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Collaborative public procurement: Institutional explanations of legitimised resistance
Abstract
This paper reports on the barriers to regional collaborative procurement developed from an action research study of five UK public authorities in the emergency services sector. Despite political pressure to procure collaboratively, strategic avoidance responses of institutional logics and symbolic tick boxing legitimise stakeholder resistance to isomorphic forces and entrench operational barriers. The prevailing institutional logics are that regional collaborative procurement is unsuitable and risky, derived from procurement's lack of status and the emotive nature of the emergency services. Symbolic tick boxing is seen through collaboration that is limited to high profile spend categories, enabling organisations to demonstrate compliance while simultaneously retaining local decision-making for less visible, but larger areas of spend. The findings expose choice mechanisms in public procurement by exploring tensions arising from collaborative procurement strategies within, and between, organisations. Multiple stakeholders' perspectives add to current thinking on how organisations create institutional logics to avoid institutional pressure to procure collaboratively and how stakeholders legitimise their actions.
... Of interest in this study is cooperative public procurement (CPP), a form of interagency collaboration (public-public) that has received little attention in the literature thus far (Abutabenjeh et al., 2022, Bel & Elston, 2024Meehan et al., 2016). CPP is a "formal structure (setup) that aligns procurement needs to two or more organizations in a way that maximizes efficiencies through large volume procurement" (Roman & Matthews 2018, p. 103). ...
... Using CPP to aggregate demand and purchasing power enables governments to secure larger quantity discounts, which would be unattainable through individual contracts (Abutabenjeh et al., 2022;Karjalainen, 2011). It could also enhance capacity by providing access to best practices, facilitating knowledge sharing, and improving competencies (Abutabenjeh et al., 2022;Meehan et al., 2016). Moreover, recent research underscores the effectiveness of cooperation, whether involving public or private production, in bolstering environmental protection, as opposed to the standalone operations of both public and private entities (Bel & Elston, 2024). ...
... There is increasing interest in collaborative governance in public administration scholarship (Kalesnikaite, 2019;Lee & Hung, 2022). However, there is little research that sheds light on the collaborative process as it relates to public procurement (Abutabenjeh et al., 2022;Meehan et al. 2016). Furthermore, little research has been conducted to analyze the outcomes of collaborative arrangements (Bel & Elston, 2024;Kalesnikaite, 2019;Lee & Hung, 2022), with even less focus on studying their impact on practices in local governments. ...
... CPP overcomes subnational governments' challenges by reducing transaction costs, sharing knowledge, enhancing management capacity, improving the quality of procurement processes, and reducing duplication of efforts (Feiock, 2013;Meehan et al., 2016;Ofem et al., 2020;Schotanus et al., 2011). While collaborative arrangements (e.g., Agranoff & McGuire, 2003;Walker et al., 2013, Meehan et al., 2016, Hefetz & Warner, 2012 and governmentsupplier relationships (Bertelli & Smith, 2010;Van Slyke, 2009) have been widely studied, we know little about governmentgovernment collaborations in the form of CPP engagement and its determinants. ...
... CPP overcomes subnational governments' challenges by reducing transaction costs, sharing knowledge, enhancing management capacity, improving the quality of procurement processes, and reducing duplication of efforts (Feiock, 2013;Meehan et al., 2016;Ofem et al., 2020;Schotanus et al., 2011). While collaborative arrangements (e.g., Agranoff & McGuire, 2003;Walker et al., 2013, Meehan et al., 2016, Hefetz & Warner, 2012 and governmentsupplier relationships (Bertelli & Smith, 2010;Van Slyke, 2009) have been widely studied, we know little about governmentgovernment collaborations in the form of CPP engagement and its determinants. Drawing on contractual agreements, this study adds to the public management literature by being among the first to apply transaction costs and institutional theories to a new area, CPP practices. ...
... Collaborative governance provides access to material resources, enhanced information, coordination capacity (Ofem et al., 2020), economies of scale and process as well as knowledge sharing (Meehan et al., 2016). Although collaboration may often be beneficial, we do not posit that it is the panacea to all problems. ...
Governments at all levels face pressures to provide the best quality services by optimizing expenditures. Collaborative gov-ernance, which has been advanced as a tool to improve public service delivery, is widely discussed in mainstream public administration literature. However, few scholars have addressed it from the perspective of Cooperative Public Procurement (CPP). In this paper, we examine the potential determinants of CPP as we consider it a form of collaborative governance. Through the lens of transaction costs theory and prior management literature, we hypothesize that information, negotiation, enforcement costs, joint gains, and fiscal and political pressures are the determinants of collaborative govern-ance. Using ordered logistic models, we found that governments' engagement in cooperative public procurement mostly depends on the benefits of CPP instead of the costs. That is, governments place more weight on the benefits than the costs of collaborative arrangements when making cooperative public procurement decisions.
... Public procurement configuration is the basis to obtain desired operational performance (Grandia & Meehan, 2017;Patrucco, Walker, et al., 2019), to create public value (Furneaux & Barraket, 2014;Meehan et al., 2016;Porter et al., 2011) and to increase government resiliency (Quarshie & Leuschner, 2020). The discussion about how to configure government functions is ongoing in the public management field (e.g., Taylor, 2014), and the topic of procurement has been given increasing attention (e.g., Glas & Eßig, 2018;Harland et al., 2019). ...
... In the last decade, governments worldwide have been facing economic crises and several emergency situations that have radically transformed strategic public management, leading to conflicting needs, such as spending reduction, better cooperation among central and local bodies, and stronger innovation orientation (Eriksson et al., 2020). Research has proven that public procurement can be a powerful government mechanism to achieve political goals, impact the economy and society, and better respond during emergency situations (Edquist & Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, 2012;Harland et al., 2019;Meehan et al., 2016;Papanagnou & Shchaveleva, 2018). ...
... In institutions where procurement is seen mostly as an operational and bureaucratic function, the primary objective is compliance with regulations. In such institutions, the primary task is to regard procedures and contracting rules when awarding procurement contracts (McKevitt & Davis, 2015;Meehan et al., 2016). In cases where procurement is instead perceived as a more strategic function, there is a focus on the final outcomes (i.e., to manage the tradeoff between cost and quality). ...
There is broad recognition of the potential contribution of procurement within public administrations at all levels, as effi-cient and effective management of required inputs has a cru-cial impact on the achievement of high-level objectives. This is particularly true for local governments, where procurement consumes a substantial part of the budget cost, thus repre-senting a key mechanism to provide value for citizens. Through the analysis of quantitative data collected from municipalities in two different countries (Italy and the USA), the current paper analyzes how specific structural decisions for public procurement (i.e., level of centralization, level of digitalization, level of standardization) are linked to perform-ance. Multiple regression analyses show a positive linkage between the levels of centralization and digitalization and pro-curement performance, while no evidence is found for what concerns the standardization of the processes. Digitalization is ultimately a potential factor that mitigates the negative effects of decentralization on cost savings. Cluster analysis identifies two types of procurement systems—one more oriented toward cost efficiency and the other more focused on quality. Some antecedents (country, size, and magnitude of spending) affect the procurement design but not the performance.
... A purchasing group is a network (Schotanus & Telgen, 2007) that involves not only suppliers, but other purchasers as well: as is the case for most services, there is an interaction between the provider (in this case, the purchasing group) and the customers (the member organizations for which the group purchases). Three main objectives are associated to group purchasing: to obtain better prices through consolidated quantities from member organizations; to reduce administrative costs by avoiding duplication in supplier search and in negotiations; to use the group's expertise (Meehan, Ludbrook, & Mason, 2016;Schotanus, Walker, Bakker, & Essig, 2011). ...
... Health care was the first modern sector in which purchasing groups were used (Nollet & Beaulieu, 2003), and, in this sector, there are more articles dealing with this type of collaborative purchasing than in other sectors. In fact, health care has been used to study purchasing groups in the United States (GAO, 2010), in the United Kingdom (Meehan et al., 2016), and in Canada (Johnson, 1999;Nollet & Beaulieu, 2003, 2005. ...
... Purchasing groups date back centuries (Schotanus & Telgen, 2007). However, only since the early 2000s has there been more interest for distinctive practices and strategies such as collaborative purchasing; in fact, efforts have been made to identify research streams about this supply strategy (Meehan et al., 2016;Schotanus et al., 2011;Walker et al., 2013). As noted by Schotanus & Telgen (2007, p. 53): "the concept of cooperative purchasing seems to be especially interesting for public organisations, for instance, for organisations like public hospitals, schools, ministries, or municipalities." ...
For many decades, governments in Western countries have attempted to control health costs. One of the strategies used is through purchasing groups, since consolidated needs generate additional savings. Although various aspects of purchasing groups have been studied, performance measurement has been neglected; due to the lack of proper measures, tensions between the purchasing group and its members can't be addressed with more objective information. However, appropriate performance indicators are considered a prerequisite to successful collaboration. Using the in‐depth case of a Canadian purchasing group in the health care sector, this article suggests a set of performance indicators to measure results considering dimensions of the purchasing process and the interactions between the purchasing group and its members (who are also its customers). © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Résumé
fr Depuis plusieurs décennies, les pays occidentaux tentent de contrôler les coûts de leur réseau de santé. Les groupes d'achats sont l'une des stratégies utilisées pour consolider les besoins et ainsi générer des économies additionnelles. Bien que l'on retrouve des recherches traitant de différents aspects des groupes d'achats, il en existe peu sur la mesure de la performance de ces groupes, une situation qui peut alimenter les tensions naturelles entre le groupe et ses membres, alors que chaque partie manque de données objectives pour résoudre ces différents. Des mesures de performance appropriées seraient un prérequis à une telle collaboration. À partir d'une étude de cas d'un groupe d'achats canadien du secteur de la santé, cet article suggère des indicateurs de performance qui s'attardent principalement au processus d'approvisionnement et aux interactions entre les deux parties. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Five factors define the nature of institutional pressure (Oliver, 1990): cause of the pressure; the institution that exerts the pressure; content of the pressure; form of control of the pressure; and context of the pressure. Cause is related to the rational expectations or desires that support the pressure, which may be social or economic in nature (Meehan et al., 2016). Constituent refers to the institutional agents that exert pressures, and may be represented by the state, professional associations, interest groups or society in general (Scott and Meyer, 1994). ...
... Content refers to the necessary requirements for the organization to be legitimized in the organizational field in the definition of its response to pressures. Therefore, harmony between organizational and institutional issues is important so that the resistance of the organization is mitigated (Meehan et al., 2016). ...
... The interviews suggest that SFS-based relationships would probably not exist had not the government intervened. According to Meehan et al. (2016), rational expectations of a social or economic nature promote the compliance of companies with institutional pressures. ...
The objective of this study is to identify, through motivating, inhibiting and facilitating factors, responses to institutional pressures on the relationship between biodiesel plants and family farming cooperatives via the Social Fuel Seal (SFS) in the South region of Brazil. This region is characterized by well-endowed family farming cooperatives. This paper adopts as theoretical lens the institutional theory. It is based on case studies involving qualitative research drawing results from four biodiesel plants with SFS certification and eight family farming cooperatives. The results indicate that the institutional biodiesel framework influenced the SFS-based relationships. This coercion mechanism led the plants to comply with the promotion of family farming via cooperatives. The plants seek legal legitimacy and opt to accept institutional pressures, primarily due to the guaranteed sale of all biodiesel produced via government sponsored auctions. Cooperatives are attracted by the receipt of the social bonus, seen as a prime motivating factor, which can be interpreted as an informal coercive pressure. Considering the context in which the plants and cooperatives are inserted, the SFS promoted changes in the sale of raw materials. It was also found that cooperatives facilitating factors are inversely related with plants inhibiting factors.
... No caso do Reino Unido, Meehan et al. (2016) afirmam que as compras colaborativas são diretriz chave do Programa de Eficiência Operacional do Governo Britânico desde de 2008. No entanto, os autores verificam que as dificuldades para a implantação dessas práticas na saúde pública britânica são a falta de padronização dos materiais (tanto na especificação quanto na codificação), fragilidade na definição da estratégia de compras, resistência por parte dos fornecedores e confiança nas informações dos fornecedores. ...
... Além dessas dificuldades, Meehan et al. (2016) percebem a existência de resistências dos profissionais do setor para a plena adoção desse modelo de aquisição, mesmo que haja evidências quanto a redução dos gastos com compras. Os autores apontam que a adoção de fornecedores em escopo nacional, com consequente remoção dos fornecedores locais, faz com que as unidades da saúde acreditem que a relação com o fornecedor será piorada, refletindo em redução na qualidade dos serviços de distribuição e menor suporte técnico no uso dos materiais. ...
... Segundo os Meehan et al. (2016), os profissionais de saúde ainda apontam sua "obrigação moral" e seu papel de "guardião" da qualidade técnica dos materiais como argumentos para terem menos preocupação com as condições comerciais de negociação dos itens de compras. Nesse sentido, Burns e Lee (2008) afirmam que os gestores das unidades hospitalares precisam balancear os desejos e necessidades colocados pelos profissionais de saúde e, ao mesmo tempo, têm que atender aos interesses econômicos e à eficiência nas aquisições. ...
A gestão em saúde é uma área que busca aprimorar o desempenho das organizações envolvidas na prestação de serviços de saúde, seja do ponto de vista da eficiência na utilização de recursos, como na efetividade na resolução de problemas e atendimento aos seus objetivos. Nesse contexto, ações focadas na estruturação da relação entre os Sistemas de Saúde e os fornecedores de insumos e prestadores de serviços são justificadas dado o seu potencial de melhoria na eficiência de serviços de saúde, especialmente os hospitalares. Nesse sentido, uma das práticas é a constituição de organizações de compras coletivas – group purchasing organizations (GPO), com o objetivo de redução dos preços, maior qualidade dos materiais, menores custos de transação, redução dos riscos de suprimento e a troca de conhecimentos entre os membros do grupo. O presente artigo se propõe a proceder uma revisão da literatura sobre os GPO no setor da saúde, como forma de auxiliar e orientar futuras pesquisas sobre o tema. Os resultados encontram-se agrupados em quatro 4 temas: i) conceitos gerais; ii) tipologias; iii) modelo de negócio e iv) novos papéis dos GPO.
... In the PP context as well, the importance of supplier relationships has been recognized (Schiele, 2020), however, supplier relationship management studies are scarce (Patrucco et al., 2017). Furthermore, in practice, supplier management is only exceptionally the PP function's responsibility (Meehan et al., 2016). The existing supplier relationship-related research in the PP context deals with topics, such as supplier development Davis, 2014, 2015), the transition toward partnership thinking (Keränen, 2017), the implementation of public-private partnerships (Jones and Noble, 2008) and publicprivate collaboration for innovation (Edquist and Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, 2012;Edler and Yeow, 2016;Torvinen and Ulkuniemi, 2016). ...
... Organization-wide agreements are negotiated with a selection of preferred suppliers, and instead of running the procurement processes in parallel, each organizational unit decides upon their own specifications, suppliers and contractual agreements (Karjalainen, 2011). In the PP context, the framework agreements are subject to the European Union procurement rules and they define the terms and conditions under which specific purchases can be made during the contract period (Meehan et al., 2016). ...
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a framework for switching a service supplier in a supply network.
Design/methodology/approach
The study builds on existing literature in the field of purchasing and supply management, public procurement (PP) and the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing approach, as well as on an illustrative example case, from the PP context, of a supplier switch in a service delivery process.
Findings
During a switching process, the buyer must simultaneously manage the ending of a relationship with the incumbent supplier and the beginning of a relationship with a new supplier. Collaboration with the focal suppliers to develop a service process with standardized components prevents disruptions in the service processes and reduces the impact of the switch on the wider network.
Research limitations/implications
The conceptualization suggested in this paper needs to be further explored in different empirical contexts to assess its practical adequacy.
Practical implications
Practitioners responsible for service procurement can use the findings to develop collaboration with suppliers, both when it comes to service process development and to the switching process. Furthermore, the authors highlight the importance of ending competencies and the development of an exit plan to conduct a “beautiful exit.”
Originality/value
The paper integrates relationship initiation and ending studies, as well as procurement process models to develop a refined switching process framework. Many PPs rely on short-term relationships due to the legal obligation to frequently invite suppliers to tender, thus understanding the supplier switching process is important both for private and public sector actors.
... Osborne and Hammoud (2017) noted that driving training programs allow drivers to directly upgrade their knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes and professionalism which they require to meet the needs of customers, and respond better to customers" requirements. Ludbrook,Meehan and Mason (2016) state that good planning prevents the organization from losing money, as it would ensure that only the right vehicles are procured in the right amount and at the right time. On the other hand, Meehan, Ludbrook and Mason (2016) noted that a vehicle replacement policy that endeavours to anticipate future needs of the customer also endears customers and leads to customer satisfaction. ...
... Ludbrook,Meehan and Mason (2016) state that good planning prevents the organization from losing money, as it would ensure that only the right vehicles are procured in the right amount and at the right time. On the other hand, Meehan, Ludbrook and Mason (2016) noted that a vehicle replacement policy that endeavours to anticipate future needs of the customer also endears customers and leads to customer satisfaction. By the same token, Sahling and Kayser (2016) observed that vehicle procurement planning enables the company to anticipate the future and hence procure vehicles that would lead to customer satisfaction. ...
The purpose of this paper reviews the influence of Vehicle Fleet Management Practices, (VFMP). A systematic review of papers was performed analysing 56 articles from year 2014 to 2021. Vehicle Fleet Management Practices research has garnered interest from both academics and industrialists in both the public and private sector. This is demonstrated by the increasing number of academic papers published in recent years. The article discusses interesting findings, suggests and lays down a number of directions for future research. In addition, limitations of this work are presented. The conclusion of this study provides sufficient evidence on the need for further research addressing the interaction between vehicle fleet management practices and service delivery in public entities.
... However, with regard to organisational barriers, they noted unwillingness to accept higher invoiced costs as the key barrier to adoption [128]. Also of relevance was the action research work of Meehan, Ludbrook and Mason, on institutional explanations of legitimised resistance, and how "strategic avoidance responses" such as "symbolic tick-boxing" could "entrench operational barriers" [92]. ...
... Little or no theory development was evident in the literature. With the possible exception of 'logistics sprawl', the field was largely empirical observation with a potential tendency to 'naïve empiricism' [92]. The field of logistics research as a whole was weak in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in two areas: theory and explicit discussion, and statement of research philosophies [2,26,115]. ...
This paper reports a semi-systematic literature review, identifying research opportunities for more sustainable, receiver-led, inbound logistics flows to large Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
Methods
The literature - a body of 229 works - was reviewed using online scholarly databases: the NOVELOG toolkit database; a CASP checklist; followed by re-reading of the refined set of works. A two-stage approach was deployed: first scoping, using a semi-systematic approach, then a narrative review, guided by the systematic review in terms of literature survey and selection.
Findings
The field was found to be emergent, with 77% of all articles published after 2011. Key concepts were identified and grouped as recurring, or with noticeable gaps - and therefore suitable for further research. The key gaps identified as worthy of note at this stage were: urban freight and procurement activity; private purchasing behaviour; HEIs and freight; barriers to sustainable procurement; engaging with Action Research in purchasing and supply chain management; little or no theory development; and the use of electric vehicles (EVs) in freight.
... It enables government units to leverage the experience from others to guide or support their own procurement decisions. The coordinated structure hence can provide a 'cushion' to 'buffer' information requirements and pres-sures by facilitating the information diffusion and knowledge sharing under environ-mental complexities and uncertainties (Dimitri, Dini, and Piga 2006;Crook and Combs 2007;Schotanus et al. 2011;Meehan, Ludbrook, and Mason 2016). The structure allows different units to exchange ideas, skills, and knowledge with each other (McCue and Pitzer 2000;Schotanus et al. 2011;Meehan, Ludbrook, and Mason 2016). ...
... The coordinated structure hence can provide a 'cushion' to 'buffer' information requirements and pres-sures by facilitating the information diffusion and knowledge sharing under environ-mental complexities and uncertainties (Dimitri, Dini, and Piga 2006;Crook and Combs 2007;Schotanus et al. 2011;Meehan, Ludbrook, and Mason 2016). The structure allows different units to exchange ideas, skills, and knowledge with each other (McCue and Pitzer 2000;Schotanus et al. 2011;Meehan, Ludbrook, and Mason 2016). For example, other units can rely on the expertise of the environment department to discern whether the products are environmentally sustainable. ...
The article examines how local governments' procurement complexity and structure interact to influence e-procurement adoption. Drawing on the survey data of over 400 cities, we find that a centralized structure enhances the likelihood that local governments adopt an e-procurement system to cope with the increasing procurement complexity; while governments with a coordinated structure are less likely to adopt e-procurement as they can rely on the intra-organizational collaboration and information sharing embedded in the structure to accommodate complex procurements. The findings shed insights on how local governments with different structures can best deal with complex managerial activities and facilitate e-procurement adoption.
... In both countries, there are procuring agencies that serve a network of hospitals. The procurement of medical supplies in Italy and the United States have traditionally prioritized contractor competition, to avoid service cuts in the former and to increase profitability in the latter (Meehan et al., 2016). For example, U.S. hospitals and their purchasing agents have come to rely less on their own stockpiles of supplies of PPEs (Volland et al., 2017) and have, instead, turned to just-in-time inventories to bring down costs (Swanson, 2020). ...
... There has been a severe lack of identifying governance solutions that could transform procurement into a more strategic process-specifically, to stimulate innovation, coordination, and evidencebased decision-making. The perception that efforts to prevent corruption in contracting have swung so far that bureaucratic cultures and the overlapping and fragmented nature of legal controls stifle any attempt at contracting innovation (Meehan et al., 2016). The result is a formal and informal public procurement institution that does not give adequate attention to issues of long-term risk in supply chain disruptions, business continuity concerns, or product integration-which could better buffer the public sector to surges in demand. ...
The article analyzes contracting challenges faced by Italian health care authorities and U.S. procurement officials in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, and it provides practitioner-derived lessons for improving procurement in times of disaster. The lessons we have learned so far emphasize (a) the need to recognize the strategic role of procurement, (b) empowering procurement officials, (c) formalized coordinative mechanisms cannot ensure effectiveness without trust among different governance levels, (d) the ability to identify reliable and proactive suppliers of personal protective equipment, (e) the importance of stimulating the economic market to diversify the production of needed materials and to ensure a more risk-resilient supply chain, and (f) the critical role of public–private collaborations to ensure responsiveness and resilience of health care systems.
... La toma de decisiones en las compras públicas como en cualquier red social se aprovecha de las características de los componentes físicos en la cadena de suministro (Meehan et al., 2016). Por lo tanto, el enfoque de los SST resalta la oportunidad de explicar la complejidad de las relaciones de poder desde una perspectiva de toma de decisiones en las CP (Siawsh et al., 2019). ...
Las contrataciones públicas (CP) representan más de la mitad del presupuesto de gobiernos, estudios previos demuestran que las CP se utilizan para resolver problemas socios ambientales y apoyar el desarrollo económico, sin embargo, se presenta ineficiencia y corrupción en su gestión. Este estudio propone un modelo conceptual para analizar la influencia del poder interpersonal en la gestión de las contrataciones públicas y la sostenibilidad institucional con un enfoque socio técnico. La propuesta también contempla la validación del modelo teórico a través de un estudio mixto y para el análisis de los datos se sugiere utilizar el modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM). El propósito de esta investigación es aportar con fundamentos teóricos a la gestión y regulación de las CP, así como recomendar nuevas rutas para futuras investigaciones que permitan profundizar o ampliar el estudio.
... Like Mahalingam and Levitt (2007), several researchers have found institutional differences to play a critical role in public projects. Meehan, Ludbrook, and Mason (2016) find that stakeholders legitimize their resistance toward working collaboratively in public organizations by having recourse to their localized institutional logics. Institutional logics have also been used to discuss challenges in collaboration between public authorities and private entities (Saz-Carranza and Longo 2012; Rigg and O'Mahony 2013). ...
... It is regarded as a critical activity due to the large volume of resources involved in time, money, and people. It can also be used to foster a variety of secondary policy objectives (Edquist & Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, 2012;McCrudden, 2004;Meehan et al., 2016), related to environmental, social and economic development, etc., as public purchasers exercise leverage and influence over their suppliers due to their significant purchasing power (Martin-Ortega et al., 2015). Acting on sustainability and social motives through procurement, known as socially responsible procurement (Semple, 2017), is comparatively more straightforward as the public sector is customarily focused on citizen's well-being. ...
... The recent pandemic has shown how a tight collaboration between public and private sector was crucial to save lives. But even before such an unexpected event, the literature clearly addressed the potential of collaborative public procurement for system change in the form of social value creation (e.g., Hafsa et al., 2022;Malacina et al., 2022;Osborne et al., 2022), and the need to overcome common barriers to collaboration such as strategic avoidance and symbolic tick boxing (Meehan et al., 2016). For example, Harland et al. (2019) show how the public administration can engage with small businesses to generate public value, and Selviaridis et al. (2023) discuss the importance of local anchor institutions to create system-level change through social value-oriented procurement strategies, inter-organisational structures, supplier management practices, capability development and performance management. ...
... This research aims to measure the procurement performance during the implementation of the consolidation strategy especially in public hospital. In addition, this study will measure the benefits gained through consolidated procurement since VFM Framework was considered as a strategic way (Meehan et al., 2016). The framework will be analyzed using analytical hierarchy process and importance performance matrix to figure out the most important factors and their performance. ...
... The public sector's procurement activities heavily rely on regulatory and legal frameworks. In a study conducted by Meehan, Ludbrook and Mason (2016), unsuitable frameworks were identified as one of the challenges for regional collaborative procurement in UK public authorities. In Tanzania, procurement activities in the public sector are regulated by PPA No. 7 of 2011 and its regulations, with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) responsible for regulating and monitoring public bodies or any organizations that receive government funds. ...
This study reviewed forms, benefits, and challenges of collaborative procurement practice that could be applied in public organizations in developing countries like Tanzania. The study is exploratory and descriptive in nature under which a systematic literature review was conducted to examine the various forms, benefits, and challenges of collaborative procurement. In this approach, information was gathered from the existing body of literature on collaborative procurement and cooperative purchasing practices. Based on the main results, the study ascertained that piggy-backing groups, third-party groups, professional networks, and project groups are the main four forms of collaborative procurement practices that may be applicable in public organizations. Results suggested that organizations that engage in collaborative procurement practices enjoy several benefits, including minimum prices, low transaction costs, high-quality products, reduced workloads, and minimal supply risks. However, demand heterogeneity can complicate the procurement process, and inflexibility and control of collaborative procurement activities are major challenges for implementing collaborative procurement practices. Despite these challenges, the study concluded that collaborative procurement practices can be beneficial in public organizations in developing countries like Tanzania. The study recommends that collaborative members establish clear guidelines and agreements for collaborative procurement practices to ensure successful implementation.
... Unilateral modifications are not expected to influence the government's potential to acquire critical products, but bilateral or collaborative modifications can affect those goals-as well as the goals of the contractor to maximize profits. In this way, the model provides a more nuanced view of the potential risks of a bilateral or collaborative modification, which is useful considering the often normative arguments suggesting greater use of collaborative, mutually agreed-upon contractual relations in uncertain settings (Campbell, 2018;Meehan et al., 2016). The negotiation of public and private interests in contracting is akin to bargaining-with each party seeking to exert influence on the other to increase the achievement of their respective goals (Kivleniece and Quelin, 2012;Roehrich et al., 2014;Williamson, 1985). ...
This paper presents a bargaining model of contract outcomes as a function of contract uncertainties associated with critical supply purchasing after a crisis. It examines contract modifications and termination. The model yields the following results: (1) contract modification by the government alone (unilateral modification) does not change the optimal contract; (2) contract modification by mutual agreement (bilateral modification) makes the optimal contract dependent on product price, acquisition costs, transaction costs, and uncertainty; (3) mutual contract modifications are affected negatively by government costs of contract modification and are affected positively by supplier's costs of contract modification; (4) the government may find it necessary to terminate a contract if the contract elasticity of government utility is zero, and the contractor may want to terminate the contract when its supply price equals the acquisition price.
... The procurement synergy mechanism is the most important guarantee for the implementation of strategic procurement in China during the outbreak of COVIV-19. Since emergency procurement involves a large number of stakeholders, the synergy mechanism facilitates mobilizing different resources within a unified system (62), improves the efficiency of procurement management (70), and achieves organizational strategic objectives. ...
Good governance is the basis of dealing with major emergencies and protecting public health. It has become a major issue of the central government to construct a scientific procurement and supply system of emergency supplies. This article constructs the analytical framework of strategic procurement and expounds the realization mechanism of strategic procurement under an emergency situation to reflect China's procurement practice in COVID-19 response and improve public health and governance. Using case study, semi-structured interviews, and the Nvivo text analysis, this study found that emphasizing the strategic function of securing the public health,the top status of MSG, cross-sector procurement team, strong procurement and supply integration, comprehensive and in-depth procurement synergy mechanism are the successful experiences of China's emergency procurement. However, due to the temporary nature of the emergency procurement mechanism, strategic procurement planning, procurement management specialization, and procurement supply integration still need to be improved. The findings of this study further suggest that to improve public health and governance, it is pivotal to reconstruct the government procurement law to make it compatible with the emergency procurement and transform the government procurement system into a strategic procurement in a consistent and coherent way.
... Differing cultures can also be a source of innovation as well as tension . Thus, differing IS/IT platforms can be seen as an opportunity for renewal, investment, and innovation; stimulating creative approaches to jointly use organizationally distinct resources to achieve collaborative goals, or as an insurmountable technological and financial barrier to change (Kwon et al., 2009;Vangen and Huxham, 2013) that is not challenged by leaders and budget holders (Meehan et al., 2016). This paper relates two case studies that consider and discuss these persistent IT barriers. ...
In the UK, the introduction of austerity measures for public services has intensified the thinking around inter-organizational collaboration between emergency services and other public and/or private sector organizations. Theoretically, while collaborative benefits are held up as beacons that drive organizations to participate in inter-organizational arrangements, a high number of such arrangements fail. In this paper, we explored the factors that influenced the collaboration process in the context of developing ‘collaborative information infrastructures’, from an organizational and collaboration level perspective, via a multiple case study approach. Our findings offer insights into how policymakers and public managers could improve their practices by considering their approach towards, and impact of, these factors when implementing collaborative projects in information technology and information systems.
... Differing cultures can also be a source of innovation as well as tension . Thus, differing IS/IT platforms can be seen as an opportunity for renewal, investment, and innovation; stimulating creative approaches to jointly use organizationally distinct resources to achieve collaborative goals, or as an insurmountable technological and financial barrier to change (Kwon et al., 2009;Vangen and Huxham, 2013) that is not challenged by leaders and budget holders (Meehan et al., 2016). This paper relates two case studies that consider and discuss these persistent IT barriers. ...
In the UK, the introduction of austerity measures for public services has intensified the thinking around inter-organizational collaboration between emergency services and other public and/or private sector organizations. Theoretically, while collaborative benefits are held up as beacons that drive organizations to participate in inter-organizational arrangements, a high number of such arrangements fail. In this paper, we explored the factors that influenced the collaboration process in the context of developing ‘collaborative information infrastructures’, from an organizational and collaboration level perspective, via a multiple case study approach. Our findings offer insights into how policymakers and public managers could improve their practices by considering their approach towards, and impact of, these factors when implementing collaborative projects in information technology and information systems.
... The reasons are rather systemic, as they have remained similar for over 20 years (Loader and Norton 2015) and are relevant for both the purchasing and selling sides. Public procurement entities tend to face political and institutional pressure to procure collaboratively (Meehan, Ludbrook, and Mason 2016). Despite the advantages for suppliers, such as predictable and stable income, reliability, and the opportunity to commercialise new products and services (Flynn 2017;Loader and Norton 2015), only 7 of the uk smes were interested in selling to the public sector (Karjalainen and Kemppainen 2008). ...
This paper explores opportunities for utilising cleantech in framing research on sustainability-oriented innovations in public procurement. Research objectives include a critical examination of whether cleantech is a distinct sector through a systematic literature review and synthesis of findings with public procurement research. The final analysis involved 31 peer-reviewed academic papers along with additional publications obtained with the snowball-approach. The results suggest that cleantech could be used to analyse sustainability related research in the public procurement context. Cleantech is also helpful in enhancing research on public procurement of innovations and addressing societal benefits through local development. Findings unveil new opportunities in investigating better access of smes to public contracts through intermediaries, networks, and public-private partnerships. This paper is the first academic paper to analyse academic cleantech literature and link cleantech and public procurement fields. Such an approach is helpful in framing sustainability in public procurement research and stresses new ways of involving smes in public contracts.
... The greater the perceived legitimacy, the greater opportunities purchasing has to become involved in additional value-adding activities (Le Loarne et al. 2008;Tchokogu e et al., 2017). Conversely, a diminished reputation limits opportunity (Goebel et al. 2003;Meehan et al. 2016;Tchokogu e et al., 2017). ...
... Versions of this law can be seen on the website of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, [1][2][3] multicriteria. There are several publication where decision making methods contributed to public procurement operations [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. ...
At an announced tender of a contracting party, in the processes of public procurement of goods or services, a method of decision-making follows after interested bidders submit bids. Such method of choice is characteristic for all business systems with majority share of state capital. Methods of decision-making come down to selecting the best bids, because mistakes in the selection should be excluded. However, in practice, the problems of a wrong choice are manifested in dissatisfaction of the bidders. The problem then causes a delay in the procurement process, and often the retrial. In order to prevent this from happening authors of this paper suggest a somewhat different methodologies in selecting the most advantageous tender to the contracting authorities. The proposed method will be the case of the of Parking service (PC) from Belgrade (service of overhaul of the devices) will show a possible way of selecting the best alternative bids, taking into account previously adopted criteria.
... This is because different stakeholders, which include hospitals, vendors, policymakers, regulatory or professional bodies and patients, often have conflicting goals and requirements (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2012;Verleye et al., 2017). For example, prior research has pointed out that government policies have a major influence on public procurement, but they tend to emphasize fixed budgets and short-term cost savings, which are often not aligned with value-based procurement approaches (Meehan et al., 2016(Meehan et al., , 2017. More broadly, several studies have indicated that public procurement tends to overlook long-term value considerations because it is rarely strategically integrated with other stakeholders' goals and business logic (Harvey and Kitson, 2015;Walker et al., 2008). ...
Purpose
This study aims to explore the institutionalization of value-based health care (VBHC) in the public healthcare system in the state of Victoria, Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical part of this paper is based on a content analysis of 34 policy and industry-commissioned reports that have guided the development of health-care strategy in Victoria from 1988 to 2020.
Findings
This study sheds light on how VBHC in Victoria has been institutionalized over time, through three key phases (centralization, transitioning and digitalization), how the conceptualization of best value has changed in each phase and the implications each phase has presented for other actors in the health-care system.
Practical implications
This study highlights the key opportunities and challenges for organizational actors that emerge when a health-care system transitions toward VBHC, and derives implications for vendors, health-care procurement, policymakers and governmental agencies.
Originality/value
This study develops a longitudinal analysis that describes the evolution and institutionalization of a VBHC approach in a complex societal system over three decades and highlights the key implications for other organizational stakeholders.
... Normative legitimization is relevant to firms when they try to adjust and stabilize their practices in a particularly fast-changing environment (Meehan, Ludbrook, & Mason, 2016). Legitimization occurs as a result of pressure from emerging professionalism and shared norms amongst firms. ...
Research on information technology adoption increasingly focuses on the interactive and temporal aspects of this process. This paper addresses the research gaps in information technology adoption process by which small agri-businesses bond in to a managed supply chain and with their social network. We draw on theories of social institutional isomorphism, organizational culture, and diffusion of innovation as a basis to hypothesize on the inter- and intra-organizational process relevant to information technology adoption. The small agricultural businesses engaged in food traceability technology in Taiwan serve as a sample for this study. A total of 81 valid responses of small agriculture business are obtained for data analysis, using partial least square methods. Our findings show that rather than focus on the adoption attributes of relative advantage and complexity small business are socialized by their network, in a way that instructs their business process. For small business, therefore, technology adoption is a question of maintaining a social identity within the supply chain.
... The greater the perceived legitimacy, the greater opportunities purchasing has to become involved in additional value-adding activities (Le Loarne et al. 2008;Tchokogu e et al., 2017). Conversely, a diminished reputation limits opportunity (Goebel et al. 2003;Meehan et al. 2016;Tchokogu e et al., 2017). ...
It is widely recognized that one of the purchasing function’s primary objectives is to generate cost saving through cost reduction and cost avoidance as it works with the supply base to provide high quality materials and services on a timely basis. This research develops mid‐range theory by incorporating empirical evidence and the tenets of agency theory to the specific domain of a purchasing agent working within an organization. This domain differs from other agency relationships because there are multiple principals with misaligned goals within the organization that influence how purchasing cost saving are counted and thus influence the impact of those savings on purchasing performance. Agency theory helps articulate propositions in this context by providing insight into how purchasing agents perform their organizational duties related to cost saving and avoiding cost increases. The focus is specifically on examining how the challenging area of cost avoidance savings are tracked, measured, and recognized. Case studies from eight organizations reveal that there is significant prospect for suboptimal performance due to the design of reward and measurement systems and the reluctance of purchasing to challenge these systems. However, this can be addressed through an investment in robust systems supported by top management and finance.
... This would require completely new procurement channels. Importantly, incremental innovations may be procured through existing channels, which are notoriously resistant to change (Meehan, Ludbrook, and Mason 2016). It must be noted that efforts have been made to address the issues of procurement of new products and innovations, such as the NHS Innovation and Technology Payment (NHS 2019) Returning to the example of improving emergency care, it would be wrong to expect a 'taking healthcare to the patient' project to deliver readily adoptable solutions, even when worked through the twig level. ...
This paper draws on the history of inclusive design and design for patient safety work at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art to illustrate translational difficulties facing product designs developed with and initiated by clinical researchers. Three case studies are explored to outline common challenges faced by innovations in the efforts to commercialise and achieve adoption into front line use. Translational difficulties were discussed in a multidisciplinary workshop with designers, human factors, regulatory and procurement personnel. The differences between the conceptions of the design process and the process by which innovations are adopted into widespread use were explored in more detail through mapping exercises and a pilot design project.
The paper uses the case studies and a workshop to draw on theory of design and models for optimising translation, with a particular focus on procurement and incremental innovation. The conclusion is a proposed methodology for optimising the inclusive design process in healthcare to produce innovations which are more likely to be adopted into front line use. The methodology involves downstream stakeholders (namely regulatory and procurement expertise) in addition to the standard front line users, building in ambition from incremental to more fundamental innovations.
... Public sector management requires careful and professional management of the costs of purchasing various goods and services. Increasingly, public sector organizations cooperate when purchasing products and services [13,14]. They apply the business model of purchasing groups to provide greater value for money. ...
As a result of the gas market liberalization, new business models are emerging and one that brings positive effects to market players is purchasing group functioning. This paper adopts the approach of gas market review and provides a synthesis of its functioning in Poland. The review focuses first on the frameworks of the process of gas market liberalization. Next, the author presents gas market structure and lists and comments on its components. Then, the main characteristics of the market are discussed. The author presents a case study of the Metropolitan Gas Purchasing Group—the largest gas purchasing group in Poland with the volume reaching almost 225 GWh of purchased gas. As a result, the author highlights the effects of this coopetitive strategy which reached a value of PLN 3,000,000.
... To increase efficiency, transparency, and accountability, many governments have recently centralized the administration of public procurement to common national institutions. This worldwide centralization trend applies particularly to contracting activities and information systems, whereas the implementation details are often still left to decentralized public sector units (Keränen 2017;Meehan et al. 2016). In a similar vein, focus at the EU-level has been on the so-called e-procurement systems, which are believed to improve efficiency and transparency, foster innovation, and level the playing field for small-and medium-sized companies (Khorana et al. 2015;Obwegeser and Müller 2018;Varney 2011). ...
Public procurement refers to processes through which national, regional, and local public authorities, state-owned enterprises, or other related bodies governed by public law, purchase products, services, and public work. Such purchases have been a particularly important element in developing the Internal Market of the European Union (EU). Given recent procurement reforms in the EU, including the 2009 reform on defense procurement, this paper examines public cyber security procurement in Europe. Two questions are examined: (1) whether cyber security procurement differs from public procurement in general, and (2) whether there are any noteworthy signs of Europeanization in terms of cyber security procurement. According to the empirical results, cyber security procurement tends to differ from general public procurement. In particular, competition obstacles are visible in terms of bids for cyber security procurement tenders. This result is accompanied with a visible lack of Europeanization, although the same observation generalizes to public procurement in the EU generally. With these results and the accompanying discussion, the paper contributes to the recent lively discussion about European security and its relation to marketization.
... After a brief introduction, it defines the theoretical interface and conceptualizes the hypotheses. The hypotheses are conceptualized using contracting out and public procurement papers (Kutlina-Dimitrova & Lakatos, 2016;Locatelli, Mariani, Sainati, & Greco, 2017;McLean, 2017;Meehan, Ludbrook, & Mason, 2016). An empirical strategy is introduced to verify the formulated hypotheses. ...
This article deals with the phenomenon of repeated contracts, specifically the effect of trust in public contracts. Our main objective is to identify the factors that influence the concluding of repeated contracts and to verify whether repeated contracts lead to increases in prices. We use a complex dataset of public procurement of municipalities in the Czech Republic for the period of 2014-2017, which covers more than 4,000 public contracts. This range of data allows a larger number of variables to be applied, including specific independent variables concerning municipalities, such as the size of the municipality. The data allow us to study this subject by means of both a general model tested on all public contracts and a partial model applied to public works. The presented results of quantitative econometric models from the data obtained from the awards of public contracts in the municipalities of the Czech Republic show that the fact of whether it was a repeated contract or a contract performed by a new (unknown to a contracting authority) supplier affected the chance of winning a contract.
... If we restrict our view to public sector studies, in a time when many governments worldwide have to cut spending in response to the recent economic crisis and stimulate cooperation among central and local purchasing bodies (Meehan, Ludbrook, and Mason 2016;Glas and Eßig 2018), decisions regarding how to organize procurement have become an important means to obtain desired performance. At this regard, despite the regulation constraints, public managers have all the levers to manage and configure the procurement system in order to meet desired objectives. ...
In the public context, the efficient and effective management of procurement activities has a crucial impact on the achievement of operational and broader government objectives. In particular, the potential contribution of procurement within local governments has been broadly recognized, and organisational procurement choices represent a strategic aspect that must be managed to contribute to these objectives. Through the analysis of data on 371 Italian municipalities, this paper discusses how to design procurement organisation variables for local governments. Three possible organisational models are identified (i.e., authoritative procurement, silo procurement, and local procurement) and discussed from the perspective of internal and external contingencies that may affect organisational decisions.
... In Europe, the United States, and other countries worldwide, we can observe procurement organizations being created at national, regional, and local levels for increasing the implementation of collaborative public procurement (CPP) projects (Meehan et al., 2016). These structural initiatives are associated with many potential benefits (e.g., economies of scale, savings on purchasing price, requirements standardization, opportunity to develop procurement expertise), but also drawbacks (e.g., higher process cost, coordination needs, loss of capabilities on procurement activities, managerial complexity), which varies dependent on the organizational form adopted to manage the collaboration. ...
The report presents findings for NIGP and CIPS on collaborative public procurement (CPP) as a result of a targeted online survey by IRSPP (International Research Study in Public Procurement). Collaborative working is an established skill which, when managed effectively, brings organizations many benefits, such as improving relationships with suppliers and other organizations. This report highlights findings for some of the most debated characteristics of CPP, including economies of scale, a reduction of procurement transaction costs, and the deliberated role of public procurement for leveraging socio-economic benefits.
... • Below a certain level (called the procedure exemption level), the contract can be awarded without publication or competition. Figure 1: Effect of supply base optimization by market type and procurement procedure © Éditions EMS from the largest possible base of bidders, but also on the fact that collaborative public procurement, based on very narrow relationships between public buyers and suppliers, is unsuitable and risky (Meehan et al., 2016). Application of supply base optimization on public markets prompts several comments and opens interesting avenues of future research. ...
L’article souhaite étudier l’incidence de l’incomplétude des contrats sur le comportement des acheteurs, et plus spécifiquement sur la réduction de la taille du portefeuille de fournisseurs dans le contexte des marchés publics. La recherche s’appuie sur 565 557 transactions conduites en France de 2006 à 2011, extraites du Bulletin Officiel des Annonces des Marchés Publics (BOAMP), portant sur 6 182 acheteurs publics et 26 570 fournisseurs. Pour analyser l’impact du type de marché et des procédures d’achat sur une gestion lean des fournisseurs, une analyse de régression linéaire multivariée a été menée. Les résultats débouchent sur deux constats importants: (1) moins l’exécution d’une transaction est vérifiable, plus l’acheteur public réduit la taille de son portefeuillle de fournisseurs ; (2) moins les conditions d’une transaction sont négociables, plus l’acheteur public réduit la taille de son portefeuillle de fournisseurs.
... Versions of this law can be seen on the website of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, [1][2][3] multicriteria. There are several publication where decision making methods contributed to public procurement operations [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. ...
p>At an announced tender of a contracting party, in the processes of public procurement of goods or services, a method of decision-making follows after interested bidders submit bids. Such method of choice is characteristic for all business systems with majority share of state capital. Methods of decision-making come down to selecting the best bids, because mistakes in the selection should be excluded. However, in practice, the problems of a wrong choice are manifested in dissatisfaction of the bidders. The problem then causes a delay in the procurement process, and often the retrial. In order to prevent this from happening authors of this paper suggest a somewhat different methodologies in selecting the most advantageous tender to the contracting authorities. The proposed method will be the case of the of Parking service (PC) from Belgrade (service of overhaul of the devices) will show a possible way of selecting the best alternative bids, taking into account previously adopted criteria.
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The aim of the article is to demonstrate that the principle of expediency is an imperative of public finance law shaped by the Polish Constitution. It is presented not only as an axiological imperative, but as a practical tool to be applied by the disposer of public funds. The article tries to fill the gap in the literature on the role and significance of the purposefulness principle as a principle of spending public funds shaped by the Constitutions. The analysis was prepared using the legal-dogmatic method. It has been supplemented by the legal-comparative method.
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between institutional logics and specifications quality, and how this relationship is mediated by the legitimacy of the procurement process and stewardship behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on insights from institutional logics theory, and legitimacy and stewardship behaviour literature. We conducted an extended literature review to gain a comprehensive understanding of “institutional logics” and their manifestations in organizational contexts, utilizing the 2000–2024 data collected from the EBSCO, Scopus and Web of Science databases, complemented with Google Scholar. We gather that institutional logics manifest in several forms, and that while some organizations may thrive on a single logic, in certain contexts institutional logics can manifest in combinations – “multiple logics or hybrids”. Based on this understanding, we developed testable research hypotheses, predicting the influences of institutional logics – professional logic, efficient service logic and delivery (market) logic, on legitimacy, stewardship behaviour and specifications quality. We then carried out an empirical study, adopting a quantitative cross-sectional survey design with a self-administered questionnaire to test the hypothesized relationships. The empirical data were obtained from 162 procuring and disposing entities in Uganda and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique.
Findings
The study findings reveal that institutional logics exert a strong positive effect on the legitimacy of the procurement process and on stewardship behaviour, which, in turn, both positively influence specifications quality.
Research limitations/implications
The study findings have implications for theory and practice. The study findings provide useful insights that support the conceptual and theoretical development of institutional logics theory and applications in procurement literature. In addition, the study findings enhance procurement managers’ understanding of the mechanisms through which institutional logics can foster specifications quality. However, considering the fact that the study was conducted in a single country context, and focused on the public sector only, the findings of the study might not be generalizable globally.
Originality/value
This study contributes to established knowledge about quality management and procurement by examining the legitimacy of the procurement process and stewardship behaviour of those involved in procurement processes as mechanisms through which procuring entities are able to use institutional logics to enhance specifications quality. In addition, the study highlights areas for future research that may be explored to increase understanding of the value of institutional logics in ensuring specifications quality, and the link between specifications quality and the general performance of procuring entities.
The integration of green criteria into public procurement is not a revolutionary thought. However, the large body of scientific literature on this subject so far has devoted little attention to the progress of implementation. Hence, this study examines the extent to which green supplier selection in the form of environmental criteria has already found its way into contract award notices and corresponding tender documents. While similar studies are available to date, they refer to specific procurement categories and regions. Hence, conclusions on the progress of implementing green supplier selection criteria are only possible on a selective basis. This study builds on these results and expands the insights into the implementation of ecological sustainability in cleaning services and equipment in Germany. A replication study was selected, to repeat, validate, and transfer existing findings from other studies. Following the methodological approach proposed by Igarashi et al. (2015), the inclusion of environmental criteria in 160 contract award notices above thresholds has been assessed. Similar to previous studies, the analysis shows that different types of environmental criteria are used and that those criteria are used in different types of documents included in a contract award notice. Environmental criteria are included in 145 of the 160 contract award notices under review. At first glance, this suggests a largely comprehensive inclusion of environmental criteria. However, their content often remained superficial and unspecific. Environmental criteria are mostly included in the specification documents and in the contract clauses. In only 20 of the 160 contract award notices, environmental criteria are also employed as a direct award criteria (as part of a supplier assessment matrix). Even though the weighting of these environmental criteria varies, the average weighting is only 5%. The low weighting shows that the importance of including environmental criteria in cleaning services is not as high as expected. Similar to previous findings, public procurement officers employ four approaches to deal with the implementation of green supplier selection: (1) ignore (no environmental criteria at all), (2) include (environmental criteria as part of existing other criteria), (3) insist (environmental criteria early in the selection process), and (4) integrate (directly compromise between green performance and other traditional purchasing criteria). In addition, a fifth strategy, named ‘intensify’, emerged from this replication study that focuses on including binding rules to adhere to environmental requirements into contractual agreements.
The public sector is a major purchaser for infrastructure materials and therefore is a critical potential buyer of products with recycled material or recovered content, diverting these from landfill, enhancing markets, and supporting recycling and recovery. Understanding barriers and drivers for the public sector is therefore critical, for enhancing procurement of goods with recycled material or recovered content. While most research has identified a range of barriers, other works have identified how these can be addressed and turned into facilitators for purchasing these goods. Synthesising the literature using as a systematic review, the drivers and barriers uncovered in past research allows us to explore how changes to the purchasing process can be undertaken, which address the Five core themes serving as both drivers and impediments: 1) procurement-function-related factors; 2) Organisational factors; 3) actual/perceived financial factors; 4) government-related social factors; and 5) supplier-related factors. The paper research objective is to identify how these factors influence the purchasing process for products with recycled material or recovered content. We the identified how the purchasing process can be modified to improve public purchasing process within this domain and also link these to future research activities. These include. creating green procurement standards, creating internal organisational support to identify options, information sharing within the organisation and with outside bodies regarding alternative products with recycled material or recovered content.
Resumo: Objetivou-se identificar a forma como os agentes do sistema agroindustrial do leite no sul e oeste do Maranhão percebem e praticam a produção e a comercialização do leite, bem como as relações entre estes, buscando articular estratégias competitivas regionais. Trata-se de uma pesquisa multicasos qualitativa, com dados coletados mediante entrevistas semiestruturadas, com a utilização da técnica de associação livre de palavras (TALP). Para a avaliação dos resultados, optou-se pelo uso da análise de frequências múltiplas, análise de similitude e elaboração de matriz prototípica. Participaram das entrevistas 23 agentes divididos em quatro grupos, sendo os gestores institucionais responsáveis em apoiar a cadeia do leite, pequenos produtores de leite e laticínios. Nos resultados, foi possível identificar um padrão de opiniões sobre os desafios da produção, bem como aspectos de comercialização do leite considerados importantes institucional e organizacionalmente. Percebeu-se que a infraestrutura e a logística de transporte se posicionaram como sérios obstáculos ao crescimento do mercado leiteiro na região. Além disso, o estudo demonstrou que há uniformidade de critérios considerados importantes para o mercado, como qualidade do leite, higiene na produção, sanidade animal, uso de ordenha mecânica e cumprimento pelos produtores quanto à assistência técnica.
En retenant une méthodologie de recherche-action, ce chapitre illustre comment le recours à des indicateurs de performance peut aider les différentes parties à maximiser le potentiel de l’approvisionnement en commun en réduisant les tensions naturelles entre le groupe et ses membres. Nous amorcerons notre propos en offrant une courte recension des écrits afin de positionner le concept de groupe d’achats afin de bien saisir le contexte du cas étudié. Nous enchaînerons en présentant la méthodologie retenue. Nous poursuivrons en présentant le cas étudié qui est celui d’un groupe d’achats du secteur de la santé de la province de Québec (Canada). Nous terminerons en discutant des implications de cette gestion de la performance dans le contexte d’un groupe d’achats.
Purpose
This paper aims to demonstrate how public procurement can be strategic.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted following the protocol from Pagani, Kovaleski and Resende (2015), called Methodi Ordinatio, to select the relevant literature on this topic. The analysis of papers selected was carried out following the procedures of categorical content analysis (Bardin, 1977).
Findings
In all, 68 full papers were analyzed from Science Direct and Web of Science. The results present the main characteristics of publications analyzed and the authors propose some categories of strategic practices related to public procurement that are in turn related to: sustainability, partnerships and supplier management, information systems and technology and other issues.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitations of this paper are: the publication period considered of the articles selected is from January 2012 to March 2017; the databases Science Direct and Web of Science are selected as the sources of articles; the Methodi Ordinatio is used as the basic protocol of the SLR and, consequently, the inclusion and exclusion criteria described in the steps of the protocol are used.
Practical implications
Showing how the public procurement can be strategic, this paper highlights the benefits of best procurement practices; similarly, it highlights those practices adopted by the private sector, which can highly contribute to the creation of value in public services that are aligned with the concept of obtaining “the best value for money”.
Social implications
The incorporation of strategic practices in public procurement can result in the best expenditure of public resources and the reduction of corruption in the process of procurement.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to synthesize the knowledge on strategic procurement, a topic exploited by few people in the public organizations. It differentiates from other literature reviews already published, considering that these studies do not deal, specifically, with public procurement and, also, do not use protocols of SLR. Moreover, this paper indicates a future agenda of research, which can aid researchers and practitioners acting in this field of knowledge.
The NHS in England is working to reduce variation and waste in the use of clinical products, which requires collaboration between those directly involved in procurement and clinical staff. The procurement process is becoming centralised and standardised, and the involvement of, and consultation with, clinical staff is vital to avoid compromising patient care and safety. This article reports the results of a survey of clinical staff and clinical procurement specialist nurses undertaken as part of a master's degree. Its aim was to capture staff experiences and perceptions of changes to clinical products.
Procurement in the UKs National Health Service (NHS) is facing its most significant financial challenge. Despite the sheer scale and complexities of the public healthcare sector, the Government's solutions are all too often packaged as "collaborate more", "standardise products" and "leverage spend". Unfortunately, these over simplistic solutions take a myopic view of market drivers, conflate spend with potential savings and fail to deliver value. Many contracts have already been commercially optimised yet the funding crisis continues to deepen. New value-based procurement approaches are needed to drive longer-term innovation and cost reduction and to move debates from efficiencies to embrace effectiveness in integrated supply chains. In this research, we adopt the resource-based view (RBV) as a lens to explore the extent to which NHS resources support the strategic adoption of value-based approaches. An empirical case study on a regional cluster of six NHS Trusts in England, confirms the dominance of narrow price-based approaches that create barriers to moving towards longer-term, valuebased procurement. The antecedent roots of price-based approaches are unpicked through a hermeneutic analysis of recent Government commissioned reports to show how these have set the tone, culture and priorities for healthcare procurement in the UK. The analysis provides explanatory power to the case study by illustrating how Government reports have led to, and legitimised the dominance of price-based approaches and caused relational and resource-based barriers to adopting value-based procurement, despite stakeholder enthusiasm. The findings provide unique insights into why public procurement has struggled to reach beyond its traditional cost orientated scope. We contribute to an extended consideration of the RBV in public organisations through identifying the role of the policy environment in determining and legitimatising an organisation's strategic direction.
This paper addresses the issue of how purchasing managers can develop the purchasing department's legitimacy within an organization. A qualitative exploratory approach based on six cases has been used since: (1) there has not yet been a research performed on this topic; and (2) an analysis of internal legitimization strategies must take into consideration the context and the nature of the relationships among departments. Our analysis shows that in order to create, maintain or increase the purchasing department's internal legitimacy, purchasing managers have to do very well about two complementary strategic orientations: (1) identify and attract the best suppliers; (2) identify and implement collaborative processes and coordination mechanisms that cannot be duplicated by competitors. In fact, supply managers actually develop legitimization strategies based internally and externally, since a higher level of internal legitimacy can also be supported partially by external stakeholders, who then influence the other departments' and top management's perceptions.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how buyers and the vendors pursue alignment in collaborative purchasing (CP) of complex medical technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
– Through a literature review in CP, the paper identify factors for shareholder alignment (i.e. aligning the needs of the buyers within the purchasing group) and customer alignment (i.e. aligning buyers’ needs with the vendors offering strategies) and investigate how they manifest in the case of CP of complex technology in the Danish National Healthcare System.
Findings
– Shareholder alignment requires appropriate management of the relationships, expertise and guidance in simplifying procedures and effective management of the purchasing group. Customer alignment is facilitated by buyers’ understating of the vendor’s design options, which are moderated by the vendor’s design strategies.
Research limitations/implications
– The findings and generalizations from a single case study are limited to the complexity of the purchased technology and the specific cultural context. However the paper represents the first explorative study that poses the attention on the relevance of shareholder and customer alignment in CP.
Practical implications
– The study can offer hospitals, vendors, governmental and regional institutions a better understanding about the alignment mechanisms for successful implementation of CP and how to avoid pitfalls.
Originality/value
– Literature on CP is scarce as there are virtually no contributions that debate the key elements and tradeoffs that need to be considered for strategic alignment. The study addresses this gap.
Today most public sector purchasing processes are in transition. In the face of growing uneasiness by elected officials, service delivery managers, and citizens about rule-driven processes, inefficient systems, and poor management of resources, purchasing professionals are being challenged to develop new dynamic, adaptable structures. In this article, the current state of decentralization is examined and the roles of purchasing professionals in the purchasing process are presented. Specifically, this research attempts to answer the following questions: What changes have governments implemented in policy making, organization structure, personnel recruitment and training, expenditure authorization levels, review and oversight as they decentralize purchasing authority? And, what are the projected trends that will impact the success or failure of the decentralization issues over the next decade?
We use meta-analytical techniques to address three central debates in institutional theory: Is organizational behavior the product of social structure or organizational agency? Does conformity to institutional norms enhance or diminish organizational performance? Can organizational field-level factors explain differences in the pull of isomorphic forces across organizational fields? We find that the influence of social structure is weak. Also, the adoption of isomorphic templates improves both symbolic and substantive performance. Finally, we identify several field-level factors that moderate isomorphic processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for institutional theory research.
In the UK, major IT public procurement projects regularly fail at significant cost to the taxpayer. The prevalence of these failures presents scholars with a challenge; to both understand their genesis and to facilitate learning and prevention. Functional approaches have revealed numerous determinants of failure ranging from procurement specifications to risk escalation, but true and definitive causes remain elusive. However, since
failure is not itself an absolute truth, but rather a concept which is reached when support is withdrawn, the survival of a project depends on there being sufficient belief in its legitimacy. We use critical hermeneutic methods and the conceptual lens of legitimacy to reveal powerful legitimating influences that enable and constrain action, but which are not analysed in the retrospective government inquiries that determine lessons learned
Facilitators that use a collaborative governance approach are regularly pushed, mandated, or naturally desire to achieve broad inclusion of stakeholders in collaborations. How to achieve such inclusion is an important but often overlooked aspect of implementation. To fully realize the value of collaborative governance, we investigate how institutional design choices made about inclusion practices during the critical early stages of collaboration affect stakeholders' expectations of each other's contribution to a civic program and subsequently influences collaboration process outcomes. Informed by field observations from uniquely successful community health programs, we identify two institutional design choices related to inclusion that are associated with favorable group outcomes. The first design process uses time instrumentally to build trust and commitment in the collaboration, whereas the second design process includes new participants thoughtfully to limit their risk exposure. Based on experimental economics, strategic behaviors of stakeholders are formalized as a minimum effort coordination game in a multiagent model. A series of simulated experiments are conducted to gain fine-grained understanding of how the two design processes uniquely engender and reinforce commitment among stakeholders, minimize uncertainty, and increase the likelihood of positive process outcomes. For practitioners, the findings suggest how to navigate collaboration tensions during the early stages of their development while still respecting the competing need for stakeholder inclusiveness. The theoretical framework and the multiagent method of this study embrace the complexity of collaborative processes and trace how each intervention uniquely contributes to increases in trust and commitment.
Public administration and management (PAM) scholars have long recognized that financial resources are the lifeblood of public
organizations. Less appreciated is how the study of public financial management (PFM) can inform the theory, research, and
practice of PAM broadly. In this article, we argue that PFM research brings a variety of conceptual, analytical, and empirical
insights to bear on some of public administration and management's timeless questions. To illustrate this claim, we synthesize
findings from a variety of research across the PFM subfield.
This article addresses a "goals paradox" that suggests that both congruence and diversity in organizations' goals influence success in collaboration. Using extensive empirical data, we develop a framework that portrays goals as an entangled, dynamic, and ambiguously hierarchical web of variously perceived, higher- and lower-level goals that can be characterized across six dimensions: level, origin, authenticity, relevance, content, and overtness. We then explore the paradox in terms of the framework and so propose a much elaborated theoretical understanding of it. This provides theoretical and practical understanding relevant to management and governance in and of collaboration.
Analysis of local government contracting decisions typically focuses on transactions costs related to service characteristics, especially asset specificity and difficulty of contract management. This analysis expands the focus to include market characteristics (competition), citizen characteristics (public interest in the service delivery process), and place characteristics (metro status and public management) and finds these are the more important factors. A 2007 survey of US city managers' rankings of 67 services by transactions costs, competition, and citizen interest is combined with a 2007 national survey of city managers' sourcing decisions (direct public, intergovernment cooperation, for-profit and nonprofit contracting). Multinomial logit models of service delivery sourcing choice find that metro status and competition are key explanatory variables. Intergovernmental cooperation represents an important public market alternative when contract management is difficult and competition is low. For profit contracting is less common when citizen interest is high and competition is low. Governments with professional managers appear more effective in addressing these broader transactions costs of citizen interests, political and labor opposition, and market management.
This article provides a new definition for case study research. Achieving deep understanding of processes and other concept variables (e.g. actors’ perceptions of their own thinking processes, intentions and contextual influences) is identified as the principal objective of case study research. Using multiple methods to “triangulate” (i.e. confirm and deepen understanding by using multiple sources all focusing on the same process/event) within the same case is described. The article outlines the core criticisms made by case study researchers of large sample surveys. A need exists for a paradigm shift in research on organizational behavior (including modeling the antecedents of new product performance). The article outlines the telling weaknesses of case study research as seen by other researchers. The article examines Senge’s core propositions related to the “mental models” of decision participants. Details illustrate the use of specific research methods for case studies to achieve different research objectives and the combination of objectives. Finally, the article illustrates basic concept variables in a case study and 12 propositions are reviewed briefly. This report reviews classic and recent contributions in the literature on case study research.
City service delivery requires planners and city managers to move beyond the public–private dichotomy and explore the benefits of interaction between markets and planning. Using International City County Management survey data on US local governments from 1992, 1997 and 2002, we find a shift where reverse contracting (re-internalisation) now exceeds the level of new contracting out (privatisation). We model how a theoretical shift from new public management to new public service in public administration mirrors a behavioural shift among city managers. Results confirm the need to balance economic concerns with political engagement of citizens and lend empirical support to a theory of social choice that links communicative planning with market management.
Facilitators that use a collaborative governance approach are regularly pushed, mandated, or naturally desire to achieve broad inclusion of stakeholders in collaborations. How to achieve such inclusion is an important but often overlooked aspect of implementation. To fully realize the value of collaborative governance, we investigate how institutional design choices made about inclusion practices during the critical early stages of collaboration affect stakeholders' expectations of each other's contribution to a civic program and subsequently influences collaboration process outcomes. Informed by field observations from uniquely successful community health programs, we identify two institutional design choices related to inclusion that are associated with favorable group outcomes. The first design process uses time instrumentally to build trust and commitment in the collaboration, whereas the second design process includes new participants thoughtfully to limit their risk exposure. Based on experimental economics, strategic behaviors of stakeholders are formalized as a minimum effort coordination game in a multiagent model. A series of simulated experiments are conducted to gain fine-grained understanding of how the two design processes uniquely engender and reinforce commitment among stakeholders, minimize uncertainty, and increase the likelihood of positive process outcomes. For practitioners, the findings suggest how to navigate collaboration tensions during the early stages of their development while still respecting the competing need for stakeholder inclusiveness. The theoretical framework and the multiagent method of this study embrace the complexity of collaborative processes and trace how each intervention uniquely contributes to increases in trust and commitment.
In the UK, major IT public procurement projects regularly fail at significant cost to the taxpayer. The prevalence of these failures presents scholars with a challenge; to both understand their genesis and to facilitate learning and prevention. Functional approaches have revealed numerous determinants of failure ranging from procurement specifications to risk escalation, but true and definitive causes remain elusive. However, since failure is not itself an absolute truth, but rather a concept which is reached when support is withdrawn, the survival of a project depends on there being sufficient belief in its legitimacy. We use critical hermeneutic methods and the conceptual lens of legitimacy to reveal powerful legitimating influences that enable and constrain action, but which are not analysed in the retrospective government inquiries that determine lessons learned.
This study tests a central proposition of institutional theory, that organizational isomorphism increases organizational legitimacy. Results show that isomorphism in the strategies of commercial banks is related to legitimacy conferred by bank regulators and the media, even in the presence of organizational age, size, and performance.
Knowledge management is concerned with identifying, capturing, storing, reusing, and distributing the key intellectual assets of an organization. While there are well-established procedures for productively manipulating knowledge in explicit forms (e.g., groupware, expert systems, the Internet), less well developed are procedures for making tacit knowledge explicit. One form of tacit knowledge is that embedded in organizational processes. We present one methodology for mapping organizational processes and then using the resulting maps to extract knowledge about the organization implicit in those maps. From those process maps and the revelation of the embedded knowledge in them, valuable managerial insights can be mined. We show that an understanding of an organization's central processes reveals a treasurehouse of knowledge with many benefits for the firm. In particular, we exhibit a case study of a marketing research firm, and we model its process for converting a client's often vaguely stated needs into information useful to the client. From the revealed knowledge, managers can mine a rich set of insights providing opportunities that convey many prospective benefits: the firm can learn how to better serve its clients; more efficiently and effectively train its employees; more effectively design its business processes; fine-tune its strategy for conducting business in its marketplace; and, derive a set of guidelines on how best to manage its knowledge workers. We conclude by sketching other possible arenas for knowledge exploitation in other phases of the firm's knowledge management chain: identification, storage, and distribution.
When members of organizations use expressions like "team," "business process reengineering," or "TQM" (Total Quality Management) as "the latest buzzword" or "the flavor of the month," what do they mean? And how do members of organizations respond when confronted with expectations from shareholders, customers, or higher-level managers to implement the latest buzzword? We will use such "buzzwords" to discuss organizational processes associated with the construction and maintenance of organizational images,1 by examining the role of language within the formal structure of organizations. In particular, we examine the following questions: 1. What is the process by which organizations construct and maintain positive organizational images for their key internal and external publics? 2. How does an organization's formal structure interact with language in order to contribute to the construction and maintenance of organizational images?
This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval: and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.
This article examines the historical contingency of executive power and succession in the higher education publishing industry. We combine interview data with historical analysis to identify how institutional logics changed from an editorial to a market focus. Event history models are used to test for differences in the effects of these two institutional logics on the positional, relational, and economic determinants of executive succession. The quantitative findings indicate that a shift in logics led to different determinants of executive succession. Under an editorial logic, executive attention is directed to author-editor relationships and internal growth, and executive succession is determined by organization size and structure. Under a market logic, executive attention is directed to issues of resource competition and acquisition growth, and executive succession is determined by the product market and the market for corporate control.
From the complex literatures on "institutionalisms" in political science and sociology, various components of institutional change are identified: mutability, contradiction, multiplicity, containment and diffusion, learning and innovation, and mediation. This exercise results in a number of clear prescriptions for the analysis of politics and institutional change: disaggregate institutions into schemas and resources; decompose institutional durability into processes of reproduction, disruption, and response to disruption; and, above all, appreciate the multiplicity and heterogeneity of the institutions that make up the social world. Recent empirical work on identities, interests, alternatives, and political innovation illustrates how political scientists and sociologists have begun to document the consequences of institutional contradiction and multiplicity and to trace the workings of institutional containment, diffusion, and mediation.
We use a dialectical perspective to provide a unique framework for understanding institutional change that more fully captures its totalistic, historical, and dynamic nature, as well as fundamentally resolves a theoretical dilemma of institutional theory: the relative swing between agency and embeddedness. In this framework institutional change is understood as an outcome of the dynamic interactions between two institutional by-products: institutional contradictions and human praxis. In particular, we depict praxis - agency embedded in a totality of multiple levels of interpenetrating, incompatible institutional arrangements (centradictions)-as an essential driving force of institutional change.
My research suggests that organizational fields are patchy and uneven. This patchiness allows organizations at the margins of fields to sidestep pressures for conformity. As a case study, this paper examines the private school field in Toronto, Canada. Data come from interviews and site visits at 60 Toronto private schools. My findings suggest that Toronto's private school field is segmented, incorporating diverse private school forms, including elite, religious, and 'rogue' (non-elite, non-religious) schools. Within one subfield - small rogue private schools - a high degree of heterogeneity exists. These findings suggest a nuanced conception of institutional fields, with more attention to organizational agency, multiple field logics and diversity among organizational forms. This paper examines how organizations at the margins of fields are able to evade pressures for conformity, and how a heterogeneous organizational field can also be comprised of clusters of homogeneity.
To what extent do broadly based sociocultural norms affect the distribution of organizational characteristics within a population over time? Under what circumstances are institutional norms more important than alternative processes, such as market forces, in shaping this distribution? This sociohistorical analysis of the impact of nationalism on the language of publication of Finnish newspapers in the 19th century examines the interplay of institutional, ecological, and economic forces. The findings confirm that the power with which institutional norms influence organizations can vary over time, across levels of analysis, and as a function of ecological and economic forces and other, more proximal, sources of institutional expectations.
This study sought to explain the puzzle of firm noncompliance under conditions of highly salient and coercive institutional pressures from stakeholders. Based on a qualitative study of the Canadian banking industry's responses to institutional pressures from government, clients, and the media for higher-quality banking service to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), results revealed that oligopoly power could not account exclusively for firms' dismissiveness of salient stakeholder expectations. We introduce the concept of industry identity to explain how market power interacted with industry identity to predict firms' nonconformity to institutional pressures and their willingness to maintain identity-image misalignment. Our study contributes new insights into theories of institutional conformity, identity, and oligopoly behavior.
Although public sector organizations have long been seen as driving the institutionalization of business firms and nonprofit organizations, government agencies themselves have only occasionally been studied as subjects of institutional pressures. This research examines whether public sector organizations, when compared with organizations in the business and nonprofit sectors, are more or less as susceptible to mimetic, normative, and coercive pressures. Using data from the National Organizations Study, we discover that governmental organizations are in fact more vulnerable to all three types of institutional forces than other organizations, whereas the effect of institutional variables on for-profits and nonprofits is more sporadic. The susceptibility of public sector organizations to institutional pressures raises important questions for the field of public administration and has consequences for nonprofits and business firms, which are funded and regulated by government.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how buyers and the vendors pursue alignment in collaborative purchasing (CP) of complex medical technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
– Through a literature review in CP, the paper identify factors for shareholder alignment (i.e. aligning the needs of the buyers within the purchasing group) and customer alignment (i.e. aligning buyers’ needs with the vendors offering strategies) and investigate how they manifest in the case of CP of complex technology in the Danish National Healthcare System.
Findings
– Shareholder alignment requires appropriate management of the relationships, expertise and guidance in simplifying procedures and effective management of the purchasing group. Customer alignment is facilitated by buyers’ understating of the vendor’s design options, which are moderated by the vendor’s design strategies.
Research limitations/implications
– The findings and generalizations from a single case study are limited to the complexity of the purchased technology and the specific cultural context. However the paper represents the first explorative study that poses the attention on the relevance of shareholder and customer alignment in CP.
Practical implications
– The study can offer hospitals, vendors, governmental and regional institutions a better understanding about the alignment mechanisms for successful implementation of CP and how to avoid pitfalls.
Originality/value
– Literature on CP is scarce as there are virtually no contributions that debate the key elements and tradeoffs that need to be considered for strategic alignment. The study addresses this gap.
This article explores the conditions under which local and regional governments will establish and sustain cross-border co-operation in the fields of police, fire fighting and emergency health services. It argues that understanding this type of cross-border co-operation requires a focus on the way in which professionals define and apply their professional standards in cross-border contexts. Moreover, it requires a focus on individual organizations and professionals working in them, rather than 'government' or 'the state' as a whole, since cross-border co-operation in these areas typically develops as a result of disparate and unconnected initiatives taken by governmental actors in a given border region. Based on four studies of cross-border co-operation in Dutch border regions, we argue that differences in legal, organizational and cultural backgrounds between the participating countries can be and are overcome by street-level professionals and their organizations, who act as 'regionauts' in exploring opportunities for cross-border co-operation. In this type of 'bottom-up' cross-border co-operation, motivation among participants is the key to establishing co-operation, and solutions to differences between work routines will be developed along the way. As a result, the establishment of cross-border co-operation often is an experimental, pragmatic enterprise, which is greatly affected by local intra- and inter-organizational dynamics. This opens the potential for pragmatic, flexible and creative solutions. Yet, at the same time it also runs the risk of producing unaccountable cross-border arrangements that are insufficiently embedded in legal and professional safeguards against error and abuse.
Access via: http://eur.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/03/18/0969776414522082.full.pdf+html
Purpose
– This research concerns the issue of financial governance within the UK NHS and aims to assess the effectiveness of existing financial governance arrangements in the main providers of health services in the UK. Also considered is the importance of good financial governance in a time of financial austerity.
Design/methodology/approach
– The primary research for this project was based on the use of a questionnaire to all finance directors in NHSTs in England supported by semi-structured interviews with: finance directors, non-executive directors, executive directors and senior finance staff.
Findings
– Among the main findings of the study were: certain financial management systems were not prioritised in line with what is seen as good practice; existing financial management systems were not always seen as adequate for the achievement of good financial governance; there was sometimes a lack of understanding of financial issues by non-executive directors; and the complexity of the NHS funding process often resulted in opaqueness of the financial risks.
Research limitations/implications
– The research is limited by the relatively small coverage of NHS trusts but this has been compensated for by a series of in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the governance process.
Practical implications
– Weaknesses in financial governance could result in further scandals which result in loss of life and poor patient care.
Originality/value
– There are many papers on the issue of governance in the public sector in general and the NHS in particular. However, there is little published on the issue of financial governance in the NHS. Also of great value is the emphasis on strengthening financial governance in an era of austerity
Since the seminal article by Eisenhardt (1989), scholarly interest in case research has mushroomed in operations management and organization sciences. Volumes of methodological texts are matched with a massive amount of empirical research that seeks to develop case research as a scientific method. What is missing from this literature is a treatment of the methodological diversity of case research. In this paper, we seek to unveil this heterogeneity by describing three distinct methodological accounts of case study: theory generation, theory testing, and theory elaboration. Each approach has its own idiosyncrasies, in particular when it comes to the interplay between theory and empirics. A typical case research incorporates both existing theories and empirical data to varying degrees. In light of this heterogeneity, we re-interpret key aspects of extant contributions and discuss guidelines for future case research. We propose that ultimately, case research rigor is determined by attention to idiosyncrasy and transparency of reasoning. We conclude by arguing that we have witnessed in the past 25 years in organization research what amounts to the Renaissance of case research.
Relational contracting or collaborative governance has come to the forefront of scholarly studies of government privatization
efforts. The concept of trust (between contracting governments and their vendors) is rising in importance as one of the central
tenets of this type of governance. What is largely understudied in the midst of this increasing attention to the topic is
identifying how and under what conditions trust is formed and sustained. Borrowing from economic, organizational, sociological,
and management theories, we develop competing hypotheses to examine what determines the extent of trust contracting governments
display toward their service providers. Our findings suggest that local governments tend to place more confidence in their
vendors’ faithfulness and honesty when their contracting partners are from the same sector (i.e., other governmental units),
had known reputations prior to the relationship, have strong community ties, and perform their tasks well. Interestingly,
several economic theory-based explanations—rational choice and game theory, social exchange theory, and transaction cost economics—find
only limited support.
This study tests a central proposition of institutional theory, that organizational isomorphism increases organizational legitimacy. Results show that isomorphism in the strategies of commercial banks is related to legitimacy conferred by bank regulators and the media, even in the presence of organizational age, size, and performance.
Argues that the formal structure of many organizations in post-industrial society dramatically reflect the myths of their institutional environment instead of the demands of their work activities. The authors review prevailing theories of the origins of formal structures and the main problem which those theories confront -- namely, that their assumption that successful coordination and control of activity are responsible for the rise of modern formal organization is not substantiated by empirical evidence. Rather, there is a great gap between the formal structure and the informal practices that govern actual work activities. The authors present an alternative source for formal structures by suggesting that myths embedded in the institutional environment help to explain the adoption of formal structures. Earlier sources understood bureaucratization as emanating from the rationalization of the workplace. Nevertheless, the observation that some formal practices are not followed in favor of other unofficial ones indicates that not all formal structures advance efficiency as a rationalized system would require. Therefore another source of legitimacy is required. This is found in conforming the organization's structure to that of the powerful myths that institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs become. (CAR)
The complexity of political, regulatory, and technological changes confronting most organizations has made radical organizational change and adaptation a central research issue. This article sets out a framework for understanding organizational changes from the perspective of neo-institutional theory. The principal theoretical issue addressed in the article is the interaction of organizational context and organizational action. The article examines the processes by which individual organizations retain, adopt, and discard templates for organizing, given the institutionalized nature of organizational fields.
This article develops several frameworks for the analysis of supply strategies employed for public sector contracts on the basis of a review of the literature on public procurement and supply management. Three approaches to public procurement are identified. Current UK government policy and European Union Directives emphasise the commercial and regulatory strands. However, there is a need to recognise the importance of the socio-economic strand of public procurement. A range of supply management strategies are then explored, which are distinguished by four criteria: map of the actors; information sharing; features of the relationship; and sharing of risks and rewards. The final section of the paper analyses a sample of contracts from Government Purchasing Agency (Northern Ireland) (GPA) and the then Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). Whilst the more commercially or regulatory oriented contracts are found to employ relatively simple, dyadic strategies involving open competitive tendering, more complex supply chain management or network strategies are found in relation to contracts where socio-economic goals are of primary importance.
The focus of this paper is to examine the responses to institutional isomorphism in one area of the public sector - universities. As an example, one particular organizational practice is examined - performance appraisal - and its implications for one group of professionals - academics. In doing so, some of the sources of variation in responses to institutional pressures are illustrated and the strategies of resistance actors engage in to resist such pressures. It is suggested that the concept of institutional logic is an important element in influencing responses to isomorphism, providing a repertoire of beliefs with which to contest concepts of legitimacy.
Collaborative procurement is increasingly on the policy agenda in many countries, yet problems with collaboration occur. This article adopts a relational theory perspective to explore the enablers of and barriers to collaboration in purchasing, helping identify success factors. The authors adopted a mixed qualitative/quantitative methodology and interviewed 51 senior staffers in the United Kingdom. They found that collaborative public procurement is hindered by local politics and differing priorities, supplier resistance, reliance on suppliers for data, and a lack of common coding systems. Enabling factors for collaborating with local governments include dealing with local issues and buying from small and medium-sized enterprises. For health care providers, important themes are product innovation and ensuring supply. The authors develop a list of enabling factors and show their effect on collaboration success. This may assist policy makers in identifying areas of guidance and help practitioners prevent
Organizations are increasingly subject to conflicting demands imposed by their institutional environments. This makes compliance impossible to achieve, because satisfying some demands requires defying others. Prior work simply suggests that organizations develop strategic responses in such situations. Our key contribution is to provide a more precise model of organizational responses that takes into account intraorganizational political processes. As a result, we identify situations in which conflicting institutional demands may lead to organizational paralysis or breakup.