U.S. and E.U. public and defense procurement rules require large prime contractors to promote subcontracts to small businesses, a.k.a. small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Under the U.S. Small Business Act, large firms encourage subcontracting through publicity, subcontracting plans, and “good...

Despite Congressional and Presidential emphasis on reducing bundling and consolidation of defense contracts, recent studies cast doubt on whether such practices are problematic for small contractors or the defense acquisition system. Those studies proposed that bundling and consolidation are...

Procurement is often perceived as a tactical rather than a strategic function. Such perceptions result from the way procurement is usually defined as beginning after a need has been identified. Procurement thus focuses on tactical decisions involving means rather than on strategic decisions...

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for the study of public procurement policy. It reviews policy-related writings by public procurement scholars and assesses these works from the perspective of their contributions to generalized understandings of public procurement policy. Selected tools...

In 2006, the U.S. Defense Acquisition Executive approved a program at the Naval Postgraduate School to solicit, evaluate, and fund proposals for innovative and scholarly acquisition research. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of proposals from 2007 to the present. It seeks to provide...