Jillian Yeow

Public procurement for innovation

Public procurement can support innovative businesses in several ways: it can stimulate innovation by creating a demand for innovative products or services, help innovative firms bridge the precommercialisation gap for their innovative products and services by awarding contracts for precommercial innovations (i.e. first sales of technology), help them achieve the critical mass needed to bring prices down and be competitive, and contribute to making access to private third-party funding easier. Evidence of the impacts of public procurement on innovation is still scarce, and the conclusions are mixed . Many OECD countries have shown a growing interest in public procurement policies in recent years. Thus, public procurement can provide critical support to investments in innovation and complement other types of finance. . Public policy can foster innovative businesses by reducing developing expertise and integrating new competencies within public administration to design and monitor innovation-oriented procurement, and by stimulating innovation-oriented public procurement within public agencies. Public policy should also address the risks associated with innovation-oriented public procurement and balance the multiple goals of public procurement in order to sustain its support of innovative businesses.

Innovation procurement as projects

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.

Boundary management in an ICT-enabled project-based organising context

This paper explores the boundaries that emerge and exist within an information and communication technology (ICT)‐enabled project‐based organising context and the ways knowledge workers manage these boundaries through the use of technology. This is done through an exploratory qualitative case study of an early instance of the phenomenon in a knowledge‐intensive professional services organisation. Through the experiences of a group of knowledge workers who started to work in project‐based ways that were highly mediated by ICT, this study aims to understand the boundaries that they faced and the practices they undertook to manage these boundaries. In so doing, this study contributes to the existing literature on new forms of work and organisation, particularly on the issue of boundaries where ICT‐enabled project teams are used. In particular, this study extends our current understanding of boundaries through expanding the lens of investigation beyond a predominant focus on work–home boundaries and considers boundaries within the work sphere.

Closing the loop: examining the case of the procurement of a sustainable innovation

This book focuses on Public Procurement for Innovation. Public Procurement for Innovation is a specific demand-side innovation policy instrument. It occurs when a public organization places an order for a new or improved product to fulfill certain needs that cannot be met at the moment of the order. The book provides evidence of the potential benefits to public and private actors from the selective use of this policy instrument and illustrates the requirements and constraints for its operationalization. The book intends to significantly improve the understanding of key determinants of effective public procurement aiming to promote innovative capabilities in the supplying sectors and beyond. It provides both case studies and conceptual contributions that help extend the frontier of our understanding in areas where there are still significant gaps.

Final Evaluation of Security Research under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration.

This report is the Final Report of the ?Final Evaluation of Security Research under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (FP7)?, which was commissioned, in 2014, by Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry (DG ENTR).3A consortium led by Technopolis Group and including VVA, as well as the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, conducted the research for this study in the period from August 2014 to August 2015. This report presents the detailed results and analyses, conclusions and recommendations from the evaluation. These are based on findings from data collection and analyses, drawing on desk research, data from the CORDA database, surveys of participants and end-users, stakeholder interviews, a series of case studies, and a stakeholder workshop.

The Effect of a Government Target for the Procurement of Innovation: The Case of the UK’s Small Business Research Initiative

It is widely argued that government procurement plays an important role in supporting R&D and helping businesses innovate. However, its effect on government departments and the way they organize themselves to undertake public procurement of innovation (PPoI) has not been widely explored. Using a case study of the UK Small Business Research Initiative, we examine the different ways in which departments organize themselves to undertake PPoI, and in particular the effect of a target set on departments’ innovation procurement activities. We identify challenges departments encounter when faced with such requirements and the effects they might bring about. Our work highlights the need for clear understanding of the logic and benefits of the programme, dedicated resources and clear lines of responsibility. We suggest that targets, when used effectively, can increase SBRI activity and hence spur PPoI within government organizations.