Electronic Procurement Assimilation, Procurement Process and Value for Money in the Public Sector: Investigating the Role of Influence Mechanisms and Absorptive Capacity
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Date
2019
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Publisher
KNUST
Abstract
The concept of value for money has become very critical in developing countries where states
struggle to raise the needed revenue in-house and must augment with funds from international
sources to finance public projects. Given the limited resources available to government,
ensuring value for money in procurement is key to attain the optimum utilization of scarce
budgetary resources. To realize the objective of value for money in public procurement, several
interventions have been employed by developing nations including instilling professionalism
in procurement actors, enacting procurement laws and implementing sustainable initiatives.
One initiative is the use of electronic procurement systems in the public procurement process.
These systems afford public sector organisations to respond rapidly to changes and to pursue
technologically innovative strategies. The ability of public institutions to recognize the value
of a new information, assimilate and apply it largely depends on the institutions’ prior
knowledge, institutional pressures emanating from regulations that govern the practice of
procurement in the public sector and government policies and initiatives. However, the
relationships among institutional pressures, absorptive capacity, e-procurement assimilation
and value for money have not been studied. The study first develops a survey instrument to
measure value for money and examines how absorptive capacity and institutional pressures
influence e-procurement assimilation and the tendering process to achieve value for money in
public procurement. A total of 306 public entities were surveyed and partial least squares
structural equation modelling was used to analyse the empirical data. Theoretical implications
of the study include: 1) institutional pressures and absorptive capacity are key drivers of an
efficient and effective tendering process, 2) institutional pressure have direct effect on
institutional absorptive capacity, 3) the influence of institutional pressures on e-procurement
assimilation is mediated by absorptive capacity, 3) the influence of e-procurement assimilation
on value for money is mediated by an efficient tendering process and 4) industry type has
marginal statistical significance on the influence of institutional pressures and absorptive
capacity on e-procurement assimilation leading to value for money in public procurement.
Practical implication of this study include: 1) a legal framework for e-procurement would
compel actors to comply and use the application, 2) provision of tools needed to scan, identify
and assimilate new information necessary for e-procurement application use would enhance
efficient procurement process and 3) the instrument developed could be used to conduct value
for money audit prior to the selection of appropriate service providers in public sector
tendering.
Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, School of Business, College Humanities and Social Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy procurement and supply chain management