A growing amount of (semi) public organizations in the Netherlands write tenders with mandatory social conditions. It is important for SMEs to focus on social procurement in their business strategy. SMEs should be proactive and try to affect the conditions (semi) public organizations write in their tenders. On the other hand, (semi) public organizations should facilitate SMEs by developing transparent procurement processes and by organizing information meetings with SMEs. The most important factor for an effective social procurement procedure seems to be the dialogue between SMEs, purchasers and the persons responsible for matching target groups. Because it seems easier for SMEs to meet social procurement conditions if they cooperate with other SMEs and set up labour pools, we performed an exploratory research on the formation of labour pools. The labour pools can be set up by SMEs in the same branch or in a cooperation chain. Our research shows that entrepreneurs require a lot of perseverance in developing a labour pool. It also appears that labour pools without commitment of public authorities are not effective.
The presentation covers recent and current procurement management team research activities at Hanze university, notably SME procurement, sustainable procurement, and innovation procurement.
from the article: Supply chain integration intensifies through digitalisation of business administration (BA) processes. However, it is unclear whether differences exist between the public and private sector in development or implementation of supply chain integration solutions. The large scope of the supply chain, being a large network of companies working together towards one end product, is limited for this study to e-procurement processes. The related software solutions are included. This study starts with a theoretical snapshot of e-procurement. This is followed by a process viewpoint of the e-procurement function. Next five different forms of e-procurement cooperation are presented seen from an actors network viewpoint. The utilisation of these forms create insight in the differences between the public and private sector in their e-procurement adoption behaviour. The process maturity scan results shows that the process maturity between the two sectors is comparable. However, this only explains the differences per sector concerning their ability to improve and control their processes in general. For reliability, this step is followed by three in-depth interviews combined with analyses of recent e-procurement behaviour studies involving the two sectors. The final step compares the maturity outcome with the in-depth data results. Both sectors show certain forms of coalition in the e-procurement. Where ‘competition’ is a construct that drives the private sector, the public sector has cost control as a driver towards collaboration and integration within e-procurement. This can only partially be explained by the past European financial crises. Differences are found in digital collaboration and the integration itself. The most important difference lies in the European tendering procedure to which the public sector (unlike the private) is restricted. In nature an e-procurement design and development project does not fit the prescribed procedures.
The COVID19 pandemic highlighted the vulnerability in supply chain networks in the healthcare sector and the tremendous waste problem of disposable healthcare products, such as isolation gowns. Single-use disposable isolation gowns cause great ecological impact. Reusable gowns can potentially reduce climate impacts and improve the resilience of healthcare systems by ensuring a steady supply in times of high demand. However, scaling reusable, circular isolation gowns in healthcare organizations is not straightforward. It is impeded by economic barriers – such as servicing costs for each use – and logistic and hygiene barriers, as processes for transport, storage and safety need to be (re)designed. Healthcare professionals (e.g. purchasing managers) lack complete information about social, economic and ecological costs, the true cost of products, to make informed circular purchasing decisions. Additionally, the residual value of materials recovered from circular products is overlooked and should be factored into purchasing decisions. To facilitate the transition to circular procurement in healthcare, purchasing managers need more fine-grained, dynamic information on true costs. Our RAAK Publiek proposal (MODLI) addresses a problem that purchasing managers face – making purchasing decisions that factor in social, economic and ecological costs and future benefits from recovered materials. Building on an existing consortium that developed a reusable and recyclable isolation gown, we design and develop an open-source decision-support tool to inform circular procurement in healthcare organizations and simulate various purchasing options of non-circular and circular products, including products from circular cascades. Circular procurement is considered a key driver in the transition to a circular economy as it contributes to closing energy and material loops and minimizes negative impacts and waste throughout entire product lifecycles. MODLI aims to support circular procurement policies in healthcare organizations by providing dynamic information for circular procurement decision making.
De doelstelling van dit project is om Nederlandse sociale MKB-bedrijven te helpen bij het verkrijgen van (meer/betere) opdrachten in aanbestedingstrajecten, juist op basis van de social impact die deze bedrijven maken (impact op de samenleving, bijvoorbeeld door de arbeidsparticipatie van mensen met een afstand tot de arbeidsmarkt te stimuleren). Tegelijkertijd beogen we aanbestedende diensten te helpen social impact beter mee te nemen als positieve factor in aanbestedingen. We gaan een vergelijking maken tussen Nederland en België, waar een aparte rechtsvorm voor sociale ondernemingen bestaat (i.t.t. in NL), en dezelfde Europese aanbestedingsrichtlijn geldt. We willen vooral meer inzicht krijgen in de manier waarop sociale ondernemingen in beide landen hun social impact gebruiken om (meer/betere) opdrachten te krijgen; en de manier waarop aanbestedende diensten in beide landen social impact in opdrachtverstrekking en voorkeursbeleid voor sociale ondernemingen verwerken. Naast dossieronderzoek gaan we interviews houden met sociale ondernemingen, aanbestedende diensten en adviesbureaus op het terrein van aanbesteden en social impact. Bij de uitvoering van het onderzoek worden studenten van de opleidingen HBO Rechten en SJD ingezet, in het kader van de minor Bedrijfsjurist en afstuderen. De opgedane kennis wordt o.a. ingebracht bij de (door)ontwikkeling van de Innovatiewerkplaats ‘Krachtig MKB’. Deze postdoc aanvraag wordt ingediend vanuit het Marian van Os Centrum voor Ondernemerschap (MvOCvO) van de Hanzehogeschool Groningen (HG) en sluit aan bij eerder onderzoek van dit centrum. Ondernemerschap is één van de drie speerpunten van de HG. Sociaal Ondernemerschap is als thema in de Roadmap en de onderzoeksvisie van het MvOCvO opgenomen; het sluit aan bij de HBO-onderzoeksagenda Onderzoek met impact en bovendien draagt het bij aan de belangrijkste doelstellingen van de Noordelijke Innovatie Agenda. Van de 14 lectoraten binnen het MvOCvO zijn er zes direct betrokken bij het thema sociaal ondernemerschap, als mede-penvoerder van een projectaanvraag, of als kennispartner.
