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Pre-commercial procurement (PCP), introduced by the European Commission in 2007, is the most important purchasing procedure available to the European Union public sector to solicit innovative solutions from the business sector. As such solutions are not yet in the market, they first require research and development (R&D) activities. PCP is concerned with procuring R&D services only, and typically consists of three phases. This paper aims to discuss how the budget available to the contracting authority (CA) may be optimally allocated along such three phases.

The paper is mostly theoretical and the CA is assumed to maximise the overall probability of success in the PCP, that is the probability of receiving at least one successful proposal at the end of the procedure.

The main finding of the paper suggests that, for a CA, the optimal budget allocation across the three phases of the PCP depends on how likely it is to receive successful proposals in various stages of the procedure, as well as on the rewards paid to the invited companies.

In this paper, the author proposes a methodology for the optimal budget allocation of a CA and discusses how the approach could be practically implemented, pointing out its potential difficulties.

The main social implication of the findings is represented by the best use of the available budget, hence taxpayers’ money.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, no existing paper has discussed the optimal budget allocation in a PCP as in this work.

To induce innovation in the public sector, Directive 2014/24/EU encourages internal and external consultation during the procurement process. However, little is known regarding the prominence of these practices. Determining the extent of knowledge sourcing in innovation procurement across 28 European countries, this paper presents an institutional cluster analysis, examining heterogeneity across knowledge sourcing activities, procurement areas, and tender innovation outcomes for 1,505 public procurers from 2008-2010. Building upon existing taxonomies, three types of procuring agencies are identified: Large collaborative agencies practicing public procurement of innovation (31%); supplier-focused pre-commercial procurers (20%); and direct procurers at the municipal level (49%). Validation supports this heterogeneity, using innovation outcomes and policy drivers. At the country level, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Poland are most represented in respective clusters. Findings enable predictions regarding impacts on agencies and innovation from the new public procurement directive's translation into national law by Member States.

The study aims to investigate how pre-commercial procurement (PCP) influences the activities, capabilities and behaviours of actors participating in the innovation process. Unlike much of PCP research underpinned by a market failure theoretical framework that evaluates the additionality of innovation inputs and outputs, this paper focusses on the role and capacity of PCP in addressing systemic failures impeding the process of innovation.

PCP effects on the innovation process were studied through a qualitative study of the UK small business research initiative (SBRI) programme. Data collection comprised 33 semi-structured interviews with key informants within 30 organisations and analysis of 80-plus secondary data sources. Interviewees included executives of technology-based small businesses, managers within public buying organisations and innovation policymakers and experts.

The UK SBRI improves connectivity and instigates research and development (R&D) related interactions and cooperation. Through securing government R&D contracts, small firms access relevant innovation ecosystems, build up their knowledge and capabilities and explore possible routes to market. Public organisations use the SBRI to connect to innovative small firms and access their sets of expertise and novel ideas. They also learn to appreciate the strategic role of procurement. Nonetheless, SBRI-funded small business face commercialisation and innovation adoption challenges because of institutional constraints pertaining to rules, regulations and public-sector norms of conduct.

The study contributes to existing PCP research by demonstrating innovation process-related effects of PCP policies. It also complements literature on small business-friendly public procurement measures by highlighting the ways through which PCP, rather than commercial procurement procedures, can support the development of small businesses other than just facilitating their access to government (R&D) contracts.

The study identifies several challenge areas that policymakers should address to improve the implementation of the UK SBRI programme.

The study demonstrates the effects of PCP on the activities, capabilities and behaviours of small businesses and public buying organisations involved in the innovation process.

Public procurement is a complex process. This complexity increases considerably when the procured product or service is an innovation, which often addresses new needs, requires different skills, takes on higher risks and thus demands organizational change. In this paper we argue that because of those demands procuring innovation necessitates the use of advanced project management techniques and an intelligent multistep project design. We underpin this argument by presenting a case study of the procurement of an innovation within the UK National Health Service which had stalled for many years but then was successfully completed by using those project management techniques. We highlight the different processes needed for the procurement of innovation compared to standard, business-as-usual procurement, and we suggest the management of procurement as multi-step, multi arena projects as a strategy for innovation procurement.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the drivers, enablers, barriers, key success factors, pitfalls and benefits of implementing public procurement of innovations (PPoI) in an organization.

The study deployed multiple-case design, whereby six case organizations were selected according to purposeful sampling. Data collection was carried out through in-depth semi-structured one-on-one interviews with key informants. Data analysis involved coding, synthesis, categorization and aggregation.

The study revealed that implementation of PPoI represents significant change in an organization, and thus, it identifies key enablers and barriers that organizations must overcome. Furthermore, the study revealed that implementation of PPoI is a necessary but not sufficient condition for reaping its benefits. Moreover, the study identified key success factors for achieving the desirable results and potential pitfalls that organizations should avoid to ensure that the execution phase is not hurt.

Overall, the findings of the study imply that PPoI and the practices associated with it are valuable to the organizations implementing it and society at large. Thus, time and financial investments and the costs associated with the challenges and barriers of implementing it are justified by the resulting wider benefits and outcomes.

The study contributes by providing useful insights related to implementation of PPoI at an organizational level. Considering that extant literature provides limited insights on this subject, findings of this study should be of interest to researchers, public authorities, procurement practitioners, small- and medium-sized enterprises and other stakeholders. In particular, the study contributes to the body of knowledge on PPoI and offers actionable implications to both practitioners and policymakers.

It is unclear as to what extent sustainable procurement is being practised in Ireland and what barriers there are to implementing it in organisations. This study provides the first complete insight into the use of sustainable procurement in Irish commercial semi-state bodies. It explores the extent and type of use of sustainable procurement plus identifies and examines the challenges to its use. A deductive approach is utilised to determine the barriers. Eleven participants, nine from the commercial semistate bodies and two experts with knowledge of this subject, are interviewed using semi-structured questions. The research findings show that sustainable procurement is being practised in the majority of the commercial semi-state bodies. Definition of sustainable procurement, the absence of mandatory guidelines, cost, time and a dearth of sustainable procurement knowledge by suppliers are some of the main barriers put forward by participants.

The purpose of this paper is to study the reform of public purchasing directives initiated by the European Union (EU) and discuss them in light of the criticism against existing public purchasing directives.

A literature review of empirical articles is critical to existing public purchasing directives to summarize the main directions and categories of their criticism, and a thorough reading of the proposed reform of the public purchasing directives is carried out to see if the changes will answer some or all of the criticism directed toward the public purchasing directives.

The reforms seem to be a step in the right direction, particularly with respect to public organizations possibility to support innovation and new product and service development, but little change in the possibilities for development of strategic, long-term relationships.

The reform has just been introduced, and so the analysis of the possible effects of the reform is not based on empirical data (since such data do not exist yet), but mostly on the authors experience in the field and through a comparison with selected literature.

An early assessment of the possible effects of the reform regarding public procurement directives in the EU area is introduced.

In the EU and especially in Germany, public procurement is bound to a tight legislation that also sets and enforces strategic goals such as innovation or sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether different archetypes of public procurement organizations (centralized or decentralized; state-level or local-level) perceive and implement strategic goals differently. A survey with data from 104 entities is used for this purpose. The findings reveal that the implementation of strategy is different in centralized or state-level organizations compared with decentralized or local organizations. Centralized organizations give goals such as innovation, transparency, and sustainability a high priority, while local ones highlight regional development and SME support

The purpose of this study is to promote clean technology development and diffusion through public procurement. Finland is ranked high among the countries that develop clean technology innovations. Innovative public procurement could be one means to boost the diffusion of such technologies. However, this potential is still somewhat unexploited, as innovative public procurement is an unsystematic method of procuring in Finland and the EU, partly because of an inability to understand innovation potential in the market and to implement innovative procurement.

In this paper, the authors illustrate how cleantech aspects can be integrated into the public procurement process. The authors study the key success factors and conditions that have led to a successful cleantech procurement process by exploring realized cases of innovative public clean technology procurement.

The results suggest that innovative public procurement, in which clean technology is an integrated part, may occur in different forms, from a procurement of a highly improved product or solution to a product-service system or a collaborative symbiosis system. Life cycle consideration, strategic commitment and recognition of needs of the procuring unit were prioritized as the most important factors leading to successful integration of cleantech aspects into procurement process.