User involvement in contract management and procurement performance in Zanzibar: the moderating role of user competence

Drawing on institutional theory and the competence model, this study explores the influence of user involvement in contract management on procurement performance among local government authorities (LGAs) in Zanzibar and examines the moderating role of user competence. In this study, cross-sectional data were collected from 159 heads of the user departments within 11 LGAs in Zanzibar. The collected data were analysed through partial least squares structural modelling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that user involvement in contract formation has a significant positive effect on procurement performance (β = 0.524, p < 0.001), whereas user involvement in receiving and inspection has insignificant negative effect on procurement performance (β = -0.081, p = 0.418). On the other hand, user competence has a significant positive effect on procurement performance (β = 0.297, p = 0.001). The moderation analysis reveals different perspectives, indicating that user competence has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between user involvement in contract formation and procurement performance (β = -0.231, p < 0.001), and a positive moderating effect on the relationship between user involvement in receiving and inspection and procurement performance (β = 0.153, p = 0.017). This study demonstrates that procurement performance is affected by active user involvement in contract formation, and receiving and inspection as aspects of contract management, with effects varying at different levels of user competence. This study integrates institutional theory and the competence model to present new empirical evidence based on data obtained from user departments within LGAs in Zanzibar.