Perceived barriers to successful tendering by small management consulting firms in the South African public sector
Date
2016
Authors
Pahaladh, Roshen
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Abstract
There is a demand for management consulting services by both the private and public sector in South Africa; however the market is primarily dominated by the large management consulting firms. This is due to a perception of value within the industry that is based on certain attributes, which places large management consulting firms at an advantage over the small management consulting firms, thus creating a perceived barrier for these small management consulting firms in general.
Focusing specifically on the public sector, the tender system employed to procure services from private firms, uses specific evaluation and rating phases that are based on those attributes perceived as value, which creates the perceived barriers to successful tendering by small management consulting firms in the South African public sector.
The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the attributes that are perceived as value in the management consulting industry which create the perceived barriers to successful tendering by small management consulting firms in the South African public sector.
Quantitative research methods were used to analyse the attributes that were identified from the theory and literature via a Conjoint questionnaire used to collect data from respondents. Conjoint Value Analysis (CVA) specifically was used to analyse the importance of each attribute as well as the utility levels for each. A T-Test was then conducted to assess whether there is a statistically significant difference in perception of value amongst the attributes between the public sector entities and the small management consulting firms.
The results are that the perception of value as shown by the utilities of the attributes, tend towards the favouring of large management consulting firms as opposed to small management consulting firms and that there are significant differences in the perception of value between the small management consulting firms and the public sector entities for a couple of the attributes.
The study provides an insightful understanding of the perception of value within management consulting in that there is a preference towards large management consulting firms, as well as that there is a common understanding of what value is perceived to be for certain aspects but not for all, signalling that there are different levels of perceived value placed on certain attributes in terms of their importance in the creation of the perceived barriers to successful tendering by small management consulting firms in the South African public sector.
Description
MBA Thesis
Keywords
Business consultants,Small business -- South Africa.