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Using some experiences in the USA, the United Kingdom and Australia, this paper illustrates the nature of some contractual challenges that can be expected to transform the sophistication of the procurement role in government to ensure the demands of public accountability continue to be met.

As government organizations step hopefully into a new century, among the challenges they face will be the demands of the “New Purchasing” and persistent pressure to redefine the role of the purchasing practitioner in government. Reengineering of purchasing activities was a constant feature of the 1990s in many government jurisdictions. Those who manage the function usually influence a large share of organizational expenditure and must also cope with the demands of e-commerce, devolution of responsibility, partnering and strategic alliances, and the implications of globalization within the context of an accountable public sector. Applying some theoretical, functionalist models of a profession, this paper seeks to establish professional credentials for purchasing practitioners.

This paper presents the results of a literature survey developed to support a proposed model of the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) likely to impact the success of e-Procurement initiatives in the public sector. It identifies a number of relevant variables for each CSF and presents a model for future research. It also analyses the relative importance of different CSFs and observes that organization and management factors are the most important category for success of e-Procurement initiatives. If e-Procurement initiatives in the public sector are to assist the development of e-Procurement across the information economy, there should be wider discussion and agreement on what constitutes the relevant CSFs and how the achievement of success can be assessed.

Australian manufacturing enterprises are seen to be facing enormous pressures in terms of international competition and turbulent external environments, and longer‐term investment in training and staff development (TSD) is seen to be essential to produce the highly skilled and flexible employees who will be needed. These issues were investigated in a survey completed by senior managers from 151 private sector Australian manufacturing enterprises. One group of organizations appeared to see needs for change and flexibility in employee knowledge, skills and abilities and used a longer‐term approach to TSD. A smaller group saw less need for changes and flexibility and tended to use TSD only when changes in staff, procedures or equipment made it necessary. Both groups, however, seemed to be facing similar amounts of environmental uncertainty and international competition. Discusses possible reasons for the apparent lack of relationship between perceived internal needs for change and the state of the external environment.

This paper seeks to explore sources of political and administrative challenges which arise from an absence of alignment of supply chains linking the activities of public agencies.

The performance measurement challenges created by an apparent absence of alignment within public sector supply chains are explored from a conceptual perspective, through the supply chain and public sector performance management literature. A case study is provided to highlight the practical and organizational challenges facing politicians, policy makers and public sector managers when they seek to demonstrate to their stakeholders, including the general community, the performance efficiency of their agencies.

There is an absence of research and debate concerning the alignment of inter‐agency supply chains and the potential this creates for delivery performance failure that disadvantages stakeholders.

While this is a conceptual paper, the existence of recurring supply chain problems between agencies, as illustrated by the case study, provides practical conclusions of use to practitioners and policy makers.

The paper revisits earlier literature on performance measurement in the public sector and applies this to a supply chain situation to explore problems in measuring and managing inter‐organizational supply chains which exist not only between public agencies but also between private sector organisations undertaking outsourced contracts on behalf of government.

Government procurement has been a neglected area of study in higher education and research. This symposium is one of the first efforts in examining government procurement. This article will provide a brief overview of government procurement developments and summarize major themes of manuscripts included in the symposium.

Chester Whitney Wright (1879–1966) received his A.B. in 1901, A.M. in 1902 and Ph.D. in 1906, all from Harvard University. After teaching at Cornell University during 1906–1907, he taught at the University of Chicago from 1907 to 1944. Wright was the author of Economic History of the United States (1941, 1949); editor of Economic Problems of War and Its Aftermath (1942), to which he contributed a chapter on economic lessons from previous wars, and other chapters were authored by John U. Nef (war and the early industrial revolution) and by Frank H. Knight (the war and the crisis of individualism); and co-editor of Materials for the Study of Elementary Economics (1913). Wright’s Wool-Growing and the Tariff received the David Ames Wells Prize for 1907–1908, and was volume 5 in the Harvard Economic Studies. I am indebted to Holly Flynn for assistance in preparing Wright’s biography and in tracking down incomplete references; to Marianne Johnson in preparing many tables and charts; and to F. Taylor Ostrander, as usual, for help in transcribing and proofreading.

Cooperative purchasing is beginning to receive renewed attention by scholars and practitioners alike in both the private and public sectors. Generally, cooperative purchasing arrangements have been reported to reduce costs, expedite transactions, and increase product knowledge. In the public sector, cooperative purchasing has been reported to reduce political risk, minimize “red-tape,” and, in some cases, avoid all reported social equity goals that are reported to increase costs. In this article, we contend that the lack of conceptual clarity has marred the literature on cooperative public sector purchasing, and as a result public sector purchasers have no theoretical guidelines to help them decide upon this purchasing mechanism. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to use agency theory to analyze, define, and establish a conceptual framework of cooperative public purchasing to help guide academics and practicing public sector purchasing professionals.