Out with the old, in with the new? a case study of procurement practices in new york state school districts

Abstract

School business officials procure goods and services through a variety of methods to deliver educational services in a timely and cost-effective way. Recommended practices by professional procurement organizations have changed in recent years to include new technologies aimed at streamlining and cutting costs of traditional procurement methods. Little is known, however, about what procurement practices school districts adopt-new or old. To partially fill this gap, we describe results from a survey of procurement practices of New York State school districts. Our results reveal that despite the potential for new technologies to make certain practices common among all types of districts, competitive bidding laws and enrollment size dictate the procurement methods used most frequently by school districts.

Citation

Duncombe, W. and Searcy, C.S. (2007), "Out with the old, in with the new? a case study of procurement practices in new york state school districts", Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 514-545. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBAFM-19-04-2007-B006