Purpose

Circular procurement is assumed to foster innovation and influence demand for and supply of goods through criteria setting and dialogue with suppliers. However, even in countries placed at the forefront of sustainability practices such as Sweden, examples of procurement that can truly be considered to be circular are rare. This paper aims to examine circular public procurement practices in a selection of Swedish municipalities and regions through the lens of the Advocacy Coalition Framework. The authors propose a categorisation of municipalities by circular procurement uptake and identify factors that support the acceleration of the circular transition in Sweden.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the key informant approach, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with employees of seven municipalities, one region and one external procurement agency, as well as seven suppliers of various sizes. The authors also analysed procurement documents received from municipalities. Participating organisations represented a variety of Swedish local government structures and local conditions.

Findings

The authors proposed a categorisation of circular procurement uptake. Notably, beginners differ from leaders in circular procurement, most importantly by the level of flexibility policy brokers have within their organisations and by policy brokers’ ability to accommodate changes that materialise between existing organisational structures and set routines.

Social implications

The fragmented uptake of circular procurement poses a challenge for local businesses interested in implementing circular business models. It also both highlights and exacerbates inequalities in access to resources between sparsely populated, rural municipalities and more urbanised areas.

Originality/value

Despite existing national government guidelines for the circular economy transition in Sweden, circular procurement is not fully realised at the local level. In this paper, the authors examine the Swedish experience with circular procurement and propose several steps to improve the uptake of circular procurement by the public authorities. The authors' findings concerning the role of policy brokers may well be generalised to similar socio-cultural contexts.

中文翻译：

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如何提高循环公共采购的采用率？瑞典地方当局的经验教训

目的

循环采购被认为可以通过标准制定和与供应商的对话来促进创新并影响商品的需求和供应。然而，即使在瑞典等可持续发展实践走在前沿的国家，真正可以被视为循环采购的例子也很少。本文旨在通过倡导联盟框架的视角，研究瑞典部分城市和地区的循环公共采购实践。作者提出按循环采购的采用情况对市政当局进行分类，并确定了支持瑞典加速循环转型的因素。

设计/方法论/途径

作者采用关键知情人方法，对 7 个城市、1 个地区和 1 个外部采购机构的员工以及 7 家不同规模的供应商进行了半结构化访谈。作者还分析了从市政当局收到的采购文件。参与组织代表了瑞典各种地方政府机构和当地情况。

发现

作者提出了循环采购的分类。值得注意的是，初学者与循环采购领域的领导者不同，最重要的是政策经纪人在其组织内的灵活性水平以及政策经纪人适应现有组织结构和既定例程之间发生的变化的能力。

社会影响

循环采购的分散采用给有兴趣实施循环商业模式的当地企业带来了挑战。它还凸显并加剧了人口稀少的农村城市和城市化地区之间在获取资源方面的不平等。

原创性/价值

尽管瑞典国家政府现有关于循环经济转型的指导方针，但循环采购在地方层面尚未完全实现。在本文中，作者研究了瑞典在循环采购方面的经验，并提出了提高公共当局采用循环采购的几个步骤。作者关于政策经纪人作用的研究结果很可能适用于类似的社会文化背景。