Abstract
This article examines the perspectives of immigrant entrepreneurs on the barriers they face regarding their inclusion in public procurement in Sweden through the so-called supplier diversity programs. Drawing upon modern stakeholder theory and transaction cost economics, this study aims to identify potential barriers such entrepreneurs face in succeeding as suppliers to the public sector. Data were collected through interviews with immigrant entrepreneurs who had experience with the public procurement tender process in Sweden. The results reveal that immigrant entrepreneurs doing business with public procurement face several barriers, ranging from economic to social ones such as information, advertising, human resources, and undercapitalization. The interviewees believe that such barriers weaken their performance and hinder their success in public procurement tenders. When it comes to supplier diversity programs, the entrepreneurs under study were either unaware of such programs in public procurement in Sweden or did not believe in their effectiveness.
Highlights
Prior work on entrepreneurship and public policy shows that governments in all societies use a range of direct and indirect policies to stimulate productive entrepreneurship among minorities such as immigrants [1,2,3,4]
This study found there is no established supplier diversity or programs in place to advance Swedish public procurement and that public procurement is reflected in the social clauses of contracts and tenders
The second part is a categorization of the barriers as well as awareness of social issues they identified during the interviews with regard to public procurement tenders
Summary
Prior work on entrepreneurship and public policy shows that governments in all societies use a range of direct and indirect policies to stimulate productive entrepreneurship among minorities such as immigrants [1,2,3,4]. Such policies are believed to contribute to economic growth and employment [5,6,7,8,9] and have non-economic implications by addressing sustainable development [10] or taking action against social exclusion [11,12,13,14]. On the other hand, identifying and exploiting business opportunities in the public sector is an influential factor for immigrant entrepreneurs to expand out of their traditional low value-added and small-scale activities, giving them the opportunity to contribute to society on a larger scale
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