Research perspectives on public procurement: Content analysis of 14 years of publications in the journal of public procurement

The paper aims to evaluate the state of the literature on public procurement through examination of the works published in the Journal of Public Procurement from 2001 to 2014. 231 research outputs were collected and analyzed (with regard to, e.g., the background theory used, research method, and content of the papers), providing a overview of prior research topics and findings and identifying main gaps in the existing literature. This type of study is unique, as a broad literature review related to public procurement does not currently exist; therefore, the work has been designed with the intention to a) synthetize the prior research on public procurement; b) provide researchers with a structural framework in which future research on public procurement topics may be oriented; c) identify promising and active areas for future research.