Abstract
Public organisations develop sustainable public procurement (SPP) policies to compel suppliers to contribute to societal goals. Studies show that the ability, motivation, and opportunity that procurers have to procure in a sustainable manner affect the uptake of SPP. Most studies into SPP examine these factors only in the context of one type of SPP (e.g., green procurement). The goal of this paper is therefore to examine the relationship between ability, motivation, and opportunity and six types of SPP: (1) green public procurement, (2) social return on investment, (3) circular economy, (4) bio-based public procurement, (5) innovation-oriented public procurement and (6) international social criteria. An online survey was administered amongst procurers working in Dutch public organisations. The research shows that ability, motivation, and opportunity affect Green Public Procurement (GPP). Opportunity did affect green public procurement, innovation-oriented public procurement and circular economy, but not the other types of SPP. We were unable to identify an antecedent of more social types of SPP in this research. This research shows that findings based on GPP cannot be directly generalized to other types of SPP, and that there is a need for research into the antecedents of social types of SPP.
Highlights
Around the world, public organisations have designed sustainable public procurement (SPP) policies to oblige suppliers to contribute to the achievement of their policy objectives [1,2]
The following research question has been formulated: If and how do the perceived ability, motivation, and opportunity to procure in a sustainable manner affect the implementation of the various types of SPP? To answer this question, a survey was administered amongst Dutch public procurers
The main research question was: Do the perceived ability, motivation, and opportunity to procure in a sustainable manner affect the implementation of the various types of SPP? To answer this question, a survey was administered amongst Dutch public procurers, measuring the impact of ability, motivation, and opportunity on various types of SPP (GPP, International Social Criteria (ISC), Circular Economy (CIE), BBPP, Innovation-oriented Public Procurement (IPP) and Social Return On Investment (SROI))
Summary
Public organisations have designed sustainable public procurement (SPP) policies to oblige suppliers to contribute to the achievement of their policy objectives [1,2]. The uptake and implementation of these SPP policies are the topic of a growing number of academic studies [7]. They show that the uptake and implementation of SPP varies greatly across countries, organisations, and projects [8,9]. One explanation for this is that inside the public organisations, changes have to be made and barriers removed, which does not always happen [10]. For example, showed that public procurers that are not affectively motivated to SPP, implement fewer SPP than public procurers that are affectively motivated [10]. Walker and Brammer [8], for example, explain that it helps if procurers work in an organisation with a climate that is supportive of change and doing something new
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