Analytical Paradigms: The Epistemological Distances between Scientists, Policy Makers, and the Public

The effective use of evidence and its resultant knowledge is increasingly recognized as critical in risk analysis. This, in turn, has led to a growing concern over issues of epistemology in risk communication, and, in particular, interest in how knowledge is constructed and employed by the key players in risk--scientists, policy makers, and the public. This article uses a critical theoretical approach to explore how evidence is recognized and validated, and how limits are placed on knowledge by scientists, policy makers, and the public. It brings together developments in the sociology of science, policy and policy development, public understandings of science, and risk communication and analysis to explicate the differing forms of rationality employed by each group. The work concludes that each group employs different, although equally legitimate, forms of rationality when evaluating evidence and generating knowledge around risky environment and health issues. Scientists, policy makers, and the public employ scientific, political, and social rationality, respectively. These differing forms of rationality reflect underlying epistemological distances from which can develop considerable misunderstandings and misinterpretations.     

A Comparative Study of Institutionalizing Public Plant Breeding

Public–private partnerships are merely defined as an institutionalized cooperation between the public administration and private companies, but may take very different settings. This paper uses the case of partnerships in the plant breeding sector to study the institutional evolution of such linkages. It is shown how corporatist exclusivity can enter such partnerships, as their setting can have different purposes and be used to transfer subsidies from the public to companies or professional associations through low prices for resources transferred to the sector. The inefficiencies connected with such rents and possible alternatives are outlined and conclusions are drawn for the institutional theory of organizations.     

The Rhetoric and Reality of Public-Private Partnerships

Public-private partnership (or PPP) is now a very-fashionable concept in discourse about public sector management. For many, following a British lead, it focuses on attracting private financing for public projects. However there are several other forms of public-private mix that are also often described as partnerships, and some of them are not nearly so new. This article notes that several nodes of interest have developed to explore these mixes/partnerships, and raises some questions about them. We should consider whether all such mixes can properly be described as partnerships. Also we need to know more about their long history, to investigate the possibility of developing a classificatory system to help us better understand the various forms, and to consider what conditions are necessary for successful mixing or partnering, in particular for protecting the public interest at a time when market forces exercise great power.     

Public-Private Governance Regimes in the Global Sphere

Globally, there are challenges and threats that cannot be targeted by a single actor, even if it may be a national state, legitimized and willing to act. Hence, new collaboration regimes were created: international organizations, but also – formal or informal – cooperations with the private sector. Our paper discusses organization forms of these cooperations or ‘global public private partnerships’ (GPPP) theoretically and outlines framework conditions for the use of these global partnerships. Additionally, the health sector will be tackled exemplarily to delineate in how far GPPP are largely depending on the nature of the good provided.     

Accountability in Voluntary Partnerships: To Whom and for What?

This paper contributes to the understanding of accountability in collaborative governance by presenting views of practitioners from partnerships formed between K-12 public schools and private and nonprofit organizations in the United States. It focuses on two questions: what do partnership practitioners see the partnerships as being accountable for? And to whom do they see the partnerships as being accountable? The findings suggest that partnership participants reveal more of client-based and results-oriented views of accountability. They are more directly concerned about professional accountability and accountability to the partners. A concentric-circles model is then developed to illustrate the accountability relationships in partnerships.     

Strategic planning for water—A case history

Choosing a management policy in a developing economy for public utility systems involves consideration of a host of factors and delineation of some strategic issues. In order to make the management policy operational, a formal approach to system planning is necessary. This paper develops an approach whose primary aim is to assess the current status of the system and the environment, to identify and categorize the management problems, and then to break up the problems into manageable components to find out appropriate solution strategies. It is hoped that such an approach will jointly clarify the perceptions of how management techniques can be gainfully used and practised in managing large scale public utility systems.     

The Governance of Voluntary Work in the Public Sector: Institutional Differences and Invariant Traits

In response to fiscal constraint and the introduction of quasi-market mechanisms into the public sector, in public policy there appears to be the acceptance of the increased use of voluntary labour in the delivery of public services. Traditional forms of governance have tended to ignore the use of voluntary labour in the public sector. The paper builds on an earlier (Hellshorm and Collins, 1999) model of concurrence between voluntary and municipal labour, by focusing onthe demand side of voluntary work. Our exploratory study uses this model to analyse two municipal organisations' mix of voluntary and municipal labour, one Italian and the other a Swedish context.The research method used to collect empirical data was semi-structured interviews of local government employees within the two sites. Thisis linked with an analysis of the institutional context of the two municipalities to inform and test the proposed model of demand for volunteer labour in local government. Resource scarcity, presence of agency for voluntary work, type of production and state rules and norm are used to analyse the institutional invariant traits. The study concludes that traditional institutional theory has ignored voluntary activities. Our case studies of actual practice indicate that different state norms and ruleson citizen rights and equal opportunities are stronger influential factors than the resources situation, in determining the demand for voluntary activities in municipalities.     

The Role of Organizational Identities for Policy Integration Processes – Managing Sustainable Transport Development

Sustainable transport development is a complex, but necessary issue to manage if the use of fossil energy will decrease and transportation become more energy-efficient and environmental friendly. The contemporary public organization is organized into policy sectors and tiers of government, but the issue of sustainability is not confined to one single sector or level, it transcends all these traditional boundaries. To address this complexity policy integration has been suggested as a way for public organizations to open up the sectoral and vertical boundaries in policymaking. This paper discusses a case study of a political committee on the regional level in Sweden, which has been formed for integrated policymaking between sectors and local and regional authorities to manage sustainable transport development. The analysis of the case shows that vertical and sectoral integration are dependent processes and that the relation between different organizational identities either strengthens or undermine them. Vertical integration is not resulting in sectoral integration, rather it works prohibiting against sectoral integration.     

Innovative Approaches for Managing Public-Private Academic Partnerships in Big Science and Engineering

Analyses of public-private academic partnerships (PPAPs) in terms of management, organization, funding, and partner relationships are presented with three case studies, selected to display a range of governance models. The increasing challenges of Big Science seem to demand the merging of the public, private, and academic sectors into a single collaboration. Three conclusions are drawn: (1) complex PPAPs can be successful if partner’s roles are clearly defined; (2) Big Science needs PPAPs to achieve results; and (3) the management style for CLEANER, a Collaborative Large-Scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research, should make use of a hierarchical PPAP organizational style.     

Partnerships for heritage conservation: evidence from the archeological site of Herculaneum

In the present paper, we investigate the Herculaneum Conservation Project (HCP), a partnership agreement between one public and two non-profit actors aimed at improving the conservation of the archeological site of Herculaneum. The study is motivated by different elements of interests. First, although HCP has been defined by UNESCO as a significant case study for private–public partnership (PPP) in the cultural heritage sector, its financial and organizational aspects are still under-investigated. Second, and quite paradoxically, an analysis of HCP through the lenses of PPP literature reveals its distinctive nature—i.e. more a borderline case than a typical example of PPP. Third, the presence of a similar archeological site nearby Herculaneum—i.e. Pompeii, also defined as a Herculaneum sister city—allows a thorough assessment of the benefit of the partnership scheme in a counterfactual logic. Through the study, we complement the current debate on partnerships in the heritage field, we report on an atypical experience of partnership, and we problematize the rationale of this governance solution within the Italian public sector.     

Divide and rule: The effects of diversity and network structure on a firm's sustainability performance

To tackle sustainability, firms often use partnerships with organizations from different industries or societal sectors such as government and civil society. While partnerships show potential for firms to improve their sustainability performance, they not only lead to a potential to learn from diversity but also to tensions due to a lack of unity between partners. In partnerships for sustainability, this unity-diversity tension particularly manifests itself in different views of sustainability. This paper examines how this tension affects the sustainability performance of firms taking part in partnerships for sustainability in developing countries. To address this question, this tension is conceptualized as being the result of differences in organizational frames and institutional logics between a focal firm and other organizations in the partnership. It is also taken into consideration that firms are embedded in an overarching, relational network structure that allows them to manage the diversity in frames and logics. To test the hypotheses, the study analyses 1353 greenhouse gas emission reduction projects of 322 firms from developing countries active in the carbon-offset market from 2007 to 2009. The findings show that if partners hold different frames and belong to different sectors, a firm's sustainability performance improves first due to learning from diversity but after a turning point decreases from a lack of unity. This inverse U-shape relationship is flipped if a firm occupies a brokerage position in its network.     

A hybrid inventory management system responding to regular demand and surge demand

This paper proposes a hybrid policy for a stochastic inventory system facing regular demand and surge demand. The combination of two different demand patterns can be observed in many areas, such as healthcare inventory and humanitarian supply chain management. The surge demand has a lower arrival rate but higher demand volume per arrival. The solution approach proposed in this paper incorporates the level crossing method and mixed integer programming technique to optimize the hybrid inventory policy with both regular orders and emergency orders. The level crossing method is applied to obtain the equilibrium distributions of inventory levels under a given policy. The model is further transformed into a mixed integer program to identify an optimal hybrid policy. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to investigate the impact of parameters on the optimal inventory policy and minimum cost. Numerical results clearly show the benefit of using the proposed hybrid inventory model. The model and solution approach could help healthcare providers or humanitarian logistics providers in managing their emergency supplies in responding to surge demands.     

Conclusion: Can We Go Home? Roads Taken, Targets Met, and Lessons Learned on Governance and Organizational Eclecticism in the Public Arena

Organizational eclecticism has characterized much of policy and administrative choices in public governance in the last three decades. This concluding article addresses this phenomenon and argues that roads have been taken, targets have been met, and many lessons have been learned in organizing and managing public sector governance, as the articles in this Symposium demonstrate. In the process, experiments have been conducted, some with success, while others with failure, leading to a proliferation of eclectic choices, many unsuited for organizational effectiveness but beneficial to powerful interest groups and politicians, all at the expense of alternative organizational choices and broad-based public interests. Three broad theoretical models/periods are examined, the proliferation of public sector organizational eclecticism is analyzed, and options are suggested concerning alternative organizational choices, resulting in the question: can we go home now?     

LOGISTICS PARTNERSHIPS AND SUPPLY CHAIN RESTRUCTURING: SURVEY RESULTS FROM THE U.S. COMPUTER INDUSTRY

This research investigates the interaction between formation of logistics partnerships and supply chain restructuring in the U.S. computer industry via a survey of 30 ongoing partnerships. Partnerships that have included restructuring are compared to those that have not. Examples of representative partnerships are presented. The survey results indicate that restructurers use partnerships to facilitate restructuring. Restructurers and non-restructurers form partnerships for different reasons and realize different types of benefits. Furthermore, restructurers realize greater benefits than do non-restructurers and view their partnerships as more successful. Restructurers report dramatic improvements in logistics cost (1l-30%) and order cycle time (62%). The research contributes to the existing literature by highlighting restructuring as an important aspect of logistics partnership formation and by presenting empirical data that shows how the two strategies are linked.     

Flash Flood Risks and Warning Decisions: A Mental Models Study of Forecasters,Public Officials,and Media Broadcasters in Boulder,Colorado

Timely warning communication and decision making are critical for reducing harm from flash flooding. To help understand and improve extreme weather risk communication and management, this study uses a mental models research approach to investigate the flash flood warning system and its risk decision context. Data were collected in the Boulder, Colorado area from mental models interviews with forecasters, public officials, and media broadcasters, who each make important interacting decisions in the warning system, and from a group modeling session with forecasters. Analysis of the data informed development of a decision‐focused model of the flash flood warning system that integrates the professionals’ perspectives. Comparative analysis of individual and group data with this model characterizes how these professionals conceptualize flash flood risks and associated uncertainty; create and disseminate flash flood warning information; and perceive how warning information is (and should be) used in their own and others’ decisions. The analysis indicates that warning system functioning would benefit from professionals developing a clearer, shared understanding of flash flood risks and the warning system, across their areas of expertise and job roles. Given the challenges in risk communication and decision making for complex, rapidly evolving hazards such as flash floods, another priority is development of improved warning content to help members of the public protect themselves when needed. Also important is professional communication with members of the public about allocation of responsibilities for managing flash flood risks, as well as improved system‐wide management of uncertainty in decisions.     

The enduring presence of groups and public enterprises in the Italian economy

What was the presence of the State-entrepreneur in the Italian economy in the 20th century? Which forms did it assume? What is the weight of the State-entrepreneur in Italy today? Trying to answer these questions, the author carries out an analysis through the historical method. His final thesis is that, notwithstanding the progressive pressures, which started in the 1990s, towards the privatization of national capitalism, the State-entrepreneur is still firmly present in the Italian economy, as if it had always to play a role in the country’s development. The results of the present investigation can turn out to be of interest both to scholars and to policy makers who are committed in the effective implementation of actions aiming at favouring, for the country’s welfare, a careful and balanced relationship between public and private powers.     

DBFOM Contracting and Public Stewardship in the Norfolk-Portsmouth Elizabeth River Tunnels Public-Private Partnership

In 2011, the Virginia Department of Transportation issued a request for proposals to upgrade the Norfolk-Portsmouth Elizabeth River Midtown and Downtown Tunnels. The project involved government contracting with a local subsidiary of two foreign entities that would handle all project phases according to a Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain (DBFOM) contract. The case of the Elizabeth River Tunnels (ERT) project is examined through the perspective of transaction cost theory and evaluates the DBFOM contracting method according to its impact on public stewardship. The research findings improve understanding of public-private partnerships (PPPs) by examining the connection between transaction costs and public stewardship.

     

The Role of Industry Studies and Public Policies in Production and Operations Management

The research domain Industry Studies and Public Policy (IS&PP) seeks to further our understanding of industrial practices and managerial challenges by explicitly considering contextual details in the design and interpretation of research studies. These details can be vital considerations when shaping public policies. This article reviews a sample of IS&PP publications and analyzes the content of 180 selected papers—85 papers published in the Production and Operations Management (POM) journal and 95 papers published in related journals between 1992 and 2014. Our analysis of the sample dataset and examination of exemplar papers provide four findings. First, studies in different industries emphasize different themes of operational decisions. This difference in emphasis reveals potential research opportunities, especially for conducting inter‐industry studies. Second, our analysis reveals a shift in focus over time. Earlier studies contain a mix of benchmarks and inter‐industry comparisons, while later studies tend to be context‐specific, intra‐industry studies. Third, we report on empirics → analytics → empirics cycles that reveal gaps for building novel theories. Finally, we observe that the relationship between POM decisions and public policy is bi‐directional. This highlights the need to jointly examine operational decisions with policy considerations, especially in information goods, healthcare, sustainable operations and high‐tech manufacturing industries.     

Strategic Appraisal of Environmental Risks: A Contrast Between the United Kingdom's Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and its Committee on Radioactive Waste Management

In this article, we compare two high‐profile strategic policy reviews undertaken for the U.K. government on environmental risks: radioactive waste management and climate change. These reviews took very different forms, both in terms of analytic approach and deliberation strategy. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change was largely an exercise in expert modeling, building, within a cost‐benefit framework, an argument for immediate reductions in carbon emissions. The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, on the other hand, followed a much more explicitly deliberative and participative process, using multicriteria decision analysis to bring together scientific evidence and stakeholder and public values. In this article, we ask why the two reviews were different, and whether the differences are justified. We conclude that the differences were mainly due to political context, rather than the underpinning science, and as a consequence that, while in our view “fit for purpose,” they would both have been stronger had they been less different. Stern's grappling with ethical issues could have been strengthened by a greater degree of public and stakeholder engagement, and the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management's handling of issues of uncertainty could have been strengthened by the explicitly probabilistic framework of Stern.     

Integrative public leadership: Catalyzing collaboration to create public value

Integrative public leadership is a process of developing partnerships across organizational, sectoral and/or jurisdictional boundaries that create public value. This paper explores the concept in the context of the literature and illustrates some salient features of integrative public leadership through three cases involving extensive multi-sector collaboration in the western (Smoky Mountain) region of North Carolina. The cases are different in subject matter—sewer lines to a rural community, broadband infrastructure across a network of rural schools and colleges, and a major environmental preservation effort—but they all share some key elements. Leadership in each case is enacted through structure, process, and people. Boundary organizations provide a structural context for partnership development; boundary experiences and boundary objects serve to bridge differences and create a common purpose; and boundary spanners exhibit entrepreneurial qualities and leverage relationship capital in order to facilitate integration.