P23 Managing Across Boundaries: Innovative Approaches to Government Contracting and Public Procurement

Panel Members & Contact Details

Corresponding chair: Dr. Rianne Warsen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands:  warsen@essb.eur.nl 

Corresponding chair: Dr. Barbara Allen, Victoria University – Wellington, Australia: barbara.allen@vuw.ac.nz

Review group chair: Dr. Benjamin Brunjes, University of Washington, Australia: brunjes@uw.edu

Co-Chair: Dr. Lachezar Anguelov, The Evergreen State College: anguelol@evergreen.edu

Co-Chair: Dr. Jolien Grandia, Erasmus University Rotterdam: grandia@essb.eur.nl

Summary

This panel explores the significant role of public procurement and government contracting for creating public value through cross-sector collaboration, civic engagement, and sustainability. It invites papers on procurement-related topics, including but not limited to relational contracting, procurement as a tool for civic engagement, and contracting for social outcomes (e.g. equity and sustainability). Welcoming both theoretical and empirical approaches, the panel aims to advance understanding of how public organizations use procurement practices to manage partnerships and shape public sector performance.

Description

Procurement and contracting are essential as public organizations govern a complex web of cross-sector partnerships, structure complex relationships, and encourage social progress. In the tradition of New Public Management, public procurement and contracting initially involved fulfilling an internal need. Today, public procurement involves the collaborative creation of public value, including civic engagement, building social capital, and promoting sustainability. This shift has implications for the future of public management, as cross-sector partnerships have altered the ways public and private organizations create public value and navigate hybrid governance and management structures. 

In this panel we welcome papers that investigate how public organizations use public procurement and government contracting to manage beyond boundaries, particularly papers on collaborative public procurement, relational contracting, procurement as a tool for civic engagement, contracting for social outcomes (such as equity and sustainability), and the complex balance between privatization and the pursuit of the public interest. We welcome papers using a variety of theories and all sorts of methodologies, including quantitative and qualitative analyses, systematic literature reviews, and meta studies. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

• The changing nature of procurement and contracting practices in public organizations around the world, including topics such as shifting central values, process changes, the use of e-procurement, and innovations in public management.
• The ways procurement and contracting have affected public organizations and their partners, including organizational behavior, systemic wellbeing, power dynamics, political influence, accountability, and performance.
• The management of cross-sectoral partnerships, including contracts and negotiations between governments and their public, private, and nonprofit partners.
• Ethics in public contracting and procurement.
• 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, like the involvement of citizens in public contracting or the transition to a circular economy.
• The skills and capacities of procurement and contract managers required for effective contract management and partnerships.
• Equity in public procurement and contracting, including programs benefiting small or disadvantaged businesses, the involvement of people and firms with limited access to the labor market, and fair working conditions along the supply chain.
• Sustainable and green procurement, including research investigating how governments purchase in ways that represent the interests of future generations and the environment.
• 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 relevant feedback. Panel session chairs will also formulate more overarching insights and challenges to broader discussions around these main categories and themes. We will continue to explore opportunities for special issues in public management or public procurement journals, and build our connections with the ASPA Section.

Relevance

This panel addresses the conference’s call to move “Beyond Boundaries” by exploring how public procurement and contracting are transforming public management. In an era defined by fiscal constraints, digital disruption, and demands for social equity and sustainability, public procurement has evolved beyond its traditional transactional role. Instead, it has become a strategic lever through which governments co-create public value with private and nonprofit partners. It also has profound implications for the wellbeing of public organizations and will be highly influential in the development and success of the future of public management.

By examining topics such as relational contracting, sustainable procurement, civic engagement through purchasing, and equity-focused supplier diversity, this panel highlights how innovative contracting practices are reshaping the public sector’s capacity to respond to complex public management and public policy challenges. These shifts are particularly relevant to the conference theme’s emphasis on wellbeing and innovation: procurement increasingly serves as a mechanism to improve community outcomes, enhance employee and social wellbeing, and foster adaptive, resilient governance.

The panel also engages directly with questions about the future of public management, including emerging technologies like AI and e-procurement. Finally, by inviting scholarship that bridges established theories (e.g., transaction cost economics, resource dependence) and new paradigms of collaborative governance, the panel offers a rich space for theoretical innovation.

This focus on procurement as a site of experimentation and transformation makes the panel highly relevant to public management scholars seeking to understand—and shape—the next generation of government capacity, legitimacy, and impact.