ERRIDGE, Andrew <br/><br/>
Partnerships and public procurement :  building social capital through supply relations 

 -  2002 
<br/><br/> As one means of dealing with an increasingly interdependent or shared power `no-one in charge' world (Bryson and Crosby 1992) and adapting the public sector to the demands of the global economy, sucessive administrations in the UK have aimed to develop a more strategic approach to public procurement by emphasizing inter-departmental co-ordination and establishing long-term partnership relations with suppliers. This has proved to be a difficult task, however, as the operating framework and culture of  the public sector have hindered the development of interorganization relationships and trust. By focusing on the co-operative processes and interact ion within central government departments  and between departments and the private sector, this paper aims to analyse and idnetify the obstacles to, and opportunities for, implementing long-term supply relations and facilitating departmental co-ordination. While the paper argues that partnership relations can build social capital, it also shows that these resources can have both positive and negative effects for public procurement. To conclude, lessons for develping collaborative arrangements in public procurement are identified