Scaling behavior of public procurement activity.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Curado A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8654174 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The paper proposes and validates the strategic public procurement regulatory compliance model with mediation effect of ethical behavior. It expands the socio-economic theory of regulatory compliance to explore the mediating effect of ethical behavior on the influence of professionalism, familiarity, enforcement, resistance to political pressure and compliance with public procurement regulation. A quantitative research design was deployed using 125 procurement officers as a sample group. The data from the sample was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results validated the hypotheses for the strategic public procurement regulatory compliance model with mediation effect of ethical behavior. The study not only confirmed the earlier findings on the direct effects of professionalism, familiarity, enforcement, resistance to political pressure and ethical behavior on compliance, but also established the mediating effect of ethical behavior on compliance on all the predictors except resistance to political pressure. The study implied that ethical behavior of public procurement officers should be a strategic point of concern by both policymakers and professional bodies. Theoretically, the studyexpands thesocio-economic theory of regulatory compliance within the context of procurement literature through mediation effects of ethical behavior via structural analysis.
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Project description:BackgroundAffymetrix Genechips are characterized by probe pairs, a perfect match (PM) and a mismatch (MM) probe differing by a single nucleotide. Most of the data preprocessing algorithms neglect MM signals, as it was shown that MMs cannot be used as estimators of the non-specific hybridization as originally proposed by Affymetrix. The aim of this paper is to study in detail on a large number of experiments the behavior of the average PM/MM ratio. This is taken as an indicator of the quality of the hybridization and, when compared between different chip series, of the quality of the chip design.ResultsAbout 250 different GeneChip hybridizations performed at the VIB Microarray Facility for Homo sapiens, Drosophila melanogaster, and Arabidopsis thaliana were analyzed. The investigation of such a large set of data from the same source minimizes systematic experimental variations that may arise from differences in protocols or from different laboratories. The PM/MM ratios are derived theoretically from thermodynamic laws and a link is made with the sequence of PM and MM probe, more specifically with their central nucleotide triplets.ConclusionThe PM/MM ratios subdivided according to the different central nucleotides triplets follow qualitatively those deduced from the hybridization free energies in solution. It is shown also that the PM and MM histograms are related by a simple scale transformation, in agreement with what is to be expected from hybridization thermodynamics. Different quantitative behavior is observed on the different chip organisms analyzed, suggesting that some organism chips have superior probe design compared to others.
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Project description:Is it possible to predict malfeasance in public procurement? With the proliferation of e-procurement systems in the public sector, anti-corruption agencies and watchdog organizations have access to valuable sources of information with which to identify transactions that are likely to become troublesome and why. In this article, we discuss the promises and challenges of using machine learning models to predict inefficiency and corruption in public procurement. We illustrate this approach with a dataset with more than two million public procurement contracts in Colombia. We trained machine learning models to predict which of them will result in corruption investigations, a breach of contract, or implementation inefficiencies. We then discuss how our models can help practitioners better understand the drivers of corruption and inefficiency in public procurement. Our approach will be useful to governments interested in exploiting large administrative datasets to improve the provision of public goods, and it highlights some of the tradeoffs and challenges that they might face throughout this process.
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Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 outbreak has heightened ongoing political debate about the international joint procurement of medicines and medical countermeasures. The European Union (EU) has developed what remains largely contractual and decentralized international procurement cooperation. The corona crisis has broadened and deepened public debate on such cooperation, in particular on the scope of cooperation, solidarity in the allocation of such cooperation, and delegation of cooperative decision-making. Crucial to political debate about these issues are public attitudes that constrain and undergird international cooperation.MethodsOur survey includes a randomized survey experiment (conjoint analysis) on a representative sample in five European countries in March 2020, informed by legal and policy debate on medical cooperation. Respondents choose and rate policy packages containing randomized mixes of policy attributes with respect to the scope of medicines covered, the solidarity in conferring priority access and the level of delegation.ResultsIn all country populations surveyed, the experiment reveals considerable popular support for European cooperation. Significant majorities preferred cooperation packages with greater rather than less scope of medicines regulated; with priority given to most in-need countries; and with delegation to EU-level rather than national expertise.ConclusionJoint procurement raises delicate questions with regard to its scope, the inclusion of cross-border solidarity and the delegation of decision-making, that explain reluctance toward joint procurement among political decision-makers. This research shows that there is considerable public support across different countries in favor of centralization, i.e. a large scope and solidarity in the allocation and delegation of decision-making.
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Project description:ObjectiveTo perform an initial qualitative comparison of the different procurement models in India to frame questions for future research in this area; to capture the finer differences between the state models through 53 process and price parameters to determine their functional efficiencies.DesignQualitative analysis is performed for the study. Five states: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab and Maharashtra were chosen to ensure heterogeneity in a number of factors such as procurement type (centralised, decentralised or mixed); autonomy of the procurement organisation; state of public health infrastructure; geography and availability of data through Right to Information Act (RTI). Data on procurement processes were collected through key informant analysis by way of semistructured interviews with leadership teams of procuring organisations. These process data were validated through interviews with field staff (stakeholders of district hospitals, taluk hospitals, community health centres and primary health centres) in each state. A total of 30 actors were interviewed in all five states. The data collected are analysed against 52 process and price parameters to determine the functional efficiency of the model.ResultsThe analysis indicated that autonomous procurement organisations were more efficient in relation to payments to suppliers, had relatively lower drug procurement prices and managed their inventory more scientifically.ConclusionsThe authors highlight critical success factors that significantly influence the outcome of any procurement model. In a way, this study raises more questions and seeks the need for further research in this arena to aid policy makers.
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Project description:We examine the density scaling properties of two ionic materials, a classic aprotic low molecular weight ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(perfluoroethylsulfonyl)imide ([BMIm][BETI]), and a polymeric ionic liquid, poly(3-methyl-1,2,3-triazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide) (TPIL). Density scaling is known to apply rigorously to simple liquids lacking specific intermolecular associations such as hydrogen bonds. Previous work has found that ionic liquids conform to density scaling over limited ranges of temperature and pressure. In this work, we find that the dc-conductivity of [BMIm][BETI] accurately scales for density changes of 17%; however, there is a departure from scaling for TPIL for even more modest variations of temperature and pressure. The entropy of both ionic samples conforms to density scaling only if the scaling exponent is allowed to vary linearly with the magnitude of the entropy.
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