Competitive dialogue in Norwegian public infrastructure projects

Wondimu, P A; Lohne, J and Lædre, O (2018) Competitive dialogue in Norwegian public infrastructure projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 144(10): 05018011, ISSN 0733-9364

Abstract

Competitive dialogue (CD) is a relatively new procurement procedure introduced in 2004 by the European Parliament for particularly complex contracts. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has limited experience with the procedure, but they are planning to use it in several future projects. Limited research was found concerning the practical issues of CD. This paper explores the experiences of Norwegian practitioners to identify such issues and suggests measures for the success of future projects using the procedure. In addition to a literature study, a document study and 22 semistructured in-depth interviews with key informants from six cases selected from the Norwegian public infrastructure projects were carried out. Both the client and the suppliers value the potential of CD. However, several challenges were identified, such as lack of practical experience with CD, ethical challenges, determining the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) criteria, evaluation based on the MEAT criteria, and varying market interest. This paper contributes to construction engineering and management practice to increase the understanding of CD by suggesting what kinds of measures ought to be taken for the success of future projects using the procedure.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: competitive dialogue; early contractor involvement; innovation; procurement procedure; public projects
Index terms: public infrastructure, construction engineering, interview, early contractor involvement, practitioner, management practice, public project
Subjects: contractual arrangements, data collection methods, practitioner, infrastructure and transport systems, engineering methods, management, infrastructure engineering
Topics: Roles and Professions, Procurement, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Engineering Principles
Descriptive scope: 2 PE

N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here