Contract complexity and contract administration costs in small supplier alliances in the Norwegian offshore market

Arnt Buvik and Øyvind Halskau

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2016, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: This research focuses on the problem of perceived contract administration costs among small service suppliers in the Norwegian offshore market. Based on transaction cost economics (TCE), resource-dependence theory (RDT) and supply chain management literature, the authors analyse the association between several contract administration issues and perceived contract administration costs, and in particular in service supplier alliances. A mail survey among 109 Norwegian service suppliers makes the research design of this study, and the empirical findings demonstrate that when the contract complexity becomes substantial, the small contractors face substantial contract administration costs. This problem enlarges significantly for small service contractors with preference for participation in supplier alliances with other service suppliers, and sub suppliers. The reason is that such cooperative arrangements have to deal with a broader set of contracting partners, contract issues in the regulation and enforcement of contractual terms related to division of work, payment clauses, service performance and project fulfilment.

Keywords: offshore procurement; outsourcing; supply chain management; SCM; supplier alliances; contract administration costs; contract complexity; Norway; offshore industry; small service suppliers; small contractors; transaction cost economics; TCE; resource dependence theory; RDT; division of work; payment clauses; service performance; project fulfilment. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=73383 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijpman:v:9:y:2016:i:1:p:1-14

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Procurement Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().