P17 Public Procurement and Government Contracting in a Complex World

Panel chairs

Corresponding chair:

• Dr. Rianne Warsen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands  warsen@essb.eur.nl

Review group chair:

• Dr. Benjamin Brunjes, University of Washington, USA

Co-chairs:

• Dr. Jolien Grandia, Erasmus University Rotterdam
• Dr. Lachezar Anguelov, The Evergreen State College
• Dr. Monica Baraldi Borgida, Northeastern University
• Dr. Youngbok Ryu, Northeastern University

Procurement and contracting have become essential in public and non-profit organizations as ways to manage partnerships and realize multiple public values through the delivery of public goods and services. In the tradition of New Public Management, public procurement and contracting initially involved fulfilling an internal operational need. Nowadays, public procurement involves the collaborative creation of public value, including fostering civic engagement, addressing socioeconomic equity issues, and promoting sustainability. This shift has implications for public procurement and contracting processes, altering the ways public buyers and sellers interact, work to create public value, and navigate hybrid governance and management structures. 

In this panel, we welcome papers that investigate public procurement and contracting. Of particular interest are papers on collaborative public procurement, relational contracting, and the use of procurement as a tool for civic engagement, and contracting for social outcomes (such as equity and sustainability). We welcome theoretical and empirical papers from all disciplines and encourage a diversity of methodologies ranging from systematic literature reviews to empirical qualitative and quantitative studies. We welcome submissions on questions that include (or explore) but are not limited to:

• The changing nature of procurement and contracting practices in public organizations worldwide, including topics such as shifting central values, process changes, the use of e-procurement, artificial intelligence, and fintech.
• The ways procurement and contracting have affected public organizations and their partners, including organizational behavior, power dynamics, political influence, accountability, and performance assessment.
• The management of cross-sectoral partnerships, including contracts and negotiations between governments and their public, private, and nonprofit partners.
• Sustainable and green procurement, including research investigating how governments purchase in ways that represent the interests of future generations and the environment.
• Equity in public procurement and contracting, including programs benefiting small or disadvantaged businesses, the involvement of individuals with limited access to the labor market, and fair and equitable working conditions along the supply chain.
• The drivers and barriers to successful contracting, procurement, and (public-private) partnerships between governments, businesses, and nonprofits.
• The design and management of public procurement processes and contracts to govern collaboration between buyers and sellers, with a specific focus on recent developments, such as the involvement of citizens in public contracting.
• The skills and capacities of government procurement and contract managers required for effective contract management and partnerships.
• Papers that advance on existing theoretical work, including predominant theories (transactions costs economics, agency theory, resource dependence, etc.) or identify new theories to help explain aspects of public procurement and contracting.

Authors will present accepted papers in thematic panel sessions, and discussants will be appointed to ensure constructive and relevant feedback. Panel session chairs will also formulate more overarching insights and challenges to broader discussions around these main categories and themes. We plan to explore opportunities for a special issue in a public management or public procurement journal, and will connect with the ASPA Section on Procurement and Contract Management (SPCM) to strengthen broader collaboration.