Relationship risk perception and determinants of the collaboration fluency of buyer–supplier relationships in public service procurement

Public service procurement effectiveness has been emphasized as a major challenge in recent years. Well-managed partnerships between buyers and suppliers are needed in this domain to achieve collaboration fluency and improve the effectiveness of procurement. The main objective of this study is to determine which issues managerial teams must emphasize when aiming to create a solid partnership based on pre-existing collaborative relationships. The originality of this study lies in the domain approached (public service procurement in social and healthcare services), as well as the variable it attempts to explain (collaboration fluency). The study investigates two major issues: firstly, how collaboration risk perception influences communication, trust, and the governance of a collaboration and, secondly, how these factors (communication, trust, and governance) affect collaboration fluency. The study is performed via a survey regarding the collaboration of the public sector with organizations from the private and third (non-profit) sectors within public service procurement. The empirical evidence was gathered with a structured online questionnaire that was sent to organizations from the private and third sectors that provide services in the social and healthcare domain. The results indicate that in collaborative relationships in public service procurement, the higher the perceived relationship risks are, the more positive effects they will have in terms of increasing trust, communication, and the quality of collaboration management. Furthermore, communication, governance, and administration have strong influences on collaboration fluency.     

政府职能转变后的公共治理格局研究——依托对珠海市公共治理模式的调研

服务型社会的建设需要政府职能转变,而政府职能转变则意味着某些原属政府的社会治理功能将转移给非政府主体,因此,政府职能的转变即为社会治理模式的变迁,政府职能转变后,多元主体的公共治理格局将取代传统的一元主体的社会管理体制和社会治理模式,呈现为社会治理的开放性、公共性、合作性及民主性。在期待和乐见公共治理格局形成的同时,尤为值得关注的是:尽管政府在社会治理的某些职能领域能够退出、应该退出,但其始终不可推卸的责任是对公共治理中非政府行为的规范与引导。     

Institutional analysis for new public governance scholars

ABSTRACT

Over the past several decades, prominent public management and policy scholars have repeatedly identified institutional analysis as a promising tool for empirical research, particularly for the study of ‘new governance’ phenomena where policy is enacted and implemented by actors that span organizations, sectors, jurisdictions, and governance levels. Yet, relatively few empirical studies directly measure and model institutions in management and policy settings. In a systematic review of the literature, we identify challenges and barriers that may prevent management and policy scholars from engaging with institutional analysis, along with examples of studies that illustrate how to overcome these challenges in practice.     

Modernizing Public Healthcare Governance in Hong Kong: A Case Study of Professional Power in the New Public Management

This article examines Hong Kong's experience in modernizing and corporatizing public healthcare governance in order to enhance management autonomy and service efficiency, against the background of a previous regime of centralized departmental control and amid the worldwide trend of new public management. The reform, culminating in the establishment of a hospital authority, is found to be wrought with intense intra-bureaucratic conflict, as well as rivalries between professional and administrative bureaucrats, between professionals of different sectors, and between medical and para-medical providers. Instead of breaking up traditional professional monopoly and opening up the system to non-medical general management, corporatization has resulted in an unplanned entrenchment and re-empowerment of medical professional power.     

社会工作在基层治理专业化中的角色与功能

近年来,我国对居民社区建设的重视度不断提升,社区公共服务团队也在不断壮大,在国家政策的实施以及广大社区管理中,社区管理机构发挥着十分关键的作用。随着城乡居民生活水平的不断提升,传统的管理模式与基层治理手段已经落后,难以满足社区发展与民众生活的多元化以及专业化需求,因此,在社区治理中,融入专业性社会工作已经成为大势所趋。论文结合社会工作参与乡村振兴建设战略所进行的一系列工作,探究社会工作在基层治理专业化道路上扮演的角色,指出社会工作在基层治理专业化中的功能,阐明当前社区治理中的问题,探索促进基层社区治理可持续发展的道路。     

The Role of the Private Sector In The Public Service Of The Ukralne

The system of social service provision in the Ukraine functions due to its traditional patterns of social-political interaction. Private social service providers played a limited role in this process as their Institutional recognition has always been problematic. We can diversify service providing by the public and private actors interacting in this provision. In the complexity of their interactions the key variable has been philanthropy, which transformed from support of the individual to an overarching nationalistic ideology. The dynamics of social-political governance is expressed now in the tensions between more traditional patterns of interactions based on their reciprocity with the economic, political and ideology crisis the country is facing Ineffective management of government social service providers, prevalence of western donor-rooted Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), failures of indigenous NGOs to achieve the social value, moral degradation and disbelief in democracy and reforms in population characterize social service provision in the country now.     

拯救浙商——危机企业重整之路

●每当浙江民间金融危机爆发,舆论焦点往往集中在对宏观调控一刀切、民营企业贷款难等外部政策问题的抨击,而较少关注企业内部的风险因素●陷入债务危机的企业经历破产重整后,公司的治理结构得到重建和升级,投机行为受到抑制,长期价值重受关注●对于当前陷入资金链危机的民营企业,政府需要进行某种限度的干预,也只有它有能力干预     

Tailings facility failures in the global mining industry: Will a ‘transparency turn’ drive change?

In this article, we critically analyse emerging regulatory controls around the design and management of tailings facilities in the global mining industry. Following several high profile, catastrophic tailings facility failures, a Global Tailings Review (GTR) was established to develop a new industry Standard. We describe the precursors to the GTR and review the public disclosure requirements of 19 separate industry-endorsed standards and certification schemes. On several criteria, the GTR Standard requires unprecedented levels of public disclosure by mining companies. Does this amount to a ‘transparency turn’ in tailings management? We argue that while improved disclosure provisions may provide visibility for investors, regulators and other stakeholders, the socialisation of transparency norms is a highly complex, contingent and ultimately fragile endeavour. Using indicators relevant to achieving transparency, we demonstrate the contextual variability into which mining companies will be disclosing information. Our analysis highlights the sheer number of tailings facilities in locations with multi-dimensional complexity, including low levels of literacy and governance, with correspondingly high levels of inequality and corruption. We discuss these conditionalities in relation to the GTR Standard, and conclude by outlining future research priorities.     

Public Management In North America

Although recent public management reforms in Canada. Mexico and the USA are characterized by similar themes and vocabularies - privatization, customer service, devolution - the nature and extent of actual change reflects the national politics and administrative histories of the three countries. In brief, Canadian public management has been heavily influenced by the need for fiscal retrenchment at both, national and provincial levels, Mexican public management has been influenced by the transition from oligarchic to democratic governance at federal, state and local levels, and USA public management has been preocuppied at the federal level with implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act and with the miscellaneous initiatives organized under the ‘Reinventing Government’ theme as it has been popularized by the Clinton administration.     

Opportunities and Challenges in Engaging Citizens in the Co-Production of Infrastructure-Based Public Services in Australia

Research and practice have observed a shift towards service-oriented approaches that depend on input from citizens as co-producers of services. Yet in the delivery of public infrastructure the focus is still on managing assets rather than services. Using a Policy Delphi approach, we found that although experts advocate service-centric approaches guidelines and policies lack a service-centric perspective. Findings revealed a range of impediments to effective stakeholder involvement. The paper contributes to co-production and new public governance literature and offers directions for public infrastructure decision-makers to support and reconnect disengaged government–citizen relations, and determine ways of understanding optimal service outcomes.     

Does Adaptive Capacity Influence Service Delivery? Evidence from Swedish Emergency Management Collaborations

Abstract

The relationship between adaptive capacity and collaborative performance is a central issue within public management research but has rarely been subjected to systematic empirical testing. Using survey data on emergency preparedness collaborations in Swedish municipalities (N = 263), this article investigates the relationship between three adaptive capacity variables – diversity, interaction, and learning – and outcomes in terms of goal attainment, risk analysis, and public satisfaction with rescue services. The findings suggest a positive relationship between the number of collaboration partners and goal attainment, while learning and accessibility of collaboration venues were unassociated with service delivery variables.     

Comparing Nonprofit Charter and Traditional Public School Board Member Perceptions of the Public,Conflict, and Financial Responsibility: Is there a difference and does it matter?

In this paper, survey data collected from nonprofit charter school board and elected public school board members in Minnesota is used to test three hypotheses relating to theories of New Public Management, democratic governance, and small group dynamics. We find that nonprofit charter school board members perceive lower levels of conflict, place less priority on the general public, and perceive a higher degree of governance responsibly in the area of financial management, than elected board members. We conclude that the increased use of nonprofit charter schools has potentially substantial implications on accountability and effectiveness in the delivery of public education.     

The New Political Role of Business in a Globalized World: A Review of a New Perspective on CSR and its Implications for the Firm,Governance, and Democracy

Scholars in management and economics widely share the assumption that business firms focus on profits only, while it is the task of the state system to provide public goods. In this view business firms are conceived of as economic actors, and governments and their state agencies are considered the only political actors. We suggest that, under the conditions of globalization, the strict division of labour between private business and nation‐state governance does not hold any more. Many business firms have started to assume social and political responsibilities that go beyond legal requirements and fill the regulatory vacuum in global governance. Our review of the literature shows that there are a growing number of publications from various disciplines that propose a politicized concept of corporate social responsibility. We consider the implications of this new perspective for theorizing about the business firm, governance, and democracy.     

New Public Management and Citizens' Perceptions of Local Service Efficiency,Responsiveness, Equity and Effectiveness

Abstract

We examine the relationship between a range of new public management (NPM) practices and citizens' perceptions of service efficiency, responsiveness, equity and effectiveness in English local governments. We find that public–private relationships have a negative relationship with citizens' perceptions of all four dimensions of local service performance, but an entrepreneurial strategic orientation exhibits a positive association with all four. Performance management is also likely to positively influence rather than negatively influencing citizens' perceptions of local public services. Further analysis revealed that the impact of NPM practices varies according to the level of socio-economic disadvantage confronted by local governments.     

Bank ownership and governance quality in India: Evolution and detection of convergence clubs

Utilizing a novel panel dataset for the period from 2009 to 2018, this paper investigates how the corporate governance of Indian banks has evolved since the post-global crisis and identifies convergence clubs among banks in distinct ownership groups. It also presents optimal policy priorities for specific aspects of corporate governance. To assess the quality of bank corporate governance, we used a non-parametric “Benefit-of-the-Doubt” (BoD) approach to create a bank-wise composite index of corporate governance based on 48 governance norms. Empirical results have shown that while Indian banks have made remarkable progress in adhering to the mostly mandatory corporate governance norms in the past few years, but their current level of governance isn’t adequate to characterize it as a “socially-efficient” structure. A typical public bank generally prioritized maintaining adequate disclosure and transparency, by and large, while a private bank focuses more spotlight on audit function, followed by risk management and board quality. The results based on Phillips and Sul’s (2007, 2009) clustering and merging algorithms reveal two convergent clubs in the private banking segment and a sole club in the public sector banking segment.     

基于经济学的财务治理目标建构

本文在对现有理论观点及其研究逻辑予以回顾的基础上,提出公司财务治理目标理论研究的新范式:企业理论是财务治理目标研究的理论渊源,财务治理本质理论以及财务管理目标理论,是财务治理目标研究的直接依据;然后论证了财务治理的目标是优化公司财务治理机制以实现代理成本的最小化,并将实现该目标的条件予以正式化;最后提出了在该目标模式下公司财务治理机制选择与优化的基本逻辑。     

Managerial Objectives and the Governance of Public and Non-Profit Organizations

By investigating managerial objectives, we test the simultaneous need for both control (agency theory) and collaboration (stewardship theory) in public and non-profit governance. We construct a discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences of managers in Belgian public and non-profit nursing homes. The results confirm that boards of nursing homes may experience pressure to simultaneously control and collaborate with their managers, thereby suggesting that agency and stewardship theory can be combined into a more general internal governance framework. We conclude by providing some policy implications to improve public and non-profit governance.     

Governance on the Ground: A Study of Solid Waste Management in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia

This article examines the management of solid waste in Addis Ababa from 2004 to mid‐2011. It describes how solid waste management has evolved and how relationships between the informal sector and the local authority have shifted in relation to the political atmosphere in the city. The author shows how good governance promoted by international donors does not necessarily result in improved service delivery on the ground. In line with the principles of good governance, the Ethiopian government decentralized the city's administration and entered into partnerships with non‐state actors in order to improve service delivery. However, these structural changes have not led to improvements in providing services for dealing with solid waste, nor have they improved accountability to or participation by civil society. The study shows that the established ways of exercising power are continuing within the new structures of the city administration, resulting in increased control over the actors involved in the process, and more conflicts and deeper mistrust of the city administration. This, in turn, has prevented the successful integration of the informal sector and provision of an improved solid waste service in the city. The city administration in Addis Ababa claims to have adopted good governance, but in reality it has adapted good governance to suit its own interests and agendas.