Thesis
An action research analysis of factors involved in Australian small- to medium-sized enterprises planning and tendering for overseas development aid projects
Southern Cross University, Graduate College of Management
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
2003
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Abstract
Australia's international aid budget includes opportunities for Australian small-to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to implement development aid projects. The purpose of this research is to investigate how these enterprises, particularly those with a technical focus, can plan development aid projects and how their planning impacts on project outcomes. Specifically, the problem investigated in this research is:
How can an Australian small- to medium-sized enterprise plan and tender for a development aid project?
Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature and demonstrates that the extant research in this field of planning and tendering for development aid projects is scant It reveals that the cross-cultural management field provides a framework for addressing cultural factors in the international envirom11ents of development aid projects. It also reveals that participatory project implementation approaches maximise opportunities for sustainable project outcomes. However, it finds that neither of these fields provides data specific to the needs of technically-focussed Australian SMEs when planning for sustainable development aid projects.
Thus, Chapter 2 develops a theoretical framework to help address this lack of data. This theoretical framework demonstrates that a development aid project can be planned and implemented within an enterprise's strategy in a manner that both generates profit and maximises opportunity for sustainable project outcomes.
This framework also reveals knowledge gaps in four areas that, in turn, lead to the four research issues that drive the fieldwork of this research. Firstly, it demonstrates that the impacts of a funding agency on project planning are likely to be significant, and that there is no literature that deals with these impacts. Thus, the first research issue is:
RI 1. What effect does the funding agency have in the phases of a development aid project?
Secondly, the theoretical framework demonstrates that there is a lack of data about how a bidding enterprise's strategic understanding can impact on their approach to planning and implementing a development aid project. Thus, the second issue is:
RI 2. How does an enterprise's strategic understanding impact on the tender planning phase of a development aid project?
Next, the theoretical framework illustrates a lack of data about how an enterprise can accommodate the international environments - the cross-cultural, politico-institutional, legal and economic infrastructure environments - of these projects in planning. Thus, the third research issue is:
RI 3. How does a development aid project's international environment influence its project planning phase?
Finally, the theoretical framework reveals lack of data about how project planning decisions are made in enterprises while balancing ethics and the profit motive. Thus the final research issue is:
RI 4. How do an enterprise's decision-making processes influence the tender production and submission phase of a development aid project?
The lack of available data in the field of this research and the lack of knowledge about the research problem meant that theory needed to be built in this research. Thus, action research, a theory-building methodology, was used for this research. The flexibility afforded by action research facilitated the collection of data through the interaction of the researcher and the research participants in problem-solving the development of two project tenders. This included data that arose from judgement and interaction that was essential in the research and could only have been recorded using action research. Then through using the action research generated data, and triangulating that data with data collected from the literature review and from semi-structured interviews with experts in relevant fields, solutions to the research problem were elicited and the research issues were addressed. Thus, theory was built that can be tested in the future.
Addressing research issue one demonstrated that the impact of a funding agency includes an influence on all aspects of project design and creation of a complex tendering process that favours larger enterprises that have an understanding of, and established reputation with, the funding agency. Addressing research issue two found that an enterprise's strategic understanding facilitates decision-making in the planning process, and provides a way of conceptualising how to address contradictions that occur in tender planning
requirements. Addressing research issue two also identified the existence of a project technical culture within technically-focussed SMEs that prioritises technical factors and western management approaches over soft-side approaches.
Addressing research issue three revealed a three-step model of how a tendering enterprise accommodates the international environment of a project These steps include researching the nature of the international environment, engaging skills to address the impacts presented by that environment and adding contingency costs to the bid price to cover the risks it poses. Finally, addressing research issue four demonstrated that an enterprise's decision-making in the process of planning a development aid project is underpinned by its strategic expectations and so plam1ing decisions reflect these expectations. Also, addressing research issue four found that decision-making at a micro scale includes a structured process involving expertise and other factors.
At the level of the research problem, this research found that a contradiction exists between the structured and linear approaches of project management and the less structured and flexibility needs of development-aid projects. However, it found that this contradiction can be addressed by using project management in a traditional strategic management manner in the project planning phases and then in a requisite variety manner in the project implementation phase.
The outcomes of this research have implications for tendering enterprises and for funding agencies. Implications for tendering enterprises include the need to become familiar with the processes and the desig11 wants of funding agencies over and above what is apparently required within tender briefing documents. This need for familiarity demonstrates that in addition to project skills a tendering enterprise needs to have research skills as well as oral and written communication skills to win a tender. Implications for a funding agency include that the current approach to tendering out development aid projects is problematic. Thus, the research recommends an alternative approach to tendering practice that n1eets the agency's needs for financial accountability and responsibility, as well as the needs of tendering enterp1ises and beneficiaries.
Finally, the research has implications for research theory. That is, it demonstrates that, in researching planning and tender development for development aid projects, an inductive or theory building action research methodology within the realism paradigm is a practical alternative to the traditional deductive positivist approaches.
Details
- Title
- An action research analysis of factors involved in Australian small- to medium-sized enterprises planning and tendering for overseas development aid projects
- Creators
- Frank Thompson
- Contributors
- Chad Perry (Supervisor) - Southern Cross UniversityStewart Hase (Supervisor) - Southern Cross University
- Awarding Institution
- Southern Cross University; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Theses
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
- Publisher
- Southern Cross University, Graduate College of Management
- Number of pages
- xiv, 240
- Identifiers
- 991013329328502368
- Copyright
- © Frank Thompson 2003
- Academic Unit
- Graduate School
- Resource Type
- Thesis