Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the rationale for choice of suppliers and the influence these decisions have on the firm's capabilities.Design/methodology/approach– The authors examine the choice of in-house operations vs buying maintenance in the Swedish mining industry...

During the last couple of years, there has been a tendency to include more and more political goals into public procurements, such as environmental and societal considerations. This can result in higher prices paid by the public sector compared with similar procurements in the private sector....