Electronic Reverse Auctions: Spawning Procurement Innovation in the Context of Arab Culture

Government e-procurement initiatives have the potential to transform local institutions, but few studies have been published of strategies for implementing specific e-procurement tools, particularly involving procurement by a foreign government adapting to local culture in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA). This case describes procurement at a forward operating base (FOB) in Kuwait in support of operations in Iraq. The government procurers had to deal with a phenomenon unique to the MENA region: wasta. Wasta is a form of social capital that bestows power, influence, and connection to those who possess it, similar to guanxi in China. This study explores the value proposition and limitations of electronic reverse auctions (eRA) with the purpose of sharing best practices and lessons learned for government procurement in a MENA country. The public value framework provides valuable theoretical insights for the implementation of a new government e-procurement tool in a foreign country. In a culture dominated by wasta, the suppliers enjoyed the transparency and merit-based virtues of eRA’s that transferred successfully into the new cultural milieu: potential to increase transparency, competition, efficiency, and taxpayer savings. The practices provided herein are designed specifically to help buyers overcome structural barriers including training, organizational inertia, and a lack of eRA policy and guidance while implementing a new e-procurement tool in a foreign country

Socio-Economic Sourcing: Benefits of Small Business Set-Asides in Public Procurement

Purpose Small businesses are critical to economic health and encouraged in government spending by set-asides – annual small business sourcing goals that often are not attained. Little research has explored the negative and risky stigmas associated with small business sourcing. Design/methodology/approach This research explores reduced transaction costs of small business sourcing to government buyers. A survey of 350 government source selections reveals lower transaction costs derived from lower perceived risk of receiving a bid protest and via more efficient source selection processes. Findings Contrary to common bias, the performance level of small businesses is no less than that of large business. Thus, small businesses engender lower transaction costs for correcting supplier’s performance. On the basis of these findings, managerial and theoretical implications are discussed

Feasibility of Warehouse Drone Adoption and Implementation

While aerial delivery drones capture headlines, the pace of adoption of drones in warehouses has shown the greatest acceleration. Warehousing constitutes 30% of the cost of logistics in the US. The rise of e-commerce, greater customer service demands of retail stores, and a shortage of skilled labor have intensified competition for efficient warehouse operations. This takes place during an era of shortening technology life cycles. This paper integrates several theoretical perspectives on technology diffusion and adoption to propose a framework to inform supply chain decision-makers on when to invest in new robotics technology

Financing America’s roads: The past is prologue

This article provides a historical perspective of American roadway financing. It explores revenue collection and expenditures at the federal, state, and local governmental levels. Accounting practices of the Highway Trust Fund are discussed including the enactment of the Truth in Budgeting Act to shift revenue collection closer to a direct-user tax. Factors affecting roadway tax revenues are identified and the impact of increasing taxes is discussed. Four key considerations which will continue to shape roadway revenue collection are identified

Supply Chain Network Evolution: Demand-based Drivers of Interfirm Governance Evolution

Which form of exchange governance performs better in a dynamic environment? This remains an unanswered question in the transaction cost analysis (TCA) and relational exchange literatures. Some researchers purport that transactional governance provides superior performance by providing firms the flexibility to change suppliers. Others suggest that relational governance leads to superior performance because of the willingness of both parties to adapt. Reviews of TCA have turned up ambivalent empirical findings with regard to the effects of uncertainty despite a track record of strong empirical support for other predictions. Because most of TCA and relational exchange theories' predictions enjoy strong support, this research builds upon these theories to propose a theoretical modeling framework for a dynamic environment in a supply chain network (SCN) setting. This dissertation extends TCA and relational exchange to a dynamic, network environment. It uses the approach of building a simulation in order to study in detail the relationship between key exchange factors and the selection of transactional and relational exchange governance over time. This research effort extended TCA theory with a complex adaptive model of supply chain network governance evolution that attempts to link environmental, network, production, firm and exchange factors in a continuously evolving loop. The proposed framework expands transaction cost analysis' explanatory power. Results partially support past scholarly proposal that uncertainty functions as an antecedent of asset specificity rather than as an independent construct affecting governance outcome dependent upon which form of uncertainty is being considered. The successful simulation of supply chain networks as complex adaptive systems shift the focus from deterministic, confirmatory models of exchange to an exploratory, positive model. Instead of exchange governance as an outcome, it is the catalyst of the evolutionary process

The role of supplier performance evaluations in mitigating risk: assessing evaluation processes and behaviors

Given the level of outsourcing, supplier performance evaluation (SPE) is a critical supply chain process. SPEs are used to record supplier performance levels to inform future supplier selections, and thus mitigate the risk of adverse selection. Numerous weaknesses associated with industrial buyers\u27 collection and use of supplier performance information call SPE effectiveness into question. The risk-related factors affecting SPE effectiveness have not been empirically explored, including misuses of the tool. This research identifies the factors affecting SPE risk mitigation effectiveness. It employs a mixed method of qualitative interviews of buyers and suppliers in order to develop a model of SPE risk mitigation effectiveness using structural equations modeling of survey data from a rare sample of 131 performance assessors. Findings implicate the importance of a thoroughly defined scope of work, an accurate SPE, and documented rating justifications. Additionally, dissonance among several performance evaluators and the fear of a supplier\u27s dispute detract from SPE risk mitigation effectiveness. Finally, this research unveils how SPEs are weaponized, pursuing short-term gains and clouding the view of the supplier\u27s performance thereby hindering the long-term, risk-mitigating purpose of SPEs. Two separate forms of opportunism - threat and debt - are discovered and have differing effects

Seebeck Effect in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Creating temperature gradients in magnetic nanostructures has resulted in a new research direction, i.e., the combination of magneto- and thermoelectric effects. Here, we demonstrate the observation of one important effect of this class: the magneto-Seebeck effect. It is observed when a magnetic configuration changes the charge based Seebeck coefficient. In particular, the Seebeck coefficient changes during the transition from a parallel to an antiparallel magnetic configuration in a tunnel junction. In that respect, it is the analog to the tunneling magnetoresistance. The Seebeck coefficients in parallel and antiparallel configuration are in the order of the voltages known from the charge-Seebeck effect. The size and sign of the effect can be controlled by the composition of the electrodes' atomic layers adjacent to the barrier and the temperature. Experimentally, we realized 8.8 % magneto-Seebeck effect, which results from a voltage change of about -8.7 {\mu}V/K from the antiparallel to the parallel direction close to the predicted value of -12.1 {\mu}V/K.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

The Use of COTS in Defense Acquisition Programs: A Research Synthesis and Framework

The DoD faces pressure to sustain its competitive advantages in national security. Enduring budget pressures, a record-long high operations tempo, the blitzing pace of technology, and adversaries that are leveraging commercial technology compound the challenge. The adoption of COTS products into defense acquisitions has been offered to help meet these challenges. A literature review of 62 sources was conducted with the objectives of better understanding COTS product implementation performance. It explored (1) characteristics of the research, (2) policies, laws, regulations, and directives that govern the use of COTS, (3) the known barriers to COTS implementations, (4) the known success factors to COTS implementations, (5) the recommendations have previously been made with respect to COTS implementations, and (6) recommendations for more timely and more effective COTS implementations. From the literature emerged a framework of COTS product usage and a scale to measure COTS product appropriateness that should help to guide COTS product adoption decisions and to help manage COTS product implementations ex post.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Progra

The Use of COTS in Defense Acquisition Programs: A Research Synthesis and Framework

The DoD faces pressure to sustain its competitive advantages in national security. Enduring budget pressures, a record-long high operations tempo, the blitzing pace of technology, and adversaries that are leveraging commercial technology compound the challenge. The adoption of COTS products into defense acquisitions has been offered to help meet these challenges. A literature review of 62 sources was conducted with the objectives of better understanding COTS product implementation performance. It explored (1) characteristics of the research, (2) policies, laws, regulations, and directives that govern the use of COTS, (3) the known barriers to COTS implementations, (4) the known success factors to COTS implementations, (5) the recommendations have previously been made with respect to COTS implementations, and (6) recommendations for more timely and more effective COTS implementations. From the literature emerged a framework of COTS product usage and a scale to measure COTS product appropriateness that should help to guide COTS product adoption decisions and to help manage COTS product implementations ex post.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Progra

Enhancing reverse auction use theory: an exploratory study

DOI 10.1108/13598541011018102Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how a sourcing professional arrives at a decision to use an electronic reverse auction (eRA) to source a particular requirement by examining eRA appropriateness