A systematic review of barriers impeding the implementation of government green procurement
Abstract
Purpose Government green procurement (GGP) is becoming a popular environmental policy instrument to spur the economy whilst protecting the environment. However, the implementation of GGP is impeded by various barriers. This paper aims to analyse the existing literature on barriers impeding GGP. Design/methodology/approach This systematic literature review was guided by the PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) review method. A total of 29 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases were selected for the review. Findings Five themes, i.e. finance, legal, people, knowledge and organisation, emerged from this review, which further produced 16 sub-themes. Lack of knowledge and awareness were the major barriers for GGP, while financial constraint was not the major barrier for GGP, as previously perceived. Barriers related to organisation were the most complex. Certain barriers were found more in developed or developing countries. Research limitations/implications Only article journals with empirical data were selected. Review articles, book series, books, chapters in books and conference proceedings were excluded. Practical implications Public managers should place highest priority to enhance knowledge and awareness of procurers on GGP. Other important initiatives to be undertaken include emulating best practices, implementing change management and incentivising suppliers to tackle the prevalent barriers of GGP. Finally, wi…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Top management needs to be committed to sustainability.
“Furthermore, top management needs to be committed to sustainability (Brammer and Walker, 2011;Vejaratnam et al., 2020), and bringing it into the procurement process redefines the options and adds a dimension other than price, quality and time (Meehan and Bryde, 2011).”
From Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture (2023) · cites this paper as Vejaratnam et al., 2020
The lack of knowledge and experience of CPP in the public sector is the main barrier to implementation.
“The lack of knowledge and experience of CPP in the public sector is the main barrier to implementation (Uyarra et al., 2014;Trindade et al., 2017;Vejaratnam et al., 2020).”
From Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture (2023) · cites this paper as Vejaratnam et al., 2020
Strong leadership and managerial commitment are key determinants of CPP implementation.
“Strong leadership and managerial commitment are therefore key determinants of CPP implementation (see, e.g., Brammer and Walker, 2011;Vejaratnam et al., 2020).”
From Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture (2023) · cites this paper as Vejaratnam et al., 2020
Top management made strategic decisions that were important for policy implementation through CPP.
“For this reason, the top management made strategic decisions that were important for policy implementation though CPP (Testa et al., 2012;Vejaratnam et al., 2020).”
From Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture (2023) · cites this paper as Vejaratnam et al., 2020
Cites
Sustainable procurement in the public sector: an international comparative study
Brammer, S., & Walker, H. (2011) · International Journal of Operations & Production Management · doi:10.1108/01443571111119551 · Cited by 731 · see citing works
Review of green and sustainable public procurement: Towards circular public procurement
Sönnichsen, S. D., & Clement, J. (2020) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118901 · Cited by 322 · see citing works
The relationship between sustainable procurement and e-procurement in the public sector
Walker, H., & Brammer, S. (2012) · International Journal of Production Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.01.008 · Cited by 292 · see citing works
Motivating green public procurement in China: An individual level perspective
Zhu, Q., Geng, Y., & Sarkis, J. (2013) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.04.009 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Sustainability and procurement practices in higher education institutions: Barriers and drivers
Leal Filho, W., Skouloudis, A., Brandli, L. L., Salvia, A. L., Avila, L. V., & Rayman-Bacchus, L. (2019) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.202 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Pacheco-Blanco, B., & Bastante-Ceca, M. J. (2016) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.056 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
More Than a Nudge? Arguments and Tools for Mandating Green Public Procurement in the EU
Mélon, L. (2020) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su12030988 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Public procurement of electric vehicles as a way to support a market: examples from Sweden
Palm, J., & Backman, F. (2017) · International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles · doi:10.1504/ijehv.2017.087587 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Appolloni, A., Coppola, M. A., & Piga, G. (2019) · Advances in Environmental Engineering and Green Technologies · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-7083-7.ch002 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture
Lingegård, S., & von Oelreich, K. (2023) · Frontiers in Sustainability · doi:10.3389/frsus.2023.1136725 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“For this reason, the top management made strategic decisions that were important for policy implementation though CPP (Testa et al., 2012; Vejaratnam et al., 2020).”
BackgroundInfluential
- Authors
- Vejaratnam, N., Mohamad, Z. F., & Chenayah, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Malaya (MY)
- Venue
- Journal of Public Procurement
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2020-10-14
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 451-471
- ISSN
- 1535-0118 (ISSN-L)
- 2150-6930
- OpenAlex
- W3093136935
- Cited by
- 81
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 8
- FWCI
- 1.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Public Procurement (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Public Procurement and Policy
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Keywords
- implementation barriers, environmental policy instruments, public procurement, knowledge and awareness, financial constraints, legal barriers, organizational barriers, supplier incentives, change management, developed and developing countries
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
