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Construction project management outcomes in the literature typically portray significant deviations from expected outcomes. Various theories from studies that focus superficially on causes of project cost and time overruns rather than root causes have not addressed this problem. The need is for a better understanding of how procurement strategy provides a fundamental means to address this problem. The purpose of this paper is to examine the procurement strategy used to deliver a new universities project in South Africa within budget and to ascertain its influence on the outcomes.

A case study was designed to provide a comprehensive and intensive methodology to identify and examine the construction procurement strategy and its influence on the project outcomes. Document analyses and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data on the construction procurement strategy and outcomes from the client team.

The evidence brought forward demonstrates that the successful outcome was largely a consequence of the client team, procurement strategy and systems of delivery. However, the collaborative procurement strategy formed the basis of the successful project delivery and outcomes. A general observation from the data is that an appropriate construction procurement strategy developed by an experienced client team and proactively implemented by an integrated delivery team working collaboratively is likely to achieve the intended project outcomes.

The findings show three critical keys to achieving intended outcomes – people, procurement strategy and systems of delivery at the governance, portfolio, programme and project management levels.

The value of this paper lies in using a comprehensive methodology to study the relationship between procurement strategy and outcomes. The findings can be applied by client teams to achieve better outcomes and value for money in infrastructure projects.

While the need for strategic alignment in public management has been recognized, there is a lack of conceptual clarity to support its application in practice. Focusing on the specific field of public procurement, this paper clarifies and illustrates how the concept of strategic alignment can be applied when strategizing the public procurement process.

The current literature on strategic alignment in public procurement is critically reviewed to identify ambiguities that hamper its application in practice. Based on this review, an analytical framework is developed that conceptualizes strategic alignment as that between the procurement instruments used in a sourcing project and the corresponding higher-level strategies. The framework is empirically illustrated by applying it in a case study that reconstructs the procurement strategy for an innovation project

Strategic alignment in the public procurement process can be demonstrated by identifying, explicating and logically linking reasoning and trade-off decisions on competing priorities across multiple levels and dimensions of strategy

Although creating alignment between policy and public procurement practice is generally held to be important in the public management literature, it is only discussed on high levels of abstraction. This paper provides clarity by investigating alignment in greater detail.

This paper presents a framework for assessing alignment between corporate strategy, procurement strategy and purchasing tools. The framework is built on generation of rents as its common denominator for assessing alignment between the levels. Three types of rents are identified: monopoly rents; Ricardian rents and entrepreneurial rents. The framework is then used for assessing the strategic origin of the following e‐procurement applications: e‐sourcing, e‐tendering, e‐informing, e‐reversed auctions, e‐MRO, Web‐based enterprise resource planning and e‐collaboration. The results indicate that the e‐procurement tools are fully viable for creating monopoly rents, moderately viable for creating Ricardian rents and only somewhat viable for creating entrepreneurial rents. Therefore, it is necessary to first understand how the firm generates rents before procurement strategy and e‐procurement tools are implemented in order to avoid misalignment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of strategy and concurrent engineering (CE) in driving design for procurement (DFP) actions and results via the role of procurement professionals in new product development (NPD). The strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, and a hybrid approach are compared, and sequential NPD is compared to a CE approach within a DFP context.

ANOVA was applied to survey data collected for a series of items capturing the activities and characteristics relating to procurement for a new product design, as well as the performance of the product compared to other design events in the firm.

Several major findings were supported through the analysis. Product-level strategy played a limited role, at best, in driving the implementation of procurement activities and product performance. In contrast, high CE intensity was shown to improve procurement activity and product performance. The results were analyzed along the three dimensions of sustainability, and were especially strong for both environmental and economic-focused activities and performance.

Managers should work to integrate procurement early into NPD activities, ensure procurement uses strategy to drive decisions, and can use DFP initiatives from this research to implement a DFP program.

This research is one of the first attempts to empirically test design-for (DFX) approaches in NPD. It creates one of the first theoretical frameworks for DFX-related research.

Procurement can be seen as a key element in any organisational corporate strategy. The development of a procurement strategy is examined, discussing insights gained in the application of such a policy within an international drinks and leisure organisation.

The paper aims to evaluate the state of the literature on public procurement through examination of the works published in the Journal of Public Procurement from 2001 to 2014. 231 research outputs were collected and analyzed (with regard to, e.g., the background theory used, research method, and content of the papers), providing a overview of prior research topics and findings and identifying main gaps in the existing literature. This type of study is unique, as a broad literature review related to public procurement does not currently exist; therefore, the work has been designed with the intention to a) synthetize the prior research on public procurement; b) provide researchers with a structural framework in which future research on public procurement topics may be oriented; c) identify promising and active areas for future research.

The progressive dismantling of trade barriers emphasizes the need for companies to compete effectively in open markets not only for business but also for supplies and suppliers. Puts forward a framework for global procurement management to conceptualize current practices and to act as a guide to practitioners. Draws on existing globalization literature and examines the extent of consonance between the marketing and procurement environments, concluding that, whilst the conceptual models may be transferable and “stages” of globalization of procurement may be identified, there is no proof of sequential progress; neither is the link between global marketing and global procurement necessarily two‐way in nature. Postulates modes of involvement in global procurement as a continuum, where positioning for an individual firm depends on situation‐specific trade‐offs between their preferred corporate strategies and the benefits to be gained from involvement in foreign supply markets over time.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the reasoning behind the development of new procurement approaches by public sector clients.

A case study approach focuses on a procurement development process by a public sector client. It investigates the reasoning behind various applications of the project alliancing concept in rail infrastructure projects over a period of 15 years. Alliancing applications are singled out and mapped against a number of criteria derived from literature on alliancing. The reasoning behind these applications and their differences are reconstructed from contextual documentation. Theories and concepts from the fields of strategic management and knowledge management literature are used to analyse the results.

The development process seems to be evolutionary rather than deliberately planned. The uncovered variations in alliancing applications can only to a very limited extent be explained by the reconstructed reasoning. This suggests that the applied designs are mostly based on implicit reasoning by individual project teams. From a strategic management perspective, the development pattern resembles the emergent type of strategy formation.

This study offers an initial insight into the reasoning processes behind the (re-)design of procurement approaches within a public sector client organization. A unique feature of this study is that these reasoning processes are explored from the strategy formation perspective that conceptually links the design of new procurement approaches to strategic management theory.

Recent years of shortages, inflation, and rapid advances in technologies causing product obsolescence and tremendous cost decreases—such as integrated circuits—have had pronounced effects on procurement strategy. This article examines several key issues which will shape procurement strategy in advanced technology organisations over the next decade.

Firms compete using a variety of strategies. Typically they aim to provide something different, to be better, or simply cheaper. In the construction industry, the performance characteristics, quality and cost of the final delivered project will be the outcome of the interplay of capabilities of all the firms involved in the project. Consequently, in order to improve competitiveness, firms must pay attention to not only their own competitive advantage but to those of the firms, both up-stream and down-stream, on whom they depend in delivering their projects. For foreign constructors in China, those competitive considerations will be informed by circumstances different from home. How then do foreign constructors adapt themselves to the problem of sourcing competitively when located within a China-based supply chain? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this study 60 foreign enterprises operating within the Chinese construction sector were investigated by using a comparative case study approach.

Four generic procurement strategies were identified. First, firms adapt themselves in the search for optimal supply sources by replicating home-based suppliers, controlling local suppliers, or by remaining agile and non-aligned. Second, firms develop niche supply monopolies through market dominance, uniquely differentiated offerings, or by integration with down-stream providers. Third, firms find opportunities to bring in off-shore technology intensive procurements, where that technology is either protected, improved upon, or sold. Finally, firms also seek to transit to China as a procurement base in order to reduce local supply cost, service world-wide operations, or as part of a total strategy of China relocation.

The identification of this rich range of procurement approaches will be of interest to internationalization strategists, as well as to industry practitioners looking to find appropriate business models for off-shore operations.