Mission-Oriented Resource Orchestration in Local Governments: Municipality-Owned Corporations as Institutional Intermediaries in Sustainable Public Procurement

Sustainable public procurement (SPP) emerged as a demand-side policy tool for local sustainability missions, yet how governments translate mission intent into operational procurement practice remains understudied. We ask how local governments orchestrate strategic resources for SPP through an abductive qualitative case study of the Municipality of Milan. Integrating Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy with Resource Orchestration Theory, we find that municipality-owned corporations function as institutional intermediaries bridging sustainability missions and procurement operations through structuring, bundling, and leveraging mechanisms. This study extends resource orchestration theory and mission-oriented policy and offers the MOC as a new category of institutional intermediary in public procurement.