Shahadat Khan

An importance-performance analysis for supplier assessment in foreign-aid funded procurement

Purpose – Using a sample of executing agency executives, donor agency executives and supplying organisation executives, this study aims to identify the critical criteria for the assessment of suppliers in foreign-aid funded procurement in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – An instrument with 32-seven-point (1 – rarely, 7 – mostly) Likert-scaled items was employed to gather data on the level of importance assigned by both buyers and suppliers on each supplier assessment criterion. The importance-performance matrix analysis was conducted to assess the gap in expectations between buyers and suppliers and to organise the assessment criteria into four categories such as “low priority”, “possible killer”, “concentrate here”, and “keep up the good work”. Findings – The results indicate that, to provide better service, suppliers must assign tasks to the knowledgeable sales personnel, provide better warranties with well-known branded products, and ensure a reliable level of quality. The supplier organisatio...

Exploring the critical determinants of environmentally oriented public procurement using the DEMATEL method

This study explores the critical determinants of environmentally oriented public procurement in Singapore, and investigates the causal relationships among the determinants that influence this procurement. Using the extant literature and basing our examination on natural-resource-based theory, we develop a conceptual framework for the implementation of environmentally oriented public procurement using three high-level dimensions and ten determinants. Sixteen interviews were conducted with 16 senior executives working in various ministries and statutory boards in Singapore who are closely involved in the public-procurement process. The decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method, which is a multicriteria decision-making tool, is employed to analyse the interview data and information. The results of the analysis reveal that the two most critical determinants for environmentally oriented public procurement in Singapore are energy-efficiency strategy and environmental standards. These two determinants were also found to be the primary drivers of the implementation of environmentally oriented public procurement in Singapore. Through further analysis using the level of influence, a cognition map is developed to illustrate the relationships among the ten determinants. Understanding the dynamic nature of public procurement through these causal relationships is essential for the formulation of environmentally oriented public procurement implementation strategies.

Understanding towards Interactions between Business Intelligence and SMEs: Learn from Each Other

Business Intelligence (BI) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are two distinctive research domains but greater interaction between these two entities have been experienced in the existing literature. It is therefore of an importance to conduct a theoretical analysis to improve our understanding on the nature of the two distinct entities for offering an emerging learning. The interactions in between the two domains are manifested deeper insights of BI implementations in the context of SMEs, mainly to revealing on criteria of the business environmental performance. Although research in both domains have been rapidly growing, limited number of studies are designed to enrich understanding and knowledge form the interaction concerning the learning aspects of BI and SMEs. Therefore, this study is aimed to conduct a theoretical analyse in order to explore an integrated view on how BI and SMEs learn from each other and contributes to the business environmental performance. A qualitative content analysis was conducted for the procedure, which considered 43 source articles as samples. Findings of the literature review suggest enhancing capability of SMEs and innovation of BI, which may affect each other. Findings of this study may become useful for further research in terms of BI implementation success.

Migrant Remittance Supported Micro-Enterprises in South Asia

This study focuses on migrant remittance supported micro-enterprises (MRSMEs) in Bangladesh with a view to understand such micro-enterprises in the context of enhanced usage of migrant remittance. Migrant remittance is receiving increased attention ( Rahman and Yeoh, 2008; de-Haas and Rodrguez, 2010; Rahman, 2012, 2010; Rahman and Fee, 2005) as it has now become the second largest source of external development finance (Cohen, 2005). Migrant remittance is also seen as an indispensable part of economic survival for many developing countries (IOM, 2005). Furthermore, it has been considered a major factor in poverty alleviation of recipient developing countries in terms of its usage in consumption and investment (Beverland and Lockshin, 2001; Glytsos, 2005). However, according to de-Haas and Rodrguez (2010), migration development processes are heavily dependent on policies adopted by labour sending states towards favourable general conditions for human development.

UNWRITTEN GROUND RULES (UGRS) IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This paper presents the outcome of research related to application of formal rules and standard procedures in EAsʼ procurement of goods and services for foreign aid-funded projects. Executing agencies are entrusted to implement foreign aid-funded projects on behalf of respective governments and they are required to satisfy a combination of rules of their multiple principals, mainly donor organizations and respective government ministries. The theoretical framework of this study is guided by agency theory. The findings indicate that the processing of procurement related information and awarding contracts by the executing agencies in the context of Bangladesh is heavily dependent on the informal working systems or “unwritten ground rules”. These are driven by downward hierarchical verbal and non-verbal instructions. The study has adopted a qualitative method following a grounded theory approach.