Along with the strategy of innovation-driven development, public procurement has become an effective tool for supporting cutting-edge technological innovation and achieving sustainable development. However, existing studies lack a consensus on the connotation of innovation-oriented public procurement, resulting in inconsistent conclusions in terms of concept definition and measurement dimensions, and systematic research gaps on its influencing factors, mechanisms and policy effects. To further clarify the content, research scope, and boundaries of innovation-oriented public procurement, this study makes a comprehensive review of relevant domestic and international literature, and employs bibliometrics and content analysis to systematically summarize the research frontiers, development trends, and hot topics of this theme, aiming to construct an integrated research framework. Simultaneously, in accordance with the typical contextual characteristics of China and representative literature, the paper prospects the future research trends of innovation-oriented government procurement in the hope of providing effective references for both the academic and practical communities.
Firstly, this paper conducts a quantitative analysis of foreign research achievements on innovation-oriented government procurement based on the WOS database. Overall, there is a continuous increase in the volume of publications on innovation-oriented public procurement, with developed countries being the main research subjects, exhibiting a significant characteristic of interdisciplinary fusion. Then it elaborates on the relevant concepts, types, and evolutionary processes of the functions of innovation-oriented public procurement. This paper holds that innovation-oriented public procurement is a practical activity to meet public demand, stimulate innovation and create social value through public procurement in order to achieve specific policy goals in technology, industry or society. It is found that the end user of the product, the degree and form of innovation and the strategic orientation are the basis for the classification of innovation-oriented public procurement. In terms of functional positioning, the evolutionary process of government procurement supporting innovation can be roughly divided into four stages: commercialization, standardization, policy orientation, and strategic orientation. Thirdly, the implementation of innovation-oriented public procurement is influenced by individual, organizational and environmental factors. In order to effectively exert the innovation incentive function of public procurement, it is necessary for the transaction subjects to have a sense of change and a certain professional ability, put forward high requirements on factors such as organizational resource and innovation willingness, innovation-supporting policies, markets and cultural environments. In addition, innovation-oriented public procurement releases spillover effects on corporate performance, industrial upgrading and social development, but it is also accompanied by risks such as crowding out private R&D investment and exacerbating technology lock-in. The aforementioned process mechanisms are also influenced by contextual factors such as organizational and market levels. Given the above analysis, this study further constructs the integrated research framework of innovation-oriented public procurement.
Finally, in order to provide theoretical and practical guidance for future research, this study makes a comprehensive integration of the current situation of domestic research in this field and the unique situational characteristics of China, and proposes future development directions for innovation-oriented public procurement research in the Chinese context. Researchers should (1) conduct localized research on innovation-oriented public procurement in China , which involves typical Chinese contextual factors such as transition development stages, fiscal decentralization institutional background, and "guanxi culture"; (2) explore innovation-oriented public procurement from a multi-factor, multi-level interactive perspective,such as the studies on compound influencing factors and the synergistic effects of policies; (3) optimize the research methods and technical means of innovation-oriented public procurement from the aspects of qualitative research, large sample data and meta-analysis; (4) enrich the research objects and contents from the perspectives of procurement subjects, forms and effects; (5) carry out research on the mode reconstruction of innovation-oriented public procurement against the backdrop of digital economy, and how to utilize digital technology to restructure the standardized procurement processes, while leveraging public procurement to drive iterative innovation in the digital industry, will be the key issue in this field.
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