Public e-procurement impacts in small- and medium-enterprises

The European Union (EU) created directives to regulate the moving to full Public e-Procurement (Pe-P) for all public purchases by 2016. Despite the undisputable benefits, member states are lagging behind on this paradigm shift. Also Pe-P's scholarly evaluation and theoretical knowledge behind it are still very limited. This paper makes a contribution to the literature gap related to Pe-P's impacts providing preliminary evidence of its adoption in Portugal. Following a case-based approach involving interviews with managers from the Portuguese construction sector, our study aims to understand Pe-P's implementation benefits and barriers in small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs). Results provide relevant information regarding factors affecting Pe-P's adoption forecasting implications for private firms, platform providers and policy makers in the 2016 full moving to Pe-P's throughout the EU.