Innovation in Public Procurement: Terminology, Concepts, and Applications

Abstract

The growing awareness of public procurement as an innovation policy tool has recently sparked the interest of both policy makers and researchers. While an increasing amount of studies is being published every year, an overview of the field is missing. Researchers, practitioners and policy makers are often using ambiguous terms and have not yet reached consensus on a shared terminology and understanding of the concepts involved. For the purpose of establishing coherence, this article provides a structured review of the literature on innovation in public procurement. From categorizing publications based on innovation drivers, concepts, and research approaches, the emerging structure of the field is described and synthesized into a framework of innovation in public procurement. Our framework differentiates between literature streams on (1) innovations in the public procurement process, (2) innovation of public services by means of procurement, and (3) the use of public procurement as a tool for demand-side innovation policy-making. For each of these streams of literature, we identify different focus areas as well as research gaps and opportunities for future research. Based on analysis of existing research, the proposed framework provides for a clear understanding of the current state of the art, which benefits both researchers and practitioners within this field.