ترویج بازارهای رقابتی: نقش تأمین تجهیزات عمومی

The study presented here examines how public procurement agencies address establishing and maintaining competitive markets; a topic still in its academic infancy. Cases are used to address impediments and improve understanding of strategic priorities in managing for competitive markets. Public policy academics have observed many competing policies in the wider public sector. Specifically, this paper identifies a need for research on supplier incentives at a market level, on the post contract management of suppliers and as an important sub-set, key supplier relationship management, along with professional development.

This paper discusses the role of public sector procurement agencies in influencing the development of competitive markets. Managing for competitive markets is an area that has been neglected in the procurement literature. However, at a recently organised international public procurement conference (Knight et al., 2003), the need to manage markets was deemed a major emerging issue. As there is so little guidance the aim of this paper is to bring together a number of themes that public procurement needs to address to become effective at managing markets for competition. The paper seeks to address the following research question: from a public procurement perspective, what issues need to be considered in managing markets for competitiveness? The paper starts with a literature review that identifies key issues in promoting competitive markets. The next section introduces the case methodology, and describes three cases, each with a summary of key findings. The discussion provides both case and cross case analysis. Finally, conclusions are presented, along with the limitations of the research and areas for future research.

The exploratory nature of this paper reflects the role of public procurement in promoting competitive markets being in its academic infancy. The themes drawn out in this paper make a contribution as there are few studies in this area, and yet the role is an important, emerging one for practitioners. This paper seeks to highlight key issues that may support public procurement decision-making in managing complex markets. We acknowledge the limitations of this study; it is a working paper setting out key issues that emerge from the literature and three cases, rather than attempting to further explore or empirically validate those themes. The nature of this field and its topicality mean that there is very little empirical work to draw upon. The cases have been used to present managing for competitive markets as addressing impediments and improving understanding of strategic priorities. Public policy academics have observed many competing policies in the wider public sector. Pursuing competitive markets is itself only one of many public procurement polices such as Value For Money, sustainability, etc. (Walker et al., 2004). This paper has aimed to set out the parameters and context of an under researched area. Therefore future research suggested by this paper includes exploring how public procurement can function at a market level. Specifically this paper identified a need for research on supplier incentives at a market level, on the post-contract management of suppliers and as an important sub-set, key supplier relationship management, along with professional development.