Abstract
This article aims to investigate the factors influencing the success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in public procurement in the Visegrad Group Countries. According to the European Union, tools such as the division of contracts into smaller lots or the evaluation of tenders based on the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) increase the chances of SME’s winning contracts in public procurement. In particular, the evaluation of tenders based on MEAT rather than the lowest price is a tool favoring SMEs, as it boosts their innovative potential, which creates the preconditions for achieving the best value for taxpayers' money. By analyzing more than 150,000 contract award notices published in the Tenders Electronic Daily in 2019, we found a positive effect on SMEs' chances of winning a contract when using framework agreements or dividing contracts into smaller lots. Moreover, the results of multinomial logit regression suggest that the evaluation of tenders based on MEAT rather than lowest prices increases the chances of SMEs to win the contract by more than 50%. However, the findings that the share of SMEs in the total financial value of contracts is less than 20%, with SMEs winning more than 60% of all contracts, suggest that some obstacles of SMEs' access to public contracts, such as financial, administrative or technical complexity of projects may persist and require further research.
Highlights
This article aims to investigate the factors influencing the success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in public procurement in the Visegrad Group Countries
The needs of several contracting authorities accumulate into contracts which increase in size; it seems that it is the financial size or the excessive complexity of these contracts that may adversely affect the success of SMEs
The results suggest that there is still a disproportion between the number of contracts won by SMEs and the share of SMEs in the total financial value distributed through public procurement
Summary
This article aims to investigate the factors influencing the success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in public procurement in the Visegrad Group Countries. The new generation of EU procurement directives adopted in 2014 provides a framework for better value for money, as well as promoting better access to public procurement for SMEs through mechanisms such as framework agreements, dividing contracts into smaller lots or evaluating tenders using MEAT instead of the lowest price. The aim of this article is to examine the impact of selected determinants representing some elements of the procurement process on the chances of SMEs to win public contracts It is a tender evaluation based on MEAT, which is the center of our research, as the quality evaluation spurs the innovative potential of SMEs and creates the preconditions for obtaining the best value for money in public procurement.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
