PUBLIC E-PROCUREMENT SYSTEM FOR THE SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIAN REGIONS

Purpose: To investigate factors affecting development of public procurement practices with the participation of small businesses, and to analyse characteristics and accessibility of public e-procurement system in Russia for small business development. Design/methodology/approach: To identify main areas for improvement in public procurement our research employed the following methods: factor analysis, multiply regression modelling, expert judgement method. Findings: The most important factors affecting development of public e-procurement practices in regions of Russia: the total public procurement contract value, percentage of firms using the Internet, transparency of public purchases, and number of recorded economic crimes. The analysis of the e-procurement platforms allows to find out the following problems: lack of collaborative tools; most of the e-platforms are not involved in public procurement; the language and services can be complicated for some participants. Research/practical implications: We can propose some areas of improvement in this field: adoption of measures helping to involve small businesses into public procurement process, creation of new tools for interaction between government agencies providing support to small businesses; enhancement of e-procurement platforms, namely reduction of their number, creation an aggregator Website, development of collaborative tools on the platforms, and simplification of services and tools providing by platforms. Originality/value: The use of a combination of the research tools including economical statistical methods and analysis of procurement Web sites allowed to estimate public e-procurement system for small business development in Russia.