Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Dynamic procurement”

Cette thèse comporte quatre chapitres. Le premier chapitre étudie l’effet de prendre une décision irréversible dans un environnement incertain. Ces travaux montrent qu'avec la possibilité d'ajuster le niveau du service à la hausse, le niveau de service initial sera moins élevé que lorsque un ajustement n'est pas possible. Le deuxième chapitre étudie les implications d'une aversion au risque sur un contrat d'acquisition d'un service de base et des acquisitions supplémentaires. Dans ce chapitre, nous caractérisons l'effet sur le design du contrat du risque qui vient de l’information incomplète sur l’acquisition supplémentaire. Nous montrons que le niveau du service de base et des acquisitions supplémentaires sont des substituts dans la résolution du problème d'incitation et que l'aversion au risque implique moins de distorsions sur les deux niveaux comparé au cas de neutralité vis-à-vis du risque. Le troisième chapitre étudie l'effet d'un risque de faillite sur une acquisition dynamique. Le contrat financier optimal est étudié ainsi que le contrat optimal d'acquisition lorsqu'il y a une entreprise autofinancée et une entreprise en difficulté de trésorerie. Le contrat d'acquisition reflète l’arbitrage entre des politiques industrielles visant à stimuler l'activité de ce secteur, et des politiques de concurrence qui ont pour objectif de réduire les prix le plus possible. Le dernier chapitre illustre le lien entre les chapitre 2 et chapitre 3 en montrant que le comportement d'une entreprise qui est averse au risque à la Yaari (1987) peut être modélisé comme une utilité indirecte lorsque l'entreprise est neutre vis-à-vis du risque mais fait face à une risque de faillite
This thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter investigates the effect of making an irreversible decision in an uncertain environment. Irreversible initial provision levels can be supplemented according to the true surplus generated by the provision. With add-ons, the first-period provision will be lower than when no additional adjustments are possible. Thesecond chapter studies the implications of risk aversion on an optimal procurement contractfor a basic service and an add-on. Ex ante there is incomplete information about the add-onand agents are risk averse. We characterize the effect on contract design of risk stemmingfrom this incomplete information. We show that the level of the basic service and the add-onact as substitutes in solving the incentive problem and risk-aversion leads to less distortion inboth levels compared to the risk-neutral case. The third chapter studies dynamic procurement design and the effect of bankruptcy risk on this design. Firms differ in their ability to self financetheir presence in the market. I study the optimal financial contract for the firm in needof funding as well as the optimal procurement contract. Because of the bankruptcy risk, the procurement contract will reflect a trade-off between industry policy which aims at stimulating activity in a sector, and competition policy which focuses on keeping prices as low as possible. The last chapter illustrates the link between chapter 2 and 3 by showing that firmbehavior under risk-aversion à la Yaari (1987) can be derived as an indirect utility when arisk-neutral firm faces liquidation risk

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Esta tese coleciona 3 dos projetos por mim desenvolvidos durante meu período de doutoramento na Escola de Pós Graduação em Economia da Fundação Getulio Vargas. No primeiro capítulo apresento um artigo que nasce da percepção que métodos variacionais levam à formulas para a estrutura tributária ótima que podem não ser válidas em ambientes mais complexos. Para ilustrar tal ponto desenvolvemos um modelo no qual a falta de ordenação da característica não observada pelo governo gera uma não validade das condições inerentes à aplicação de métodos variacionais. No segundo capítulo apresento o estudo do desenho ótimo da estrutura tributária em uma economia formada por casais levando em conta o processo decisório dentro do domicílio. Neste artigo mostramos o impacto na estrutura tributária ótima quando o planejador social toma a utilidade de cada indivíduo, ao invés da utilidade agregada do domicílio, como unidade básica na formulação do seu critério de bem-estar. A terceira parte aborda o problema de regulação em um ambiente dinâmico e discute como o fenômeno conhecido como o ratchet effect é afetado ao se permitir tipos randômicos em uma relação entre um regulador (principal) e firma licitante (agent) na qual o primeiro não pode se comprometer a contratos de longo prazo. Neste caso toda informação revelada influencia os novos termos desta relação.
This thesis contains 3 articles developed as a partial requirement for the degree of Doctor in Economics at Escola de P´os Gradua¸c˜ao em Economia from Getulio Vargas Foundation. In the first chapter, I present a paper disscuss situations where the variational method fails to identify the Optmal tax system. This paper is co-authored with my advisors Carlos E. da Costa e Humberto Moreira. In the second chapter, we study the feature of an optimal tax system when we take the family structure in account. This article is also co-authored with my advisors and Felipe Lobel a student in this same department. In the last chapter, we study the problem of regulating a firm in a dinamic environment and we study how the ratchet effect changes when the type of agent is a random variable.

Leaders of companies operating in the supply chain have faced enormous competition, thereby needing to develop alternatives for a competitive advantage within and outside the organization. In the field, researchers have suggested that one’s dynamic capabilities may determine one’s determining competitiveness. The dissertation is an applied research study of the existing dynamic capabilities in the supply chain of organizations to verify the models used and the changes that it brings to the supply chain. The theoretical framework covered the foundations of this study. To collect research data, the researcher shall use surveys to collect data. Quantitative analysis approach will be used to draw inferences to help in this new research. The position of this dissertation is that dynamic capabilities, employed in the procurement section of the supply chain, have a direct influence on the overall performance of an organization. The study revealed that the dynamic capabilities of supply base alignment, performance improvement, operational performance, supply side competence, and systems orientation was critical to organizational performance. Although individual capabilities held minimal sway, when the individuals combined to form the dynamic capability, the influence had the most power over organizational performance. The supply side and operational performance were both organizational competences, while performance improvement, supply base alignment, and systems orientation were managerial competences. This literature added to work in supply chain and procurement; it has shown successfully that dynamic capabilities used in the procurement section did have direct effect on organizational performance.

The procurement of commodity materials for production is an important issue in supply chain management. Effective procurement should consider both uncertain customer demand and fluctuating commodity price which, when act together, give rise to the procurement risk. To protect the bottom line, a manufacturer has to plan its procurement activities with special attention given to such procurement risk. Existing research has studied the use of exchange market-traded commodities in mitigating procurement risk. This study addresses the case of a manufacturer with long-term procurement commitments who wishes to hedge against the risk exposure by using long-dated futures contracts. In the commodities markets, however, long-dated futures are often illiquid or even unavailable, thus making the hedge ineffective. Alternatively, in a stack-and-roll hedge, the hedging positions are rolled forward in actively traded short-dated futures contracts of equal maturity until the procurement is executed. This in effect replicates the long-term futures contract in performing a hedge. This study therefore aims at developing a dynamic stack-and-roll approach that can effectively manage the long maturity procurement risk. The proposed dynamic stack-and-roll approach is inherently a discrete-time hedging strategy that divides the procurement planning horizon into multiple decision stages. The nearby futures are adopted as the short-dated futures as they are typically liquid. The hedging positions are adjusted periodically in response to the commodity price behaviour and updated information about the forward customer demand. For a manufacturer who wishes to mitigate the procurement risk as well as maximise the terminal revenue after the procurement, the mean-variance objective function is employed to model the manufacturer’s risk aversion behaviour. Then, a dynamic program formulation of the approach is presented for determining a closed-form expression of the optimal hedging positions. Notice that the hedging policy is a time-consistent mean-variance policy in discrete-time, in contrast to the existing discrete hedging approaches that employ minimum-variance policies. In this study, the commodity prices are modelled by a fractal nonlinear regression process that employs a recurrent wavelet neural network as the nonlinear function. The purpose of this arrangement is to incorporate the fractal properties discovered in commodity prices series. In the wavelet transform domain, fractal self-similarity and self-affinity information of the price series over a certain time scale can be extracted. The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) algorithm is applied to train the neural network for its lower training error comparing with classical gradient descent algorithms. Monthly returns and volatility of commodity prices are estimated by daily returns data in order to increase the estimation accuracy and facilitate effective hedging. The demand information is updated stage by stage using Bayesian inference. The updating process are defined and adapted to a filtration, which can be regarded as the information received at the beginning of each decision stage. Numerical experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed stack-and-roll approach. The results show that the proposed approach robustly outperforms other hedging strategies that employ minimum-variance or naïve policies, and effectively mitigate the procurement risk.
published_or_final_version
Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy

This study is about an integrated procurement and transportation planning system for purchased components of a consumer-durables manufacturer. Due to transportation cost structures and demand characteristics our problem can be classified as a variant of the dynamic-demand joint replenishment problem. The problem is to determine the replenishment policy using the advantages of coordinated transportation of items that will minimize the sum of total inventory holding and tranportation costs over a finite planning horizon. A mathematical model is formulated for purchasing and transportation decisions for the purchased items using the advantage of joint transportation costs. A two-phased solution method is proposed in order to obtain a &ldquo
good solution&rdquo
for the problem. The proposed solution method is compared with the current practice for different problem instances using retrospective data and created data. As a result it is shown that proposed method decrease the total inventory and transportation cost of the system even though the first aggregate problem can not be solved to optimality.

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Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos
Achieving resilience along the supply chain in today's turbulent business environment requires efforts from both internal and external elements of the company. Because Procurement is currently considered a boundary spanning function, it has become a primary facilitator in helping to create supply chain resilience. The purpose of this study is therefore to understand the role of Procurement in managing the intra- and inter-organisational issues needed to create supply chain resilience. To do so, a literature review was developed by following the systematic literature review method in which intra- and inter-organisational issues that could impact supply chain resilience were identified. These issues were grouped into eight general topics: knowledge acquired, inventory, product and technology for intraorganisational issues; and strategic sourcing, supply chain design, transportation and risk for inter-organisational issues. Dynamic capability (DC) view was also reviewed to offer a deeper analysis and fresh perspective on the empirical results. A multiple case study was conducted in four focal companies from different sectors, including two key suppliers from each one. After all interviews were transcribed, the data was added to the QDA Miner software in order to conduct a content analysis of within-cases and, subsequently, cross-case analysis. Following the theory elaboration defined by Ketokivi and Choi (2014), propositions were developed based on the empirical and theoretical findings through the rationale of the dynamic capability view. As a result, procurement structure and external inventory were found as additional organisational issues, and a new rationale is proposed to explain how Procurement can create supply chain resilience through dynamically managing and controlling the identified organisational issues. The primary theoretical contribution of this research is applying a new perspective to the issue of resilience. The development of these capabilities may help Procurement managers to better cope with current critical supply disruptions and hence help to achieve company survival and competitiveness.
A busca pela resiliência nas cadeias de suprimentos, hoje inseridas em ambientes cada vez mais dinâmicos, requer esforços tanto internos quanto externos às empresas. Como grande parte do risco de ruptura da cadeia de suprimentos se encontra à montante da empresa focal, Compras tem se tornado uma função crítica; principalmente por ser responsável pela solução de conflitos e problemas entre clientes internos e fornecedores. No entanto, pouco se sabe sobre como Compras gerencia esses recursos de forma a lidar com rupturas de suprimentos. O objetivo deste estudo é compreender o papel de Compras na gestão de fatores (internos e externos), de modo a criar resiliência da cadeia de suprimentos. Para tanto, uma revisão teórica foi desenvolvida por meio do método de revisão sistemática da literatura. Neste, fatores internos e externos que podem impactar a resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos foram identificados e agrupados em oito pontos gerais: conhecimento adquirido, estoque interno, produto e tecnologia para pontos internos; e estratégia de suprimentos, configuração da cadeia, transporte e risco para pontos externos. Uma revisão sobre a teoria das capacidades dinâmicas foi também realizada, com intuito de oferecer uma análise mais aprofundada dos resultados obtidos na pesquisa empírica. De forma a completar a compreensão destes pontos, um estudo multicaso foi realizado em quatro empresas de diferentes setores, além de incluir dois fornecedores de cada empresa. Após a transcrição de todas as entrevistas, estas foram inseridas no software QDA Miner para a realização da análise de conteúdo caso a caso e intercasos. Seguindo a orientação de Ketokivi e Choi (2014), foram desenvolvidas proposições a partir da revisão bibliográfica e da análise dos dados empíricos dentro do contexto da teoria de capacidades dinâmicas. Observou-se que a estrutura de Compras e a presença de estoque externo foram apontadas como fatores adicionais. É apresentada também uma nova lógica para explicar como Compras pode criar resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos por meio de uma gestão dinâmica dos pontos-chave identificados sob a lente teórica. Tal resultado é caracterizado como principal contribuição teórica deste estudo. Em termos gerenciais, o desenvolvimento destas capacidades podem ajudar gerentes de Compras a reagirem às rupturas críticas de suprimentos, garantindo a competitividade e a sobrevivência da empresa.

This thesis deals with the issue of electronic public procurement. The aim of this thesis is to confirm or disprove the following hypotheses. The first hypothesis of this dissertation is the claim that the current legislation constitutes an adequate legal basis for the implementation of electronic public procurement. The second hypothesis states that the electronic public procurement is more efficient and more transparent than the public procurement without electronization. Examining the first hypothesis was chosen in order to determine whether it is necessary to change the law for the possibility of fully electronic public procurement. The second hypothesis, then, in essence asks whether electronization of public procurement improves the efficiency of public procurement and whether it contributes to increase the transparency of public procurement.

Diese Dissertation besteht aus drei unabhängigen Kapiteln in Vertragstheorie und Industrieökonomik. Die Kapitel 1 und 2 bearbeiten Fragestellungen der Vertragstheorie. In diesen Kapiteln studiere ich die Ausprägung der Informationsasymmetrien, die in vertraglichen Beziehungen entstehen, wenn die schlechter informierte Partei versucht ihren Informationsnachteil gegenüber dem Vertragspartner zu reduzieren. In Kapitel 1 analysiere ich die Möglichkeit, dass die schlechter informierte Vertragspartei eine dritte Partei – einen Berater oder Supervisor – konsultiert, der jedoch mit der besser informierten Partei kolludieren könnte. In Kapitel 2 analysiere ich den Fall, in dem die schlechter informierte Vertragspartei selbst Monitoring-Aktivitäten aufnehmen kann, um zusätzliche Information zu sammeln. In Kapitel 3 untersuche ich den Effekt von Informationsasymmetrien innerhalb von Unternehmen auf diskriminierende Preissetzungsstrategien in Zwischengutmärkten. Hierbei analysiere ich Preisdiskriminierung und die aus dieser resultierenden Wohlfahrtseffekte in einem Modell eines Zwischengutmarktes, auf dem ein monopolistischer Verkäufer ein Zwischengut an zwei Abnehmer verkauft, die aufgrund ihrer unterschiedlichen vertikalen Organisation unterschiedlich stark von Agenturkosten betroffen sind.
This dissertation consists of three independent chapters in the fields of contract theory and industrial organization. Chapters 1 and 2 are concerned with topics in contract theory. In these chapters, I study the form of information asymmetry that arises in contractual relationships where the less knowledgeable party can reduce its informational disadvantage vis-à-vis the contractual partner. In Chapter 1, I analyze the opportunity of the less knowledgeable party to consult a third party – an expert or supervisor – who can provide advice. In Chapter 2, the less knowledgeable party can itself engage in monitoring activities to gather additional information. In Chapter 3, I explore the effect of information asymmetry within firms on discriminatory pricing in intermediate good markets. In particular, I study price discrimination and the associated welfare effects in an intermediate good market where a monopolistic upstream firms sells an input to downstream firms that vary in their exposure to the problem of asymmetric information due to different degrees of vertical integration.

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France's traditions of national sovereignty and its global status as a "great power" help to explain its investments in an independent and autonomous armaments industry. The resulting capabilities, ranging from fighter aircraft to nuclear weapons, have helped to ensure the position of France as a leading nation during the latter half of the twentieth century. Overcoming the inherent problems associated with state control and oversight of the means of production, France has developed a robust manufacturing capability and has produced, among other systems, technologically advanced designs in combat aircraft (the Rafale fighter), space rocket launchers (the Ariane 5 launcher), and remote sensing satellites (the Helios military satellite). However, the need to continue incorporating modem, expensive technology into French systems in the face of budgetary cutbacks has brought the future viability of autonomous and French-led programs into question. As a result, France and other major European nations have tried to find a common solution to consolidate each country's aerospace and defense firms into one corporate entity that could compete effectively against the United States. However, problems rooted in maintaining national capabilities, especially in France, have kept this design from becoming a reality

Lo scopo principale di questa ricerca è quello di inquadrare le possibili relazioni causali fra corruzione negli approvvigionamenti pubblici e performance delle amministrazioni locali. A tal fine, viene adottato un disegno di ricerca che integra dinamicamente metodi quantitativi e qualitativi in ogni fase del processo di studio. Gli approcci Dynamic Performance Management (DPM) e Governance (DPG), supportati da interviste approfondite non-strutturate, modellazioni formali e simulazioni quantitative, sono qui adottati per analizzare un caso di studio rappresentativo di un piccolo comune italiano in cui si sono verificati alcuni episodi di corruzione nelle attività di approvvigionamento nei primi anni 2000. In particolare, l'Ente locale in questione è stato sciolto due volte per infiltrazioni di stampo mafioso e, attualmente, versa in una situazione di dissesto finanziario. Il lavoro analizza i possibili esiti di tali fatti sulla performance organizzativa dell'Ente nel suo complesso sulla base di tre fonti: dati primari qualitativi generati da interviste frontali convergenti non-strutturate; dati secondari estrapolati da sentenze passate in giudicato e da archivi ad accesso aperto; ed un'ampia rassegna della letteratura. All'inizio, una panoramica della letteratura aiuta il lettore a comprendere i contenuti, le teorie ed i confini della corruzione. Successivamente, viene proposto un esame delle strategie di misurazione e delle misure più diffuse per prevenirla e contrastarla. Nel complesso, una particolare attenzione è riservata agli approvvigionamenti nei contesti pubblici locali. A seguito di una discussione sui possibili vantaggi e svantaggi, in termini di opportunità e deterrenze corruttive, derivanti dall'adozione dei paradigmi di governance nel settore pubblico più diffusi, gli approcci DPM e DPG vengono analizzati per comprendere il loro contributo teorico nel supportare i responsabili politici ed i manager ad arginare i fenomeni di corruzione. Successivamente, sulla base di alcune tecniche di codifica applicate alle interviste frontali non-strutturate svolte con alcuni Pubblici Ufficiali, un approccio esplorativo-descrittivo del caso-studio selezionato consente di comprendere la misura in cui gli eventi corruttivi investigati in questa sede abbiano inciso nel tempo sulla performance complessiva del Comune preso in esame. In seguito, viene adottata una prospettiva sistemica e dinamica di performance management per inquadrare le relazioni di causa-effetto emergenti dal caso di studio. L'assunzione di un approccio DPM consente ai politici ed ai dirigenti pubblici di progettare, implementare e valutare strategie anticorruzione fattibili, efficaci ed efficienti a livello di governo locale. Più precisamente, l'utilizzo, in un grafico DPM, di driver di performance adeguati al rischio di corruzione legato alle sue cause strutturali ed individualistiche può porre rimedio non soltanto alle riconosciute ambiguità e carenze derivanti dall'adozione di “bandiere rosse” nei processi di approvvigionamento pubblico, ma anche ai fallimenti dei controlli direzionali meccanicistici nel rilevare l'effettiva presenza di corruzione, fornendo ai decisori tempestivi segnali derivanti dagli effetti deleteri prodotti da siffatte pratiche clandestine. Inoltre, enfatizzare il ruolo della moralità civica comunitaria a livello di sistema può supportare la comprensione di alcuni risultati controintuitivi della passata ricerca sulla corruzione negli approvvigionamenti pubblici e dedurre in che modo gli investimenti nelle tecnologie dell'informazione e della comunicazione (TIC) e la formazione del personale possano migliorare responsabilità e competenza dei governi locali. Per quanto riguarda la professionalità dei dirigenti e dello staff quale causa individualistica di corruzione, il patronage politico derivante da opportunità legali risulta, per il caso di studio, significativo nello spiegare il cattivo andamento degli approvvigionamenti pubblici nel tempo. All'interno di questo quadro, la visualizzazione DPM consente altresì di distinguere più dettagliatamente la corruzione dallo spreco di risorse dovuto ad azioni non corruttive. In sintesi, un approccio DPM può consentire ai manager pubblici di mantenere i loro “radar cognitivi” costantemente (re)attivi, in modo da: identificare e sopprimere pratiche illecite negli approvvigionamenti pubblici; rilevare illeciti emergenti che potrebbero essere trascurati dai tradizionali approcci diagnostici e interattivi del controllo direzionale; favorire l'apprendimento etico e migliorare il valore pubblico generato. Infine, la prospettiva DPG può essere efficace nel supportare la formulazione e la messa a punto di strategie anticorruzione basate sulla collaborazione multistakeholder, nonché nel sondarne la fattibilità e gli impatti nel tempo all'interno di aree locali caratterizzate da strutture di governance carenti. Pertanto, sulla base di precedenti progetti di successo realizzati da governi locali di diverse parti del mondo, nell'ultima parte di questa tesi di ricerca viene utilizzato un approccio DPG per delineare e valutare una strategia anticorruzione per il caso in esame secondo un'impostazione di collaborative governance, così da inquadrare possibili sinergie ed interdipendenze tra i soggetti rilevanti, quali leve critiche per contrastare il rischio sistemico di corruzione a livello locale.
The main purpose of this research is to frame the possible causal relationships between corruption in public procurement and performance of local governments. With this aim, a fully-integrated research design is adopted to dynamically mix quantitative and qualitative methods at every phase of the research process. The Dynamic Performance Management (DPM) and Governance (DPG) approaches, supported by in-depth interviews, formal modelling and simulations, are here adopted to analyse a representative case-study of an Italian small Municipality, where some corruption episodes in procurement activities occurred in the early 2000s. In particular, the local Authority in question was disbanded twice for mafia-like infiltrations and is currently facing a financial instability. In the light of that, the overall work studies the possible outcomes of those facts on the organisational performance as a whole, based on three sources: qualitative primary data generated by face-to-face convergent interviews; secondary data retrieved from both documents describing legal cases and open-access repositories; an extensive literature review. At the beginning, a broad and composite literature overview helps the reader become aware about the contents, theories and boundaries of corruption. Thereafter, an examination of the most widespread measurement strategies and measures to either prevent or repress it is proposed. Overall, a special focus is set on procurement in local public contexts. Following a discussion on the possible advantages and disadvantages of the most common public sector paradigms in terms of opportunities and constraints for corruption, the DPM and DPG views are explored to understand their theoretical contribution in supporting policy- and decision-makers to curb corruption phenomena in heterogeneous governance contexts. Afterwards, based on coding techniques, an exploratory-descriptive approach of the selected case-study allows for a better understanding of the extent to which the investigated corruption events impacted on the overall performance of the Municipality under scrutiny over time, by means of non-structured face-to-face interviews held with some Public Officials in 2019. Therefore, a system perspective in performance management is adopted to frame the emerging cause-and-effect relationships of the case-study. Assuming a DPM approach allows politicians and public managers to design, implement and assess feasible, effective and efficient anti-corruption strategies at local government level. More precisely, the use in a DPM chart of performance drivers adjusted for the risk of corruption linked to its structural and individualistic causes may not only put right to ambiguities and flaws deriving from the adoption of ‘red-flags’ in public procurement, but also to failures of mechanistical controls in detecting the actual presence of corruption, thus providing decision-makers with prompt signals arising from the emergent effects of clandestine practices. In addition, emphasising the role of community civic morality at system level may back up the understanding of some counterintuitive results in the past research on corruption in public procurement and deduce to what extent investments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and personnel training may enhance local government accountability and expertise. With regard to managers’ and staff’s professionalism, as individualistic cause of corruption, political patronage stemming from legal opportunities results significant in explaining poor performance in public procurement over time. Within this framework, the DPM view also allows for better singling corruption out from resource waste due to non-corrupt actions. In summary, a DPM approach may lead public managers to constantly maintain their ‘cognitive radar’ reactive, so as to identify and suppress unlawful practices in procurement, detect emerging malfeasances that could be otherwise overlooked by traditional static diagnostical and interactive approaches, foster ethical learning and enhance community outcomes. Finally, the DPG perspective may be effective in supporting formulation and fine-tuning of collaboration-based anti-corruption strategies and probing their feasibility and impacts over time within local areas characterised by poor governance structures. Hence, on the basis of previous successful projects throughout the world, in the last part of this research thesis a DPG approach is used to outline and evaluate an anti-corruption strategy for the case under scrutiny according to collaboration settings, in a way to frame possible synergies and interdependencies among relevant participants as critical levers to hinder systemic risk of corruption at local level.

Abstract This thesis increases the understanding of public-private partnerships (PPPs) by examining their development in a centralized public procurement context. The thesis discusses on how the actors in centralized public procurement participate in the development of PPPs and what drives and challenges the actors to transit from traditional transactional arm’s length tendering to partnership thinking in public procurement. The PPP research is integrated into the research stream of Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) and the interaction approach to recognize PPPs as socially constructed during the public procurement process. The triadic approach is applied to regard PPP development as dynamic and examine the relationship dynamics between the three actors of centralized public procurement. The empirical setting of the thesis rests on a qualitative case study design using two cases. It analyzes PPP development in a standardized product procurement of food and a more diversified service procurement of home nursing. The empirical data is primarily acquired through qualitative interviews, which are supported by information from written documents and seminars on procurement regulations and procedures. The thesis shows that the development of PPPs in the context of centralized public procurement is an ongoing and dynamic process, in which the three actors actively participate by initiating, building, and facilitating the development process. The thesis further finds that cooperative interaction contributes to PPP development by increasing knowledge exchange and promoting the transition from transactional procurement logic to partnering in public procurement. The procurement type and the network in which the PPP is embedded influence the process by reflecting the actors’ ways of participating in the process and how trust is built between them. The thesis further shows how relationship dynamics influence the process in the triadic setting; that is, the procurement logic of a single actor or the logic underlying the relationship of two actors engender and intensify the problems or promote the partnership thinking in the triad. The findings of this thesis aid managers to identify how they can proactively foster the development of PPPs in centralized public procurement, and identify the influence of relationship dynamics on the process
Tiivistelmä Tässä väitöskirjassa keskitytään julkisten ja yksityisten organisaatioiden välisten kumppanuussuhteiden kehittämiseen keskitetyssä julkisessa hankintakontekstissa. Tutkimus tarkastelee sitä, kuinka keskitetyn hankintakontekstin kolme eri toimijaa osallistuvat suhteen kehittämiseen ja sitä, mikä edistää ja haittaa heidän siirtymistä perinteisestä transaktionaalisesta kilpailutuksesta kohti kumppanuutta. Tutkimus yhdistää julkisten ja yksityisten organisaatioiden välistä kumppanuutta käsittelevää kirjallisuutta teollisen markkinoinnin ja ostamisen tutkimukseen sekä erityisesti vuorovaikutusnäkökulmaan, koska kumppanuus ymmärretään työssä sosiaalisena ja vuorovaikutteisena prosessina, joka kehittyy hankintaprosessissa. Työ hyödyntää myös triadia näkökulmaa kolmen toimijan välisen kumppanuuden dynamiikkojen tutkimiseksi. Tutkimuksessa toteutettiin laadullinen kahden tapauksen tapaustutkimus, jossa kumppanuuden kehittämistä analysoitiin standardoidussa ruokatuotehankinnassa ja kotihoidon palveluhankinnassa. Työn aineisto on kerätty haastatteluiden kautta, ja sitä on tuettu kirjallisten dokumenttien ja julkisen hankinnan seminaarien kautta kerätyn tiedon kautta. Tutkimuksessa esitetään, että julkisten ja yksityisten organisaatioiden välisten kumppanuussuhteiden kehittäminen keskitetyssä hankintaprosessissa on jatkuva ja dynaaminen prosessi, johon kolme toimijaa osallistuvat aktiivisesti käynnistämällä, luomalla tai tukemalla prosessia. Työssä tunnistetaan myös, että yhteistyöllinen vuorovaikutus edistää kumppanuutta lisäämällä tiedon vaihdantaa ja tukemalla toimijoiden siirtymistä perinteisestä transaktionaalisesta hankinta-logiikasta kohti kumppanuutta. Hankintatyyppi ja laajempi verkosto, johon suhde on kytkeytynyt, vaikuttavat siihen, kuinka toimijat osallistuvat kumppanuuden kehittämiseen ja kuinka luottamus siinä syntyy. Tutkimus havainnollistaa myös kumppanuuden kehittämisen dynamiikkaa triadissa suhteessa. Yhden toimijan tai kahden toimijan välisten ongelmien huomattiin synnyttävän ja voimistavan ongelmien kehittymistä kaikkien kolmen toimijan välillä ja toisin päin; yhden toimijan tai kahden toimijan välinen kumppanuus vahvistaa kumppanuutta triadissa. Tutkimus tarjoaa yritysjohdolle tietoa siitä, kuinka kumppanuutta voi vahvistaa keskitetyssä julkisessa hankinnassa ja siitä, kuinka tunnistaa prosessiin vaikuttavia dynamiikkoja

ABSTRACT

In the past decade, the construction industry has been identified to be among the industries that are lagging in the application of modern information and communication technology as tools to enhance project performance. Where this technology has been applied, little has been done to meet up with the pace of advancements in information and communication technology.

This research looks at the extent to which information and communication technology (ICT) tools have being integrated for project enhancement in a major railway construction project. Most precisely, it looks at how ICT tools have affected communication and collaborative processes in the context of the soft skills processes and the hard skills processes. Enormous literature in this field of study was reviewed to set the base upon which to make the investigation. Findings show that ICT tools have been integrated just to a limited extent on the project which still used traditional management and project communication methods.; and there was room for integration of better tools as project participants were aware of some of these ICT tools that can enhance the performance of the project. Finally, an ICT infrastructure that encompasses all aspects of the project environment and the entire project lifecycle is proposed. This infrastructure enhances project performance by integrating all project stakeholders in the process of knowledge sharing and use in the project. The research also determines that most project organisations would refrain from integrating certain kinds of project enhancement tools because of he cost obtaining them as well as the cost to train employees on their usage.

The question "what causes variety in organisational routines" is of considerable interest to organisational scholars, and one to which this thesis seeks to answer. To this end an evolutionary theory of change is advanced which holds that the dynamics of selection, adaptation and retention explain the creation of variety in organisational routines. A longitudinal, multi-level, multi-case analysis is undertaken in this thesis, using multiple data collection strategies. In each case, different types of variety were identified, according to a typology, together with how selection, adaptation and retention contribute to variety in a positive or negative sense. Methodologically, the thesis makes a contribution to our understanding of variety, as certain types of variety only become evident when examined by specific types of research design. The research also makes a theoretical contribution by explaining how selection, adaptation and retention individually and collectively contribute to variety in organisational routines. Moreover, showing that routines could be stable, diverse, adaptive and dynamic at the same time; is a significant, and novel, theoretical contribution.

This dissertation collects work concerning the way individuals deal with imperfect information, both related to their knowledge of themselves and of others. The second chapter shows that bounded rationality, in the form of limited knowledge of utility, is an explanation for common stylized facts of prospect theory like loss aversion, status quo bias and non-linear probability weighting. Locally limited utility knowledge is considered within a classical demand model framework, suggesting that costs of inefficient search for optimal consumption will produce a value function that obeys the loss aversion axiom of Tversky and Kahneman (1991). Moreover, since this adjustment happens over time, new predictions are made that explain why the status quo bias is reinforced over time. This search can also describe the behavior of a consumer facing an uncertain future wealth level. The search cost justifies non-linear forms of probability weighting. The effects that have been observed in experiments will follow as a consequence.

The third chapter looks to understand how firms create and maintain long term relationships with consumers, or how procurement relations evolve over time, by studying a dynamic variant of the classical two-type-buyer contract in mechanism design. It is less trivial and more interesting if the utility determinant (or utility type) is not fixed or completely random, and fair assumptions are that it is either stochastic, or given by a distribution whose parameters are common knowledge. The first approach is that of Battaglini (2005), while the second is pursued in this paper. With two possible types of buyers, the buyer more likely to have a high utility type will receive the first-best allocations, while the other will receive the first best only if he has the high utility type.

The last chapter analyzes a dynamic procurement setting with promise keeping, where two firms (agents) with private information on their costs contract competitively with a principal. To this end, two models are proposed and the optimal allocations are determined. The agents face liquidity constraints, which induce distortions when high marginal costs are reported. We deduce that the principal uses promised utilities to incentivize the agents, which act as state variables in the recursive maximization problem. High cost types are allocated less than efficient quantities and the inefficiency of the allocation is relieved as the promised utilities increase.

Dissertation

碩士
國立高雄應用科技大學
資訊管理系
97
Due to auction brought to the Internet and evolved into on-line auction, the auction behaviors become much more important today. In addition, the buyer and seller could maximize their benefit if the bid prices are closer to the final equilibrium price with price competition. Hence, the public procurement auction plays an increasingly import role in government and corporate procurement. However, the sellers are still unable to predict real orders with insufficient buyer’s budget or split-award procurement. It means that the bid seller could loss, because the evaluation of fixed costs and prices of merchandise are based on the real number of orders. Although the pricing merchandise based on fixed cost to avoid the exposure problem is widely proposed in the past, most of them are focus the pricing problem on only one time slice. It is not reasonable in the real case because the pricing of fixed cost would be evaluated in a time period, such as month, year. In this paper, a time-series based dynamic pricing model is introduced to evaluate fixed costs of merchandises. It provides a more realistic and reasonable approach to evaluate real fixed cost in different merchandise and avoid exposure problem simultaneously. Finally, the experimental results show the feasibility of this model.

碩士
育達商業科技大學
資訊管理所
99
In their book, Co-opetiton, Brandenburger and Nalebluff (1996) introduce a framework for applying game theory principles into management practice. The message is that competition and cooperation can, and should, co-exist. Their concern is with growing the pie itself rather than gaining a bigger share of what is already there. In the related research, joint procurement has been recognized as an effective way to reduce production costs. But, there are still some problems encountered by the members engaged in joint procurement, for example, how to decide the optimal procurement period, how much should be ordered in each joint procurement period, and if the maximal or optimal revenues can be achieved based on the procurement policies. Therefore, in this research, a dynamic co-opetition game of joint procurement has been proposed to optimize the total revenue. By using Transposition Cipher and Substitution, the optimal procurement strategy for each member engaged in this game can be obtained.

碩士
銘傳大學
公共事務學系碩士在職專班
100
The Government Procurement Law comprises both the “political” and “economical” nature. This is regarded to be of much difficulty in the design of the system. Not only does one expect it to achieve the target of "Hennessy", one also anticipates the achievement on the functionality of “anti-malpractice”. The robustness of the government procurement system not only affects our government''s effectiveness, the property environment and our nation’s competitiveness may also be at stake. As such, the legal nature of the government procurement is complex when compared to the general administrative act. The commonly adopted "Two-Stage Theory" (Wu Geng, 2005; Guojie Heng, 1999; Lin Hongming, 2003; Lin Jiaqi, 2002) has got supporters of the legislation recognizing that the government procurement behavior displays both the administered public power and private economy, hence the practical operation, the identification of power compliance and the processes of contentious responsibilities becomes very complex and professional. It is worthy then to explore further on how the Government Procurement Law spirit and the system’s amendment can be implemented, how each and every statutory body’s capability can be cultivated in the supervision and management of the contracts of procurement so as to ensure the smoothness of the procurement operation and the elevation of the government’s purchasing efficiency. However, if the implementation of any public policy, regulation and practice cannot be integrated into the real and current situation, even with sound theoretical analysis while ignoring the practical factors, any good source of law will be a mere formality, without any level of efficiency whatsoever. With the assistance obtained through guidelines on the relevant literature and theory surrounding the government procurement, as well as in-depth interviews and observation of the procurement system, these five-class related personnel - government ethics staff, accounting staff, procurement staff of the General Affairs Department, users of departments’ and vendors’ agencies - hereby respond to the purposes of this study: 1.The dynamic conditions on the contractual management of our Nation’s procurement system. 2.Our Nation’s procurement relationship – the validity and discussion on people and contractual management. 3. The relevance between the efficiency of the government procurement and contractual management. Through agency’s handling of the contractual life cycle of the procurement business comes the three stages of initial proposal of the internal contract and the public audit of the selection and decision making processes of a tender, the awarding and signing of a contract, the contract management and the dynamic contractual rules and regulations, all these to present completely the current situation of the government procurement practice. Through “supervisory management” the overloading of the original business situation may increase transaction costs and violate the fairness and reasonable procurement spirit. Explore the reasons for any inability to further elevate the efficiency on administration, and in accordance with the empirical findings obtained, align and compare data against reported literature to gain access to a full picture on the operation of the procurement practices within government agencies. Finally, through detailed research and analysis, it is hoped that in future government agencies, when implementing changes and requirements in the procurement system, will adhere to "performance management", and in the end provide different viewpoints and constructive comments.

碩士
明志科技大學
工業工程與管理系碩士班
107
Enterprises are facing a fiercely competitive international market environment, and in addition, the rapid changes in the market have gradually shortened the product life cycle（PLC）. Each product has its life cycle. At different stages, the sales volume of the products changes with the distinct market characteristics. Enterprises can thus launch new products at the appropriate timing. Usually develop with existing products, and companies also need to estimate the trend of new products after listing based on the sales volume of existing products. In order, products can quickly enter the market and gain higher market share and profits. Products are usually assembled from a variety of materials. The materials required by the company are usually purchased or ordered from suppliers. For the procurement strategy of materials, many procurement models have been proposed in the past. For each model, the adjustment of dynamic demand changes at various stages of the product life cycle needs to be further explored. Therefore, this study uses the Bass diffusion model to estimate the sales volume of each stage of the product, and furthermore, calculates the material demand in each stage, and also defines the demarcation point of various stages in the PLC as the decision-making conversion of the different material procurement mode, and finally calculates the cost of material purchasing. Undoubtedly, it can reduce the procurement cost effectively. Finally, take a door lock professional manufacturing company in Taiwan as an example to provide with the references for the industry in the development of new products.

Public tenders procedure - a dynamic purchase system and electronic auction The purpose of public tenders is to serve as an instrument of effective and efficient distribution of public funds, in order to acquire specific goods or services in accordance with the public interest. Therefore, the law defines the process of awarding public tenders. The main purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze the electronization of the public tenders procedure with an emphasis on dynamic purchase systems and electronic auction. The thesis is based on the current provisions of the Act on Public Tenders No. 137/2006 Coll., and is divided into seven chapters. Chapter one focuses on evolution of public tenders, or public procurement, providing a brief historical outline with an emphasis on national legal regulations. Chapter two explores public procurement law regulations in force that are significant in relation to the aim of the thesis. The first part of the chapter highlights the most important legal documents on the international level, and the second part proceeds with an overview of European Union law. Part three presents a summary of the Act on Public Tenders in force. The third chapter contains a definition of the most essential terms of the Act. Part one deals with the instrument of the public tender...

碩士
國防大學
財務管理學系
106
Purchasing unit with downsizing policy of MND(Ministry of National Defense) has been implemented at substantial reductions in medical manpower.personnel downsizing policy will have a negative impact on the collecting and retaining of medical officer, so that the burden and heavier tasks of existing staff result in low morale, retention difficulties and other negative effects, thereby affecting the overall development of the quality of medical care and medical research. There are many factors affect the hospital physician manpower supply and demand of the military hospitals, such as: physician quality, work outs, supply and demand ratio of physicians and patients etc., with each other influence each other and have a chain of causal interaction. Viewing from systems thinking, building a system dynamic analysis model, simulate and analyze the influence of the supply and demand of military hospital physician manpower to the change of policy variables of ministry of education approved recruit student, military physicians extend the service,and appointment of physicians replenishment rate .

碩士
國防大學管理學院
資源管理及決策研究所
100
Because of high technology equipments increasing, maintaining availability of weapons is an important mission on Military. Homeland Air Defense becomes an important issue to maintain fighters availability. In spite of Military facing Jingjin Program and Jingshi Program, how to take logistic strategies properly under constrained human resources and budget, is the theme in our discussion. In this situation, acquiring spare parts effectively becomes the key factors on management. Because of those factors are complicated, from holism to research may get the answers on decreasing the degree of diminishing fighters availability. From overall viewpoint, this study is initially conducted by focusing on spare parts procurement of Indigenous Defense Fighter, human resources management and fighters availability. Therefore, using different situations to analyze the influences on Indigenous Defense Fighter availability. Based on this model, supposing the mission of Air Force and budget are the same, changes spare parts procurement (the rate of spare parts order ：80%, 90%, 100%； procurement frequency：once, twice, three times per year) and human management (hiring rate：50%, 100%,150%) to analyze the influences on Indigenous Defense Fighter availability. The research results as the following： When the rate of spare parts order reaches 90%, procurement twice per year, and human hiring rate reaches 100%, can get better improvement on diminishing fighters availability. In this regard, the meaning of management and suggestions will be discussed in this study.

The National Museum of Australia (NMA) (1997- 2001) by architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) in association with Robert Peck von Hartel Trethowan was commissioned by the Australian Commonwealth Government for the Centenary of Federation in 2001. It was conceived as a gift to the people of Australia and now stands on Acton Peninsula in Canberra, the nation's Capital. It is a visually complex manifestation of the design architects' (ARM) dialogue with the ambiguities of Australian history and national identity. The architectural realisation of these complexities was facilitated through advances in computer technologies and a complementary non-traditional procurement method, both at the leading edge of Australian architectural practice of the time. Completed three years earlier was probably the most debated work of architecture of the 1990s, the Guggenheim Museum (GMB) (1991-98) in Bilbao, Spain, by Frank O. Gehry and Associates (FOG&A). This satellite museum of the Guggenheim Foundation of New York was heralded as the quintessential example of a kind of architecture only possible because of advances in computer technologies. Both visually complex museums were conceived as flagship projects and consequently share many political, functional, and cultural expectations. Both were procured outside the usual adversarial designer/builder paradigm of western architecture and featured the innovative use of three-dimensional (CAD) software for design, documentation and analysis. The NMA project used a government instigated procurement method which was embraced by a group of design and construction companies who formed a joint venture known as the Acton Peninsula Alliance. This non-traditional or relationship-based procurement method required ARM to reassess their approach to generate and disseminate design data and their traditional relationship with other design and construction professionals. As part of this process, ARM were required to devolve some of their design authority to a project delivery team via a Design Integrity Panel and an Independent Quality Panel; both innovations integral to the Acton Peninsula Alliance. The NMA project reframed many of the enduring professional relationships of Australian architecture and in so doing extended the skill set and expectations of the architects and others to include a more substantial engagement with 3D CAD and a procurement system which was less subject to many of the common impediments inherent in the more traditional processes. Through a series of interviews with the architects and other stakeholders, a qualitative methodology was used to investigate the NMA as a case study which uses the GMB as an internationally recognised comparison. This thesis examines how these two projects have been successfully completed within time and budgetary constraints in an environment where flagship projects have had a history of highly publicised difficulties. It reveals that the successful realisation of the NMA was due to the relationships built or reframed as a result of this cooperative approach in conjunction with high levels of engagement with computer technologies. This is in contrast to the seamless flow of data and high levels of prefabrication integral to the success of the GMB.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, 2006.

The National Museum of Australia (NMA) (1997- 2001) by architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) in association with Robert Peck von Hartel Trethowan was commissioned by the Australian Commonwealth Government for the Centenary of Federation in 2001. It was conceived as a gift to the people of Australia and now stands on Acton Peninsula in Canberra, the nation's Capital. It is a visually complex manifestation of the design architects' (ARM) dialogue with the ambiguities of Australian history and national identity. The architectural realisation of these complexities was facilitated through advances in computer technologies and a complementary non-traditional procurement method, both at the leading edge of Australian architectural practice of the time. Completed three years earlier was probably the most debated work of architecture of the 1990s, the Guggenheim Museum (GMB) (1991-98) in Bilbao, Spain, by Frank O. Gehry and Associates (FOG&A). This satellite museum of the Guggenheim Foundation of New York was heralded as the quintessential example of a kind of architecture only possible because of advances in computer technologies. Both visually complex museums were conceived as flagship projects and consequently share many political, functional, and cultural expectations. Both were procured outside the usual adversarial designer/builder paradigm of western architecture and featured the innovative use of three-dimensional (CAD) software for design, documentation and analysis. The NMA project used a government instigated procurement method which was embraced by a group of design and construction companies who formed a joint venture known as the Acton Peninsula Alliance. This non-traditional or relationship-based procurement method required ARM to reassess their approach to generate and disseminate design data and their traditional relationship with other design and construction professionals. As part of this process, ARM were required to devolve some of their design authority to a project delivery team via a Design Integrity Panel and an Independent Quality Panel; both innovations integral to the Acton Peninsula Alliance. The NMA project reframed many of the enduring professional relationships of Australian architecture and in so doing extended the skill set and expectations of the architects and others to include a more substantial engagement with 3D CAD and a procurement system which was less subject to many of the common impediments inherent in the more traditional processes. Through a series of interviews with the architects and other stakeholders, a qualitative methodology was used to investigate the NMA as a case study which uses the GMB as an internationally recognised comparison. This thesis examines how these two projects have been successfully completed within time and budgetary constraints in an environment where flagship projects have had a history of highly publicised difficulties. It reveals that the successful realisation of the NMA was due to the relationships built or reframed as a result of this cooperative approach in conjunction with high levels of engagement with computer technologies. This is in contrast to the seamless flow of data and high levels of prefabrication integral to the success of the GMB.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, 2006.

Na última década, a contratação pública centralizada e agregada tem conhecido um avanço significativo, nomeadamente através de vários instrumentos de compra ou técnicas de compra agregada. As diretivas europeias de contratação pública de 2014 e a revisão do Código de Contratos Públicos (CCP) de 2017 apresentam vantagens, contudo, contemplam igualmente inúmeras desvantagens. A presente tese pretende constituir um contributo para uma reflexão mais profunda e estruturada sobre o regime do Sistema Nacional de Compras Públicas (SNCP), que requer constante renovação da concorrência, eficiência e deve contemplar os existentes instrumentos procedimentais especiais. O modelo SNCP está desajustado da realidade portuguesa e do tecido empresarial nacional, sendo a dificuldade no acesso ao mercado público demasiado evidente. De facto, é importante refletir sobre os desafios diários das empresas para se tornarem fornecedoras do Estado. As diretivas europeias devem ser cumpridas, mas o legislador deve ter em linha de conta as especificidades do seu país e as suas envolventes. O que é necessário mudar? Em que medida deverá ser realizada a revisão? Quais as vantagens que advêm dessa mudança? São questões centrais e orientadoras a que o presente trabalho pretende dar resposta. O Estado Português necessita de um novo regime de compras públicas, devendo seguir uma lógica de serviços partilhados e de economia circular e promovendo, desta forma, a maximização do uso de bens e serviços. Portugal necessita de um Sistema de Compras Públicas capaz de demonstrar que cria valor, flexível, abrangente, dinâmico, inovador, aberto à renovação de concorrência e em que todos são incluídos (Estado e empresas). Este trabalho assume-se como um desafio, uma visão fundamentada e um contributo para as Compras Públicas, mais propriamente para as Compras Públicas Centralizadas, temática relevante para o país e cuja mudança vem assumindo caráter de urgência na generalidade dos organismos públicos, quer da administração central, local, quer do sector empresarial do Estado, dado que a função compras protagoniza, cada vez mais, um papel estratégico nas organizações, passando a fazer parte de um processo complexo e integrado.
Publics Contracts; Public Procurement; Public Centralized Purchasing; Framework Agreements, Directive 2014/24/EU; Public Sector; Access to the Public Market; Dynamic Acquisition Systems; National Public Procurement System; Circular Economy, Professionalization of the Public Buyer, Secondary Policies, Public Interest; Value creation; Comprehensiveness, Dynamism; Flexibility.

This dissertation studies strategies to mitigate the risks associated with operational and strategic decisions of a firm, particularly focusing on project management, product development and procurement decisions. In the first essay we develop two simulation-based methods to evaluate risky capital investment projects that involve managerial flexibility. Many risky projects are characterized by significant demand and operational risks (such as learning curve uncertainty) that are difficult to capture by simple stochastic processes. We propose using system dynamics simulations to estimate the cash flow resulting from these projects and build upon prior work on real options valuation in the decision analysis literature to develop two valuation algorithms. In the second essay we explore the technology investment decisions for platforms in markets that exhibit cross-network effects. We focus on the trade-off firms must make between investing new product development resources to increase a platform's core performance and functionality versus investments designed to leverage the platform's cross-network effects. Abstracting from examples drawn from multiple industries, we use a strategic model to gain intuition about how to make such trade-off decisions under competition. In the third essay, we analyze the optimal procurement strategy of a firm that faces supply and demand risk. In particular, the firm can source from two unreliable suppliers with different delivery characteristics. We study the optimal order allocation policy shaped by the trade-offs between delivery leadtime, reliability and procurement cost. Further, we discuss the value of leadtime flexibility in supply risk mitigation and highlight the role of an inferior supplier in a firm's multi-sourcing strategy. The main contribution of this dissertation to the operations management literature is two-fold. First, it illustrates the role of effective risk mitigation through operational strategies of leadtime flexibility and supply diversification as well as through recognizing managerial flexibility. Second, it highlights the importance of leveraging third-party content development while making technology investment decisions for platforms in two-sided markets.
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