Sandra Nuudi
Title: The Role of Central Procurement Agencies in Innovation Procurement: The Case of the Estonian State Shared Service Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Veiko Lember
Opponent: Dr. Margit Kirs
Defense: 9 June 2025
Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to find out what is the role of the central public procurement body in innovation procurements. As an example, the author has chosen the Estonian central procurement agency called the State Shared Service Centre (hereafter the SSSC). Firstly, the author gives an overview about the concept of innovation, its role in the public sector and how public procurement can be an instrument to promote innovation.Secondly, the author gives an overview about the innovation procurement and important factors in enabling innovation procurement. Introducing the basics of central procurement bodies and central procurement, the author wishes to know what the role of central procurement body in innovation procurements in the example of the SSSC is. In the empirical part of the thesis, the author uses a semi-structured interviews among the clients who have had an interaction with SSSC in 2024 to identify the role of the central public procurement body in innovation procurement. The empirical analysis focuses on three categories: the process and structure, culture, and attitude toward innovation and cooperation. During the interview it was revealed that the respondents reject a purely transactional view of procurement. The interviews responses illustrate that the SSSC clients want to conduct creative, outcome-oriented procurements with the rules interpreted flexibly and the process must maintain “room for creativity.” The responses of the interviews showed that the SSSC delivers strong legal and administrative performance, giving contracting authorities confidence and compliance. But its contribution to innovation-specific activities like early market engagement, method selection, risk framing, and idea generation, remains reactive rather than proactive. It can be concluded that the SSSC processes and structure and staff is professional and the attitude towards innovation are there, but to fully exploit its central vantage point, the SSSC must now focus on deeper innovation skills among the staff, to assemble networks and do training where necessary.
Keywords: innovation, public procurement, innovation procurement, central procurement agency
