A Further Examination of the Relationship between Contract Administration Problems and Contract Type

Abstract

This new research supports the 2006 research conducted by Davison and Sebastian (Davison-Sebastian 2007) that data is available for, each type of contract, the likelihood of contract administration problems occurring and the consequences of these problems if they do occur. With this data the procurement professional can utilize a traditional risk management process to determine an overall risk factor for each problem and then develop proactive risk mitigation plans that are based on eliminating or reducing each of the previously identified risks, or problems that have been identified. The major findings were that the 2011 results were comparable to 2006 in that when contract administration problems occurred, problematic consequences were more likely than no consequences for all contract types except leases and that the types of problematic consequences that were most likely depended on the type of contract. The implications of the research results for procurement professionals and the limitations of the research will be discussed.