To Örebro University

Purpose: The study investigates whether and how public procurement drives innovation, extending the notion of innovation to the supply chain and to the cascading of innovation throughout the supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach: For this embedded case study, relevant legislation was reviewed and data were collected using semi-structured interviews with key informants from the selected sectors.

Findings: In this work, factors affecting public procurement for innovation in two sectors in Finland, healthcare and energy, are identified. Using this information, supply chain management principles and information from revised EU directives on public procurement, insights into how innovation can be cascaded in a supply network are provided.

Research limitations/implications: The findings are based on the initial part of an ongoing longitudinal study, but limited since not all data points identified through the snowballing sampling were yet interviewed.

Practical implications: Identification of factors can aid policy-makers, procurers and suppliers in understanding the link between public procurement and innovation.

Social implications: The study raises awareness of the interlinkages in health and energy sectors between procurement processes and supply chains, and what actions organisations can take to promote innovative solutions, supporting smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Original/value: The study provides practitioners, policy-makers and researchers with insights on the issue of combining innovation and procurement.