A framework for public purchasing under a decentralized organization: an empirical study in the healthcare sector in Italy

More and more public companies are showing interest in how no conventional purchasing strategies, such as purchasing group solutions, may improve efficiency in purchasing activities by providing consistent saving on public organization budgets. This issue is essential for the healthcare sector, whose public spending is still increasing and represents a significant part of the GNP of many European countries. In this paper, different purchasing strategies have been addressed; more specifically, the main objective is to formalize a framework supporting purchasing strategy formulation, and operazionalize it through an empirical application to the Sicilian Region healthcare industry.