Which shape fits best? Designing the organizational form of local government procurement

Abstract

The way that public procurement activities are organized has an impact on the performance of public institutions. By reviewing the literature on public procurement organization dimensions this study offers a conceptual framework for public procurement organizational design, distinguishing between the macro, micro and process level dimensions. The framework is tested across the procurement departments of 15 local governments in Wales and Italy. We identify six alternative organizational configurations, differing in their level of centralization and their procurement status within the institution. Their suitability and potential for redesign depend on several internal and external contextual factors (goals, government decision, regulation, geographical environment) in line with the contingency view of organizational design. AbstractThe way that public procurement activities are organized has an impact on the performance of public institutions. By reviewing the literature on public procurement organization dimensions this study offers a conceptual framework for public procurement organizational design, distinguishing between the macro, micro and process level dimensions. The framework is tested across the procurement departments of 15 local governments in Wales and Italy. We identify six alternative organizational configurations, differing in their level of centralization and their procurement status within the institution. Their suitability and potential for redesign depend on several internal and external contextual factors (goals, government decision, regulation, geographical environment) in line with the contingency view of organizational design.

Implementing Government Policy in Supply Chains: An International Coproduction Study of Public Procurement

“…The complex nature and scale of public procurement present challenges for empirical research (Patrucco, Walker, Luzzini & Ronchi, ), and it is understudied empirically (Caldwell et al., ). To address this scale and complexity, the study used a sequential, exploratory, mixed‐methods design (Hanson, Creswell, Clark, Petska & Creswell, ), where senior public procurement practitioners facilitated access to other public procurement practitioners involved in small business engagement, and also to associations representing small businesses.…”

Organisational choices in public procurement: what can public management learn from the private sector?

“…A small number of these configurations and archetypes is conceptually based (e.g., Cousins et al, 2006;Kamann, 2007). However, most are empirical and contextualized to a specific unit of analysis -such as industries (e.g., Glock and Broens, 2011;Tolstoy and Axelsson, 2018), countries (e.g., Jia et al, 2014;Patrucco et al, 2018), or product categories (e.g., Luzzini et al, 2014), or linked to specific initiatives, such as collaborative procurement and group purchasing (e.g., Schotanaus and Telgen, 2007;Schotanaus et al, 2011) or innovation projects (e.g., Lakemond et al, 2001;Luzzini and Ronchi, 2011).…”

“…Scholars have debated that procurement organizations may vary from more straightforward to more complex structures (e.g., Patrucco et al, 2018), with these alternative configurations discriminated according to the level of centralization (e.g., McCue and Pitzer, 2000), the level of procurement responsibilities (e.g., Glock and Broens, 2013), the level of process formalization (e.g., Johnson et al, 2003) and the integration with other government functions (Glas et al, 2017).…”

“…Fostering efficiency in public spending, enhancing cooperation among different administration levels and establishing a common regulatory framework are the main reasons why public procurement reforms at EU and national level are being pursued (Piga and Tatrai 2017). To obtain the desired performance, the decision of how to organize procurement is critical (Patrucco et al, 2018). The combination of good internal procurement system design and flexibility in responding to external factors (e.g., regulatory changes) not only affects operational performance, but also contributes to the achievement of broader government objectives, such as social outcomes, environmental benefits and economic growth (Porter et al, 2011;Patrucco et al, 2017;Flynn, 2018).…”

Measurable Effects of Metropolitan Gas Purchasing Group in the Light of Gas Market Functioning in Poland

“…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.…”