Network purchasing in developing countries: the case for Uganda

Purpose of the paper The paper is part of the PhD project on horizontal collaborative purchasing in developing countries, and particularly in Uganda. There is no doubt about the contribution of networking and collaboration to the performance of organizations. The practice has been successful in most developed countries. However, this significant performance is less for the developing countries, especially Uganda. Besides, the procurement discipline is new in developing countries, yet it contributes more to the economies. Much as the concept of networking is well grounded in other disciplines, there is need to tailor it to procurement, which after all saves more costs for the organization. This paper will aim at looking at the social issues which don’t seem to be the focus for most managers. It will specifically examine the place of trust and commitment in the establishment and operationalisation of horizontal purchasing collaborations in developing countries, with Uganda as the case study. It will recognize that inter cultural issues must be recognized as one applies the knowledge that socially affect relationships, and clearly show that social issues in developing countries are different from those in the developed world, and therefore justify need to apply locally developed theoretical and practical models. Literature addressed Networking and collaboration cut across several disciplines. Therefore several literature sources will be considered to get an exhaustive view of the subject. These will include; social theory, networking theory, cooperative theory, alliance theory, transaction cost theory and resource based theory.