Barriers and challenges of collaborative procurements: An exploratory study

The construction industry has been notorious for its poor performance and confrontational disputes. This is arguably attributed to the competitive nature of the traditional design-bid-build procurement approach where various stakeholders have different perspectives. Interest has been growing in the adoption of collaborative procurement approach where all participating parties are encouraged to cooperate and collaborate towards efficient project delivery. Although numerous studies have been conducted on collaborative procurement, most of them primarily focused on the positive side of collaborative procurement without due consideration of the barriers and challenges for its successful application. To address this lack, this paper aims to present a comprehensive understanding of collaborative procurement. Specifically, the paper investigates current practices of collaborative procurement in Australia, particularly focusing on the barriers and challenges. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 industry professionals and the interview results identified commercial-related barriers (e.g., facilitating market entry of competitors, loss of control, protection of intellectual property, complexity of framework, systems and practices, and loss of identity) as well as human-related barriers (e.g., trust, understating or commitment). The likelihood of successful implementation of collaborative procurements will be enhanced if these challenges and barriers are taken into consideration from a very early stage of the project.