Research
Center staff and affiliated faculty produce significant research ranging from commentary pieces in influential outlets, to white papers and essays on pressing government contracting issues, to peer-reviewed articles in premier journals.
Center competencies and capabilities are making an impact in the government contracting industry:
- Unique and influential analysis, commentaries, reports, and webinars on the federal response to COVID.
- White Paper Series that shares cutting edge research on small business transition, intellectual property, DoD budget reform, acquisition reform, and industrial base resilience.
- Impactful op eds in The Hill, Business Insider, Defense One, Defense News, the National Interest, with additional coverage by national print and broadcast outlets.
Reports
White Paper Series
The Baroni Center for Government Contracting White Paper Series is a central focus of our work. The purpose of the series is to inject ideas into the government contracting ecosystem and identify potential solutions for vexing challenges facing the community.
In releasing these White Papers, the Center gratefully acknowledges the work of its senior fellows who wrote them. Through research, writing, and discussion, Center senior fellows champion matters of interest to the government contracting community. These fellows add a rich practitioner component for the Costello College of Business to better understand and support the GovCon industry.
We welcome your feedback and ideas for future topics in this series. Contact Charles Dolgas at cdolgas@gmu.edu.
Commentaries
Center commentaries provide timely insights into pressing government contracting issues in government and business. Whether the commentary topic is “in the news” or deserves “future attention,” readers are provided short, to the point on the topic, why the topic is important, and what to consider for its resolution.
- March 14, 2022There are already signs that OTA growth may soon reach a crescendo.
- March 2, 2022Center Executive Director Jerry McGinn wrote a commentary for Defense News, "You don’t need to rewrite acquisition regulations to improve DoD buying."
- February 3, 2022Center Executive Director Jerry McGinn teamed up with Center Senior Fellow Eric Lofgren to write the a commentary for Defense News, "Three Steps to Help Defense Innovation Break Free From Its Shackles."
January 20, 2022From a Defense News Commentary: It seems like every year there is another commission, task force or board that studies the defense acquisition system. Fiscal 2022 continues the pattern with the rather bureaucratic-sounding Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution reform. This time, however, there is good reason to sit up and take notice.- August 13, 2021Executive Director of the Center for Government Contracting Jerry McGinn wrote an op-ed for Breaking Defense on how the Department of Defense needs to address intellectual property (IP) and security.
- November 24, 2020Center for Government Contracting Executive Director Jerry McGinn and Daniel Kaniewski, Marsh and McLennan managing director, wrote an op-ed for Defense One on the Defense Production Act (DPA) entitled, “Where Does the Defense Production Act Go from Here?”
- November 17, 2020Center for Government Contracting Executive Director Jerry McGinn wrote an essay for The Heritage Foundation’s 2021 Index of Military Strength entitled, “Building Resilience: Mobilizing the Defense Industrial Base in an Era of Great-Power Competition.”
- October 19, 2020Center for Government Contracting Executive Director Jerry McGinn wrote a commentary for The Hill entitled, “Continuity is (mostly) on the menu for government contracting in the next administration.” The commentary points out many ways in which government contracting will remain unchanged in the case of a presidential transition.
- September 15, 2020Center for Government Contracting Executive Director Jerry McGinn wrote a commentary entitled “Reshoring Does Not Mean ‘Buy America’ Only” that was published in
- September 13, 2020Center for Government Contracting Executive Director Jerry McGinn wrote a commentary entitled “Could The Coronavirus Jump Start U.S. Defense Acquisition Reform?” for The National Interest in which he points out how COVID-19 has changed defense acquisition for the better.
- August 31, 2020Center for Government Contracting Senior Research Fellow Jim Hasik wrote a commentary for DefenseNews about why he thinks the Pentagon should be closed.
- May 26, 2020Center for Government Contracting Senior Fellow Eric Lofgren wrote a commentary for DefenseNews entitled, “Will Defense Budgets Remain ‘Sticky’ After the COVID-19 Pandemic?” Defense budget “stickiness” means that spending will not even start to decrease until FY22 and beyond.
Affiliated Faculty
The Center for Government Contracting offers access to both the GovCon network and funds for research and writing, to enrich the understanding of the unique business interests on both sides of this market—government and business.
Affiliated Faculty appointments will
- Encourage academic research in GovCon;
- Advance the research reputation of the faculty and the Center;
- Offer grants and honoraria to support the effort faculty can bring to this discussion; and
- Offer a new avenue to engage faculty who share our interest to create a more efficient and effective market for the public good.