Learning to do good: developing capabilities to deliver social value from public procurement within English public authorities

Purpose: To explore how social procurement-related capabilities might be developed within public authorities.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Qualitative research, based upon an inductive research design, leading to a model to inform future research and practice.

Findings: Within the context of a ‘disconnected and nascent institutional field of practice’ (Loosemore et al., 2023), the research generated rich data illustrating how certain English public authorities have developed relatively mature social procurement capabilities and applied them within the procurement process. The former included the appointment of ‘champions’; founding of groups/units; training, using webinars, online resources, and case studies; ‘toolkits’, including policy documents, process guidance and measurement tools; and networking. The latter included consultation with social value recipients and close engagement with both internal stakeholders and suppliers. The research also revealed the internal political skills of ‘champions’, as social procurement challenges incumbent logics regarding procurement objectives and practices.

Originality: The paper contributes to the literature by analysing social procurement from the largely overlooked resource-based perspective, by providing rich data on buy-side practice, usefully adding to the literature’s emerging ‘practice theme’, and by offering guidance to buy-side managers within public authorities.