This study aims to determine whether 100% employee-owned firms perform better than other firms for federal customers in public procurement.
The study utilized a large, comprehensive, but rarely leveraged data set: the ratings of contractor performance by federal procurement officials in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS).
Statistical analysis of CPARS scores indicates that 100% employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) firms achieve higher ratings than all other firms and at a significance level well beyond 99%. In particular, they more frequently achieve ratings in CPARS of excellent or very good than other firms.
The findings suggest that federal contracting officials can confidently develop business relationships with many 100% ESOP firms.
Very few studies of public procurement in the United States have leveraged the data of the federal Contractor Performance Assessment Report Systems (CPARS).
