Date
5-2020
Department
Graduate School of Business
Degree
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
Chair
Scott Quatro
Keywords
Defense Acquisition, OTA, Department of Defense
Disciplines
Business
Recommended Citation
Parker, Justin, "Understanding Other Transactions, a DOD Contractor's Perspective" (2020). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 2462.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/2462
Abstract
After losing financial leverage over the private industry due to self-investment in Research and Development (R&D), the Department of Defense (DoD) sought out new ways to acquire critical technology from the private industry. To address the problem of many companies no longer needing to work with the administratively burdensome and regulatory heavy FAR-based supply chain, the DoD adopted NASA’s Other Transactions (OTs) through congressional action in 1989. Unlike FAR-based contracts, OTs are not subject to many of the laws and regulations that caused the private industry to become disengaged from working with the DoD. As Congress continues to expand the DoD’s authority to utilize the OT acquisition process and encourage the DoD to use the process, more non-traditional contractors are open to working with the DoD supply chain. While this is positive for the DoD and non-traditional contractors, this has left the DoD’s main suppliers, traditional contractors, left evaluating their ability to work with the DoD using the OT acquisition process. Traditional contractors have infrastructures, processes, and acquisition strategies that are all centered on the FAR-based acquisition process. Given the OT acquisition process purposely removes many of the requirements of the FAR-based acquisition process, traditional contractors must now access their current infrastructure, processes, and acquisition strategies to ensure they are able to continue to work with the DoD using the OT acquisition process. This study explores the perception that traditional contractors have of the OT acquisition process and the use of consortia to administer OTs. The study relied on interviews with DoD traditional contractors. Previous case studies and perceptions were used to corroborate the interview findings. The study findings aimed at ensuring the DoD and traditional contractors can make the appropriate changes to continue working together using OTs.
