The rhetoric and reality of SMEfriendly procurement
Flynn, Anthony and Davis, Paul
(2015)
The rhetoric and reality of SMEfriendly procurement.
Public Money & Management, 35
(2).
pp. 111-118.
ISSN 1467-9302
Small- and medium-sized enterprise-friendly policies are central to public procurement. The extent to which these policies have been put into practice has gone largely untested. To address this gap, a survey of SMEs’ reported
experiences of policy implementation was conducted. Ireland served as the research context. Policy implementation was found to be limited. Company size
was a significant predictor of SMEs’ experiences, with micro-enterprises more negative than small or medium-sized enterprises. The authors explain the policy–
practice divide and make recommendations for improvement.