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Procurement management in infrastructure development has gained considerable attention in developing countries. It is because of the success in the developed nations. Studies have shown that Nigeria's infrastructure development needs far exceed its current provision. Also, studies are scarce to reveal whether procurement management has been successful in infrastructure development projects in Nigeria. Therefore, this paper investigated the root cause of the perceived encumbrances impeding procurement management in infrastructure development projects and proffered policy measures to improve future Nigeria's infrastructure development.

Data were collected via unexplored exploratory virtual interviews and selected cases from secondary sources. The engaged construction and engineering consultants have been involved in the procurement management of infrastructure projects in Nigeria. Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the collected data.

The root causes of the pitfalls that emerged from the study include lack of competition and transparency, embezzlement and mismanagement of public funds, snail speed bureaucracy and bottleneck and lack of skills and knowledge. Others are collusion/bid-rigging/price-fixing/cartel formation, corruption, lack of professionalism, unbridled politicking, embezzlement and mismanagement of public funds, incompetence of tender boards, lack of patriotism to national service and lack of government organisations’ procurement capacity.

This paper is restricted to unravelling the encumbrances in procurement management of Nigeria's infrastructure development projects. Future research is desirable to adopt a quantitative approach for more extensive coverage and validate findings from this paper.

The paper findings, including those learnt from each case study evaluated, would undoubtedly influence policymakers and construction and engineering practitioners on the key strategies to employ in implementing future procurement management in Nigeria's infrastructure development projects.

This paper would assist policymakers and other stakeholders desirous of improved infrastructure to focus their priorities in mitigating the identified root cause hindering procurement management in Nigeria's infrastructure management.

Public procurement is a complex process. This complexity increases considerably when the procured product or service is an innovation, which often addresses new needs, requires different skills, takes on higher risks and thus demands organizational change. In this paper we argue that because of those demands procuring innovation necessitates the use of advanced project management techniques and an intelligent multistep project design. We underpin this argument by presenting a case study of the procurement of an innovation within the UK National Health Service which had stalled for many years but then was successfully completed by using those project management techniques. We highlight the different processes needed for the procurement of innovation compared to standard, business-as-usual procurement, and we suggest the management of procurement as multi-step, multi arena projects as a strategy for innovation procurement.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of construction procurement within the supply chain management framework and develop a model for information flow. This paper adheres to the supply chain perspective and integration as theoretical point of departure, typically the role that information plays in a complex network such as construction procurement. The co‐ordination within partners and the integration across partners are critical in effective project management. Sharing information is a key component for tight integration to optimize the chain‐wide performance. It helps produce highest quality, low cost and minimum time to service. The tender offer from the procurer or invitation from a supplier triggers the requirement process. In response to the requirements there has to be an opposite flow of information, termed the fulfilment flow in the model described. The requirement information from a procurer is broken down to the project requirements for various partners in the project. Once the supply chain is identified in the postcontracting phase, information regarding specific tasks, materials, and so on, are communicated to the project partners. Information must be managed to bring in value. The quality of information received, the timeliness of the manner it is received and the costeffectiveness in obtaining the information determine the efficiency of a project partner. Another classification considered is that of the changing role of the partner with regard to information handling, i.e., the project partner as a recipient, decision‐maker and communicator of information. All these factors jointly contribute to increasing efficiency in construction procurement. This framework needs to be explored in future research to define subsequent steps in construction supply chain management, as the challenge is to adapt a totally integrated supply chain.

In the UK, major IT public procurement projects regularly fail at significant cost to the taxpayer. The prevalence of these failures presents scholars with a challenge; to both understand their genesis and to facilitate learning and prevention. Functional approaches have revealed numerous determinants of failure ranging from procurement specifications to risk escalation, but true and definitive causes remain elusive. However, since failure is not itself an absolute truth, but rather a concept which is reached when support is withdrawn, the survival of a project depends on there being sufficient belief in its legitimacy. We use critical hermeneutic methods and the conceptual lens of legitimacy to reveal powerful legitimating influences that enable and constrain action, but which are not analysed in the retrospective government inquiries that determine lessons learned.

The purpose of this paper is to review the use of various construction procurement systems in the past and present, specifically within the Australian construction industry and to overview the historical development of procurement both globally and in the Australian context through the existing literature.

The paper is an in-depth literature review of various construction procurement systems used in the past and present, both in general and within the context of Australian construction industry.

The findings suggest that even though relationship-based procurement (RBP) systems offer significant benefits to all project participants, they are unproved by many decision makers because of lack of robust theoretical concept and inability in demonstrating value for money (VfM) for public projects, which would be one of the factors causing move away from RBP in the future.

This review is one of its kind. There is no such review done before within the context of Australian construction industry in such a detail. This review is a part of a recently completed PhD study.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive literature review that seeks to address modern factors worldwide that are associated with the selection of current procurement methods. The aim is to develop an up-to-date multi-attribute procurement decision-making chart for selecting the appropriate method for the project.

Stage 1 (literature review). The search engines, Emerald; Business Source Premier; Science Direct and Sage were selected to identify journals that have published the most procurement methods-related articles. The search covered the period 1980-2015. Stage 2 (Survey) – after analyzing and appraising the literature, an up-to-date utility decision-making chart for selecting the appropriate procurement method for the project was developed. The chart was based on findings from a survey that included 57 construction professionals and who have demonstrated sound experience about the various procurement options.

There is no one best procurement method for all projects. The selection depends on the nature of the issues or problem at hand. Decision making is not a punctual act. It is often a complex process. Effective decision making also demands quality and timely information, and a careful consideration of alternatives. The multi-attribute decision-making chart presented in this paper has included modern criteria and the client would have end up with different recommendations and consequences should these criteria were not included in priority weightings.

The literature review provides states-of-the art research in the field of procurement methods in construction and the multi-attribute chart is intended to offer decision makers an opportunity to broaden their horizon on the different alternatives procurement routs that could lead to different consequences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, very few publications have discussed modern selection criteria for procurement methods in construction under one study. Therefore, this paper has established a platform for scholars and researchers to obtain more useful insights into procurement methods concerns. It has identified research trends in procurement methods which may allow industrial practitioners to appreciate the key concerns in their development of modern concepts and principles such as supply chain, lean construction, sustainability, innovation, value engineering, e-procurement and Building information modeling. The inclusion of these modern criteria will present and add value to procurement decision makers within the construction industry.

Project management tools and techniques have been widely adopted in the construction industry; however, its combination with Six Sigma and application in construction procurement has not been widely researched. This paper explores the use of Six Sigma Project Procurement (SSPP) and its potential applications in public sector construction procurement.

The role of Six Sigma and project management in construction is critically evaluated using three case studies to demonstrate their application in public procurement.

The use of SSPP by public sector organisations creates efficient and effective construction procurement processes by addressing delays. The proposed timelines for competitive tendering in the Ghanaian Public Procurement Manual are not realistic.

This paper contributes to and broadens the limited body of evidence and knowledge of applying SSPP to public procurement processes and identifies areas for further research.

Project management will continue to expand in the global construction industry. However, what will eventually determine if SSPP is embraced by public sector construction depends on the leadership and success of its execution. The application of SSPP to public construction procurement will address delays and lead to significant time reduction of the process. This will eliminate the major issue (delay) accounting for deficiencies in the process.

The paper yields immense value to construction project management researchers and practitioners, especially in the public sector. It recommends the inclusion of Six Sigma to promote focus on actual instead of perceived problems and advocates for decisions-making based on facts which will ensure continuous improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of research developments on the ecosystem of driving forces for electronic procurement (e-procurement) on project procurement and to propose directions for future research for an effective adoption and sustained usage.

A systematic literature review was conducted in three phases to identify and examine literature. A total of 68 papers were retrieved and were thoroughly reviewed to identify the drivers for e-procurement.

A total of 61 drivers were identified and subsequently developed into a categorization framework for synthesized understanding which reveals existing interrelationships. Although literature has consensus on some selected drivers, few studies have identified drivers relating to sustainability. Gaps were identified from the existing literature and directions for future research were proposed.

Since this is a literature review, future research could conduct further investigations focusing on the research gaps identified. The framework developed presents a basis for further research to explore the drivers in various socio-economic environments.

This study provides valuable insights for improving the understanding of practitioners on the complex network of drivers for e-procurement. These findings stimulate discussions on benefits required for assessment in e-procurement adoption by practitioners.

This study provides the first comprehensive review of the drivers for e-procurement adoption in the construction industry, which was lacking in the existing body of knowledge.