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Small councils may not have access to professional procurement resources – one potential solution is to create a procurement shared service with another council. The purpose of this paper is to focus on evidence of the emergence and existence of inter‐organisational procurement shared services and its benefits; a structural approach significantly different from the intra‐organisational centralised/decentralised organisational models and the use of consortia.

Case studies, making use of stakeholder, semi‐structured interviews, were used to probe the experience of six English procurement shared‐services covering 15 councils.

The findings demonstrate evidence of that some smaller councils are benefiting from collaborating in inter‐organisational procurement shared service. The collaborations were engaged in strategic procurement initiatives which would not have otherwise been possible through the use of consortia. However, there was an absence, within the cases, of formal business cases and strategy.

The paper provides evidence that procurement shared services can be inter‐organisational delivering the benefits of intra‐organisational “hard core/soft core” procurement structures and inter‐organisational consortia. The paper also suggests that the benefits gained from procurement shared services have more akin to inter‐organisational collaboration than intra‐organisational shared services. This research is limited in that it only relates to the experience of a purposive sample of small councils that had already decided to pursue a procurement shared service. The research limitations also include the absence of a political perspective.

A procurement shared service appears a viable structural option for smaller councils, whether they have, or have not currently, access to a procurement professional. The research highlights the need to adopt an incremental approach and also sets out suggestions for a strategic approach to shared services procurement strategy.

There is an absence of literature on delivering procurement as a shared service, and shared services in general – in that respect this paper represents research into a new emerging procurement structural model, not previously reported.

This research addresses the lack of project management research into social procurement by exploring the risks and opportunities of social procurement from a cross-sector collaboration perspective.

A content analysis of five focus groups conducted with thirty-five stakeholders involved in the implementation of a unique social procurement initiative on a major Australian construction project is reported.

Results show little collective understanding among project stakeholders for what social procurement policies can achieve, a focus on downside risk rather than upside opportunity and perceptions of distributive injustice about the way new social procurement risks are being managed. Also highlighted is the tension between the collaborative intent of social procurement requirements and the dynamic, fragmented and temporary project-based construction industry into which they are being introduced. Ironically, this can lead to opportunistic behaviours to the detriment of the vulnerable people these policies are meant to help.

The paper concludes by presenting a new conceptual framework of project risk and opportunity management from a social procurement perspective. Deficiencies in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) are also highlighted around an expanded project management role in meeting these new project management requirements.

Social procurement is becoming increasingly popular in many countries as a collaborative mechanism to ensure construction and infrastructure projects contribute positively to the communities in which they are built. This research addresses the lack of project management research into social procurement by exploring the risks and opportunities of social procurement from a cross-sector collaboration perspective.

This study aims to highlight and validate the importance of strategic procurement and its value to both public and private firms. This study discusses a collaborative private-public partnership (PPP), supply chain advisory committee (SCAC), established during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to acquire personal protective equipment (PPE) and other critical supplies for a donation center in Toledo, Ohio, USA. This center serves the community and small businesses. This paper discusses the strategies, process and framework that were created to procure the needed items under a short lead time. The process of the partnership and outcomes are transferable and capable of being used by others to benefit society.

The case study methodology was used to investigate and summarize the actions and events of the SCAC. The case presented was tracked from the initial call to action from a local emergency response organization, Lucas County Emergency Operation Center (EOC), through the first six months of the committee’s work. Data collection was completed through a triangulation of sources.

The findings of this study reveal that public firms are vulnerable in a crisis. A crisis exposes the inequities in the supply chain and the need for public and private collaboration to use innovative procurement strategies. This study suggests that PPP procurement professionals benefit from working together. Both can learn from the limitations and benefits of collaborating.

This study offers a framework on how PPPs can be established to procure PPE during a crisis. This study has practical implications for private and public firms seeking to collaborate for the good of society.

The findings of the study reveal that public firms are vulnerable in a crisis, which exposes the inequities in their supply chains. Private-public partnership (PPP) procurement professionals mutually benefit from working together as both can learn from each whether it is procuring PPE during a crisis or seeking to team up for the good of society. Society benefits when these organizations share solutions to problems rather than compete against one another during a crisis-situation such as a global pandemic. Supplies get to those who need them the most and information flows amongst the organizations to ensure equity in the availability of the supplies.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature that argues that public procurement must be innovative and strategic to contribute to socially responsible solutions. Government regulations require public procurement to use competitive bidding for accountability, cost reduction and to reduce fraud. However, emergency situations require innovative procurement strategies. The use of innovative procurement strategies is typical in private procurement. During a crisis, supplier relationships, lead-time management and shared and transfer of knowledge must be leveraged to acquire critical items in a timely manner. A lack of innovative public procurement strategies constrains the public and small under resourced businesses, rendering them inoperable. This paper provides a case study of an effective PPP during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper highlights the strategies, process and framework for future research and collaborations.

Cost overrun is a significant issue in construction, an undesirable feature the industry has long been associated with. Poor procurement practices are often blamed for subsequent cost overruns in construction, especially with conventional procurement methods leading to outrageous cost overruns. The purpose of this study is to review the features of the new models of construction procurement (NMCP) and assess their potential to reduce cost overruns in construction projects.

A literature review was conducted to identify the issues of procurement leading to cost escalations. Primary data were obtained through exploratory, semi-structured interviews using a case study approach.

Clients’ lack of knowledge was highlighted as a key issue in procurement that interlinks with many factors causing cost escalation. The findings suggest that the features contained within the NMCP, such as early contractor involvement and collaboration throughout the project team, have the potential to make a positive contribution to addressing cost escalation in construction.

The primary research was undertaken as an exploratory study and presents the contractor's perspective. Further research is therefore suggested, with multiple organisations representing all key stakeholders in a construction project, including clients, consultants, sub-contractors and suppliers.

The study recommends awareness of the NMCP be raised throughout the industry, and simplified information must be made available to help widen uptake of these contemporary procurement methods.

Addressing the dearth of research concerning the use of NMCP within the industry, this study makes a niche contribution to the body of knowledge on construction cost management by illustrating the potential offered by these new procurement methods for addressing cost escalation. For an industry where collaboration is accepted with reservations, this case study demonstrates how novel collaborative strategies such as open book costing, project bank accounts and shared pain and gain mechanisms can be implemented as part of the procurement strategy and how such strategies can contribute towards minimising the cost escalation inherent in construction projects.

The general purpose of the paper is to improve supply chain (SC) responsiveness and agility by developing advanced planning and scheduling (APS) with collaboration process into agile supply and demand networks (ASDN).

Some industrial examples are presented to extract the APS requirements, then business models that are supported by analytical models are developed into APS modules to respond to the requirements. At the end, the modules are attached into an ASDN simulator to measure the benefit of the APS with collaboration process.

The results show that the APS with collaboration process is superior to existing APS software in terms of promising lead times to customers at minimum inventory level.

Since the APS with collaboration process cannot optimize transportation planning, SCs cannot therefore optimize networks by finding the optimum network configuration. Currently, the simulator needs to be tested in several possible network scenarios to find the optimal network configuration.

The APS with collaboration process makes it possible to give guaranteed lead times at minimum inventory level. Furthermore, it is possible to combine the APS with collaboration process with enterprise resources planning or MRP II by considering the criticality of the planning.

The attachment of APS with collaboration process business into ASDN represents the original aspect of this paper.

Procuring relief products and services is a challenging process for humanitarian organizations (HOs), yet it accounts for approximately 65% of relief operations’ costs (Moshtari et al., 2021). This paper aims to examine how procurement internal controls, materials and purchasing procedure standardization influence information integration and procurement performance.

In this study, partial least square structural equation models and multigroup analysis were used to analyze data collected from 170 HOs.

Procurement internal controls and material and purchasing procedure standardization fully mediate between information integration and procurement performance.

The study focuses only on HOs. Since humanitarian procurement projects take place over a period of several years, it is difficult to capture the long-term effects of information integration, procurement internal controls, material and purchasing procedure standardization and procurement performance. In this regard, a longitudinal study could be undertaken, provided that the required resources are available.

Procurement managers should implement information integration practices within acceptable procurement internal controls and standardize material and purchasing procedures to boost procurement performance.

By integrating information through procurement internal controls and standardizing material and purchasing procedures, procurement performance in a humanitarian setting can be systematically optimized.

This paper presents the results of a survey of perceptions on sustainable procurement (SP) in the United Nations (UN). It is the first of its kind to systematically analyse the issue of SP in the UN system. While the UN has a tremendous opportunity to support their objective of sustainable development through SP practices, significant obstacles still block the full implementation of this goal. The purpose of this study is to investigate the barriers to implementing SP practices in the UN system. Based on an online survey that yielded 282 responses, we identified a framework of SP measures and barriers, and conducted a regression analysis to identify underlying correlations. We find significant correlation between good SP practices and low demand, performance measurement and tool barriers.

Insufficient productivity development in the global and Finnish infrastructure sectors indicates that there are challenges in genuinely achieving the goals of resource efficiency and digitalization. This study adapts the approach of capability maturity model integration (CMMI) for examining the capabilities for productivity development that reveal the enablers of improving productivity in the infrastructure sector.

Civil engineering in Finland was selected as the study area, and a qualitative research approach was adopted. A novel maturity model was constructed deductively through a three-step analytical process. Previous research literature was adapted to form a framework with maturity levels and key process areas (KPAs). KPA attributes and their maturity criteria were formed through a thematic analysis of interview data from 12 semi-structured group interviews. Finally, validation and refinement of the model were performed with an expert panel.

This paper provides a novel maturity model for examining and enhancing the infrastructure sector’s maturity in productivity development. The model brings into discussion the current business logics, relevance of lifecycle-thinking, binding targets and outcomes of limited activities in the surrounding infrastructure system.

This paper provides a new approach for pursuing productivity development in the infrastructure sector by constructing a maturity model that adapts the concepts of CMMI and change management. The model and findings benefit all actors in the sector and provide an understanding of the required elements and means to achieve a more sustainable built environment and effective operations.

Health sector is one of the most important sectors when the size of spending and the number of people and organizations involved are considered. An important characteristic of this sector is the dominance of governments as health care providers and/or financers. This fact has important procurement policy implications. This paper gives a detailed overview of the health sector in Turkey and issues surrounding public procurement in this sector. It presents a model for implementation of eprocurement in Turkey’s public health sector, a discussion about the extent to which e-procurement can solve prevailing problems and suggestions to improve procurement in this sector.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships among strategic sourcing, e-procurement and firm performance, along with the moderating effects of business characteristics and environmental factors on these relationships.

This empirical investigation relies on structured survey responses from 137 managers of US manufacturing firms. The partial least squares-based structural equation modeling approach is used for data analysis.

The research results confirm that both strategic sourcing and e-procurement have a positive effect on firm performance. In addition, e-procurement is also found to have a positive impact on strategic sourcing. In addition, the research results suggest that business characteristics and the environment, especially the degree of competition, market turbulence, firm size and stage in product life cycle moderate these relationships significantly. The positive effects of strategic sourcing and e-procurement on firm performance are particularly enhanced under the right conditions.

This research is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to provide insights into the joint effects of strategic sourcing and e-procurement, and how business characteristics and the environment affect their roles on firm performance. In addition, firm performance is evaluated as a multi-dimensional construct involving financial, operational and supply chain aspects, with the measurements consisting of several second-order constructs. The study makes both theoretical and practical contributions.