts and market management. It starts with an outline of the historic and policy background and the Sunderland context. It then explains how the task was given a strategic framework. The Case Study continues by setting out what Sunderland has done in achieving contracts for residential and nursing care and concludes with a brief review of how contracts are being developed for other social care services.

This paper evaluates an Air Force performance-based service contract against the contracts that were prescriptive in the past. Department of Defense mandated that all service contracts be performance-based by 2005. The goal of the paper is to determine whether this contract, after becoming performance-based, is achieving greater cost savings and better outcomes for government, contractor, and taxpayers. The paper assesses the contract performance standards and how they are measured. The authors analyze the language of the Statement of Work (SOW) before and after it became performance-based. The contractor’s performance is evaluated. Positive incentives are identified and described. Finally, the paper addresses risk assessment issues.

Public agencies contract out to pursue a variety of goals. But, these goals cannot be realized if the performance of contractors is not assessed and monitored. This study examines the state of performance measurement and contract monitoring in the U.S. transit agencies. We focus on three research questions: (1) What monitoring capacity exists within transit agencies? (2) What monitoring methods are used by transit agencies? (3) What performance measures are tracked by transit agencies? We find monitoring units are common in a third of agencies in the study. Service and customer complaints are the most common performance measures, while penalties and liquidated damages are the most frequent form of penalties. Finally, we find that transit agencies utilize a variety of output and outcome measures to monitor contractors.

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how a critical perspective (i.e. critical social theory) can be applied to provide understanding and insights into mechanisms as to why interorganisational information communication technologies (ICT) in construction projects is not used in the intended way.

Habermas' critical social theory, in particular his models of action, is used for the critical analysis. From this perspective, the intended and actual use of document management and workflow management systems are studied in two construction projects.

In construction projects, interorganisational ICT is intended to support instrumental action, communicative action and sometimes also dramaturgical action. However, in practice, this ICT is not used in the intended way because actors adopt strategic action and normatively regulated action as well.

The paper confirms the importance of analysing the social system and the technical system, and how these interact, to understand how and why actors use interorganisational ICT.

This paper demonstrates how a critical social theory provides insights into mechanisms as to why interorganisational ICT in construction projects is not used in the intended way.