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1 – 10 of 23David McKevitt, Paul Davis, Roelf Woldring, Kay Smith, Anthony Flynn and Emma McEvoy
There is currently much debate about the meaning of competency and its importance to professionalization. This article explores the personal meaning and importance of competency…
Abstract
There is currently much debate about the meaning of competency and its importance to professionalization. This article explores the personal meaning and importance of competency from the perspective of public buyers and managers in Ireland and the UK. Using an in-depth mixed method research design, we propose a typology of public procurement competency and discuss the implications of the framework for professionalization of public procurement.
David Mark McKevitt and Paul Davis
Using the lens of mentoring theory the authors test the extent to which public buyers informally support suppliers and the influence of organisational context on mentoring…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the lens of mentoring theory the authors test the extent to which public buyers informally support suppliers and the influence of organisational context on mentoring support. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Principal component analysis was used to analyse questionnaire responses from over 300 public buyers in Ireland. Cluster analysis produced three mentor profiles.
Findings
The findings show a positive relationship between organisations that take a strategic approach to suppliers and buyers who offer career and psychosocial support to suppliers. However, those organisations that lack a strategic perspective of suppliers saw buyers offer political support and coaching.
Research limitations/implications
The implications are that coaching and political support may compensate for deficits in organisational support for suppliers generally. The findings contribute to a growing literature on informal interaction opportunities in public procurement.
Originality/value
To date research of supplier development is limited to formal developmental activities and in the context of private sector buyer-supplier relationships.
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The aim of this paper is to explore how micro‐enterprises interact with public procurement systems. The paper seeks to give public procurement managers a better understanding of…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explore how micro‐enterprises interact with public procurement systems. The paper seeks to give public procurement managers a better understanding of how micro‐enterprises approach the procurement process.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consists of microenterprises competing for public procurement contracts in Ireland. The data are firstly submitted to principal component analysis to identify a set of factors that represent the public procurement process. This is later used to create four distinct clusters which describe how suppliers interact with the process.
Findings
A typology of four interaction patterns is generated from the data. This shows that small firms weight the three phases of the procurement process differently. The data support and extend the argument that small firms are not a homogeneous group and illustrate that small firms use divergent strategies when competing for procurement contracts.
Research limitations/implications
The practical implications of the research include the need to assess the potential for buyer‐supplier mentoring in order to develop relational competency in public procurement. The firms investigated are domiciled in Ireland and therefore generalisability of the findings may be limited. The scope of the study is restricted to micro‐enterprises only.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates that pre‐tender engagement is a necessary condition for small suppliers to achieve above average bid outcomes. The paper offers insights to public buyers, teams and managers as to the importance of engaging with suppliers to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
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David Mark McKevitt, Anthony Flynn and Paul Davis
The aim of this paper is to explore the factors that influence buyer decision-making in public procurement. The objective is to better understand the processes and conditions that…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explore the factors that influence buyer decision-making in public procurement. The objective is to better understand the processes and conditions that support different supply arrangements, which maximise SME participation.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses case study evidence of contract awards across multiple organisational contexts including: a local authority, commercial semi-state, police force, and a tourist agency.
Findings
National policy and the role of procurement exerted mixed effects upon the cases. The procurement processes were broadly similar and included cross-functional teams, consideration of trade-offs and market research.
Research limitations/implications
The paper highlights the transition of public organisations toward strategic procurement including supplier engagement.
Practical implications
This offers buyers a decision support tool that promotes equal opportunities for SME participation, a key goal of EU procurement. The implications for suppliers of each buying decision are also outlined. The concept of practical rationality is used to support the framework.
Originality/value
A normative framework of public procurement decision-making is generated from the cases. Buying complexity and supplier engagement are two conditions that support a 2×2 decision framework. The framework extends efficient and central-buying decisions to include adapted and balanced decisions. This range offers buyers a decision support tool that promotes equal opportunities for SME participation, a key goal of EU procurement. The implications for suppliers of each buying decision are discussed.
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David McKevitt and Donna Marshall
The purpose of this paper is to present findings from longitudinal case studies of small firm mentoring relationships in Ireland. The rationale is to explore the gaps between the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present findings from longitudinal case studies of small firm mentoring relationships in Ireland. The rationale is to explore the gaps between the theory and practice of small firm mentoring.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a comparative case study design involving interviews, observation and secondary sources of evidence including business plans.
Findings
In contrast to the literature the paper extends the role of mentors in the small firm context as offering direct and indirect support, which reduces uncertainty in order to increase legitimacy of the business entity.
Research limitations/implications
The cases highlight a conflict between the broad theoretical scope of the mentor process vs a narrow role assumed by best practice.
Practical implications
The research presents an opportunity to enhance the pragmatic vs paternalistic perspective of small firm mentoring. The authors argue that for mentoring theory to be useful then a mentor’s role-set in small firms may be wider and should be more direct than mentors in large corporations.
Originality/value
The emergent theoretical framework combines organisational learning and decision-making theories. The paper contributes to the theoretical development of mentoring by extending the range and defining the role of mentors in the context of small firms.
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Maria Caprile, Mina Bettachy, Daša Duhaček, Milica Mirazić, Rachel Palmén and Angelina Kussy
Universities are large, complex and highly hierarchical organisations with deeply engrained gendered values, norms and practices. This chapter reflects on the experiences of two…
Abstract
Universities are large, complex and highly hierarchical organisations with deeply engrained gendered values, norms and practices. This chapter reflects on the experiences of two universities in initiating structural change towards gender equality as supported by the TARGET project. A common aspect thereby is the lack of a national policy in higher education and research providing specific support for implementing gender equality policies. The process of audit, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the first gender equality plan (GEP) in each of these universities was conceived as a first step in a long journey, providing a framework for engaging different institutional actors and fostering reflexive, evidence-based policy making. The analysis deals with reflexivity and resistance and seeks to draw lessons from bottom-up and top-down experiences of GEP implementation. It is the result of shared reflection between the GEP ‘implementers’ in the two universities and the team who provided support and acted as ‘critical friends’.
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Stanley Frederick W.T. Lim, Xin Jin and Jagjit Singh Srai
The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the extant research on last-mile logistics (LML) models and consider LML’s diverse roots in city logistics, home delivery and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the extant research on last-mile logistics (LML) models and consider LML’s diverse roots in city logistics, home delivery and business-to-consumer distribution, and more recent developments within the e-commerce digital supply chain context. The review offers a structured approach to what is currently a disparate and fractured field in logistics.
Design/methodology/approach
The systematic literature review examines the interface between e-commerce and LML. Following a protocol-driven methodology, combined with a “snowballing” technique, a total of 47 articles form the basis of the review.
Findings
The literature analysis conceptualises the relationship between a broad set of contingency variables and operational characteristics of LML configuration (push-centric, pull-centric, and hybrid system) via a set of structural variables, which are captured in the form of a design framework. The authors propose four future research areas reflecting likely digital supply chain evolutions.
Research limitations/implications
To circumvent subjective selection of articles for inclusion, all papers were assessed independently by two researchers and counterchecked with two independent logistics experts. Resulting classifications inform the development of future LML models.
Practical implications
The design framework of this study provides practitioners insights on key contingency and structural variables and their interrelationships, as well as viable configuration options within given boundary conditions. The reformulated knowledge allows these prescriptive models to inform practitioners in their design of last-mile distribution.
Social implications
Improved LML performance would have positive societal impacts in terms of service and resource efficiency.
Originality/value
This paper provides the first comprehensive review on LML models in the modern e-commerce context. It synthesises knowledge of LML models and provides insights on current trends and future research directions.
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Kirsty Liddiard, Sally Whitney-Mitchell, Katy Evans, Lucy Watts, Ruth Spurr, Emma Vogelmann, Katherine Runswick-Cole and Dan Goodley
Jianfeng Zhao, Niraj Thurairajah, David Greenwood, Henry Liu and Jingfeng Yuan
The unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has further constrained the budgets of governments worldwide for delivering their much-needed infrastructure. Consequently…
Abstract
Purpose
The unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has further constrained the budgets of governments worldwide for delivering their much-needed infrastructure. Consequently, public-private partnerships (PPPs), with the private sector's investment and ingenuity, would appear to be an increasingly popular alternative. Value for money (VfM) has become the major criterion for evaluating PPPs against the traditional public sector procurement and, however, is plagued with controversy. Hence, it is important that governments compare and contrast their practice with similar and disparate bodies to engender best practice. This paper, therefore, aims to understand governments' assessment context and provide a cross-continental comparison of their VfM assessment.
Design/methodology/approach
Faced with different domestic contexts (e.g. aging infrastructure, population growth, and competing demands on finance), governments tend to place different emphases when undertaking the VfM assessment. In line with the theory of boundary spanning, a cross-continental comparison is conducted between three of the most noticeable PPP markets (i.e. the United Kingdom, Australia and China) about their VfM assessment. The institutional level is interpreted by a social, economic and political framework, and the methodological level is elucidated through a qualitative and quantitative VfM assessment.
Findings
There are individual institutional characteristics that have shaped the way each country assesses VfM. For the methodological level, we identify that: (1) these global markets use a public sector comparator as the benchmark in VfM assessment; (2) ambiguous qualitative assessment is conducted only against PPPs to strengthen their policy development; (3) Australia's priority is in service provision whereas that of the UK and China is project finance and production; and (4) all markets are seeking an amelioration of existing controversial VfM assessments so that purported VfM relates to project lifecycles. As such, an option framework is proposed to make headway towards a sensible selection of infrastructure procurement approaches in the post COVID-19 era.
Originality/value
This study addresses a current void of enhancing the decision-making process for using PPPs within today's changing environment and then opens up an avenue for future empirical research to examine the option framework and ensuing VfM decisions. Practically, it presents a holistic VfM landscape for public sector procurers that aim to engage with PPPs for their infrastructure interventions.
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Isaac Elking, David E. Cantor and Christian Hofer
This study aims to examine the extent to which a buying firm can leverage the firm's supplier's innovations to boost the firm's own innovation performance and key moderators to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the extent to which a buying firm can leverage the firm's supplier's innovations to boost the firm's own innovation performance and key moderators to this relationship. Grounded in social embeddedness theory, the authors explore the role of dyadic embeddedness between a buyer and supplier as a facilitator of buyer innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Negative binomial regression was used to empirically analyze a large sample of dyadic observations from the USA manufacturing industry. Measures were developed from data acquired from Compustat, LexisNexis and Bloomberg.
Findings
The findings indicate that supplier innovation has a positive impact on a buyer firm's innovation output, particularly when the firms are technically similar and when there is a higher degree of financial interdependence in the buyer–supplier dyad.
Originality/value
This study provides important insights into how supplier firms can facilitate buyer innovation as and how relational factors suggested by social embeddedness theory act to strengthen this effect. Through a theoretical-based empirical examination of supply chain dyads, the findings highlight the importance of financial interdependence and technical similarity when buyers seek to benefit from supplier innovation capabilities.
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