Max Rolfstam

Public Procurement and Innovation: Towards a Taxonomy.

The role of public procurement as an instrument to stimulate innovation has been increasingly emphasized by European policymakers. This perspective raises demand for the understanding of public procurement as an activity taking place in a variety of different procurement contexts and as an act of innovation. Accordingly, this paper proposes a taxonomy of public procurement and innovation, combining interactive learning and evolutionary perspectives on innovation processes to account for the broad range of different ‘interaction environments’ or ‘resource interfaces’ in which government or public sector organizations may act as lead users of innovations. On this basis, the taxonomy draws practical policy implications for the design of programmes and initiatives for the public procurement of innovations.

Public procurement as an innovation policy tool: The role of institutions

Policy-makers in the EU have increasingly emphasised the role of public procurement as a policy instrument that can be used to stimulate innovation. This development reflects and responds to a growing concern among EU member states about how to maintain competitive advantage in an economic environment increasingly subject to global competition. To contribute to these emerging policies, this paper develops an innovation theory-based approach regarding public procurement of innovations, by elaborating an institutional focus. In contrast to current institutional approaches in innovation studies, the approach applied here brings in the often neglected endogenous perspective. The empirical studies cited in this paper suggest that the needs of endogenous, or informal, institutions also need to be taken into account in order to understand better the institutional set-up enabling public procurement of innovations. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Public Procurement and Innovation

Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Public Procurement of Innovation Theory 3. Legal Institutions for Public Procurement of Innovation 4. Public Procurement of Innovation Diffusion 5. Public Procurement of Innovation as Collaboration 6. Public Procurement of Innovation as Endogenous - Exogenous Knowledge Conversion 7. Success Factors Public Procurement of Innovation 8. Concluding Remarks References Index

Public procurement of innovations, diffusion and endogenous institutions

Purpose – Public procurement has been increasingly seen as an important innovation policy tool. One neglected aspect of the public procurement of innovation is, however, diffusion. The purpose of this paper is to counter this neglect by exploring how institutional coordination may affect the diffusion of innovations procured by a public agency.Design/methodology/approach – A case study including semi‐structured interviews and the consulting of different documents were used to study how institutions and institutional coordination affect the adoption and diffusion of innovation.Findings – Several endogenous institutions were identified that act as barriers to the diffusion of innovation throughout an organisation. Attempts to re‐design and negate these barriers were also identified.Research limitations/implications – Institutional analysis of innovation has a tendency to be limited to formal and exogenous institutions. The paper underscores the importance of taking into account the endogenous institutional ...The role of the public agency as a pacer of private sector innovation has been emphasised over recent years, especially in the context of the EU. The general ambition has been to encourage public agencies to actively stimulate private sector innovation rather than procure existing products. This has triggered an increased interest among researchers and practitioners to identify best practice examples where public agencies have successfully procured innovation. Rather than addressing this demand-oriented perspective, this paper investigates the role of public agencies as adopters of private-sector innovation. Employing an innovation systems perspective, the paper focuses on institutions as enablers and as barriers of innovation diffusion. The paper presents an explorative case study: the introduction of a new catheter into the English National Health Service and its diffusion among NHS trusts in England. Different institutional factors are identified which have had an affect on the catheter’s adoption and diffusion.

An Institutional Approach to Research on Public Procurement of Innovation.

The role of public procurement as a means to stimulate innovation has been increasingly emphasized during the last few years. The general argument is that, by applying intelligent demand, public agencies can stimulate private sector innovation that will eventually sustain competitive advantage in a global economy. The emphasis on public procurement used as an innovation policy instrument challenges current institutional practices and skills. The article is based on the assumption that the innovation research community could inform this policy discourse, in particular by drawing on institutional theory, but in order to fully utilize this potential, further revision of the research perspectives seen is needed. The article therefore discusses an institutional approach based on three modes: “multilevel institutional analysis”, “endogenous and exogenous institutions” and “institutions as rationalities”, arguing that such an approach would help to increase innovation research quality and policy relevance.

Public procurement of innovation for a better world: a consolidation or a new beginning?

Both public procurement and innovation are well-established research themes in contemporary social science. The cross-fertilisation of these two themes – the special concern for how public procurement can be used to stimulate innovation – has until recently lived a more tranquil existence. In a way this is strange, since the idea to associate public contracts with secondary policies and supplier incentives for some kind of innovation or social improvement is as old as the public-sector notion itself (McCrudden 2004). Public procurement in the form of technology procurement projects was also used as a means to implement technology/sector policies in the mid decades of the twentieth century (e.g. Morris 1990; Edquist, Hommen, and Tsipouri 2000), and many authors have emphasised the strategic role different forms of public procurement can play as drivers for innovation (e.g. Rothwell 1984; Geroski 1990; Dalpé, DeBresson, and Xiaoping 1992; Gregersen 1992; Fridlund 1999; Palmberg 2002; Berggren and Laestadius 2003; Aschhoff and Sofka 2009; Eliasson 2010; Guerzoni and Raiteri 2015). Increasingly, public procurement is conceived of as a means to support smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Loader 2013). The notion that public procurement can be used as an instrument for qualitative change is also well established, for example, to develop green, sustainable or energy efficient technologies (e.g. International Energy Agency 2000; Erdmenger 2003, Walker et al. 2012); to replace inferior technologies through market transformation (Neij 2001); to decrease climate impacts (Nissinen, Mattinen, and Alhola 2012) or to facilitate adoption of innovative health care technologies (Phillips et al. 2007). Commitment to research on public procurement and innovation concerns in that sense a process of re-discovery both of a practice and a research field, as well as managing the balance act of drawing on “old” knowledge while in the same time adopt to the current situation. The neo-liberal ideals that came to prevail the last decades of the twentieth century seem to have not only stalled a more profound continuation of the theme. The loss of both market power and competence that came in the wake of the liberalisation also reduced both the ability and rationales for public agencies’ involvement in innovation-generating procurement projects (Callender and Mathews 2002; Gavras et al. 2006), causing the need to re-think then-established roles among actors and forms of collaboration (IVA 2003). What can be seen as a rebirth came by the Millennium shift, in the wake of the Lisbon agenda developed for the European Union where public procurement was identified as one instrument for dealing with the challenges imposed by global competition and the shift towards a knowledge-driven economy. Central to this policy development was the idea that public procurers could stimulate innovation and learning from “the demand-side” ultimately to increase competitive advantage and growth (Edler and Georghiou 2007). The rebirth came with a qualitative change in the sense that public procurement became an instrument associated with a more generic notion of knowledge policy, where knowledge and learning become central elements in policy development (Lundvall and Borrás 2005; Rolfstam 2014).

Risk management in public procurement of innovation: a conceptualization

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.

Public Procurement as a Means to Stimulate Innovation for a Better World: A Matter of Knowledge Management

Public procurement is the central sourcing mechanism evoked to directly secure the delivery of public services. It may however also be used to achieve certain social outcomes and secondary effects. This paper attempts to contribute with knowledge regarding a particular secondary effect, the role of public procurement as a means to stimulate innovation. The paper discusses public procurement of innovation as a knowledge policy in the learning economy, and scrutinizes it from a knowledge management perspective, eventually to connect aspects of learning to institutional levels.

Development and Use of Gender-specific Technologies: Evidence from China, Poland, and Sweden:

Abstract This article investigates the gender aspects of technology use in the innovation system. The generic question is: to what extent is it necessary to distinguish between women and men in the use of technology? A second question is: if gender-specific differences do exist, to what extent is the innovation system capable of utilizing experiences from women as well? The article examines two sets of technologies-agricultural equipment for rural application and teleservices-in two transition economies, Poland and China, with Sweden as a point of reference. The empirical data presented here on women as innovators and users of technology indicate that, indeed, there exist differences in preferences between genders, and that the innovation systems have been slow or incapable of exploiting these differences with a consequent welfare loss to society. The underperformance of the innovation system could provide firms with a competitive advantage if they are willing to tap into its potential.

A Conjecture on Institutional Rationalities and Property Rights in Public Procurement of Innovation

The increased interest in using public procurement as a policy tool for innovation has renewed a need for understanding the procurement process. A conjecture on institutional rationalities and property rights is offered to explain the hurdles present for conducting successful procurement projects. If an efficient negotiation solution is to be achieved, participants in procurement projects need to be aware of the other participants’ institutional rationalities and actively consider these while concluding the terms of procurement projects. Consequently, future policy efforts towards increased innovation have to be targeting the process of public procurement of innovation, rather than focusing on regulatory issues.