The role of specification in public procurement of innovation

A taken for granted assertion in the literature discussing how public procurement can be used as a way of stimulating innovation is that functional specification should be applied. Unlike technical specification, where the exact details of the item to be procured is defined, it is assumed that, by specifying only the function or envisaged performance of the item to be procured, this would allow the submission of bids involving innovative technology and solutions previously unknown to the procurer. The starting point for the article is the perception that these views are commonly held assertions which have received limited systematic scholarly attention. The article therefore analyzes specification in relation to buying situations, as knowledge conversion, in terms of resource requirements in relation to different specification levels. The generic conclusion the paper arrives at is that the application of functional specification might not be implemented in practice in the straight-forward manner sometimes assumed.