PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND INNOVATION TOWARDS A TAXONOMY.pdfVIP

JOURNAL OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1, 17-56 2009 PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND INNOVATION: TOWARDS A TAXONOMY Leif Hommen and Max Rolfstam* ABSTRACT. The role of public procurement as an instrument to stimulate innovation has been increasingly emphasized by European policymakers. This perspective raises demand for the understanding of public procurement as an activity taking place in a variety of different procurement contexts and as an act of innovation. Accordingly, this paper proposes a taxonomy of public procurement and innovation, combining interactive learning and evolutionary perspectives on innovation processes to account for the broad range of different ‘interaction environments’ or ‘resource interfaces’ in which government or public sector organizations may act as lead users of innovations. On this basis, the taxonomy draws practical policy implications for the design of programmes and initiatives for the public procurement of innovations. INTRODUCTION Current policy and research literature on the public procurement of innovations lacks strategic perspective and attention to context. European Union (EU) policy-makers have increasingly encouraged “public procurement of innovative products and services” as a policy instrument appropriate to realizing the Lisbon and Barcelona goals for raising private sector RD investment in member states (European Council, 2005; National IST Research Directors Forum, 2006). Several EC-funded projects, as well as individual national authorities, have specified principles, models, and examples of “best practice” (Edler et al., 2005