Survey of Small Business Barriers to Department of Defense Contracts

Abstract

A key tenet of the Better Buying Power initiatives is to increase small business participation in Department of Defense contracting. The department has had mixed success in retaining small businesses and meeting small business contracting goals. Results of a survey given to 681 small business leaders show many factors commonly exist that prevent small businesses from pursuing defense contracts. Some factors are more common than others, with the most cited factors related to a lack of communication from government leads or to the government taking too long to give approvals and make decisions. Statistical evidence also supports the perceptions, of smaller and newer small businesses, that the defense business is more challenging for them than for their larger and more experienced competitors. However, this turned out to be the case for only a subset of the factors we explored.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2017
Accession Number
AD1026992

Entities

People

  • Ronnie Schilling
  • Shahram Sarkani
  • Thomas A. Mazzuchi

Organizations

  • George Washington University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Commerce
  • Contracts
  • Data Rights
  • Department Of Defense
  • Electronic Mail
  • Engineering
  • Engineers
  • Export Controls
  • Governments
  • Literature Surveys
  • Military Acquisition
  • Small Business
  • Standards
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Systems Engineering

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Regression Analysis.
  • Systems Analysis and Design