Work

Topological Modelling in Public Procurement and Platform Economies: An Interdisciplinary Legal–Economic Framework

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This article develops an interdisciplinary framework that applies topological and graph-theoretical methods to public procurement markets and digital platform economies. Conceptualizing legal–economic interactions as dynamic networks of nodes and edges, we show how structural properties—centrality, clustering, connectivity, and boundary formation—shape contestability, resilience, and compliance. Using EU-relevant contexts (public procurement directives and the Digital Markets Act), we formalize network representations for buyers, suppliers, platforms, and regulators; define operational indicators; and illustrate an empirical, value-weighted buyer → supplier network to reveal a sparse but highly modular architecture with a high-value backbone. We then map these structural signatures to concrete legal levers (lotting and framework design, modification scrutiny, interoperability and data-access duties) and propose dashboard-style diagnostics for proactive oversight. The findings demonstrate how topological modelling complements doctrinal analysis by making hidden architectures visible and by linking measurable structure to regulatory outcomes. We conclude with implications for evidence-informed regulatory design and a research agenda integrating graph analytics, comparative evaluation across jurisdictions, and machine-learning-assisted anomaly detection.

Source: International Journal of Topology

DOI: 10.3390/ijt2040018

Author: Jitka Matějková

Institution: Mendel University in Brno

Language: English

Topic: Public Procurement and Policy

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,207