The relationship between supplier control and competition in public sector outsourcing

The aim of this article is to develop theory and contribute to empirical studies about how the effectiveness of bureaucratic controls in public sector outsourcing is contingent upon supplier competition, and why and how this interaction plays out differently for hard and soft types of outsourced services. In previous inter‐organizational management control (IOMC) research there is a contradiction between theory and empirical results concerning how bureaucratic control and supplier competition interacts in aligning suppliers. While IOMC theory suggests competition reduces the need for bureaucratic control, empirical studies clearly indicate the opposite. We extend previous research and theorizing by differing between the outsourcing of hard and soft types of services and by testing the joint effect of bureaucratic control and competition on supplier alignment. The empirical case for testing theory is outsourcing by competitive tendering in the public sector. We use transaction level data from 166 local government suppliers in Sweden. In accordance with our prediction, the effect of bureaucratic control in aligning suppliers decreases with supplier competition when hard types of services are outsourced. For soft types of services, our results indicate that bureaucratic control is not contingent upon supplier competition. Furthermore, we show that when supplier competition is low the effect of bureaucratic control on supplier alignment is stronger for hard than for soft types of services. These results constitute an important contribution to the central notion of the interplay between bureaucratic control and competition in the IOMC literature.     

Collateral composition,diversification risk,and systemically important merchant banks

The impact of collateral diversification by non-financial firms on systemic risk is studied in a general equilibrium model with standard production functions and mixed debt-equity financing. Systemic risk comes about as soon as firms diversify their collateral by holding claims on a big wholesale (merchant) bank whose asset side includes claims on the same producer set. The merchant bank sector proves to be fragile (has a short distance to default) regardless of competition. In this setting, the policy response, consisting in official guarantees for the merchant bank's liabilities, entails considerable government loss risk. An alternative without the need for public sector involvement is to encourage systemically important merchant banks to introduce a simple bail-in mechanism by restricting their liabilities to contingent convertible bonds. This line of regulatory policy is particularly relevant to the containment of systemic events in globally leveraged economies serviced by big international banks outside host country regulatory control.     

Public sector risk managers and spending cuts: mitigating risks

This paper reports case study research, the results of which are used to consider whether councils have recognised the potentially substantially increased social risks they may create as they seek to reduce their spending in line with the UK Government’s programme of public sector austerity. It discusses the conceptual shift in the public sector risk management literature towards social risk management (SRM), presents empirical evidence of social risks and considers the approach to SRM developed by other organisations. It finds no evidence of SRM within the case study authorities and so advocates a shift in the public sector risk management culture from a preoccupation with defensive-institutional risk management practices to a more proactive social dimension. In so doing, it discusses the goals of SRM, the constraints limiting their achievement, metrics for measuring social risk, tools for mitigating social risk and the problems faced when operationalising SRM.     

How did enterprise risk management first appear in the Korean public sector?

This research addresses the rise and fall of the Crisis Management Guideline of Public Organizations (CMGPO) from a historical perspective. In the Korean public sector, as a form of enterprise risk management (ERM), CMGPO is not designed to be merely a tool of financial risk management but also to be a policy tool for crisis management. CMGPO emerged within the conflict between integrated crisis management and dispersed crisis management. The purpose of CMGPO is to bureaucratically integrate the crisis management of public organizations with the governmental crisis management system. ERM as a form of self-regulation is entangled with the pre-existing command and control of the Korean government over integrated crisis management. As a result, CMGPO is characterized as ‘enforced self-regulation’ rather than self-regulation; this is a fundamental idea in ERM.     

‘Pushing the Boundaries’ versus Identifying the Boundaries: An Institutional Perspective on NPM Principles

This paper considers the boundaries of new public management (NPM) principles in the context of the mandate for a commercial approach within a New Zealand state‐owned enterprise (SOE). Investigating a commercial approach to NPM through an institutional theory lens, the case study highlights complexities and potential conflict between structured NPM principles and the more complex reality. Analysis reveals blurred lines and boundaries have implications for public sector organisations such as SOEs, government and other stakeholders, where managers push the boundaries beyond the point where stakeholders are comfortable. Thus, a key challenge involves developing clearer institutional boundaries to balance freedoms with stakeholder acceptability.     

A study of the coordination of mission,objectives and targets in U.K. executive agencies

The growth of executive agencies (agencies) in the U.K. public sector has been rapid. While the first agency was established as recently as 1988, by September 1998 over 75 per cent of civil servants were working in such organizations. They were created to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of central government services. The efficacy of a rational management model was promulgated and the need to plan and control the performance of agencies, as a basis for performance improvement, was articulated. This led to a greater focus on targeting and measuring performance. This paper provides an outline of the case for, and potential problems of, the use of a highly rational model of management in the public sector, with its focus on quantification. Through an empirical analysis of 48 planning documents, it identifies the degree to which the mission statements, objectives and targets in the Corporate and Business Plans of agencies are coordinated, or linked, in a rational manner. The main finding of the research is that although significant gaps exist, the planning documents of executive agencies appear to be more coordinated in terms of their use of objectives and targets than was evident in earlier research in other parts of the public sector.     

地方政府债务风险防范研究——基于发达地区政府债务的样本分析

地方政府债务是政府债务管理中极为敏感的话题。为正确认识发达地区政府的债务风险,进而有效防范地方政府债务风险,笔者选取发达地区某市的地方政府债务数据作为样本进行分析,认为该市的债务具有隐性化、或有化、投资性和公共性并存的特征,而其债务风险并不在于财务风险、挤出风险、金融风险、经济风险等,而在于由于制度和组织设计造成的管理风险。据此,笔者从债务制度供给、债务需要约束和地方债务管理三方面提出了防范地方政府债务风险的政策建议。     

政府内部控制概念研究

本文比较了美国、最高国际审计组织与我国关于政府内部控制概念的研究。权威文献显示,内部控制这一术语在某一特定领域实践时就代表了那个时代的一种观念。政府内部控制经历了管理控制论到过程论发展轨迹,法规、业务复杂性、信息技术发展、文化、风险与治理因素是其主要推动力。从最初的立法导向到审计导向,旨在控制预算支出,追究管理责任;从风险导向到治理导向,旨在提高政府绩效。政府内部控制并非是独立于行政管理的一种制度,而是内嵌于其中的一种控制系统,制度、政策、方法、方式与程序是其典型的表现形式,是依法行政的基础。它总是与具体目标与目的相联系,直接指向公共服务。在新时代中国政府治理语境下,政府内部控制含义是指由领导干部和其他职员实施的,旨在为实现合规目标、绩效目标与报告目标而提供合理保证的过程。     

交易费用、政府边界与财政体制改革

将新制度经济学中的交易费用理论引入政府供给公共产品的分析，给出了政府供给公共产品的边界的理论模型。我国政府在供给公共产品过程中发生的交易费用：决策费用、实施费用和监督费用过高，制约了我国政府供给公共产品的效率。制度的一项重要功能是降低交易成本，改革财政分权体制是降低政府供给公共产品发生的交易费用的有效途径。     

From bookkeeping to strategic tools?: A discussion of the reforms in the Nordic hospital sector

This paper presents some aspects on the introduction of more accountable management control reforms in the Nordic hospital sector. A contingency model is used to analyse the complexity of the public sector government. Contextual and behavioural variables are discussed to explain the reform processes in the Nordic countries.Several international field studies in the hospital settings show that there are similarities and differences in the implementation of the management reforms in the European countries. The most striking difference is the level of central state versus local government participation in the reform processes. In the Nordic countries, the reform initiative is centrally driven. But there are differences as to the use of national standard prices and pricing of services made by the hospitals themselves. Commercial-like management logic such as accrual accounting is gradually being introduced on a general level. However, there are different motives and directions of changes in the countries.The interpretation and use of accounting information by key clinicians needs careful evaluation. It is at this level of the individual clinical actors that the most important decisions are made about how resources are spent on hospital patient treatments.     

Talent management in government in times of economic instability: selected cases from the BRICS countries

This paper explores the policies that three BRICS countries used to tackle the growing problem of attracting and retaining talent in public sector institutions. The authors trace the changes in these countries’ strategies and approaches resulting from growing budgetary constraints; labour market shifts; new demographic trends; increasing demands for higher performance by public servants; and complex challenges faced by governments worldwide. Although talent management in public sector institutions was a government priority for the three countries—Brazil, China, and Russia—the results achieved have been modest. The authors draw lessons for other governments from their analysis.     

政府部门预算支出绩效管理改革框架分析

政府部门预算支出绩效管理改革框架分析是以公共部门理性人和制度契约假设为理论研究前提,突出组织实施系统构建、部门预算分析员设置、绩效信息审计约束等制度体系创新,同时配合以必要的技术手段,使政府部门能够在科学的制度保障下,在产出、效率、结果和生产率四种不同层次绩效评定间进行理性选择,并最终为建立适应市场经济需要,以提高支出绩效水平为根本目标的现代政府部门预算支出管理模式奠定基础。     

Book Reviews

References to ‘customers’ have become commonplace in the policy discourses within UK government and other public sector bodies. It is a working assumption of UK public sector management that the concept of the ‘customer’ can be applied to any public sector service agency or department; and this paper analyses how the UK government's revenue department, formerly titled the Inland Revenue (IR), re-characterised firstly taxpayers and latterly tax claimants as ‘customers’, rather than ‘users’, of IR services. This paper identifies some problems, dilemmas and ambiguities associated with this reconceptualisation in the context of an organisation that is predominantly a regulating department. Far from being merely a reclassification of the taxpayer as customer, the emerging discourse and associated practices of the IR were in part embedded in organisational change, including the merger with HM Customs and Excise to form the present-day HMRC. Thus this case analysis illustrates the limits of consumerism as a strategic tool of a government revenue department and raises wider questions for public management.     

Public debt,sovereign default risk and shadow economy

This paper analyzes the interactions between government's indebtedness, sovereign default risk and the size of the informal sector. We test an underlying theory that suggests that in societies with limited tax enforcement, the presence of informality constrains the set of pledgeable fiscal policy alternatives, increases public debt and the implied probability of sovereign debt restructuring. The hypotheses that we test in our empirical analysis are: a larger size of the informal sector is associated with (1) higher public indebtedness, (2) higher interest rates paid on sovereign debt, (3) a higher level of financial instability and (4) a higher probability of sovereign default. The empirical results from cross-country panel regressions show that after controlling for previously highlighted variables in the literature that could explain the variation in financial instability, sovereign default risk and public indebtedness, the size of informality remains as a significant determinant of these variables.     

Jurisdictional Competition Between Private and Public Sector Auditors:The Case of the Danish Certified Public Sector Auditor Qualification

Abstract: This paper explores the apparent paradox that while public sector auditors have become more powerful by claiming performance auditing expertise and linking this to New Public Management reforms, the same reforms have provided an opening for competition between private and public sector auditors. In Denmark, the competitive relation has led to a jurisdictional dispute between public and private sector auditors in which the former have developed a special qualification for public sector auditors. The paper analyses the development of this qualification using Abbott's (1988) theory of the system of professions, thus focusing on how the involved groups have attempted to build networks of support for their competing jurisdictional claims of expertise. The case contributes to knowledge about the potential for development of a distinct public sector auditor identity. The case suggests that to develop such an identity and gain professional recognition, public sector auditors need to convince parliaments, standard‐setting bodies and universities that a public sector auditing qualification serves as a solution to some of their problems, too.     

积极财政政策的可持续性分析

本文分别从当前宏观经济形势、我国政府债务风险和公共部门投资的挤出效应三个方面考察了我国积极财政政策的可持续性。认为我国当前的经济形势下 ,积极财政政策的淡出还为时尚早 ;我国单纯的国债风险并不高 ,但是我国政府的综合债务风险却相当大 ,控制我国综合债务风险的关键是控制存量 ;我国公共部门对民间投资的挤出效应不明显 ,当前民间投资不活跃的主要原因是另一种“挤出效应” ,即对民间投资的歧视和限制 ,要改变这种情况的主要方法是改革     

经济危机视角下基于混沌控制的投资风险管理研究

美国的次贷危机引发的全球经济危机,让我们重新审视投资风险管理在金融领域扮演的重要角色,特别对于中国等发展中国家来说,风险管理显得尤为重要,另一方面宏观经济系统普遍存在混沌现象,这种非线性的动力学给予了投资风险管理很大的发展空间,本文在对投资风险管理进行混沌特性分析的基础上,基于房地产市场的投资风险管理进行了混沌控制的实证分析,并对控制变量进行了动态区间分析,最后提出政策建议。     

Comparing the content of regulatory impact assessments in the UK and the EU

The need for effective leadership in the UK public sector has been a prominent discourse in recent years. One aspect of this is a growing interest in talent management. This article examines the evolution of processes used for managing talent and developing leaders in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) by applying human resource management theory to an empirical case study. Our aim was to provide a constructive, but critical, analysis of the current role of managerial talent management and to comment on the suitability of the adopted approach in the NHS. Over the past three decades the NHS has come to adopt an increasingly ‘hard’ approach to talent management, i.e. rationalistic, managerial and narrowly focused on leadership competencies and senior management roles. This parallels a more general shift in the NHS from its traditional public sector ethos and humanistic values to more business-oriented values and ways of working.     

Understanding cost differences in the public sector—a cost drivers approach

Estimation of cost causality has always been an important part of the accountant’s work. This includes the identification, classification and estimation of factors causing a change in the total cost of a related cost object. In the recent literature these factors are called cost drivers. Different approaches and conceptual frameworks for understanding cost causality are found in the economics, strategy and accounting literature. This paper examines different cost driver approaches in a public sector setting. The study is based on data from primary and secondary schools in the four largest cities in Norway. The findings show that a strategic management accounting approach provides a framework for selecting a broader set of explanatory variables than the traditional cost estimation literature. This set includes product attributes, institutional factors and government policy as cost drivers in the public sector.     

The typology of partial credit guarantee funds around the world

This paper presents data on 76 partial credit guarantee schemes across 46 developed and developing countries. Based on theory, we discuss different organizational features of credit guarantee schemes and their variation across countries. We focus on the respective role of government and private sector and different pricing and risk reduction tools and how they are correlated across countries. We find that government has an important role to play in funding and management, but less so in risk assessment and recovery. There is a surprisingly low use of risk-based pricing and limited use of risk management mechanisms.