Practitioners\u27 learning about healthcare supply chain management in the COVID-19 pandemic: a public procurement perspective

Purpose The procurement and supply of crucial healthcare products in the early stages of the COVID-19 emergency were chaotic. To prepare for future crises, we must be able to describe what went wrong, and why, and map out ways to build agility and resilience. How can this be done effectively, given the highly complex and diverse network of actors across governments, care providers and supply chains, and the extreme uncertainty and dynamism in the procurement system and supplier markets? The purpose of this study was to capture learning from practitioners in real time in a way that could frame and inform capacity building across healthcare systems with varying procurement and supply management maturity. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study involved interviews with 58 senior public procurement practitioners in central and regional governments, NGOs and leaders of professional organizations from 23 countries, very early in the COVID crisis. Following the first, inductive phase of analysis leading to five descriptive dimensions, the awareness-motivation-capability (A-M-C) framework was applied in a further round of coding, to understand immediate challenges faced by procurement practitioners, how the complex, multi-level procurement system that shaped their motivations to respond and critical capabilities required to face these challenges. Findings Developments across 23 countries and practitioners\u27 learning about procurement and supply in the pandemic crisis can be captured in five overarching themes: governance and organization, knowledge and skills, information systems, regulation and supply base issues. Together these themes cover the strengths and gaps in procurement and supply capability encountered by procurement leaders and front-line personnel. They highlight the various facets of structure, resource and process which constitute organizational capability. However, to account better for the highly dynamic situation characterized by both unprecedented rivalry and cooperation, analysts must also pay attention to actors\u27 emerging awareness of the situation and their rapidly changing motivations. Originality/value The application of the A-M-C framework is unique in the healthcare supply chain and disaster management literature. It enables a comprehensive overview of healthcare procurement from a system perspective. This study shows how increasing system preparedness for future emergencies depends both on developing critical capabilities and understanding how awareness and motivation influence the effective deployment of those capabilities

Developing software beyond customer needs and plans: An exploratory study of its forms and individual-level drivers

Excessive software development is the tendency to develop new software above and beyond the requirements of the market and/or planned specifications. It is a widespread phenomenon involving both risks and flexibility advantages. As it represents a challenging dilemma for software developers, it is important to study its human origins. Drawing on the tripartite model of individual attitudes, this study investigates the influence of developers’s cognitive (intuitive and rational thinking styles), affective (emotional attachment) and behavioural (reliance on past experiences) traits on two forms of excess, beyond needs and beyond plans. Using survey data on 307 software developers, this study shows that different manifestations of excess are associated with distinct traits of software developers. Emotional attachment drives beyond needs excess. A positive (negative) association is found between relying on past experiences and beyond needs excess (beyond plans excess). An intuitive cognitive style fosters the inclusion of extra features in the new product scope, whereas a rational style might lead to developing one-size-fits-all software that targets the needs of a broad user base. These findings contribute to research on the development of digital new products and production technologies by offering a comprehensive yet fine-grained picture of excessive software development’s nature and drivers

How Can Procurement Create (Sustainable) Public Value Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal?

The economic response of the US government to the COVID-19 pandemic envisions massive investment in infrastructure construction. Yet, governments contract out public works and might lack the capacity to meet the increased demand for new construction. Drawing on a mix of survey and interview data, we identify critical deficiencies in contract capacity that might lead to a loss of public resources and further erode trust in the government. We propose a plan for restructuring public procurement systems and offer solutions around four foci: collaboration, training, flexibility, and sustainability. This transformation path would enhance government contract capacity and use markets to signal a demand for sustainable infrastructure and create public value in line with the strategic objectives of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal

Collaborative Public Procurement: a conceptual framework

Horizonal collaborative public procurement is where two or more public organisations collaborate to perform a procurement activity. A conceptual framework of 4 pillars is provided relating the objectives of collaborative public procurement to different forms and activities of CPP, to examine impact on performance of CPP. Barriers and enablers to CPP are also investigated. The framework is novel; prior work has focused only on specific pillars or the relationship between objectives and organizational form of CPP. The framework is tested empirically to verify the content of each pillar and test linkages between pillars

The design process of corporate universities: A stakeholder approach

Purpose – Corporate universities (CUs) have been experiencing tremendous growth during the past years and can represent a real driving force for structured organizations. The paper aims to define the process of CU design shaped around company strategy. For each step, the authors propose specific roles, activities and methods. Design/methodology/approach – The paper exploits some managerial theories and past research on CUs to draw a two-step framework for their design and development process, then tests (and validating) it through action research and applies its guidelines to two different case studies. Findings – The authors conclude the CU design process can be divided into two steps (development and management), with specific roles assigned to the different activities, and this allocation represents a prerequisite for the CU project success. Moreover, flexibility and potential recycles should be considered when configuring the process. Originality/value – The paper is original in two ways: it proposes a framework for CU design and development (which is unique in its type) and an application of this framework to two real cases, discussing its benefits, criticalities and limitations (thus ensuring generalizability)

Procurement organisation in project-based setting: a multiple case study of engineer-to-order companies

Procurement decisions have a pervasive impact on supply chain performance and market success. This is particularly true in supply chains operating to deliver projects, such as construction and engineer-to-order companies, where a focal firm’s procurement decisions need to be coordinated with production activities to effectively satisfy customer orders. This study focuses on how the procurement department can be organised in order to support the needs of project-based supply chains better. Starting from a review of the procurement organisation literature in the context of project supply chains, we use a multiple case study methodology and discuss the procurement organisational choices in 11 project-based companies. Within and cross-case analyses allow identifying two possible archetypes, i.e. the procurement—focussed and the project-focussed organisations, as extremes on a continuum that also includes hybrid solutions. The characteristics of each model are discussed, and results are articulated in three propositions connecting procurement organisational variables and contingent factors

Identification of novel proteins binding the AU-rich element of \u3b1-prothymosin mRNA through the selection of open reading frames (RIDome)

We describe here a platform for high-throughput protein expression and interaction analysis aimed at identifying the RNA-interacting domainome. This approach combines the selection of a phage library displaying "filtered" open reading frames with next-generation DNA sequencing. The method was validated using an RNA bait corresponding to the AU-rich element of \u3b1-prothymosin, an RNA motif that promotes mRNA stability and translation through its interaction with the RNA-binding protein ELAVL1. With this strategy, we not only confirmed known RNA-binding proteins that specifically interact with the target RNA (such as ELAVL1/HuR and RBM38) but also identified proteins not previously known to be ARE-binding (R3HDM2 and RALY). We propose this technology as a novel approach for studying the RNA-binding proteome

Mappatura speditiva tridimensionale e multi-temporale mediante UAV. I casi di Pescara del Tronto e Accumoli

L’utilizzo dei Sistemi Aeromobili a Pilotaggio Remoto (SAPR), definiti anche come Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), ha sicuramente ricoperto un ruolo centrale durante le diverse fasi di gestione dell’emergenza in Centro Italia a seguito del sisma del 2016. Per la prima volta questi sistemi sono stati utilizzati in maniera estensiva e continuativa durante le operazioni sul campo, grazie soprattutto alla presenza del Nucleo SAPR del Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili del Fuoco con il quale i diversi ricercatori del Politecnico di Torino hanno strettamente collaborato. Tali esperienze congiunte sono state fondamentali per definire le esigenze degli operatori sul campo e per mettere a punto delle strategie operative per la georeferenziazione dei blocchi fotogrammetrici, anche con strategia multi-temporale, atte a massimizzare il contributo derivante dall’impiego dei SAPR. In particolare, i prodotti fotogrammetrici derivati dalle acquisizioni effettuate con tali sensori sono stati analizzati per valutarne il contributo nelle fasi di damage assessment