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Country comparative studies especially in Africa on public procurement reforms toward financial control and accountability of public expenditure are limited. Meanwhile, these kinds of studies have potential for providing useful insights on how value for money through public procurement is being ensured across Africa. This paper attempts to provide this. The purpose of this paper is to highlight several policy recommendations for public management aimed at improving public procurement and public financial management (PFM) systems in Africa.

The paper adopts a qualitative case study using secondary data drawn from Global Integrity Index (GII) of the Transparency International and the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessments databases to investigate variables that influence public procurement practices in three purposively selected African countries. The comparative approach for presenting some of the experiences of countries in public procurement methods is used in this paper.

The findings suggest three main variables, namely, government structure and economic variables, complicated by socio-cultural values interact to influence public procurement and PFM systems in the case study countries.

Data for the GII indicators used were only available from 2013, which restricted the discussion of those indicators to a short span (2013–2015).

The socio-cultural milieu within which public procurement takes place has implications for how governance structures function to deliver value-for-money public procurement.

This study adds value by comparing three countries within Africa to reveal common variables which influence public procurement and PFM systems.

This paper aims to explore the impacts of a blockchain network implementation to support purchasing processes of a Brazilian public organization.

The Grumbach method was used to build the scenarios. Five experts with knowledge in blockchain and experience in public procurement were consulted on 20 possible preliminary events, defining their probability of occurrence and relevance. The data obtained were processed in Puma software, which returned a selection of ten definitive events, based on probability, relevance and standard deviation indicators, generating a map of prospective scenarios.

Three following scenarios are shown, the ideal scenario, the one with greater implantation benefits and fewer complications; the trend scenario, more likely to occur under current conditions; and the most likely scenario of occurrence, according to experts. The results indicated which simulated events are drivers (motives), and which are influenced (dependent). They were categorized as opportunities or threats to the deployment of the technology.

Although public procurement processes are standardized by Brazilian legislation, new events may arise from the replication of the model in different organizations. The research revealed the need for practical testing in a simulated public procurement environment.

The article explores the interaction between disruptive network technology and processes linked to public sector efficiency. Studies on electronic government point to the future of public management.

The study sets out to demonstrate how a lifecycle perspective on complex, public-sector procurement projects can be used for making qualitative assessments of procurement policy and practice and reveal those procurement capabilities that are most impactful for operating effectively.

Agency theory, institutional theory and the lifecycle analysis technique are combined to abductively develop a framework to identify, analyse and compare complex procurement policies and practices in public sector organisations. Defence is the focal case and is compared with cases in the Nuclear, Local Government and Health sectors.

The study provides a framework for undertaking a lifecycle analysis to understand the challenges and capabilities of complex, public-sector buyers. Eighteen hierarchically-arranged themes are identified and used in conjunction with agency theory and institutional theory to explain complex procurement policy and practice variation in some of the UK’s highest-profile public buyers. The study findings provide a classification of complex buyers and offer valuable guidance for practitioners and researchers navigating complex procurement contexts.

The lifecycle approach proposed is a new research tool providing a bespoke application of theory by considering each lifecycle phase as an individual but related element that is governed by unique institutional pressures and principal-agent relationships.

Fraud within the procurement process remains a persistent challenge, resulting in substantial financial losses and lack of social justice. This paper underscores the significance of records for the integrity of the procurement practices and proposes using blockchain technology to mitigate records fraud. Analyzing international regulations this paper highlights their emphasis on proper records management for promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity of procurement procedures. This paper aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between records management and procurement accountability while addressing blockchain technology's innovative use in mitigating records forgery and omission.

This research involves a comparative analysis of international regulations investigating their directives on the relevance of records in public procurement and a survey of records fraud cases in the Brazilian context to illustrate the significance of the problem and to indicate how blockchain technology can be applied as a solution to ensure accountability and prevent records forgery and omission.

The findings highlight the explicit importance ascribed to proper records management by international regulations, and indicates how blockchain technology can serve as a valuable resource to reduce the records fraud opportunity in public procurement.

The research does not consider context-specific regulations. The survey of frauds is limited to the Brazilian context.

This research introduces a pioneering approach by investigating the use of blockchain technology to combat records forgery or omission in public procurement procedures.

This paper aims to understand how the global supply chain in the medical device industry embraces resilience by adopting agility approach following COVID-19.

This study adopts an interpretative approach to examine the qualitative data drawn from interviews and observation under dynamic capability theory. The data collection concerned multiple stakeholders involved in purchasing and supply management in the medical device market: manufacturing suppliers, channel partners, hospital management and end-users. The coding analysis uses an application that helps the researchers categorise the nodes and extend the existing literature.

The findings show that global supply chain leaders leverage the dynamic capability by centralising the business process decision to respond to the shifting demand from the local governments to the national health ministry, shaping the partnership style from the area- to the funnel-based agreement, even though it exposes a risk of product acceptability from the end-users, encouraging the distributor to convert just-in-time approach into holding safety stock to avoid penalty from missing the procurement target even and restructuring the local partners’ debts to manage long-term performance.

This study extends the emerging literature in international business by underpinning dynamic capability theory.

This paper explores how a firm that is established in an environment characterized by uncertainty can engage with weak regulative institutions by developing operational and institutional capabilities.

We employ a multiple case study approach with seven leading multinational firms in Brazil in industries that vary in industry concentration.

Firms choose among alternative strategies for engaging with regulative institutions as an ongoing process, based on their assessment of four characteristics of the uncertainty they face and their capabilities. Strategies that require a firm to exert greater effort to adapt to institutions or influence institutions have a greater potential to catalyze for developing operational capabilities. Although firms in industries with different concentrations behave similarly in individually adapting to regulative institutions, firms in decentralized industries are more likely to collaborate to influence institutions, which enables them to both access public agents through network partners and better negotiate their own interests.

This research guides managers in developing institutional engagement strategies to reduce the potential consequences of institutional uncertainty in their supply chain. It also suggests types of institutional capability aligned with decentralized vs concentrated industries.

We extend the construct of institutional engagement strategies from the context of entrance to a new international market to an ongoing process in firms that are established in an environment characterized by weak regulative institutions. We also examine the role of industry concentration in the application of institutional engagement strategies.

Electronic procurement has received primacy as one of the significant reforms to help fight corruption and inefficiencies in the public sector across countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of electronic procurement adoption on procurement performance. Additionally, the paper examines the moderating role of institutional quality in the relationship between electronic procurement and procurement performance.

The study applied an explanatory design and a quantitative research approach. Also, the study relied on UTAUT and institutional theory to develop a test research model using 121 responses from public entities in Ghana. Hypothesised paths were investigated using structural equation modelling.

The findings revealed that electronic procurement adoption positively and significantly affects procurement performance. Also, the findings indicated that institutional quality positively and significantly affects electronic procurement adoption and procurement performance, respectively. Lastly, the findings proved that institutional quality moderates the relationship between electronic procurement adoption and procurement performance.

The study focused on public procurement entities in the Greater Accra Region – Ghana. The study contributes to adopting electronic procurement, institutional quality, and procurement performance literature. The study also extends the UTAUT and the institutional theory to African public entities. The study reechoes the importance of institutional quality in developing economies to enhance electronic procurement adoption.

To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this is the first study that examines the moderating role of institutional quality in the relationship between electronic procurement adoption and procurement performance.

This paper explores how blockchain technology can enhance information quality within project management information systems (PMIS), thereby positively affecting knowledge management, learning capabilities and project portfolio success.

We employ a literature review and a theory-based approach to develop a conceptual framework and set of propositions that integrate key principles from blockchain technology, project management and dynamic capabilities theory. Subsequently, a focus group is conducted to refine our propositions, providing insights and examples demonstrating the potential value of blockchain in project management.

The findings suggest that blockchain significantly impacts the information quality within PMIS. This improvement in information quality enhances traceability, reliability and security of project data, facilitating better decision-making and governance. The focus group revealed blockchain’s benefits in managing confidential data and streamlining knowledge sharing processes, ultimately contributing to project portfolio success.

This research offers a novel conceptual framework and original insights into the application of blockchain in project management, particularly within the context of Industry 4.0, paving the way for future research on digital transformation in project management.

The public distribution system (PDS) is an Indian food security system established to manage the distribution of food grains at affordable prices. As a result of the population explosion, the long-established PDS system finds it challenging to maintain operational efficiency, quality, trust and transparency. This paper explores the possibility of leveraging blockchain technology to overcome these operational hurdles.

Through a literature review and expert interactions, the present research identifies critical success factors in terms of enablers and barriers that influence the adoption of blockchain technology in PDS. Furthermore, we propose two independent interpretive structural models (ISM) and MICMAC to characterize these attributes.

The research identifies 15 distinct enablers and ten barriers that influence the diffusion of the latest technology in the sector at focus. The analyses disclose the interrelationships/dependencies among these enablers and between barriers, along with their individual driving power and dependence power.

The research showcases the importance of automating the system and illustrates how the features of blockchain technology can assist in augmenting stakeholder satisfaction levels. However, poor or nonexistent government regulations and patronage are found to be the major impediments to adoption. The research also delineates the cost implications of this barrier through its interrelationships with other barriers.

Interesting inferences are drawn from the models that offer actionable insights for the industry, government and technologists for improving PDS performance. Such interventions will ensure national food security through enhanced trust and transparency, which can further improve efficiency and effectiveness.

This paper aims to analyze practices, processes and outcomes related to construction supply chain management (CSCM) in Brazil to identify opportunities and direct actions and strategies to improve the Brazilian sector through blockchain technology (BT).

The study collected empirical data through semi-structured interviews with consumers and distributors to identify how the CSCM functions today. The interviews were structured and analyzed around the following topics: processes, digitalization, quality and weakness of the activities performed. The opportunities for using BT in CSCM were identified by crossing these results with evidence in the bibliography.

The study identified deficiencies, gaps and good practices applied to information management in the sector. Also, it analyzed the features, drivers and barriers of BT from a practical perspective. The findings suggested that BT is feasible and promising, reducing costs and enhancing process transparency. The need to overcome cultural and economic barriers is a challenging task.

This study brings a new perspective on using BT in CSCM, relating it to the demands and particularities of the construction sector in Brazil. The study identifies a limited panorama of chronic CSCM concerns, given BT’s infinite opportunities. And it motivates a gradual transition toward installing a new technological culture based on BT that focuses on priority care for the sector’s chronic deficiencies. The results can guide practical actions for the successful insertion of BT in the CSCM, laying the foundations for significant future research.