The purchasing process in public procurement

This chapter examines the purchasing process in public procurement in public sector organizations through specific examples from an international study (Harland et al. 2004). The objective is to examine specific (and core) purchasing practices across the cases, and explore the linkages between these purchasing processes and wider outcomes. Most accounts of the purchasing process focus on the firm, and how it fulfils its own processes. In this chapter we are also concerned with how public procurement processes impact on suppliers and markets. Therefore we will analyse practices in terms of how they translate for suppliers, effectively assessing how good the customer is to do business with.