Towards transformation-focused evaluation: Evidence from a meta-evaluation of innovative green public procurement

Transformative innovation policies (TIPs) aim to address grand societal challenges by reshaping socio-technical systems rather than optimising individual technologies or markets. As innovation policy has increasingly emphasised directionality, missions, and systemic change, concerns have emerged about the adequacy of prevailing evaluation approaches. Conventional evaluations - focused on impacts and compliance with predefined targets - remain well suited to accountability purposes but may be less well equipped to capture the complexity, uncertainty and normative dimensions of transformative change. Recent scholarship has therefore proposed principles for transformation-focused evaluation that emphasise systems approaches, learning, reflexivity, power relations, and long-term societal outcomes. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the extent to which these principles are reflected in contemporary evaluation practice. This paper addresses this gap by examining evaluations of innovative public procurement, and more explicitly innovative green public procurement (IGPP), which directs innovation towards improved environmental performance and may contribute to broader sustainability transitions. The study conducts a meta-evaluation of 75 peer-reviewed evaluations of innovative and green public procurement initiatives focusing on the built environment across OECD countries. Each evaluation is analysed using a transformation-focused evaluation framework, organised around the dimensions of complexity, power, and purpose. The results indicate partial and uneven alignment with transformation-focused evaluation principles. While some principles are reflected in current practice, evaluations remain largely accountability-oriented and project-centric, with limited attention to system dynamics, contextual mediation, power relations, reflexive learning, and long-term transformation. By empirically operationalising principles of transformation-focused evaluation, the study identifies three practical leverage points - methodological purposefulness, theories of transformation, and evaluation proportionate to the challenge - that can strengthen evaluation where procurement carries broader transformation-oriented ambitions. In doing so, the study demonstrates how transformation-focused evaluation principles can be used diagnostically to examine contemporary evaluation practice without assuming that all procurement interventions are themselves transformative.Author summary: Governments are increasingly using innovation policies to tackle urgent sustainability challenges. One such approach is innovative green public procurement (IGPP), where public authorities use their purchasing power to encourage more sustainable and innovative solutions, especially in sectors like construction. In some cases, procurement is used not only to improve the performance of an individual project, but also to influence markets, build new capabilities and contribute to wider sustainability transitions. Evaluating these broader effects is not straightforward. Most existing evaluations focus on short-term results and accountability, such as whether targets were met, or projects delivered on time and budget. While important, such approaches can miss the bigger picture: how procurement influences wider systems, shapes markets, and contributes to longer-term change.