Search results

This paper examines the role of government procurement as a social policy mechanism within a multilateral open trading system. Government regulations globally are being transformed to foster more responsible business conduct in multinational enterprises (MNEs). Yet, concern that sustainability may present a discriminatory barrier to trade has stalled the progress of sustainable public procurement (SPP) at the international level, raising questions regarding the role and scope of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) to align taxpayer-funded contracts with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals.

With a focus on social sustainability, this paper reviews the grey and academic literature to assess the changing landscape of public procurement policy and supply chain legislation in high-income countries.

Frontrunner nations are adopting a mandatory approach to sustainable public procurement and due diligence legislation is elevating supply chain risk from reputational damage to legal liability. While technological innovation and the clean, green production of manufactured goods dominates the sustainable public procurement literature, the social aspects of sustainability poverty, inequality and human rights remain underrepresented.

The scope of this paper is limited to the examination of government procurement covered by the WTO-GPA (2012). Smaller value contracts, under the WTO-GPA thresholds and the category of defence are beyond the scope of the paper.

The paper focusses on the underserved topic of social sustainability in business-to-government (B2G) – business to government – supply chains arguing that for responsible business conduct to become a competitive advantage, it must be more meaningfully rewarded on the demand-side of all taxpayer-funded contracts in organisation for economic co-operation and development countries. The paper introduces the idea of priceless procurement as a mechanism to build system capacity in the evaluation of non-financial sustainability objectives.

To build the capacity to stimulate competition based on social and environmental policy objectives, the paper introduces the concept of priceless procurement in B2G contracts.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of connections between sustainability policy goals included in public procurement tenders and offers and their achievement through contract award.

Two hypotheses based on extant literature and the inducement–contribution theory were tested by means of a survey of 281 procurement files from 2007 to 2009 relating to eight product categories and four European Union (EU) member states. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings indicate that public procurement was more effective in influencing socially responsible goals than environmental goals. In terms of supplier readiness, vendors achieved greater progress in delivering green than socially responsible operations.

The collection and analysis of data are based on procurement files, which is a new but also a complex procedure. In comparison to survey data, the data from procurement file analysis are less biased.

Public procurement practitioners and sustainability policymakers should consider the use of public procurement as a lever to attain environmental and socially responsible goals.

Evidence has been provided to demonstrate the strategic use of public procurement impacts on environmental and socially responsible goals, thereby benefiting society.

This study contributes in three main ways: first, by adding to existing, limited research on the use of public procurement as a lever of policy goals attainment; second, by examining environmental and socially responsible policy in one study; and third, through providing evidence across EU member states.

Firms are increasingly resorting to responsible supply chain management as they align their economic success with socially responsible initiatives in their value chain. This contribution aims to suggest that there are opportunities for global corporations who are keen on integrating responsible practices into their business operations. It is in their interest to report about their responsible supply chain management, social performance and sustainable innovations to their stakeholders.

This paper identifies future research avenues in the promising areas of responsible procurement and global supply chain management.

The corporations’ differentiated strategies as well as their proactive engagement in responsible supply chain management can lead them to achieve a competitive advantage in the long term. The low-cost producers may be neglecting the marketplace stakeholders, including suppliers, distributors among others. Moreover, the smaller businesses’ could not be in a position to follow responsible procurement practices, as they may lack the scarce resources to do so.

This paper raises awareness about the integration of socially responsible behaviours and sustainable practices in business operations. It contends that a responsible supply chain management necessitates an improved relationship with suppliers and distributors in the value chain. This stakeholder engagement with ultimately create value to the businesses themselves.

The study aims to analyze the intellectual structure in sustainable procurement (SP) research to identify the knowledge research clusters and provide potential avenues for future research.

The study conducted a bibliometric analysis to analyze the intellectual structure in the area of SP. Overall, 1,294 articles were selected from the Scopus database published between 2000 and 2022. The analysis was conducted using bibliometric R package, Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software. Further, content analysis of research clusters was carried out to set the future research agenda.

The study identifies four major knowledge research clusters of SP, namely, (1) green supply chain practices, (2) socially responsible purchasing, (3) environmental purchasing and (4) public procurement and policy. The study suggests a few research directions in the SP field. Moreover, the future research directions are aligned with specific organizational theories applicable in the area of SP research.

The study is dependent on the Scopus database for the source of research publications on SP. Future studies may consider other research database sources.

Identifying knowledge research clusters of SP research is of paramount importance for developing policies in the near future. These policy initiatives pave the way for the adoption of SP practices in the business. The findings indicate the issues managers encounter while implementing SP in organizations.

The study offers valuable insights concerning parameters such as significant publication outlets, influential countries concerning the number of publications, impactful authors, title keywords and identifying major knowledge research clusters of SP to suggest future research directions. Further, the present study highlights emerging areas that require further research, including process governance, supplier diversity, innovation, the role of emerging technologies and the application of organizational theories in SP.

Social return on investment (SROI) is a systematic way of incorporating social values of different stakeholders into public sector decision-making on sustainability. This study aims to identify salient factors that influence SROI implementation.

The interactions of four Dutch municipalities and their social enterprises were examined, by analyzing relevant documents and interviewing key actors.

External forces appear to have little influence on SROI implementation. Management systems, legal restrictions in relation to privacy and the administrative burden appear to hinder SROI implementation. Findings suggest that trust among the parties involved and their representatives is a major driver for SROI development. SROI is not measured well enough, which complicates analyzing and reporting its development.

Achieving collaboration through trust is a characteristic of stewardship theory, and therefore useful for studying social sustainability. Combining agency and stewardship theory provides useful insights concerning the application of control mechanisms versus empowerment.

Barriers can be overcome by informing and engaging suppliers in SROI initiatives. Furthermore, findings of this study suggest that it is easier for municipalities to incorporate SROI when social firm activities are insourced. An independent procurement function stimulates SROI development. Engaged professionals can make the difference in SROI policy implementation, more so than written policies.

SROI enables social sustainability. SROI can be used by public agencies to provide meaningful activities for the long-term unemployed and underprivileged adolescents.

The study is the first empirical work that relates public procurement to SROI implementation and its effect on suppliers. The findings provide valuable insights into government influence on social enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the different concepts of centralized and decentralized procurement methods; identify the advantages and disadvantages of each method and the two methods of public procurement applied in the Arab Republic of Egypt in an attempt to overcome the disadvantages of the Egyptian system; and introduce a new framework for government procurement in Egypt.

The descriptive approach was used in the framework of the presentation and analysis of the concepts of centralized public procurement and decentralized public procurement. The comparative approach was used for presenting some of the experiences of countries in using public procurement methods. The legal approach was also used in the analysis of the legal frameworks governing the public procurement methods in the Arab Republic of Egypt. In addition, the case study methodology was used to study the role of the General Authority for Governmental Services in Egypt in the centralized public procurement processes.

This paper attempts to find the ideal method of public procurement in general and what is the method to be followed in the Egyptian case through the data presented and analysis of the Egyptian public procurement system.

This paper attempts to present a model or a theory on how to determine the public procurement methods that should be used in a given country and give sufficient flexibility for the conformity between the two methods upon application depending on the ecological factors of each country.

This paper contributes to the development of the public procurement method in the Arab Republic of Egypt by showing the gap between the use of the centralized approach and the decentralized approach at all levels and providing solutions to bridge this gap.

This paper provides implications to reduce corruption, increase transparency and give the opportunity to the largest number of private shareholders to participate in public procurement.

Although there is some literature on centralized and decentralized public procurement, there is a lack or scarcity of research and academic articles on this subject (Patrucco et al., 2017). This paper attempted to do so by filling this gap in this area of research.

This paper aims to examine the link between the corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication efforts of companies and their ability to obtain public procurement contracts.

The authors are exploiting a database with the number of public procurement contracts won by SBF 120 companies in France and a constructed CSR index over the period of 2007–2015. The authors provide estimates of the amount of public contracts won by those companies.

The results suggest a striking influence of CSR communication on the ability of firms to win contracts.

This study focused on the case of the SBF 120 companies under the French regulatory system and European directives, which are different from the obligations in North American countries. Second, our constructed CSR index may be too simplistic in nature, and its application is limited only to the French context. Third, we do not have any evidence about the efficiency of well-ranked firms in our study. CSR reporting is still considered to be a form of communication, even if formal, that can contain information that does not especially reflect reality, as the scandals of several companies have shown in recent years (e.g. Volkswagen, Eiffage, Enron).

Companies should consider Business-to-Government (B-to-G) market when investing in CSR actions.

This is one of the first empirical studies measuring the impact of CSR on the ability of companies to win public contracts.

Realizing value from information and communication technology (ICT) in procurement in developing countries is complex due to diverse stakeholders and intertwined procurement processes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the experience of the Government of Jamaica in leveraging ICTs as an intervention to transform its procurement operations and combat corruption.

The study examines conversations with employees in the Government of Jamaica to understand key milestones in its procurement history. Based on the view that the intervention context is an ecosystem where multiple and inconsistent views of the e-procurement system evolve over time, the study analyzes milestones to reveal key actions that contributed either to the initial success of or introduced challenges to the e-procurement system.

The findings suggest that inducing positive sentiments about the intervention through transparency will overcome a long history of negative sentiments about the initiatives of government bodies in general. Furthermore, positive sentiments may not be directly related to the e-procurement system.

The study offers important insights that government bodies in similar contexts can apply to guide initiatives for transforming procurement operations. For instance, training should emphasize not only the technical aspects of the system from the perspective of different stakeholders but also their job descriptions. Future research may examine other initiatives in developing countries to compare the role of sentiments over time.

The study adopts a unique approach to understand the experience of a developing country in harnessing ICTs to transform procurement operations.

To improve acquisition outcomes, in 1997 the District established the Office of Contracting and Procurement under the direction of a newly created chief procurement officer (CPO). Since then, the District's inspector general and auditor have identified improper contracting practices. This report examines whether the District's procurement system is based on procurement law and management and oversight practices that incorporate generally accepted key principles to protect against fraud, waste, and abuse. GAO's work is based on a review of generally accepted key principles identified by federal, state, and local procurement laws, regulations, and guidance. GAO also reviewed District audit reports and discussed issues with current and former District officials as well as select state and local officials.

Procurement of public infrastructure that is fit for purpose partly depends on the competencies of procurement personnel. In many developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, there is a deficit in the quantity and quality of infrastructure and their procurement is further riddled with deficiencies in the capacity of public procuring entities. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the critical skills development needs of public personnel involved in the procurement of infrastructure in Nigeria.

Based on a quantitative research strategy, this study sought to address the knowledge gap through a survey of public infrastructure procurement personnel (n = 288) in different tiers of government (i.e. state and local government) and geopolitical contexts (north and south) in Nigeria.

Of the 45 procurement skill areas operationalised, there is need for further development in 38 of them including: computing/ICT; problem-solving; communication; decision-making; health and safety management; quality management; relationship management; team building; project monitoring and evaluation; time management and procurement planning.

A key implication of this study is for policymakers in state and local government to formulate and implement infrastructure procurement capacity development reforms that address the competency gaps of procurement personnel. Such reforms need to take into account the suitable methods for developing procurement competencies. Additionally, the procurement skill areas operationalised in this capacity assessment study could serve as a useful blueprint for studying capacity deficiencies amongst public infrastructure procurement personnel in other developing countries.