A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

Isabel Ferreira and Luís Alfredo Amaral
The bibliographical research took place through the combination of the following keywords: public
value; public procurement and public eProcurement. The selection of articles was done through the
existence of these words in the title and/or in the abstract. Through reading the abstracts, taking the
criteria of objectivity and clarification with regard to the terms of the subject as a reference, were
identified the articles to, subsequently, be analysed in full text. The bibliographical research took place
through Scopus, Google Scholar, ISI Web of knowledge.
As a result, we present the different approaches found in literature, presenting a wide overview of the
phenomenon public eProcurement, which should not be regarded as only another more project of
technology, but as an opportunity for change organizational and territorial development, namely for
local and intermunicipal communities. Therefore, are presented recommendations focusing on the
importance of governments and public entities transformation, tapping the ICT’s potential, through the
services’ design based on a co-creation process, pursuing the transparency, collaboration and
participation.
Once the bibliographical research strategy implemented, in section 2 public value is defined, while
a public governance paradigm, and its implications in the way of thinking the State, the Government
activity and its public policy formulation and, consequently, in the way of structure the
public administration and its contractual activity. In the light of the public value, the government action
is interconnected and interdependent and, as such, it is demanded a more collaborative effort in the
pursuit of public value, where the information and communication technologies assume an important
role in the changing processes of the public bodies and services. These aspects are addressed in
section 3. In section 4 is discussed the strategic importance of the public procurement as a
public policy instrument. Were also focused the benefits related to the adoption of technological
solutions in public procurement practices. It is highlighted, thus, the importance of approaching this
phenomenon based on a multidisciplinary approach. Finally, it is launched to the debate aninsight of
what one considers to be the public value dynamic and the technology as an endogenous factor
at the level of the potential of territorial development through a local governance network, based on
the shared services design.
2. Public value, a governance paradigm
The changing processes of the public bodies and services, in recent years, have been influenced by
the model of the new public management. This model, described as post-bureaucratic or competitive,
based on the market, has a clear and dominant focus over the outcomes, around development targets
focused on the efficiency and economy, reflecting, thereby, the economic environment of the
governmental activity and the citizens view as costumers (O`Flynn, 2007).
It was due to the new public management that the public contractual activity has gained importance,
while an instrument of changing the fundamental nature of the public sector geared towards the
competitiveness and openess to the market and private initiative, in the ownership and/or public
services management (Hood, 1991; O`Flynn, 2007). Chalmer and Davis (2001) add that the
contractualismin Public Administration arises as a means of enforcing of the public policy. “Services”
are hired in the market to implement the policies, management of services is granted to the market,
as well as the ownership of some entities is privatized, until then mainly public, through the
liberalisation and privatization movement (Hood, 1991; Chalmer and Davis, 2001). The governmental
manager expresses the policy, establishes its performance standards and chooses, in the competitive
market, through the contractualisation, an agent who delivers the goods and services for the desired
outcome of the established policy to be achieved (Kelly, 1998). This is, therefore, a quite different
approach of the public policy implementation, when compared with the postulates of the bureaucratic
model, where public service meant public ownership of the entity which provided it (Hood, 1991). In
the new public management paradigm the contract arises, thus, as the most important mechanism of
the organisation of economic activity (Deakin and Michie, 1997 referenced by O`Flynn, 2007), whose
focus is in the economic efficiency (O`Flynn, 2007).
Nevertheless, the reforms in the light of the new public management produced some negative and
unexpected results, reflecting the attacked implementation of the private sector model and the lack of
attention paid to the interconnected and interdependent nature of the public sector (O`Flynn,
2007).More important than the failure of the governments’ competitive model is to understand that the
public management mechanisms do not only provide public services, also establishing deeper values
of governance (O`Flynn, 2007). The issues related to this trend have led to the increasing interest in
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