Title: Public e-procurement impacts in small- and medium-enterprises

Authors: Teresa Fernandes; Vítor Vieira

Addresses: Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal ' Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal

Abstract: The European Union (EU) created directives to regulate the moving to full Public e-Procurement (Pe-P) for all public purchases by 2016. Despite the undisputable benefits, member states are lagging behind on this paradigm shift. Also Pe-P's scholarly evaluation and theoretical knowledge behind it are still very limited. This paper makes a contribution to the literature gap related to Pe-P's impacts providing preliminary evidence of its adoption in Portugal. Following a case-based approach involving interviews with managers from the Portuguese construction sector, our study aims to understand Pe-P's implementation benefits and barriers in small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs). Results provide relevant information regarding factors affecting Pe-P's adoption forecasting implications for private firms, platform providers and policy makers in the 2016 full moving to Pe-P's throughout the EU.

Keywords: e-procurement; public e-procurement; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; adoption; benefits; barriers; electronic procurement; public procurement; European Union; EU directives; Portugal; construction industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2015.070904

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2015 Vol.8 No.5, pp.587 - 607

Received: 24 May 2014
Accepted: 26 Jul 2014
Published online: 31 Jul 2015 *

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