Introduction: Procuring complex performance: Studies of innovation in product-service management

In this introduction we take as our starting point the real-life problems and issues raised in procuring complex performance. Specifi cally, we develop a four-part framework: the defi ciencies in existing procurement, the need for managing for innovation, how to manage what are often established and locked-in markets of one, and fi nally the recurrent theme of complexity. It is particularly in the complexity frame that we bring together the common theme of managing across time in complex performance, what we term temporal dynamics. Our intention is to create a defi nition of the problem space, culminating in a defi nition of procuring complex performance (PCP).