New roles for end-users in innovative public procurement: case study on user engaging property procurement

Improving valued outcomes of public procurement lies in user and community co-production. Applying insight from network role theory, this case study tackles challenges faced by both procurer and supplier in interacting with diverse service end-users in various procurement situations. The findings are based on interview, participant observation, and documentation data from three innovative property procurement projects. We suggest four situation-specific roles end-users adopt: conventional, cooperative, collaborative, and controlling. The article reasserts the dispute of viewing end-user’s role only through interpretation of either private-sector consumer or public-sector citizen, while a mix of both views is needed.