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With the surge in public procurement, especially in developing countries, ensuring fair competition in procurement has assumed paramount importance. Academic endeavors in the domain of competition issues have often lacked the views of field-level functionaries. This study aims to involve a large number of expert practitioners in India to identify the significant contemporary competition risks in public procurement from the procurer and supplier sides and develop a model depicting the hierarchy of competition-restrictive actions (CRAs) in procurement based on their mutual interactions.

The significant CRAs along the procurement cycle are identified through literature survey, interactive workshops and expert interviews. A questionnaire survey covering 143 respondents from 12 public organizations is used to evaluate their impact. Considering the complex causal interactions involved, interpretive structural modeling followed by MICMAC (Iimpact matrix cross-reference multiplication applied to a classification analysis is used to develop a hierarchical model of competition risks in procurement.

Tailor-made contracts, splitting of a project below competition thresholds, restrictive selection criteria and awarding the contract on nomination emerge as CRAs with the highest driving power. Horizontal collusion among vendors strongly depends on practices followed in the procuring organization.

The survey data and the experts’ opinions emanate from practitioners in India, which is a limitation. However, with necessary contextual calibrations, the study is of high functional utility to policymakers and practitioners.

The research facilitates a comprehensive understanding to procurement managers/policymakers of the CRAs along the procurement cycle and their interdependencies. It offers valuable insights for improving competition, which is foundational for optimal procurement outcomes.

The study enriches the public procurement domain knowledge by identifying and assessing the significant contemporary CRAs, examining their mutual interactions and developing an interpretive structural model. Although contributing to the body of knowledge, the study is unique in being grounded in field realities.

Supply chain risk management can effectively reduce the loss of retailers. In this regard, retailers need to consider the competition risks of competitors in addition to the disruption risks. This paper designs a resilient retail supply chain network for perishable foods under the dynamic competition to maximize retailer's profits.

A two-stage mixed-integer non-linear model is presented for designing the supply chain network. In the first stage, an equilibrium model that considers the characteristics of perishable foods is developed. In the second stage, a mixed integer non-linear programming model is presented to deal with the strategic decisions. Finally, an efficient memetic algorithm is designed to deal with large-scale problems.

The optimal the selection of suppliers, distribution centers and the order allocation are found among the supply chain entities. Considering the perishability of agri-food products, the equilibrium retail price and selling quantity are determined. Through a numerical example, the optimal inventory period under different maximum shelf life and the impact of three resilient strategies on retailer's profit, selling price and selling quantity are analyzed.

As for future research, the research can be extended in a number of directions. First, this paper studies the retail supply chain network design problem under competition among retailers. It can be an interesting direction to consider retailers competing with suppliers. Second, the authors can try to linearize the non-linear model and solve the large-scale integer programming problem by exact algorithm. Finally, the freshness of perishable foods gradually declines linearly to zero as the maximum shelf life approaches, and it would be a meaningful attempt to consider the freshness of perishable foods declines exponentially.

This paper innovatively designs the resilient supply chain network for perishable foods under dynamic competition. The retailer's dynamic competition and resilient strategies are considered simultaneously when designing supply chain network for perishable foods. In addition, this paper gives insights into how to obtain the optimal inventory period and compare the retailer's resilient strategies.

Managing supply chain risk is a crucial element in ensuring the long-term sustainability of any organization or industry. As such, identification of risks and deploying their mitigation strategies should be the focal point to sustain in the long run. The risks that are faced by food processing supply chains are gaining prominence, given more consumers requiring higher quality products while ensuring traceability. In essence, this research focuses on the supply chain risks and mitigation strategies in the spice industry of an emerging economy, Sri Lanka.

This paper integrates two popular multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques, such as the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to assess the supply chain risks and to derive their mitigation strategies for the spice industry.

Findings show that “inability to meet quality requirements” has been established as the most significant risk in the Sri Lankan spice industry. On the other hand, “vertical integration” (backward integration) has been discovered as the key mitigation strategy to ameliorate the effects of supply chain risks in this sector.

This study is exploratory, and more empirical data and statistical analyses are needed to further validate the outcomes of the study.

Despite being one of the largest trade exporters in Sri Lanka, the spice industry gets scant attention to the identification and mitigation of the risks. The authors explored the supply chain risks in the spice industry and then prioritized the suitable mitigation strategies using an integrated AHP-TOPSIS method.

This paper aims to examine the optimal sourcing strategies and pricing decisions of competing toy manufacturers and to discuss how manufacturers’ decisions are impacted by competition.

The authors consider a single-period model to characterise the competition between two competing toy manufacturers. Both of them are free to choose between virgin material and recycled material. The authors consider two types of consumers: sensitive consumers who are concerned about product safety and prefer the toy made of virgin material and insensitive consumers who do not care what material is used in the toy. The competing manufacturers play a Cournot competition.

The results reveal a special case of a win-win situation for both the manufacturer and the consumer. In addition, an increasing number of sensitive consumers does not always raise the price of virgin-material toys.

The authors derive the manufacturer’s equilibrium sourcing strategies, corresponding market-clearing prices and profits obtained.

The paper investigates how toy manufacturers’ optimal sourcing strategies are impacted by competition, considering market segments.

This study aims to investigate how the village government implements internal control, accountability, transparency and participation in the good governance practice for corruption prevention and detection in Indonesia.

This study is qualitative research by conducting a semi-structured interview with village staff, village consultative council members and auditors.

The findings highlight three major issues contributing to poor governance and the failure to prevent and detect corruption.

The regulator should urgently provide accounting standards, audit standards and internal control regulations for the village to create good governance for eradicating corruption.

This paper is a ground-breaking study that investigates the governance practice in the village as an anchor to solve the chronic corruption problem and offers a new direction of research in the village government.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how three core elements of critical management studies (CMSs), “de-naturalisation”, “reflexivity” and “(non)-performative intent”, can help expand the current debate in the supply chain management (SCM) field.

The authors used a systematic literature review to select 103 articles published in 12 high-ranking journals in the SCM field based on the Academic Journal Guide of the Chartered Association of Business Schools.

The findings of this study suggest that SCM studies can be narrowed down into four major CMSs themes: “power”, “ethics and environmental issues”, “diversity” and “working conditions”, but even these themes are still under-discussed and undertheorized in SCM. The literature the authors reviewed is more concerned with explaining these phenomena than questioning them and proposing new agendas. This paper, therefore, will discuss how these three core elements of CMS can help transform the “hidden” issues of SCM, which it will do by illustrating it in the context of buyer–supplier relationships and lean manufacturing.

This research will encourage SCM scholars who are interested in conducting more critical studies and teaching the harmful effects of global supply chains.

This paper highlights that a combination of SCM and CMS approaches is important when we decide to adopt a more critical “constructive” view of supply chain challenges and engage practical and critical views, respectively, to generate knowledge that not only increases (corporate) performance but also highlights social needs and values.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the experience of attempting a “collaboratory” approach in sharing knowledge about leadership development evaluation (LDE). A collaboratory intertwines “collaboration” and “laboratory” to create innovation networks for all sorts of social and technological problems.

The authors, alongside a variety of public and private sector organisations, created the collaboratory. Within the process, the authors collected various forms of qualitative data (including interviews, observations, letter writing and postcards).

The findings show key areas of resonance, namely, the ability for participants to network, a creation of a dynamic shift in thinking and practice and the effective blending of theory and practice. Importantly, there are some critiques of the collaboratory approach discussed, including complications around: a lack of “laboratory” (hence bringing into question the idea of collaboratory itself), and the need to further develop the facilitation of such events.

The originality is to ultimately question whether the network actually achieved the collaboratory in reality. This study concludes, however, that there were some distinct benefits within our collaborations, especially around issues associated with LDE, and this study provides recommendations for academics and practitioners in terms of trying similar initiatives.

This study focused on establishing the mediating role of opportunistic behavior in the relationship between institutional pressures and procurement cycle time (PCT) in Uganda’s central government (CG) procuring and disposing entities (PDEs). The study also sought to establish the relationship between institutional pressures and PCT, between institutional pressures and opportunity behavior and between opportunistic behavior and PCT. This study was carried out because most PDEs had failed to perform well in terms of PCT, and beneficiaries had often complained of the lengthy PCT.

The unit of analysis was 126 CG PDEs within Uganda while the unit of inquiry was three employees per PDE, namely, giving a total of 378 respondents. Using a quantitative cross-sectional survey, the study realized a response rate of 88% for the unit of analysis and 71.7% for unit of inquiry. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS 4 with focus on ascertaining regression and mediation results.

The findings show that institutional pressures negatively and significantly predict both institutional pressures and PCT (ß = –0.569**; ß = –0.688**, respectively). Also, institutional pressures and opportunistic behavior are significant predictors of PCT, predicting 60.6% change in PCT. Furthermore, opportunity behavior partially moderates the relationship between institutional pressures and PCT.

For Uganda’s CG PDEs to reduce procurement delays and to procure within PCT, they should put more emphasis on institutional pressures and curtailing opportunistic behavior. The study recommends further amendment of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Act 2003 to reduce delays.

There is need for further amendment of the PPDA Act 2003 to reduce delays, especially those attributed to approvals by contracts committee and the minimum bidding period for competitive bidding.

The study explores PCT and its antecedents whose understanding is critical in exploring avenues of reducing PCT and boosting service delivery to the beneficiaries.

The PPDA Act (2003) was amended in 2014, but still the time spent in the procurement processes has remained long, hence delaying or denying citizens service delivery. This is a matter of concern to the country at large and may spill into political unrests, and yet, there is scant literature exploring PCT and its antecedents. This makes the present study one of the pioneer empirical studies on PCT, with emphasis on Uganda. This study provides a framework for examining PCT in a context where scholarly explanation of PCT is still limited.

Understanding the interplay between transparency, accountability and e-procurement and their collective contribution to anti-corruption efforts in public procurement is crucial for developing effective strategies and policies. This research seeks to investigate whether e-procurement plays a significant role in enhancing transparency and accountability and subsequently reducing corruption risks in the public pharmaceutical procurement system.

The study employed a cross-sectional questionnaire survey to gather data from 274 procurement personnel and pharmacists working in 28 government-owned hospitals in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. The collected data were then analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the Hayes PROCESS macro to test the study hypotheses.

The study findings revealed a negative and significant relationship between transparency and procurement corruption (ß = −0.117, p < 0.008). Moreover, accountability negatively and significantly affects procurement corruption (ß = −0.162, p = 0.006). Furthermore, the findings indicate that, at a high degree of e-procurement system implementation, transparency and accountability have a stronger impact on procurement anti-corruption measures.

Policymakers and decision-makers should implement robust mechanisms that enhance transparency, accountability and anti-corruption efforts. These may include providing clear and accessible information on procurement processes, efficient mechanisms for monitoring and reporting procurement irregularities and continuous improvement of e-procurement systems. By incorporating these measures and nurturing collaboration amongst procurement stakeholders, it becomes possible to foster a procurement environment characterised by integrity, fairness, accountability and reduced corruption.

Whilst previous studies delved into exploring the effect of transparency and accountability on procurement anti-corruption, the novelty of this study is the inclusion of e-procurement as a moderating variable in the relationship between transparency, accountability and anti-corruption. By so doing, this study adds to the existing body of knowledge regarding anti-corruption measures and offers valuable practical insights for policymakers and professionals aiming to enhance transparency, accountability and ethical conduct within the public pharmaceutical procurement system.

This paper gives a model of collusion formation and a method of measuring the degree of it among the traders/bidders in the agricultural commodity markets in India. The important assumption is that the bidding is repetitive with a set of common bidders. The theory has been derived based on the behavior of the wholesale market of agricultural commodities in India. The paper is based on full information in the collusion formation. The paper first derives the theoretical structure of the bidders' behavior and thereafter derives a measure of collusion formation with the help of real-life data.

The paper used the standard theory of optimization and the theory of auction and probability statistics.

This is a complete information model of cartel formation. The bidding is repetitive and continues forever in discrete time. Hence bidders behavior is observable. Using the proposed method, if the APMC measures for each market and publishes on a periodic basis, say weekly basis, then it will be easier to break the collusion in the market where relative collision is present. For example, if a farmer has three options to sell in three different markets, then the published data would help them to select the market where the degree of collusion is relatively lower. Moreover, the undesirable loss can be avoided based on the right choice of market. As a result, transaction costs will be optima.

The paper first derives the theoretical structure of the bidders' behavior and thereafter derives a measure of collusion formation with the help of real-life data.