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be addressed in more detail in the next section, which also addresses the follow-up question that only these respondents were asked in their survey. More optimistically, the second most frequently cited reason for an apparent DIB exit strongly implies that certain contractors have not actually left the DIB. These respondents indicated that they are actively bidding for work but have not won anything current ( n = 127 respondents for 19% of the sample). This means that they appeared to have exited the DIB in the USASpending.gov data by virtue of their not having won any current work, but they would not be categorized as a true exit if considered willing and potential suppliers as part of a healthy DIB.
Plenty of business-legitimate reasons can account for a shift in purchasing behavior, why a contract may only be a one-time event, or why DoD may stop issuing solicitations for specific products or services.
The next two top reasons, each accounting for 78 responses (11% of the sample), are more agnostic in nature and should probably not be attributed directly to DoD (positively or negatively) as they appear to be reasons circumstantial to business. Plenty of business-legitimate reasons can account for a shift in purchasing behavior, why a contract may only be a one-time event, or why DoD may stop issuing solicitations for specific products or services. As a further discussion point, this same agnostic nature applies to many of the other reasons for exit as well. For example, a contractor going bankrupt or shifting strategic direction away from defense work is probably beyond DoD’s direct control or purview. How much responsibility DoD should bear for ensuring the health of its own supplier base through demand-side controls is a great debate topic but beyond the scope of this study. The fifth most identified reason for departure was that the contractor had become only a subcontractor to DoD prime contractors ( n = 59 responses for 9% of the sample). Respondents who selected this reason received a follow-on question eliciting more details in open-text response; 52 of the respondents provided such a response. Many of these respondents noted negative characteristics of working with DoD as a prime contractor that
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Defense ARJ, Summer 2025, Vol. 32 No. 2: 194—223
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