Timo Tammi

SMEs and public sector procurement: Does entrepreneurial orientation make a difference?

This article illustrates how the proactivity/innovativeness dimension of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) influences how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) search for information on public sector tender opportunities and their subsequent bidding activity. From an analysis of the contemporary literature and our findings, we demonstrate how successful SME participation in public procurement can be encouraged and increased.

On Experimental Discourse in Economics

The devices with which experimental economists account for and justify their own and their opponents’ views are investigated by examining transcripts of interviews with two participants in experimental economics. The earlier investigations of natural scientists’ discourse provide material for comparisons. The results suggest that in assessing an opponent’s deviating view experimentalists in economics can be more cautious than natural scientists to characterize their opponents as influenced by personal and social factors. Indeed, they seem to admit that to some extent both their own and their opponents’ behavior involves these influences. Regarding the development of disputes, the respondents constructed accounts where general optimism concerning the ability of empirical arguments to resolve disputes was linked with an idea of dialogues between theorists and experimentalists as vehicles of progress.

Does collaboration with public and private sector actors in public procurement of innovations improve SME competitiveness

The merits of public procurement of innovations (PPI) as a demand-side innovation policy instrument have been identified in both political and academic discussion. In particular, the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in PPI could be a valuable tool in promoting SME innovations. As such, PPI could play an important role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in which interdependent actors collaborate. However, the impact of collaboration among entrepreneurial ecosystem actors in the context of PPI on SMEs’ competitiveness lacks empirical assessment. This chapter addresses this gap in the literature with a survey of Finnish SMEs. We propose a construct for SMEs’ improved competitiveness which can be attributed to involvement in public procurement. A statistical analysis applying a path model suggests that after controlling for firm size and age, innovativeness and industry, collaborating with the public sector customer in developing new products/services, improving production processes and making improvements to existing products/services in response to the public sector customer’s demand is associated with improved competitiveness. As a managerial implication, the results suggest that PPI has merits in promoting the competitiveness of SMEs through innovations.

Market orientation and smesʼ activity in public sector procurement participation

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been found to be under-represented in the awarding of public sector procurement contracts. Currently, very little is known about the strategic and behavioral aspects associated with SMEsʼ participation in public sector procurement. To take a step in filling the gap, we used a conceptual construct known as market orientation (MO). The construct comprises a firmʼs orientation in gathering information on competitors and customers, and using the information to gain competitive advantage. This research found that MO has a positive effect on how active SMEs are in searching information on available requests for tenders and how actively they participate in bidding contests. This work strongly suggests that MO should be taken into account when designing procurement contracts, and MO should be fostered among SMEs.