Search results

The aim is to examine the importance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) see in different network partners regarding successful tendering in public procurement, and whether this perception predicts the number of joint bids and wins.

The data were collected by an electronic questionnaire which was sent to the registered users of the leading electronic platform for public procurement in Finland. The data were analysed with statistical methods.

The findings suggest that a favourable perception of the importance of horizontal networks in public procurement is associated with a larger number of joint bids and better success in joint bidding. However, the results do not establish a positive correlation between vertical networks and consortium bidding.

The data were collected from a single EU country. Since the criteria for bidding consortia may vary between countries, different results might have been achieved from other countries.

SMEs should be encouraged to form bidding consortia and acquire related experience. Policymakers should minimise barriers to consortium bidding, e.g. by offering more information. They should also assess the merits of joint bidding because they rarely encourage SMEs to bid as a consortium.

Consortium bidding is a way of enhancing SMEs’ possibilities to participate in public tender contests, even in large contracts.

While consortium bidding has been recognised to enhance SMEs’ possibilities of participating in public procurement, there is limited research into how SMEs’ network collaborations relate to bidding as a consortium.

Public leadership literature has recognised the need for specific integrative leadership style in boundary-crossing collaborations, and it has been proposed as a new umbrella term for describing such leadership in boundary-crossing settings. The article reviews the research literature on integrative leadership and describes and analyses its contents by answering the following question: What are the characteristics of integrative public leadership?

To review the integrative leadership literature, a systematic literature review was conducted. The databases and search services included Web of Science, Andor provided by Tampere University, Scopus, Emerald, Business Source Ultimate (Ebsco) and ScienceDirect (Elsevier). The search terms were accordingly chosen as integrative leadership, integrative public leadership and public integrative leadership. From the hundreds of search hits 25 research articles were selected in the reviewing process to be further analysed through qualitative content analysis. Crosby and Bryson’s (2010) framework for understanding leadership and the creation and maintenance of cross-sector collaborations was used as a starting point for the categorisation.

The article presents an improved integrative leadership framework that helps to identify the factors shaping integrative leadership and visualises better the interconnection of structures, processes and participants, through which leadership is enacted in the collaborative network.

The article extends the knowledge on integrative public leadership and helps to direct future research.