Purpose: This study aims to develop the concept of competitive productivity focussing on the interplay between national competitive productivity (NCP) and firm competitive productivity (FCP) based on the following research question: how does the competitive productivity framework explain the influence that government has on public–private procurement programmes?

Design/methodology/approach: A case study is conducted on the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. Data were collected using an exploratory, mixed methods design, starting with national level secondary data on five bid windows between 2011 and 2014, followed by eight in-depth qualitative interviews with industry experts.

Findings: The findings indicate that non-financial factors, such as trust (through consistent and transparent government policy) as well as a pragmatic attitude on the part of government, increased competition and ultimately resulted in a productive procurement process. Social implications: By understanding what moderating factors influence competitiveness in African procurement programmes, using competitive productivity (CP) as a framework, the research contributes to development of government policy and procurement programmes. Incidentally, there is little doubt that improving infrastructure and in turn a greater percentage of access to electricity leads to increased competitiveness of the nation, firms and individuals, thus enabling companies to grow and operate with more stability. Originality/value: Originality is demonstrated through the interplay of NCP and FCP, where the constructs of culture, benchmarking and performance were found to have the strongest influence of the six constructs of the CP model.