On the contribution of public procurement to entrepreneurship and small business policy |
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Authors: | Lutz Preuss |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London , Egham Hill, Egham TW20 0EX, UK lutz.preuss@rhul.ac.uk |
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Abstract: | Public procurement in industrialized nations accounts for a significant share of gross domestic product; hence it is imperative for local, regional and national economic development to utilize this potential. However, previous discussions of entrepreneurship and small business policy have by and large marginalized public sector procurement. As a contribution to giving greater salience to the linkages between regional development, entrepreneurship and public procurement, this paper presents empirical results of a qualitative study into local government authorities in the United Kingdom. In particular, it draws out a range of enablers and barriers for sourcing from small- and medium-sized enterprises that were perceived by procurement managers. The focus on public sector procurement furthermore leads to a more systematic theoretical elaboration of entrepreneurship policy as being based on legal authority or the market or network effects from geographic proximity. |
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Keywords: | public procurement local government entrepreneurship policy small- and medium-sized enterprises small businesses |
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