Formal Harmonisation, Informal Divergence: Administrative Culture in European Public Procurement

Ehsan Hatamian ()
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Ehsan Hatamian: University of Economics-Varna, Bulgaria

Business & Management Compass, 2025, issue 4, 18-43

Abstract: Purpose:This study investigates whetherthree decades of EU procurement harmonisationhavecreated unified administrative practices or whether document-observable patterns persist, demonstrating proof-of-concept for transforming procurement documentsinto strategic intelligence addressing cross-border B2B information asymmetry.Design/Methodology/Approach:This study analyses 2,370 software packages and information systems public procurement notices (CPV 48000000) from 17 European countries (2023-2024) using an automated Cultural Intelligence Extraction System (CIES), achieving95.4% expert validation accuracy. One hundred oneparameters across twelvedimensions are extracted. ANOVA with effect-size prioritisation (η²) and hierarchical multi-level clustering are employed.Findings:Document-observable patterns demonstrate extreme variation despiteharmonisation: 8.8× verbosity range, 10.1× technical specification range,5.6× scope range, withcountry explaining 50% of transparencyvariance (η² = 0.500). Multi-level clustering identifies five procurement strategies: Extreme Verbosity (Hungary), Multi-Domain Integration (Romania), Efficient Minimalism (a cross-regional cluster of Czech, Finland, and Switzerland), Western/Nordic Mainstream (comprising ninecountries), and Eastern/Southern Moderate Complexity (Bulgaria, Greece, and Poland).Economic analysis reveals a multi-lotvalue paradox: 20% of tenders capture 72% of contract value, witha 294-fold variation in value concentration.Research Implications:The resultsvalidate institutional theory's formal/informal distinction: EU directives harmoniselegal procedureswhile administrative practices diverge. Findings enable a document-to-intelligence transformation, providing suppliers with market selection guidance, authoritieswith efficiency benchmarking, and policymakers with frameworks to distinguishharmonisabledimensions from legitimate diversity.Originality/Value:Large-scale automated administrative pattern extraction demonstratingsystematic document-to-intelligence transformation forB2B strategic positioning. A hybrid LLM-rule-based systemwith anti-hallucination validation establishes a methodological blueprint for extracting procurement intelligence at scale.

Keywords: Publicprocurement; Administrative culture; Cross-nationalcomparison; European Union; Tenders electronic daily; Largelanguage models; Procurement harmonisation; Hierarchical clustering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C38 D02 H57 H83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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