Procurement practices, stakeholder engagement and project performance in local governments :

Abstract

A plethora of literature indicates that procurement practices are the key antecedent of project performance. However, this relationship remains incomplete/unexplained without a third process variable. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish the effect of procurement practices on the performance of public construction project through stakeholder engagement. The study specific objectives were to examine the effect of procurement practices on the performance of construction projects, to establish the effect of procurement practices on stakeholder engagement, to determine the effect of stakeholder engagement on the performance of construction projects, and to examine the mediating effect of stakeholder engagement on the relationship between procurement practices and performance of construction projects. The study was anchored on the conceptualization of agency and stakeholder theories. The study adopted a cross-sectional quantitative research design. The study target population was 213 public construction projects, out of which a sample size of 132 public construction projects was selected using Krejcie and Morgan’s Table of (1970) to represent the study. The study used a closed-ended structured questionnaire as a tool for data collection. The data were checked for validity using Content Validity Index, and reliability using Cronbach Alpha test. Data were entered in SPSS and analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, regression and process macro. The results from correlation analysis indicated that there is a positive relationship between all the study variables. Also, the regression analysis results revealed that procurement practices significantly affect performance of construction projects; procurement practices significantly predict stakeholder engagement; stakeholder engagement significantly affect performance of construction projects; and finally stakeholder engagement partially mediates the relationship between procurement practices and project performance. The study concluded that stakeholder engagement mediates procurement practice and project performance. The study recommended that all public procuring entities should embrace the philosophy of stakeholder engagement as a decisive mechanism for enhancing performance of public construction projects. Further research could attempt to establish the moderating role of stakeholder engagement on the relationship between procurement practices and project performance. Keywords: Procurement Practices, Stakeholder Engagement, Project Performance