Public–private innovation: barriers in the case of mobility as a service in West Sweden

Departing from open innovation (OI), this case study explores the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in West Sweden. An analysis of 19 interviews reveals how representatives from involved actors perceive internal and external barriers as hampering the regional public transport authority’s attempts to collaborate with private actors, and that the perception of barriers is incongruent across public and private actors. Transferability to other cases of public–private OI is discussed, and implications for public actors are proposed. The paper expands the knowledge of preconditions for MaaS’ development and of the unique conditions for OI in public–private settings.     

Public–private partnership in Public Administration discipline: a literature review

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become popular tools to deliver infrastructure and public services around the world. As an innovative public procurement approach, PPPs have drawn considerable attention from academic circles. In order to enhance our knowledge of PPPs, the authors conducted a systematic literature review of articles published in international journals of the Public Administration (PA) discipline. Four main topics in this discipline are identified by means of social network analysis, including PPP concept, risk sharing amongst PPP participants, the drivers of PPP adoption, and PPP performance. Seven propositions about the four topics are summarized. Directions for future research are also considered.     

Public–private partnerships: lessons from the British approach

British governments have for many years sought to move activities from the public to the private sector. For the past decade, this has included the provision of public services not only operated but also financed by the private sector. In 2000, these private finance initiative (PFI) projects were incorporated into a wider programme of public–private partnerships (PPPs). Compared to conventionally financed procurement, the PFI approach has brought both benefits and costs. The balance of advantage is often unclear, and at the strategic level the main drivers appear still to be ideology and accounting. However in its practical application many useful lessons have been drawn and applied.     

Public–private wage gap in Latin America (1992–2007): A matching approach

Using matching methods, we estimate the public–private wage gap for urban workers in eleven Latin American countries for the 1992–2007 period. These methods do not require any estimation of earnings equations and hence no validity-out-of-the-support assumptions; furthermore, this approach allows us to estimate not only the average wage gap but also its distribution. Our main findings indicate that the average public sector worker earns more than his/her private counterpart, and that this differential increased over the 1992–2007 period. Important differences along the wage distribution are also shown in the results; in fact, public servants in the highest percentiles of the wage distribution generally earn less than their private sector equivalents. Nonetheless, the percentile at which a positive wage gap becomes a wage penalty shifted over the period as the average wage gap experienced by most countries widened. Still, the most qualified public sector workers do face a wage penalty. Furthermore, indicators of government effectiveness show no relationship with the country ranking according to the public–private wage gap.     

The impact of innovation training on successful outcomes in public–private partnerships

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly seen as a way of innovating the production and management of public services. However, the question of what drives innovation in partnerships has so far received only limited attention. Drawing on network governance and collaborative innovation literature, this article presents the findings from a survey among 260 Danish PPPs. The study shows that while innovation training has a significant effect on achieving innovation in PPPs, factors such as trust and institutional support only affect some innovation types. The findings demonstrate the importance of individual innovation skills and a differentiated understanding of innovation outcomes in PPPs.     

Public and private healthcare services: What drives the choice?

This paper has explored patients' propensity to consume private healthcare services. We based our analysis on the typical tangible and intangible (for instance, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and staff empathy) domains of the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF methods. These variables may influence patients' decision-making when they choose between the public and private sectors. We combined factor analysis (to obtain a set of latent factors related to perceived quality) and a partial proportional ordered logit model to estimate the probability that a patient would access private healthcare services. To test the main hypotheses, we used data from a stratified sample in Sardinia, a peripheral region of Italy. Findings revealed that private and public healthcare are substitutes, especially for primary/specialised services. Patients who used public healthcare frequently and had a low income were unlikely to change to private healthcare or to recommend private services. ‘Responsiveness’ and perceptions on ‘tangibles’ were key in determining the probability that a patient would choose and recommend private services. This paper offers a multifaceted framework that can be used in future research to generalise these findings, especially in insular regions that are constrained by mobility.     

An economic–probabilistic model for risk analysis in technological innovation projects

This paper presents the application of an economic–probabilistic model to conduct risk analysis in technological innovation (TI) projects. The model integrates risk and economic analysis by quantifying both value and probability of occurrence of cash flow deviations, thus resulting in an economic–probabilistic analysis of the expected returns. The main risk categories and factors in TI projects are identified and associated to cash flow groups. The model allows to calculate risk-adjusted values for cash flow groups and project net present value through stochastic simulation. As a result, the model provides both the risk-adjusted project economic return with the associated probability distribution to its NPV and the variability that each risk factor generates in the project return. The model offers important benefits from the point of view of practitioners, including a condensed list of independent risk factors and the use of a monetary scale to assess risk impact which is familiar to most decision makers.     

Public versus private provision of liquidity: Is there a trade-off?

To what extent is public debt private liquidity? Much policy advice given in the aftermath of the financial crisis rests on the assumption that increasing public debt relaxes borrowing constraints of private households. This is the case for ad-hoc debt limits, which are exogenous to public policy. Instead, if debt limits are fully endogenous, as e.g. in the case of the natural borrowing limit, public debt has no impact. We assume that borrowing limits arise because of limited contract enforceability and are therefore determined as equilibrium outcomes. Using an incomplete markets economy in which households are subject to uninsurable earnings shocks, we show that public debt provides some liquidity, but less so than it would if constraints were imposed ad-hoc. We show that generating borrowing constraints as an equilibrium outcome substantially alters the answers to other important questions, such as for the welfare effects of government debt or its impact on real economic activity.     

Innovation-Oriented Culture in the Public Sector: Do managerial autonomy and result control lead to innovation?

This article examines the effect of specific new public management (NPM)-related characteristics to explain innovation-oriented culture within public sector organizations. According to NPM doctrines, an enhanced managerial autonomy combined with result control will stimulate a more innovation-oriented culture in such organizations. Using multi-country survey data of over 200 public sector agencies, we test for the influence of organizational autonomy, result control and their interactions, on innovation-oriented culture. High levels of managerial autonomy and result control have independent and positive effects. However, the interaction between high personnel management autonomy and high result control has a negative effect.     

Boundary Spanning in Local Public Service Partnerships: Coaches,advocates or enforcers?

This paper analyses the role of senior civil servants who work directly with local public service partnerships in the UK. It finds that their activities are welcomed by local actors and can have a positive impact on partnership working. They add value by acting as coaches who bring new ideas and help to build trust among local agencies and as advocates through being an important channel of communication between partnerships and national government. However, they struggle to facilitate more joined up working among national government departments whose differentiated regulatory and funding procedures impede attempts to collaborate at a local level.     

Design versus utility innovation: Is corruption sanding or greasing the wheels of innovation?

This paper studies whether corruption has a greasing or a sanding effect on the production of innovation. The main novelty lies in comparing the relative impacts on design versus utility innovation. On the one hand, corruption can undermine (sand) the expected returns from patents, whereas on the other hand, patent holders might be able to increase (grease) the scope and applicability of their patents. Using U.S. state-level data and controlling for bidirectional causality, results show the sanding effect of corruption with regard to utility patents, with the negative effect on design patents occurring only with a time lag.     

Technological innovation versus non-technological innovation: different conditions in different regional contexts?

This study identifies the conditions that, at a regional level, facilitate the emergence of technological and non-technological innovation. One of the most promising lines in the discussion of the processes of regional innovation lies in explaining the different conditions of the various forms innovation process can take. We use fsQCA methodology to test the model. QCA is a method based on set theory that assumes the influence of certain elements in a specific outcome that depend on the combination of those elements; not just on the levels of the individual elements, as in traditional methods. First, we found that the absence of a single condition appears limiting for both types of innovation, which calls for customized innovation policies tailored to the regional context. Second, we found that some sets of innovation characteristics are sufficient conditions for regions to innovate. Among the selected sets, we found that the combination of firm collaboration and public and private R&D are sufficient for both types of innovation, which should be informative for regional policy. The fsQCA also identified alternative pathways—different for both types of innovation. Collaboration seems to be relevant since it is present in all the configurations for sufficient conditions.     

Summer Budget: calculated risk or reckless gamble?

• The Chancellor had created the expectation that his Summer Budget would be radical and he did not disappoint. The ‘rabbit from the hat’ was a compulsory ‘living wage’, expected to reach £9 per hour in 2020, which Mr Osborne hopes will help to compensate the lower paid for the slashing of in‐work benefits. This has effectively transferred responsibility for supporting low‐income households from the government to employers. The OBR expects this to have a relatively muted impact on employment, but this view looks pretty optimistic and the policy represents a major gamble.
• The reduction in welfare spending, plus an easing of the near‐term fiscal squeeze, has helped to smooth the public spending ‘rollercoaster’. But with a plethora of giveaways failing to disguise a net increase in the tax burden, the Budget is likely to weigh on growth prospects, even if the Chancellor's big gamble pays off.
• Alongside the Budget the Chancellor announced a new fiscal mandate, which will require governments to run a budget surplus in “normal times”. But meeting this mandate will require a fiscal stance very far from the historical norm and it will also force other sectors to move into deficit to compensate. It will also mean a looser monetary policy than would otherwise be the case. So a policy presented as creating room for fiscal policy to respond to future economic shocks could potentially narrow the scope for the more potent weapon of interest rate cuts.

     

Public intervention in UK small firm credit markets: Value-for-money or waste of scarce resources?

Loan guarantee schemes are used in many countries to provide financial support to small firms by guaranteeing loans from commercial banks, but questions remain about whether public intervention in private credit markets to support entrepreneurial firms is justified. This paper examines whether the UK Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme (SFLG) provides value-for-money to the UK tax payer, presenting a regression based performance approach which then feeds into a formal cost–benefit analysis. Specifically, we consider whether firm performance post-investment is such that it justifies the governments’ presence in the lending market and the costs associated with it. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurial firms that are able to access new finance through SFLG achieve superior performance in the form of improved sales, job creation and exports and that this justifies public intervention in private credit markets.     

Comparing German and Italian Public Universities: Convergence or Divergence in the Higher Education Landscape?

In this paper, we examine and compare the efficiency of Italian and German public universities and its evolution in the period 2001–2007. This topic is particularly important because of two main reasons: (i) as the universities are funded through public money in both countries, it is necessary to assess whether it has been used efficiently; (ii) the comparison among (similar) European countries can stimulate a benchmarking exercise that can be useful for managerial and policy making purposes. The results show that German universities are more efficient than their Italian counterparts are, using data envelopment analysis. However, the latter are catching up: in the period 2001–2007, their efficiency has improved more rapidly. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public Money and Mickey Mouse: Evaluating performance and accountability in the Hong Kong Disneyland joint venture public–private partnership

Abstract

Joint venture public–private partnerships (PPPs) allow partners to share in the risks and rewards of joint production. But the literature offers little theoretical guidance on assessing performance and accountability in this type of PPP. This article fills this gap by examining joint ventures as PPPs and formulates a comprehensive performance evaluation framework. Its application to the case of Hong Kong’s Disneyland Resort reveals a project that has endured several challenges related to achieving objectives, ensuring cooperation among partners, and upholding principles of democratic accountability. Outcomes from this study offer new insight into an underexplored aspect of PPP research.     

Pharmaceutical drug misuse: are industry of employment and occupation risk factors?

We explore the misuse of pharmaceutical drugs in the Australian workforce, focusing on whether any differences exist between workers in particular industries or occupations. In terms of industry, being employed in hospitality is positively associated with pharmaceutical drug misuse, while being employed in finance, insurance and retail is inversely related. In terms of occupation, we find that being a labourer is positively related to misuse of pharmaceutical drugs, while being employed in managerial, professional, sales, clerical or administrative roles is associated with a lower tendency. Further analysis of occupational effects revealed that being in a blue‐collar occupation, as a whole, is positively related to pharmaceutical drug misuse relative to white‐collar employment. Moreover, being employed in higher status roles is associated with a lower likelihood of such behaviour. Our findings imply that particular workplace pressures, cultural norms and/or working conditions might be influential factors behind workers' drug misuse.