| dc.description.abstract | Public procurement of creative services is a complex area that is highly debated
within the industry. Each year public organisations in Sweden procure goods and
services worth SEK 600 billion, equal to one fifth of the Swedish GDP
(Konkurrensverket, 2014a: 17). By seeking out and taking advantage of
competition in relevant markets, adherents of ‘New Public Management’ (NPM)
argue that public funds be used in the best way. In public procurements, the
tenderers are graded on different quality aspects and price. This is done in order
for the contracting authority to compare the tenders and to preserve objectivity as
required by law. However, when procuring creative services, quality aspects are
not as easily quantified as price. This results in a dilemma where the public
procurer must judge abstract dimension, such as creativity, and translate the
judgement to a score or grade. The scoring based system complicates selecting
creative work for the public procurer since the evaluation of creative work is of a
subjective nature and might only be described by the ‘gut feeling’ rather than
objectively proven.
Based on case studies, this thesis explores how the quality of creative services in
public procurement can be defined, and how the quality of this work is judged.
The case study includes two recent public procurements within design and
communication. By interviewing both public procurers and tenderers, this thesis
aims to provide a better understanding of the perceptions of quality and how the
quality is judged.
This study reveals that in public procurements, the quality of a creative service
was found to be defined as a strategy that enables a relevant outcome, which
results in an impact in a desired direction for the client. The quality was judge
based on the tenderer’s previous work, where both strategy and outcome were
considered. Different quality aspects were quantified in order for the judgement
to be as objective as possible. However, the quality of a creative service was
considered to be immeasurable,1 thus the judgement relied on subjective
preferences. This study sheds light on the unexplored field of quality judgement
of creative services in public procurements, and is a contribution to both
academia and industry. The thesis can serve as a basis for future research as well
as a useful tool when procuring creative services. | sv |
