Procurement improvement in the public agency

Abstract

Public sector procurement and innovations have been sources of economic and industrial competitiveness in the European Union (European Commission, 2022). Public procurement accounts for 12% of the EU's gross domestic product (GDP) (OECD, 2019). Procurement improvement could positively affect purchasing performance and innovativeness in public sector agencies; thus, scholars want to understand better the causalities and interrelations that explain purchasing performance and innovativeness. This knowledge could help public organisations improve their procurement competencies. This thesis studies the antecedents explaining purchasing performance and innovation orientation in public procurement. Working supply markets are essential for efficient procurement. This research identifies potential supply market development actions that may improve purchasing performance or attract innovative suppliers to participate more often in public sector tendering.

This research contributes to the field by identifying the antecedents of purchasing performance and innovation orientation in public procurement. This research seeks potential procurement actions for competency and supplier market development in the public sector. This thesis studies the interaction between suppliers’ innovativeness and supply chain ambidexterity and their perceptions of innovation enablers in tendering and the customer attractiveness of public organisations. This research focuses on the case organisation, professional services purchasing category, and the government sector rather than the municipal sector.

The first part of the thesis presents an overview of the relevant literature, the research design and the conclusions. The latter part presents publications which considerably use a survey study methodology where questionnaires, in-depth interviews and focus group interviews are the primary data collection methods. This research presents initial conceptual models for purchasing performance, innovation orientation and customer attractiveness in public procurement. In addition, areas for purchasing category and supply market development are studied in the case organisation. The results illustrate how contemporary public sector topics can be analysed and propose further development opportunities.