Social Public Procurement Research Articles

Bringing Social Procurement into Public Management Research

As the largest buyers in the economy, government have enormous purchasing power. Public procurement, therefore, can be leveraged for social outcomes, such as helping marginalized communities, and reducing negative environmental impacts. However, as yet, there is little understanding about the extent of social procurement research, how it has evolved, and how public management scholarship has assessed it. We provide a framework for organizing research around social public procurement. We conduct a systematic review of research on social public procurement to understand the state of knowledge and identify critical gaps and research opportunities for public managers and public management scholars.

Analysis of the Situation of Social Public Procurement of Works at the Valencian Region (Spain)

Construction is one of the most important sectors in terms of economic volume and number of employees. It represents approximately 10% of the Gross Domestic Product of the European Union and employs 7% of its total labour force. In a construction project, procurement is employed in many of the stages, so it can constitute an adequate mechanism to integrate sustainability initiatives. Research concerning economic aspects in procurement has always been present in the construction sector, whereas research related to environmental aspects has been gaining attention in the last years. Nevertheless, social aspects are still not very present in the literature on public procurement. The main objective of this research is to analyse the use of social criteria in public tendering processes of public works in the Valencian region of Spain. The results show that Valencian public entities include social criteria for the 11.7% of adjudicated public works. This value is very low when compared with other studies developed in different countries worldwide. Social criteria, just like in other cases, are used more frequently the larger the budget of the project and the longer the execution time. The average weight of social criteria for the tendering process is low (7.0 out of 100), although entities that usually consider these criteria are aware of their importance and give them a higher weight, in global terms.

Debate: Impact measurement and social public procurement

"Debate: Impact measurement and social public procurement." Public Money & Management, 38(5), pp. 391–392

Społeczne zamówienia publiczne

Goal – Public contracts are contracts for consideration concluded between the purchaser and the contractor, that apply to the supply, services, and construction work. The article presents the concept and genesis of social public procurement, their development in the Polish public procurement system and the use of social clauses by awarding entities. Research methodology – The literature has been reviewed and the analysis of legal provisions was used. At the same time, a partial analysis of the use of social clauses was carried out based on the NIK report. Score – It was emphasized that promoting social orders does not bring the desired results to date. Originality /value – Social public procurement can significantly affect entrepreneurs who employ people with disabilities or employ people who are members of socially marginalized groups.

Empirical Evidence on the Effectiveness of Social Public Procurement Policy: The Case of the Swiss Apprenticeship Training System

AbstractIn this paper, we assess the effectiveness of a social public procurement policy in Switzerland that gives firms that train apprentices a preferential treatment. We estimate the effectiveness of this social procurement policy on a firm's training participation, training intensity, and training quality using information from a representative and large firm survey. The results show that the policy increases the number of training firms, and does not affect training quality negatively. However, the effect is limited in size, as only small firms and firms operating in sectors where public procurement represents a large share of the business, are affected positively.

Empirical Evidence on the Effectiveness of Social Public Procurement Policy: The Case of the Swiss Apprenticeship Training System

In this paper we assess the effectiveness of a social public procurement policy in Switzerland that gives firms that train apprentices a preferential treatment. We estimate the effectiveness of this social procurement policy on a firm's training participation, training intensity, and training quality using information from a representative and large firm survey. The results show that the policy increases the number of training firms, and does not affect training quality negatively. However, the effect is limited in size, as only small firms and firms operating in sectors where public procurement represents a large share of the business, are affected positively.

Empirical Evidence on the Effectiveness of Social Public Procurement Policy: The Case of the Swiss Apprenticeship Training System

Empirical Evidence on the Effectiveness of Social Public Procurement Policy: The Case of the Swiss Apprenticeship Training System

Social Public Procurement: Corporate Responsibility Without Regulation

The growing perception in the developed world that multi-national corporations conduct social and environmental exploitation abroad raises numerous questions about corporate social responsibility. That those corporations would not get away with, nor probably even attempt, such exploitation in their home countries complicates the dialogue: to what extent are the home governments responsible for ensuring their native corporations act responsibly abroad? The E.U. answers this question affirmatively and takes an active role in promoting social responsibility. One major mechanism they use is socially responsible public procurement, which incentivizes good social outcomes by awarding contracts based, in part, on social criteria. Because the annual public procurement budget in the E.U. hovers around €1 trillion, this offers an incredibly powerful tool for positive change. This Essay explores the E.U.’s framework for achieving these social goals and suggests that the U.S. should undertake many of the same policies. In the U.S., public procurement accounts for over 10% of GDP. Therefore, using the marketplace rather than regulation to achieve positive change offers a powerful tool: the upside of social good without the downside of increased regulatory burden.

Where is corporate social responsibility actually heading?

A discrepancy is indicated between the emergence of environmentalism and the sustainability agenda, and accomplished environmental improvements. Despite the increasing number of success stories, environmental and social progress is not keeping up to the same advancement pace. The enormous information asymmetries among actors in society and the dangerous circularity of rating and selection of firms may well obstruct the changing of the State of the World. Sustainability indexes may lead to investments in twice as much greenhouse gas emissions per turnover which is probably the opposite of what the environmental conscious individual investors have in mind. Thus, actions that diminish the need for image building are suggested. The scope of corporate environmental and social responsibility should be extended to better coincide with the actor who has the largest potentials to make a change, including governmental bodies by strengthened environmental and social public procurement – that is to Walk the Talk themselves.