Critical success factors for public procurement of innovative solutions in Central Europe: Empirical study

Abstract

This article aims to evaluate critical success factors in the use of the Public Procurement for Innovations (PPI) concept. The first part of the article deals with a systematic research literature review on the topic of critical success factors for PPI. In the second part, the authors present empirical research conducted as an add-on to the projects PPI2Innovate and RI2integrate within the Europe and Interreg Danube programs. These projects (whose research team included one of the authors of this paper) analyzed the use of the PPI concept in the EU. The authors approached the teams of experts formed in six countries for the purpose of these two projects to make a list of critical success factors, engaging the Delphi method, for the implementation of projects using the PPI method. Sixteen most frequently recurring critical success factors were chosen for further evaluation. These critical factors were then evaluated on a Likert scale in terms of their significance. This is followed by a discussion of the results of the critical factors identified within the systematic literature review with regards to other authors and existing research. In the final part of the article, possible solutions based on experience from pilot projects are proposed to strengthen the usability of the PPI concept. When comparing the key success factors resulting from the literature review with those identified within the expert research, it is apparent that they are mostly the same, although there are slight differences. The expert research identified the sharing of best practices and model projects in the country as additional key success factors.