Systemic risk in major public contracts

Katherine Bloomfield, Terry Williams, Chris Bovis and Yasmin Merali

International Journal of Forecasting, 2019, vol. 35, issue 2, 667-676

Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach to the characterisation of “systemic risk” in the context of public sector procurement and contracting. We argue that contemporary risk management practices in project and programme management exhibit a number of limitations. This is particularly relevant to public sector contracting, which, the authors postulate, would benefit from more sophisticated practices that are capable of dealing with risk ‘systemicity’. Drawing on a sample of public sector procurement exercises commissioned by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), the paper presents a multi-method approach that aims to increase our understanding of complex outsourcing contracts. The results suggest a need for more appropriate methods of risk analysis, and discuss the practical implications.

Keywords: Projects; Contracts; Systemic risk; Public sector; Front-end; Outsourcing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:intfor:v:35:y:2019:i:2:p:667-676

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2018.10.005

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