The Efficacy of the Governments Use of Past Performance Information: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Since its inception via the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994, contractor past performance is intended to be an important evaluation criterion in federal source selections. In order to reduce performance uncertainty, procurement officials must record contractor performance evaluations in a central database. However, reports of ubiquitous problems raise questions of the integrity of ratings and the utility of the evaluations. From a literature review, several factors affecting the efficacy of past performance evaluations are identified. These factors are combined in a comprehensive conceptual model explaining past performance efficacy. Exploratory, qualitative data preliminarily confirms the hypotheses. Key antecedents include the following: rating justification quality; contractor surveillance; multirater dissonance; perceived accuracy; evaluator role overload; fear of supplier dispute; perceived fairness; sufficiency of requirement definition; evaluator turnover; relationship quality; and buyer-supplier communication frequency, bi-directionality, and formality. From these findings, important managerial and theoretical implications are drawn and future research directions are identified.