Granheimer, K; Gustavsson, T K and Eriksson, P E (2021) Public procurement of engineering services: Governance and control mechanisms. In: Scott, L and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 37th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-7 September 2021, Online Event, UK.
Abstract
Prior research has emphasized the importance of the early phases in construction projects. However, procuring engineering services for early phases is considered complex due to the high uncertainties and the information asymmetry favouring the service provider. This study explores public procurement of engineering services in the Swedish infrastructure sector, focusing on governance and control mechanisms. The purpose is to investigate the choice of governance and control mechanisms in engineering contracts from two perspectives, the public client's and the service providers. The findings are based on interviews with managers from the Swedish Transport Administration as well as from different engineering consulting companies. Findings indicate that the respondents from both sides seem to describe other choices and combinations of reward system and performance evaluation, compared to previous studies. This could be explained by the fact that the engineering contracts are less formalized than construction contracts in Sweden. This study shows that there are situations when clients have an information advantage in relation to their service suppliers and in-depth knowledge of the tasks procured, which affects the development of procurement strategies.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | engineering services; governance mechanisms; infrastructure projects; organizational control; public procurement. |
| Index terms: | interview, manager, governance, information asymmetry, organizational control, procurement strategy, Sweden, construction project, construction contract, reward system, infrastructure sector, infrastructure project, public client, performance evaluation |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, transaction economics, contract type, business, practitioner, contractual arrangements, performance measurement, management, Geography, production management, sociology, industry analysis, infrastructure and transport systems |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context, Business Strategy, Governance, Procurement, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Quality Management, Human Resources, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
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