Co-designing an outcome-based public procurement. Early involvements, participations and orderings
| Published date | 05 November 2018 |
| Pages | 323-335 |
| Date | 05 November 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-11-2018-019 |
| Author | Juha Koivisto |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management,Government,Economics,Public finance/economics,Taxation/public revenue |
Co-designing an outcome-based
public procurement
Early involvements, participations
and orderings
Juha Koivisto
National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to increasethe understanding of involvement and participation in the co-design
of an outcome-basedprocurement.
Design/methodology/approach –First, it presents a relational model for performing co-design
activities.Second, it examines how the model might be applied in performing an outcome-basedprocurement.
Third, it presents a Web-based platformfor co-designing procurement, developed according to the relational
model. Fourth, it illustrates the model with a concrete procurement where the collaboration is mainly
performedface to face, but partly mediated by the Web-based platform.
Findings –As a conclusion, the relationalco-design model seems to work well in framing the core tasks of
an outcome-based procurement. In spite of that, the Web-based platformdoes not direct the user enough to
perform procurement.
Keywords Outcome-based public procurement
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
This paper tackles co-design of public procurement: the strategies of procurers for involving
suppliers and other actors in co-designing procurement and, on the other hand, the modes and
strategies of participation of suppliers in the co-design activities. Co-design is studied as a
practice where the actors of the procurement collective, their problems, goals, needs, roles,
tasks, means, etc. are negotiated and allocated, enacted and re-enacted. At the same time, the
object of procurement is negotiated and designed. The interest of the paper is in the Web-based
co-design and interaction, but to fully understand design activity that is mediated by virtual
environments, other modes and activities of participation might have to be studied as well.
The paper focuses especially on innovative public procurement (IPP) which is a loose
name for an outcome-based public procurement practice where, instead of the detailed
specifications of the object of procurement, the need of procurement is translated into
outcomes (qualities, effects, functionalities [...]) which are intended to achieve by the
procurement (Pelkonen and Valovirta, 2015;Aschhoff and Sofka, 2008;Edler and
Georghiou, 2007). When “buying outcomes”the potential suppliers are supposed to be able
to offer new, innovativesolutions that meet the needs of procurement.
IPP is noted globally as a promising tool in innovation policy. For example, it is one of
the key policy instruments ofEU commission to promote innovation, economic growth and
efficiency in the member states (Edquist and Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, 2012;Hommen and
Rolfstam, 2009;Rolfstam, 2005). IPP is expected to stimulate and generate new products,
technologies and services as well as cost savings and efficiency in the public sector and
simultaneouslyto create new business opportunitiesin the private sector (Wan, 2014).
Public
procurement
323
Journalof Public Procurement
Vol.18 No. 4, 2018
pp. 323-335
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1535-0118
DOI 10.1108/JOPP-11-2018-019
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