University Procurement Officers’ Use of Technology When Seeking Information

Abstract

The transition from printed to electronic sources of information has resulted in a profound change to the way procurement officers seek information. Furthermore, in the past decade there have been additional technological revolutions that are expected to further affect the procurement process. In this paper, we conduct a survey among forty nine university procurement officers in Israel to examine to what extent procurement officers have adapted to smartphones and tablets by testing how frequently officers use notebooks, smartphones, and tablets for work-related and leisure purposes. We find that while officers prefer electronic sources of information over printed sources of information, officers have not yet adapted to the later technological advances (i.e., smartphones and tablets). Notebooks are more frequently used than either smartphones or tablets for work-related and leisure purposes. One explanation behind this result is that officers are not skilled in using smartphone and tablets applications. This implies that training officers in the use of these devices may improve their performance.

The Informing Needs of Procurement Officers in Israel

“…Weber, Current, and Benton (1991) report a rise in the importance of 'repair services and geographic locations'. Recently, Bouhnik et al (2016) find that the five most important criteria for public procurement officers are 'quality', 'price', 'performance history', 'delivery' and 'technical ability'.…”