Public E-Procurement System for the Small Business Development in Russian Regions

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 inregions 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; mostof 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 economicalstatistical methods and analysis of procurement Web sites allowed to estimate public e-procurement system for small business development in Russia.