摘要：The subject of the research is the access to public procurement in Western Balkan region by SMEs including a gender equality perspective. The research has three key objectives: to identify key barriers that hinder the engagement in public procurement; to determine whether there are differences in the perception of the importance of barriers to access to public procurement between male and female-owned companies; and to check whether there are differences in the perception of the importance of barriers to participate in public procurement between different-sized companies. Main statistical methods used in the research are descriptive statistics and nonparametric techniques for comparing differences between groups. As the most significant barrier in the domain of discriminatory barriers sorted out is Limitations related to the financial capacity of the company. At the second place is Limitations related to the number of employees and their qualifications. The importance of Restrictions on production volume or quantity required and Meeting quality standards is somewhat weaker compared to the aforementioned barriers. Generally speaking, discriminatory barriers are of moderate importance for inclusion in the public procurement. Similar results were obtained when non-discriminatory barriers were observed, with the greatest significance in order: Complicated bidding process, Short deadline for preparation of documentation, Insufficient and incomplete information in the public procurement invitation. The results of the applied nonparametric techniques show that there are no significant differences in the perception of the importance of barriers to participate in public procurement between male and female-owned companies, as well as between different-sized companies.
关键词：public procurement;gender;SMEs;barriers;Western Balkan
