Public Procurement as a Platform: An Ecosystem Capability Framework

Public administration and development. 2026. P. 1–18.

Styrin E. M., Sanina A., Ataeva A., Rodionova Y.

Digital public procurement is increasingly implemented through e-procurement platforms, yet evidence on the governance capabilities needed to deliver transparency, coordination and organisational learning remains limited outside high-capacity contexts. This article reframes public procurement as a socio-technical platform ecosystem and develops an ecosystem capability framework that links three tiers (government, platform operators and users) to three governance capabilities: horizontal coordination, stakeholder engagement and operational feedback. Empirically, we apply the framework to Russia's centrally governed procurement platform using 12 stakeholder workshops (2018–2025), triangulated with documentary sources and official statistics, to map where capabilities are realised and where they break down. Findings show that centralised rule-setting can standardise procedures and strengthen compliance, but ecosystem performance depends on cross-agency incentives, mechanisms for sustained supplier and procurer participation and actionable feedback loops that translate user experience into platform and regulatory change. The framework supports comparative analysis of procurement platforms and identifies capability gaps that constrain reform under centralised governance.

Keywords: public procurements, публичные закупки, Government as a platform, Государство как платформа, digital public procurement, e-procurement platforms, цифровые публичные закупки, электронные закупочные платформы

Publication based on the results of: Citizen-state interaction in the context of digital transformation: Political, psychological, and managerial factors and barriers (2025)