Analysis of Air Force Institute of Technology Theses Related to Contracting

With the end of the contracting graduate programs at AFIT, it is appropriate to ask what contributions AFIT theses have made to the contracting community. Scholars (e.g., Das and Hanfield 1997) have argued that thesis and dissertation research is one useful method in determining contributions to the field. Accordingly, a rigorous review of contracting-related theses done at AFIT should provide useful information regarding the contributions made to the contracting community and possibly suggest how future research, performed elsewhere, might continue to make contributions in the future. Through this study it was discovered that the majority of the contracting research conducted at AFIT pertained to purchasing planning, organization, policy, and personnel. There has been little research done on commercial purchasing issues such as buyer-supplier relationship and supply chain integration. The majority of the research done was in exploratory study format using mostly case studies, interviews, and surveys as the research design to collect the data. The most popular form of data analysis technique used was descriptive statistics followed by anecdotal evidence.