Loosemore, M and Alkilani, S (2022) The collaborative challenges of social procurement. In: Tutesigensi, A and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 38th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2022, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK.
Abstract
Social procurement requires firms in the construction sector to form new collaborative relationships with organisations from government, third and community sectors which are poorly understood. Addressing a gap in social procurement research relating to the challenges of cross-sector collaboration, this paper applies theories of cross-sector collaboration and risk management to a content analysis of five focus groups undertaken with thirty-five stakeholders from the construction, government, not-for-profit, social enterprise, education, and employment sectors. Despite the collaborative underpinnings of social procurement, the results point to a low level of knowledge about what cross-sector collaboration involves and a lack of inclination to collaborate which is underpinned by a lack of collective vision for what the policies can achieve, a focus on downside risk rather than upside opportunity and resentment about the way the risks are being managed. It is concluded that project-based intermediaries such as the one studied here can help to mitigate perceived risks and maximise perceived opportunities for stakeholders involved in the implementation of social procurement policies.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | collaboration; diversity; risk management; social value; social procurement; social enterprise; corporate social responsibility. |
| Index terms: | social value, risk management, collaboration, intermediary, corporate social responsibility, construction sector, implementation, focus group, low level, social enterprise, procurement policy, profit, content analysis, employment |
| Subjects: | organization, business, risk assessment, data collection methods, economic analysis, data analysis and analytics, contractual arrangements, public policy, health safety and environment, management, industry analysis, measurement and scaling, sociology |
| Topics: | Governance, Procurement, Risk Management, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, Human Resources, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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