The Procurement Process: An Integrated Review of Sourcing Strategy, Supplier Evaluation, Bidding, and Contract Performance

Abstract

Procurement is the organisational function responsible for identifying, sourcing, contracting, and receiving goods, services, and works from external providers to support both operational and strategic objectives. This paper presents an integrated conceptual review of the procurement process, tracing its evolution from nineteenth-century railway purchasing departments to its current status as a strategic management discipline. The review addresses four interconnected themes: the definitional boundaries between procurement, sourcing, and acquisition, together with recognised models of procurement performance; the criteria and procedures for supplier evaluation, qualification, and relationship management; the benefits, limitations, and tools associated with structured supplier appraisal; and the mechanics of competitive bidding, contract award, and post-award performance evaluation. Drawing on literature from the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, the Institute for Supply Management, and established supply-chain-management scholarship, the paper argues that procurement performance is shaped less by any single practice than by the coherence among the sourcing model, evaluation criteria, and contract-governance mechanism selected for a given spend category. The paper concludes with recommendations for aligning supplier segmentation with governance intensity and identifies the comparative performance of collaborative sourcing models in resource-constrained public procurement systems as a priority for future empirical research.