VARIABLE SPLIT AWARDS IN A SINGLE-STAGE PROCUREMENT MODEL

We show that splitting an award can result in lower expected procureme nt costs, even in a one-time procurement setting, as long as entering the bidding competition is costly. For sufficiently risk-averse bidder s, the split award mechanism provides additional insurance against the possibility of losing the bid and, therefore, any bidding costs. This result contrasts with previous theoretical works which focus on one-t ime procurement and have concluded that multiple sourcing increases ex pected procurement costs.