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The purpose of this paper was to examine the challenges and opportunities the new public procurement legislation has created for academic librarians as regards the acquisition of library materials in academic libraries (university/college libraries) in Malawi.

The study used a multi-method approach. Quantitative data were collected through questionnaires. The questionnaires were sent online to the university/college libraries of seven major accredited public universities in Malawi. After an initial analysis of that data, qualitative data on patterns were obtained through a mailing listserve with all the possible 19 librarians. Responses were analysed and categorised using a thematic approach.

Academic libraries (university/college libraries) are involved in the internal procurement committees. Librarians are represented in internal procurement committees, though their representation differs from one institution to another. All the academic libraries (university/college libraries) either use the centralised or independent procurement methods. As a result, the public university libraries deal with agents as independents. Working as independents has negatively affected the libraries, as materials are procured at different prices and sometimes at higher prices, thereby ignoring the value for money.

In academic libraries, the library consortia have pulled resources towards a basket fund for wide access and cheaper licensing. However, for print library materials, a collaborative procurement process in which the academic libraries identify an agent capable of achieving a supplier list and then purchase directly from the preferred suppliers seems not to have been tried in the most developing countries.

The study suggests that academic libraries (university/college libraries) should emulate the library consortia approach when dealing with agents. The academic libraries should consider collaborative procurement models as a means of procuring library materials.

Since the enactment of the public procurement legislation in Malawi, no research has been documented on the challenges and opportunities the public procurement act and the acquisition of library materials. This research seeks to bridge the literature gap.

This paper presents an e‐commerce system that is being used for construction material procurement. The paper identifies the limitations relating to information retrieving, recording and sharing in the traditional material procurement process. E‐commerce applications that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the material procurement process in construction are then identified and described. Finally, the design and implementation of an e‐commerce system for construction material procurement for trading construction materials in China is presented and discussed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the benefits and challenges of implementing circular economy (CE), as well as shed light on the influence of procurement strategy in CE implementation in construction projects.

A qualitative research approach with abductive reasoning was adopted. The empirical data were collected from the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The results reveal that clients, consultants and contractors have limited awareness, knowledge and motivation to implement CE in construction projects. The absence of incentives to design projects following CE principles, lack of involvement of contractors and suppliers, non-use of materials that use CE principles and current procurement strategies are the main challenges for the implementation of CE in the UAE.

Previous research offers limited knowledge on CE and its implementation in construction projects particularly from a procurement strategy perspective. The findings of the study provide new knowledge of the benefits, challenges and role of procurement strategy for implementing CE. It is suggested that collaborative and partnering-based procurement methods are needed to facilitate the effective implementation of CE.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyse and categorize the major factors affecting lean procurement (LP) in a construction project of a company in India using total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) approach. The readiness factors identified help the managers to recognize the areas that lack, i.e. purchase, stocks and receipts, and provide importance to the successful implementation of LP in those areas. This study further intends to examine the hierarchical interrelationships among the factors identified using dependence and driving power.

Ten factors were identified from literature review, and expert opinions were collected from the organization which is in construction phase in India. Scheduled interviews were conducted based on questionnaire survey in the organizations to identify the relevance of the relations among the factors. Matrix impact cross-multiplication applied to classification analysis uses dependence and driving power to understand the hierarchical relationship among the factors identified.

Results indicate that supplier selection is the key readiness factor for LP. The manager needs to concentrate more on readiness factors to formulate execution process of LP for the betterment of the construction project undergoing organization in India. The readiness factors help the manager to identify the target area for LP execution.

This study would be useful for researchers and practitioners to understand the readiness factors before starting the implementation process of LP in construction projects. The managers of companies undergoing construction project can use the outcome of the present study to implement LP in a competent way. Basing the priorities of attention on the ten readiness LP factors in the appropriate order of importance, as suggested by this study, can give project managers a more scientific basis in which to specify the level of attention required for each of the factors to implement readiness in LP.

The present study identifies the readiness factors related to LP, especially for construction project. None of the researchers have studied readiness factors of LP for organizations undergoing construction projects. This is the first attempt made to analyze the relationship between LP readiness factors and TISM approach in construction project organization.

Design and build (D/B) construction methods have gained more importance in recent years for their potential advantages in improving project performance. There are, however, a number of problems that are commonplace in D/B procurement, which, when they interact with each other, can lead to project time and cost overrun problems. The most important among them are design changes, together with communication and coordination lapses among concerned parties. Past research has focused only on the characteristics of the traditional construction, or separate sub‐systems such as different phases or human resource input to projects. An attempt is made in this paper to improve D/B project time and cost performance. A generic system dynamics model is developed that incorporates major sub‐systems and their relationships inherent in D/B constructions projects. It is validated and calibrated for a typical large D/B infrastructure project using time and cost overrun problems experienced in Thailand. Extensive simulations with many policies, individually or in various combinations, show that improvement in time or cost can be made with proper policy combinations that reflect strong interactions between the whole design and build system and can be derived only if these interactions are accounted for. To achieve overall improvement in both time and cost, the combination of full overtime schedule, average material ordering, and fast track construction with moderate crashing of design is most appropriate. If cost is the focus, extending the construction schedule, combined with material ordering based on actual need, and design and build with traditional construction method is the best solution.

The purpose of this paper is to present a practical instrument for self-evaluation of maturity in the processes of procurement and supply management, applicable to small and medium-size companies, as well as to show how the use of this evaluation tool may help companies to decide what to improve in these processes.

Based on an empirical and theoretical framework, the instrument developed measures the maturity of procurement and supply management activities in four macro-processes: materials management, purchase process, supplier evaluation process and process of procurement planning. For testing the self-evaluation instrument, the authors evaluated the maturity of 48 hospitals and 37 metal-mechanic manufacturing companies located in the southern region of Brazil. To show how to use this tool to decide what to improve in procurement and supply processes, the authors conducted a comparative analysis of a hospital and a metal-mechanic company, in relation to the sample of the same segment.

The results show that the instrument is reliable for practical application. Metal-mechanic industries have a greater maturity in the purchase process than in the other three macro-processes. The management of materials is the most mature macro-process in hospitals. Comparing hospitals to metal-mechanic companies, the present research shows that, between 20 and 99 employees, hospitals tend to have a higher level of maturity in the purchase process than metal-mechanic companies. With 100 employees or more, metal-mechanic companies are more mature than hospitals in procurement planning and in selection/evaluation of suppliers.

Presenting a useful self-evaluation instrument, this work demonstrates that the measurement of the maturity level, and benchmarking it with other companies, may help a firm to decide what to improve in its processes of procurement and materials management, showing how an economic sector can understand itself better. Few scientific studies have practical application to the assessment of the degree of maturity of procurement and supply management processes. Besides that the authors did not find other papers presenting a comparison of different segments.

The most significant element in manufacturing costs is materials. To be more precise, manufacturing companies, on average, dispose of more than half the money they receive from sales in purchasing materials, components and services. As one measure of comparison, labour costs represent something over 20 per cent, less than half the proportion attributable to materials. Thus, despite the considerable irritant of fast‐rising wages, at the level of the manufacturing company, materials loomed largest as the most significant contributor to inflation during the period 1973–4.

A deteriorating security situation and an increased need for defence equipment calls for new forms of collaboration between Armed Forces and the defence industry. This paper aims to investigate the ways in which the accelerating demand for increased security of supply of equipment and supplies to the Armed Forces requires adaptability in the procurement process that is governed by laws on public procurement (PP).

This paper is based on a review of current literature as well as empirical data obtained through interviews with representatives from the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration and the Swedish defence industry.

Collaboration with the globalized defence industry requires new approaches, where the PP rules make procurement of a safe supply of defence equipment difficult.

The study's empirical data and findings are based on the Swedish context. In order to draw more general conclusions in a defence context, the study should be expanded to cover more nations.

The findings will enable the defence industry and the procurement authorizations to better understand the requirements of Armed Forces, and how to cooperate under applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

The paper extends the extant body of academic knowledge of the security of supply into the defence sector. It serves as a first step towards articulating a call for new approaches to collaboration in defence supply chains.

At all levels of government, inconsistencies exist regarding the terminology and the body of knowledge used to understand public procurement. Perspectives on what public procurement is, or should be, ranges from routine ordering to sophisticated analysis of government spending. Definitional ambiguities have hampered attempts to define the field and unify its focus. This exploratory article examines the implications of the muddled nature of public procurement that has led to debate and uncertainty about the proper role of public procurement practitioners. To address these limitations, three dimensions of all public procurement systems are identified, and a general definition is proposed for describing the field and its institutionalized practices.

This article examines the determinants of salaries of heads of public procurement units. Specifically, it investigates the effect of gender, budget size, supervisory responsibilities, experience, authority level, education, certification, age, cost of living and labor market competition on the compensation of purchasing supervisors and heads of purchasing units. The article uses multiple linear regression and analysis of variance to conclude that drivers of compensation of public procurement executives and managers in the public sector are different than those in the private sector or in other industries.