Buying what matters: towards a value model allowing to implement policy preference in public procurement

Purpose The purpose of this study is to promote value as a core concept enabling innovative and socially responsible procurement. It suggests how organisations should analyse value from their own perspective and from that of their stakeholders and users, to keep pace with the expectations of today's society. Design/methodology/approach The study examines developments in recent legislation and case law of the EU as well as observed good practice. It builds on these bases and on economic and behavioural approaches to define value and embed it in the awarding framework of public contracts. Findings While traditional “prescriptive” approaches face legality and efficiency challenges as buyers must take into account societal considerations, this change of perspective allows to pursue policies in a more transparent and defendable manner. The study proposes a simple value model as a framework for such analysis. Research limitations/implications The study opens a field for further qualitative and comparative research, measuring or determining how active implementation of value approaches improve efficiency and/or lead to better fulfilment of procurement and policy objectives. Practical implications Reasoning in terms of value can be further developed into enabling measures promoting sustainable sourcing, support of local and small businesses and bonds with communities. Social implications An explicit introduction of value as a procurement enabler should help organisations to implement their sustainability policies and to better use public procurement as a strategic instrument, and even as a driver of social innovation. Originality/value In spite of the pressing practical challenges related to value in public procurement, literature on this topic is scarce and has mostly tackled the problematics from a purely legal or theoretical point of view. This paper tends to address it from different and more practical perspectives, such as contribution of procurement to governance; linking public procurement and public policy; meaning of innovation from transaction (market) perspective and its implications for tendering.