An analysis of the effect of procurement practices on public institutions: an examination of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (mmdas) in the Ashanti region of Ghana

Governments in both affluent and developing countries employ procurement strategies to decrease costs, resulting in large cash outflows that have a substantial influence on their economy. However, especially in the public sector, public procurement practices are usually disregarded in terms of their impact on an organization's success. As a result, utilizing Metropolitan, Municipal, and Distract Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana's Ashanti Region as case study institutions, it is unavoidable to investigate public sector procurement practices and their impact on organizational performance. The survey study design was used to map out the data collection process. A purposively sampled cohort of 113 people was used to administer the questionnaire. Using the Probit Regression Model, the study claims that procurement practices such as planning, sourcing, and contract management have a substantial positive link with organizational success. Given the interdependence of all dimensions of procurement practices, procurement practitioners are urged to give each factor proportionate attention to improve organizational performance.

Vaccine Procurement: A Conceptual Framework Based on Literature Review

Ensuring timely access to affordable vaccines has been acknowledged as a global public health priority, as also recently testified by the debate sparked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective vaccine procurement strategies are essential to reach this goal. Nevertheless, this is still a neglected research topic. A narrative literature review on vaccine procurement was conducted, by retrieving articles from four academic databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, WebOfScience), ‘grey’ literature reports, and institutional websites. The aim was to clarify key concepts and definitions relating to vaccine procurement, describe main vaccine procurement methods, and identify knowledge gaps and future perspectives. A theoretical conceptual framework was developed of the key factors involved in vaccine procurement, which include quality and safety of the product, forecasting and budgeting, procurement legislation, financial sustainability, and plurality of manufacture, contracting, investment in training, storage and service delivery, monitoring and evaluation. This information can be useful to support policymakers during planning, implementation, and evaluation of regional and national vaccine procurement strategies and policies.

How do transaction costs, capabilities and networks influence the procurement strategies of small agri-food firms? Evidence from the wine industry

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to disentangle the drivers of adoption of procurement strategies in situations where small agri-food firms deal with constrained organizational choices. More specifically, the authors investigate the role of transaction costs, capabilities and networks in the definition of feasible “make-or-buy” choices in emerging wine regions.Design/methodology/approachThis article analyzes a unique dataset of small wineries from five US states: Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Vermont. The reported results derive from both a hurdle model (i.e. a probit model and a truncated regression model) and a tobit model.FindingsThe results suggest the importance of trust as a replacement for formal governance structures whenever small firms deal with highly constrained sets of organizational choices. On the other hand, the level of dependence on a limited mix of winegrape varieties and the perception that these varieties are fundamental in building legitimacy help to explain higher rates of vertical integration.Originality/valueThis study is important because it sheds light on organizational constraints that affect millions of farmers across the globe. The study of “make-or-buy” decisions in agri-food supply chains has mostly relied on the implicit assumption that all organizational choices are available to every firm. Nevertheless, limited capabilities and the participation in low-density networks may constrain the ability of a firm to adopt a governance mechanism. Stated organizational preferences and actual organizational choices may thus differ.

Procurement and delivery of food at holiday provision clubs

While school food initiatives across England sup­port children’s nutritional intake during school term time, there is no universal state provision dur­ing the school holidays to reduce the risk of chil­dren experiencing food insecurity. In the absence of a national program of holiday provision, com­munity organizations in disadvantaged com­muni­ties have established holiday clubs offering free food and activities to children. This paper exam­ines how these holiday clubs source food and the challenges of procuring food and delivering healthy meals that adhere to UK School Food Standards. Results indicate that holiday clubs adopt a variety of procurement strategies including rely­ing upon donated food. While club leaders have sought opportunities to source food cost-effectively, the findings suggest significant chal­lenges for these clubs to achieve their aim of delivering healthy meals. Findings point to needs for sustainable funding and the developing healthy food procure­ment policies and processes that align with a wider food strategy.

Circular Public Procurement through Integrated Contracts in the Infrastructure Sector

Public clients’ procurement strategies are central in facilitating innovation towards sustainability. In the infrastructure sector, the three main project activities—design, production, and maintenance—are traditionally not procured in an integrated way, which results in sub-optimizations and a lack of life cycle perspective. As project actors are accustomed to traditional, non-integrated forms of contract, implementing integrated contracts imposes fundamental changes to the interdependencies among actors, resources, and activities. This study analyzes the interfaces among key project actors and the related interdependencies across design, production, and maintenance in Design–Build–Maintain contracts, and initiates a discussion on how to manage these interdependencies when implementing integrated contracts. This study of circular public procurement (CPP) focused on three infrastructure projects using integrated contracting and applied the industrial network approach (INA) to analyze interdependencies in how they may influence innovation and sustainable development. The study found significant obstacles to clients obtaining the benefits of integrated contracting and concludes that understanding interdependencies is necessary to implement integrated contracts successfully. The study contributes to the construction management literature by adapting the INA to contracting, and to the CPP literature by providing empirical evidence of sustainability and circularity in infrastructure projects.

Vaccine nationalism and equitable access to COVID-19 pharmaceuticals: TRIPS Agreement under trial (again)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to contribute towards the debate about global access to COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. Design/methodology/approach The global scramble for COVID-19 vaccine and other related pharmaceutical products have once again exposed the limitations of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). High-income countries are claiming a lion’s share of the first available batches of the COVID-19 vaccine in total disregard of the consequences such approach would have on the low-income countries that lack both the manufacturing wherewithal and the financial resources to purchase the vaccine and other products needed to combat the pandemic. This paper reviews the existing TRIPS Flexibilities and analyses their limitations with respect to equitable access of pharmaceutical products in times of health emergencies. This paper then considers the unique challenges that have been brought to the fore by the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, this paper analytically explores some options that have been proposed so far that the World Trade Organization (WTO) or governments can take in the immediate to near term to facilitate equitable access to COVID-19 pharmaceutical products and technologies. This research is non-empirical, desk-based research. It is, therefore, based on the literature review of existing body of work that is relevant to the topic under discussion. Mindful of the epistemological challenges that are always associated with desk-based research, part of the methodology of this work is to seek support from related empirical studies based on different philosophical underpinnings but that confirm the working hypothesis of this research. Findings This paper finds that there is still a need for a comprehensive reform of TRIPS Agreement to streamline the voluntary licencing system which is an important tool for low-income countries’ access to affordable pharmaceuticals. However, for purposes of dealing with COVID-19, WTO members should consider establishing pooled Licencing Facilities and procurement strategies via already existing political, economic or regional trade groupings. Originality/value This research is original. All sources have been acknowledged. This research synthesises different research papers and applies different viewpoints to the debate on the impact of the TRIPS Agreement on equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.

Deploying Low Carbon Public Procurement to Accelerate Carbon Removal

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be required to keep global temperature rise below 2°C based on IPCC models. Greater adoption of carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies will drive demand for CDR. Public procurement of low carbon materials is a powerful and under-utilized tool for accelerating the development and of CCUS through a targeted and well-regulated approach. The policy environment is nascent and presents significant barriers for scaling and guiding emerging technology solutions. The concrete sector has unique attributes that make it ideally suited for large-scale low-carbon public procurement strategies. This sector offers immediate opportunities to study the efficacy of a supportive policy and regulatory environment in driving the growth of CCUS solutions.

Strategic procurement collaboration for the common good: private and public procurement relationship duringa pandemic

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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. Practical implications 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. Social implications 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. Originality/value 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.

Sequential Procurement with Contractual and Experimental Learning

We study the design of sequential procurement strategies that integrate stochastic and strategic information. We consider a buyer who repeatedly demands a certain good and is unable to commit to long-term contracts. In each time period, the buyer makes a price offer to a seller who has private, persistent information regarding his or her cost and quality of provision. If the offer is accepted, the seller provides the good with a stochastic quality that is not contractible. Therefore, the buyer can learn from the (strategic) acceptance decisions taken by the seller and from evaluations of the (stochastic) quality delivered whenever a purchase occurs. Hence, the buyer not only faces a tradeoff between exploration and exploitation but also needs to decide how to explore: by facilitating quality experimentation or by strategically separating seller types. We characterize the perfect Bayesian equilibria of this sequential interaction and show that the buyer’s equilibrium strategy consists of a dynamic sequence of thresholds on his or her belief on the seller’s type. When only one seller type is more efficient than the buyer’s outside option, the buyer uses one form of information: either strategic or stochastic. If both seller types are more efficient, then the buyer uses both forms of information; at the early stages of the interaction, the buyer offers high prices that incentivize trade and quality experimentation, and after gathering enough information, the buyer may advance to offering low prices that partially separate seller types. We identify the effect strategic sellers have on the buyer’s optimal strategy relative to more traditional learning dynamics and establish that, paradoxically, when sellers are strategic, the ability to observe delivered quality is not always beneficial for the buyer. This paper was accepted by Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, operations management.