A key problem in designing marketplaces is how to efficiently allocate a collection of goods among multiple people. Auctions have emerged as a powerful tool with the promise to increase market efficiency by allocating goods to those who value them the most. Nevertheless, traditional auctions are unable to handle real-world market complexities. Over the past decade, there has been a trend towards allowing for package bids and other types of multidimensional bidding techniques that enable suppliers to take advantage of their unique abilities and put forth their best offers. In particular the application of iterative combinatorial auctions in procurement saves negotiation costs and time. Conceptually these auctions show a potential for improving the overall market efficiency. However, in practice they host several new challenges and difficulties. One challenge facing the auctioneer in an iterative combinatorial auction environment is to quickly find an acceptable solution for each round of the auction. Bidders require time to precisely evaluate, price, and communicate different possible combinations based on their current information of item prices. The auctioneer requires time to solve the underlying mathematical problem formulation based on the bids received, report back the feedback information and initiate a new round of the auction. In Chapter 3, we propose a Lagrangian-based heuristic to solve the auctioneer's winner determination problem. After generating the Lagrange multipliers from the solution of a linear relaxation, the heuristic applies several procedures to fix any potentially infeasible optimal Lagrange solutions. In addition to providing an efficient way of solving the winner determination problem, as compared with the leading commercial solver CPLEX, our approach provides Lagrange multipliers. The latter are used as proxies for prices in the auction feedback mechanism. In Chapter 4 we develop a model for the bidders pricing problem, an issue that has received much less attention in the literature. Using the auctioneer feedback, that includes the Lagrange multipliers, the pricing model maximizes the bidders' profit while at the same time keeping their bids competitive. We derive several optimality results for the underlying optimization problem. Interestingly, we analytically show that the auction converges to a point where no bidder is able to submit a bid that yields strictly better profit for him and is not less competitive than his previous bids submitted. We experimentally observe that this approach converges in an early stage. We also find that this iterative auction allows the bidders to improve their profit while providing lower and competitive prices to the auctioneer. In Chapter 5, we introduce a flexible auction model that allows for partial bids. Rather than the regular all-or-nothing indivisible package bids, divisible bids provide flexibility for the auctioneer with the possibility to accept parts of the bids and yet allow the suppliers to capture synergies among the items and provide quantity discounts. We show numerically that this approach improves the overall efficiency of the auction by increasing the suppliers' profit while decreasing the auctioneer's total price of procurement. In addition, we find that computationally the flexible auction outperforms the regular auction. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purpose of this paper is defined to research the obstacles that hamper the implementation of blockchain technology in Swedish procurement. The identification of a knowledge gap in prior research related to this field is uncovered by substantial literature research. Previous research in this area is mainly conducted with an orientation towards the implementational benefits and design or implementation examples This paper thereby leads to a fulfillment of the discovered knowledge gap and contributes to the field. The research question; “What obstacles hamper the implementation of blockchain technology in the process of public procurement in Sweden?” Exploration of this is conducted through a qualitative research study with a geographical limit set to the country of Sweden. The study is conducted with the use of four different perspectives that consists of professionals with expertise in different fields. Obstacles that could hamper the merger between blockchain technology and procurement are identified, both using categories that are defined in a cross-perspective environment and individual obstacle topics. Further research ideas are also presented suggesting future studies surrounding the obstacle dynamics of this study.

Using one question of Donald Kettl's smart-buyer problem as the basis of investigation, this study empirically examines the relationship between five selected services contract characteristics related to requirements and evaluation ratings of 120 federal information technology investments. The five contract characteristics selected for investigation were: Contract Type, Extent Competed, Performance-Based Acquisition, Integrated Process Team, and Program Manager Qualification. Analysis of these characteristics is relevant because current federal acquisition policy advocates particular contract characteristics as the preferred methods of procurement and others as widely accepted best practices. The five selected contract characteristics were analyzed for over 200 information technology services contracts using two separate statistical tests and four variants of information technology investment ratings as the dependent variable. Empirical evidence failed to reject the null hypothesis that there is no statistically significant correlation between selected service contract characteristics related to contract requirements and investment ratings. This failure of rejection through multiple tests led to the conclusion that service contract requirements are not better defined in cases when they should be based on selected contract characteristics. In order to better inform and understand the quantitative findings, interviews were conducted with over 20 senior acquisition and information technology executives representing 11 different federal departments and industry. None of the senior executives interviewed disputed the null finding and nearly 70 percent of subject matter experts interviewed were unsurprised that the selected service contract characteristics did not correlate with investment ratings. The lack of correlation between selected contract characteristics related to requirements and investment ratings indicates that service contract requirements definition is a significant problem for federal agencies. That conclusion was confirmed by interviews with senior subject matter experts who consistently stated that accurately defining and managing information technology service contract requirements is a genuine challenge facing the federal government today. Although empirical evidence failed to reject the null hypothesis, subsequent interviews revealed other factors that may have greater bearing on requirements and acquisition program outcomes than the five selected service contract characteristics. They present promising topics that merit further research. / Ph. D.

This study examined whether situational variables influence members of the buying center when deriving an evoked set in an organizational buying scenario. Buyclass, risk, and power were the focus of the study. This study examined the process organizations go through when deriving evoked sets and the role situational variables played in that process. This process was examined within the context of organizational buying scenarios. The organizational buying process is different from the consumer buying process. The organizational buying process includes a series of incremental steps. A decision or decisions are made at each step. The first step in the decision process is the recognition of a problem and the formulation of a set of potential solutions. This initial group of solutions is an evoked set. Organizational buying decisions are made by a collection of people within the organization. These individuals interact through the phases of the purchase process making the necessary decisions. This group is called a buying center. The buying center is influenced throughout the buying process by a number of variables. This study focused on three situational variables: buyclass, risk, and power. However, other variables were revealed. A proposed model for understanding the organizational buying process was constructed and presented in the literature review section (Chapter Two). This model incorporated situational variables in the overall buying process. While the study was conducted within the context of the proposed model, the proposed model was not tested. The proposed model may provide context for future studies in the area of organizational marketing. The research questions and propositions suggested in Chapter One were examined within the context of the hospitality industry. Specifically, this dissertation has studied how situational variables influenced buying centers within associations while the buying centers were formulating evoked sets while searching for an annual convention site. The sample for the study was drawn from associations headquartered in Washington, D.C. / Ph. D.

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Under 2018 betalade Sveriges myndigheter, kommuner och regioner ut totalt 847 miljarder kronor till privata företag och av dessa kan 800 miljarder kopplas till offentliga upphandlingar. Den summan uppgår till ca 20% av Sveriges Bruttonationalprodukt. Det innebär att den offentliga upphandlingen har förutsättningar att göra stor positiv inverkan på de globala hållbarhetsmålen, främst genom Agenda 2030s mål 12: Hållbar konsumtion och produktion, samt mål 13: Bekämpa klimatförändringarna. I den här rapporten har Sandviken kommuns upphandlingsprocess analyserats genom djupintervjuer med nyckelpersoner med expertis inom upphandling och hållbarhet. Syftet är att ge en fördjupad inblick i hur upphandlingsprocessen ser ut specifikt i Sandvikens kommun, samt presentera möjliga förbättringsförslag. Intervjuer genomfördes under april 2022 genom de digitala plattformarna Zoom och Microsoft Teams. Teori från vetenskapligt granskade artiklar (peer-reviewed) har sedan jämförts med upplevelser från de intervjuade nyckelpersonerna för att se var förbättringspotential finns. Analysen visade att nyckelpersonerna hos Sandvikens kommun till stor del är medvetna om den problematik som finns, men att arbete återstår innan optimala processer är implementerade. Författarna har efter analysen redovisat ett antal förbättringsförslag där bland annat framtagande av nya miljömål, förtydligande av arbetsuppgifter samt integrering av ekologiska och sociala hållbarhetsfrågor i upphandlingsprocessen anses vara en del av lösningen. För framtida studier anser författarna att ytterligare intervjuer med politiker och deltagare från referensgrupper bör genomföras. En jämförande undersökning av hållbarhetsarbetet mellan Sveriges kommuner anses också vara intressant för att se ytterligare förbättringspotential. / In 2018, Sweden's authorities, municipalities and regions paid out a total of SEK 847 billion to private companies, of which SEK 800 billion can be linked to public procurement. That sum amounts to about 20% of Sweden's Gross National Product. This means that public procurement has the potential to make a major positive impact on the global sustainability goals, primarily/mainly through Agenda 2030s goal 12: Sustainable consumption and production, and goal 13: Combating climate change.   In this thesis, Sandviken municipality's procurement process has been analyzed through in-depth interviews with key people with expertise in procurement and sustainability. The purpose is to provide an in-depth insight into what the procurement process looks like specifically in Sandviken municipality, and to present possible improvement proposals. Interviews were conducted in April 2022 through the digital platforms Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Theory from scientifically peer-reviewed articles has then been compared with experiences from the interviewed key people to see where the potential for improvement lies.   The analysis shows that the key people in Sandviken municipality are largely aware of the problems that exist, but that work remains before optimal processes are implemented. After the analysis, the authors have presented a number of improvement proposals where, among other things, the development of new environmental goals, clarification of tasks and integration of ecological and social sustainability issues in the procurement process are considered part of the solution.   For future studies, the authors believe that further interviews with politicians and participants from reference groups should be conducted. A comparative study of the sustainability work between Sweden's municipalities is also considered interesting to see further potential for improvement.