Competing agendas in public procurement: An empirical analysis of opportunities and limits in the UK for SMEs

David Pickernell*, Adrian Kay, Gary Packham, Christopher Miller

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    65 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Government procurement policy in the UK is an uneasy mixture of different policy legacies, where the dominant objectives of cost-efficiency and value for money compete with alternatives which emphasise public procurement as central to innovation policy and/or a critical demand-side instru- ment in local and regional economic development. Quantitative analysis of which types of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) benefit, and how, from different levels of government as a customer is, however, rare in the UK (and indeed more widely across the EU). Utilising data from the Federation of Small Businesses 2008 biannual survey, we address this important task. Results reveal different patterns of procurement depending on the territorial scale of government, in terms of both the innovativeness of SMEs supported through public procurement as well as demand-side contribu- tions to local and regional economic development, allowing us to judge future possible policy directions with regard to the use of public procurement.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)641-658
    Number of pages18
    JournalEnvironment and Planning C: Government and Policy
    Volume29
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

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