ART - Exploring Differences in American States Procurement Practice 2003

The document is a research paper titled "Exploring Differences in the American States' Procurement Practices" by Coggburn. The paper discusses the variations in procurement practices among different states in the United States. It aims to understand the factors that influence these differences and their impact on government performance. The paper begins by providing background information on the Government Performance Project, which is a study that evaluates the performance of state governments. It also mentions the regional classification scheme used by the U.S. Census Bureau to categorize states into four regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. The author emphasizes the importance of using a summated rating scale to create a variable that is linearly related to an underlying, but unobservable, dimension. This helps achieve the interval level of measurement. The paper includes several references to other studies and books related to public management, administrative reform, strategic planning, and government procurement. One of the references mentioned is the "State procurement: Strategic positioning for the 21st century" by the National Association of State Purchasing Officials (1999). This reference likely provides additional insights into the strategic positioning of state procurement practices. Overall, the paper aims to contribute to the understanding of procurement practices in different states and their impact on government performance. It provides a comprehensive review of relevant literature and references, including the National Association of State Purchasing Officials' publication, to support its arguments.