Hoezen, M and Doree, A (2008) First Dutch competitive dialogue projects: A procurement route caught between competition and collaboration. In: Dainty, A (ed.) Proceedings of 24th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2008, Cardiff, UK.
Abstract
In 2004 the competitive dialogue (CD) was introduced by the European Parliament and the Council. It was presented as a public sector procurement procedure for particularly complex contracts. The purpose of CD is to provide the public client with a flexible procedure to enable a discussion concerning all aspects of the contract with several contenders - to identify and define the means best suited to meeting its objectives - in an intervening stage between the tender announcement and the submission of final tenders. The discussions during the drafting of the CD procedure pivoted around transparent trust based collaboration, preserving fair competition and providing stimulus for innovation. This paper presents the first results of an evaluation study of 15 CD projects (partly still ongoing) in the realm of construction. The findings indicate that clients as well as contenders struggle with a number of practical issues related to the organisation of the dialogue. Furthermore, both struggle with the dynamics of risk avoidance pushing them towards detailing and high transaction costs. The research indicates that the competitive dialogue is an ambivalent procedure: both parties involved in the procedure balance between the wish to cooperate and the sensed need of keeping information to themselves because of competition. Nevertheless both see the potential of the CD procedure. Further research is needed to find out how the two principles of cooperation and competition during the CD procedure are related.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | collaboration; competitiveness; procurement |
| Index terms: | transaction cost, public sector procurement, competition, competitiveness, dynamics, collaboration, drafting, cooperation, public client |
| Subjects: | management, financial analysis, systems engineering, sociology, market analysis, contractual arrangements, technical documentation, psychology |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Organizational Design, Cost Management, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Stakeholder Management, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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