Managing Interaction in Innovative Public Procurement : Developing competences for coping with relational frictions
Taheriruh, Matin (2026)
Tampere University
2026
Teknis-taloudellinen tohtoriohjelma - Doctoral Programme in Business and Technology Management
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Väitöspäivä
2026-02-06
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-4364-4
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-4364-4
Tiivistelmä
Public procurement increasingly has been leveraged as a strategic policy tool to stimulate innovation and address complex societal challenges. However, public organisations often struggle to realise procurement’s innovation potential due to institutional constraints, standardised procedures and competence gaps. This dissertation examines how public organisations integrate interaction with suppliers into innovative public procurement and investigates the factors that enable, constrain or shape their responses to emerging challenges. It focusses on how interaction—dynamic exchange and collaboration between public buyers and suppliers—unfolds in practice through compliance behaviours, relational frictions and competence development.
The first research theme, ‘Challenges of Integrating Interaction’, explores why procurement systems often resist meaningful engagement with suppliers. The first article investigates how public organisations respond to innovation-oriented procurement policies, revealing patterns of symbolic compliance through policy–practice and means–ends decoupling. It identifies external (institutional) and internal (efficiency-related) barriers that prevent alignment with policy goals and hinder genuine interaction. Building on this, the second article conceptualises relational friction as tension that arises when interactive approaches are introduced into standardised procurement systems. It analyses how frictions manifest across activity links, resource ties and actor bonds, and examines how these frictions are managed through coping strategies and how they cascade across organisational boundaries.
The second research theme, ‘Coping with the Challenges of Integrating Interaction’, shifts the focus to how organisations respond to these challenges. The third article addresses the enabling side of interaction by developing a relational and network-based framework of procurement competences—procedural, relational and enabling—as well as analysing how these competences are developed both directly (through internal learning) and indirectly (through interorganisational collaboration with suppliers and other stakeholders).
Together, the three articles respond to four interlinked research questions: (1) What specific aspects of procurement hinder interaction? (2) How can the emergence of relational frictions be conceptualised? (3) What mechanisms do organisations use to avoid such frictions? (4) What activities and competences are needed to manage frictions? The dissertation contributes to institutional theory, the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) perspective, and public procurement literature by conceptualising interaction as a systemic, relational and competence-dependent process. Practically, the findings offer insights into how public organisations can design procurement systems and build networked capabilities to better navigate institutional complexity and enable interactive innovation procurement.
The first research theme, ‘Challenges of Integrating Interaction’, explores why procurement systems often resist meaningful engagement with suppliers. The first article investigates how public organisations respond to innovation-oriented procurement policies, revealing patterns of symbolic compliance through policy–practice and means–ends decoupling. It identifies external (institutional) and internal (efficiency-related) barriers that prevent alignment with policy goals and hinder genuine interaction. Building on this, the second article conceptualises relational friction as tension that arises when interactive approaches are introduced into standardised procurement systems. It analyses how frictions manifest across activity links, resource ties and actor bonds, and examines how these frictions are managed through coping strategies and how they cascade across organisational boundaries.
The second research theme, ‘Coping with the Challenges of Integrating Interaction’, shifts the focus to how organisations respond to these challenges. The third article addresses the enabling side of interaction by developing a relational and network-based framework of procurement competences—procedural, relational and enabling—as well as analysing how these competences are developed both directly (through internal learning) and indirectly (through interorganisational collaboration with suppliers and other stakeholders).
Together, the three articles respond to four interlinked research questions: (1) What specific aspects of procurement hinder interaction? (2) How can the emergence of relational frictions be conceptualised? (3) What mechanisms do organisations use to avoid such frictions? (4) What activities and competences are needed to manage frictions? The dissertation contributes to institutional theory, the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) perspective, and public procurement literature by conceptualising interaction as a systemic, relational and competence-dependent process. Practically, the findings offer insights into how public organisations can design procurement systems and build networked capabilities to better navigate institutional complexity and enable interactive innovation procurement.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [5267]