Public–Private Agreements, Institutions, and Competition: When Economic Theory Meets Facts

While, in practice, the participation of private actors at the local and national government levels through various types of contractual agreements has been increasing over the last decades, there are still few studies on the functioning and performances of such relationships. Our aim is to highlight some significant theoretical and empirical issues concerning Public–Private Agreements. We first assess the potential sources of efficiency of such contractual agreements. We then examine the selection issue which is a crucial stage for the efficiency of such agreement. Finally, we stress the importance of the institutional framework showing how it might affect the agreements’ efficiency.     

Local stakeholders’ perception of muddy flood risk and implications for management approaches: A case study in Alsace (France)

The inventory of muddy floods in France indicates that the occurrence of these events seriously increased in the North West and the East of the country. Muddy floods triggering can largely be explained by physical characteristics such as a hilly topography, soils prone to crust, and/or heavy rainfall in spring. Although the physical processes are well known by now and despite increasing information about the need of mitigation measures, no significant reduction of these disasters has been registered. Therefore, this should be explained by factors others than scientific reasons or technical knowledge acquisition difficulties.     

The changing rationale for governance choices: Early vs. late adopters of global services sourcing

Research Summary: This article studies how the logic of firm governance choices varies as a function of the time of adoption of particular sourcing practices. Using data on the diffusion of global business services sourcing as a management practice from early experiments in the 1980s through 2011, we show that the extent to which governance choices are affected by process commoditization, availability of external service capabilities, and past governance choices depends on whether firms are early or late adopters. Findings inform research on governance choice dynamics specifically in highly diverse and evolving firm populations. Managerial Summary: This article considers how firms have chosen delivery models in global services sourcing decisions over time. Based on comprehensive data, we make two major observations. First, we find that firms that began with global services sourcing early, invested mainly in their internal sourcing capacity, while outsourcing only simple tasks to external providers, whereas firms that started later invested more in their capability to outsource various services to increasingly sophisticated suppliers. Second, we find that initial investments in internal or external sourcing capabilities have a strong effect on future choices of delivery models. This explains why, even today, firms vary greatly in how they implement global sourcing decisions, and it suggests that newcomers should learn from their own peer group rather than from highly experienced firms.