Public-Private Interactions in Contracting: Governance Strategies in the Competitive Dialogue of Dutch Infrastructure Projects

The competitive dialogue (CD) procurement procedure aims to structure and facilitate public-private interaction in procurement. In this article we examine the CD procedures of four complex Dutch road infrastructure projects and explore how the mix in public-private interaction between the three governance strategies of cooperation, competition, and coordination is conditioned by various external influences. We found that public authorities' strict legal coordination can structure the CD process, but may divert attention from the required interaction on project-specific complexities. Combined with private contractors' focus on competition, this does not stimulate public-private cooperation. We conclude that CD is a promising tool for facilitating public-private interaction, but, in practice, the optimal mix of governance strategies is not achieved. We recommend strengthening cooperation by encouraging public and private tender organizations to collaboratively search for opportunities to deal with complexity in planning.