| The purpose of this dissertation was to examine cooperative purchasing practices in Bergen County school districts in order to determine which types of goods and services are being cooperatively purchased and the degree to which Bergen County school districts are utilizing cooperative purchasing, and to measure each district's cooperative involvement along a continuum from cooperation to collaboration.;The methodology consisted of a pilot study, group discussions, and a survey questionnaire. The data were analyzed based upon criteria developed in the literature concerning cooperative purchasing, the self-reported degree of sharing utilized in each district as measured by the Hughes Continuum, and empirical analysis of the survey results.;The survey results indicated that (1) 95% of the Bergen County business administrators were making cooperative purchases, (2) gender was not a factor which influenced the cooperative purchasing practices, (3) business administrators with more years of experience did more cooperative purchasing, and (4) schools with larger budgets and larger enrollments were more likely to make greater quantities of cooperative purchases.;School supplies, office supplies, custodial supplies, and fuel oil supplies were cooperatively purchased significantly more often than expected by chance at the.05 level. The items most often cooperatively purchased were school supplies, custodial supplies, office supplies, and copiers.;The self-reported cooperative purchasing experiences measured along the Hughes Continuum were 59.5% "Cooperative," 21% "Collaborative," and 19.5% were somewhere in between "Cooperative" and "Collaborative." If the research indicated that districts were utilizing cooperative purchasing more fully, then efforts could be made to advance them along a continuum toward collaboration; however, many business administrators are not convinced that cooperative purchasing is beneficial.;Resource sharing and cooperative type activities represent a means by which school districts can save money, share and expand services, maintain academic quality, and reallocate resources. Fiscally thorough and efficient purchasing practices and strategies aimed at heightening an awareness of cooperative purchasing benefits must be developed so that school districts can achieve the maximum value for every expenditure. |
