Systemic risk in major public contracts

Bloomfield, Katherine; Williams, Terry; Bovis, Christopher; Merali, Yasmin

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 positioned towards increasing our understanding of complex outsourcing contracts. The results suggest a need for more appropriate methods of risk analysis, and discusses the practical implications.

Citation

Bloomfield, K., Williams, T., Bovis, C., & Merali, Y. (2019). Systemic risk in major public contracts. International Journal of Forecasting, 35(2), 667-676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijforecast.2018.10.005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 21, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Nov 30, 2018
• Publication Date: 2019-04
• Deposit Date: Nov 9, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 1, 2020
• Print ISSN: 0169-2070
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 667-676
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijforecast.2018.10.005
• Keywords: Projects; Contracts; Systemic risk; Public sector; Front-end; Outsourcing
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1148779
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207018301572?via%3Dihub
• Contract Date: Nov 9, 2018