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The policy-practice divide and SME-friendly public procurement

Flynn, Anthony and Davis, Paul (2015) The policy-practice divide and SME-friendly public procurement. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 34 (3). pp. 559-578. ISSN 1472-3425

Abstract
Policies aimed at supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now standard in public procurement. Interest in these policies has yet to be matched by evidence on their implementation. Using an institutional perspective, we examine the extent to which public buyers have complied with SME-friendly policy recommendations. The results, which are based on the self-reported behaviours of 436 respondents, show that public buyers are complying with some but not all policy measures. Compliance is high on measures including open tendering, provision of feedback, and self-declaring financial capacity but low on measures which impose higher transaction costs, such as dividing contracts into lots and encouraging consortium bidding. Further analysis reveals that involvement in procurement, policy familiarity, and perceived importance of SME access act as positive predictors of compliance; being part of a semi-state/utility company, local authority or education institution has the opposite effect. Possibilities to increase compliance and bring about a more SME-friendly tendering system are discussed.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Public procurement; SMEs; Policy implementation; Compliance
Subjects:Business > Management
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > DCU Business School
Publisher:SAGE Publications
Official URL:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263774X15614667
Copyright Information:© 2015 SAGE
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. View License
Funders:DCU Business School
ID Code:21003
Deposited On:26 Jan 2016 14:49 by Anthony Flynn . Last Modified 14 Dec 2016 09:13
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