| Abstract: | Abstract The research tries to explain the contrasting pictures presented by two recent articles published in Public Management Review: Tonnisson and Wilson (2007 Tonnisson, C. and Wilson, J. 2007. Best Value in Transitional Countries?. Public Management Review, 9(1): 87–106. Taylor &; Francis Online], Web of Science ®] , Google Scholar]) and Nemec, Merickova and Ochrana (2008 Nemec, J., Merickova, B. and Ochrana, F. 2008. Introducing Benchmarking in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Processes, Problems and Lessons. Public Management Review, 10(5): 674–84. Google Scholar]). The data suggest that the research methodology has a major impact on the results, and in our case this factor is the main explanation for the differences between the results. Although the use of different research methodologies explains a lot of the inter-country variation in results, it does seem that the benchmarking situation, particularly for local service delivery in Czechia and Slovakia, is less satisfactory than in Estonia. |
