Sound Governance: Engaging Citizens through Collaborative Organizations

This paper addresses governance-citizen relationship and argues for ??sound governance?? and engaging citizens in public administration through collaborative organizations. After reviewing and analyzing the contemporary literature on the importance and various forms of governance, it: (1) argues for a new concept of ??sound governance?? with key dimensions and characteristics, (2) provides an imperative with rationales for engaging citizens in governance and governing in the twenty first century, and (3) offers alternative forms of collaboration and partnership building to engage citizens, enhance governance, and maximize citizen participation in public administration.     

New Zealand—a newcomer to planning

The geographic location of New Zealand and the relatively small size of the industrial sector frequently creates a lag in the adoption of what would normally be regarded as standard practice in European and American companies. This paper discusses the results of a survey of executive attitudes towards planning in 138 New Zealand companies. The main objective of the survey was to establish the state of development of Corporate Planning in New Zealand.     

Globalization, State Formation, and Reinvention in Public Governance: Exploring the Linkages and Patterns in Southeast Asia

While the existing studies on globalization widely cover the realms of economy, politics, society, and culture, the discourse is hardly extended to the domain of public governance. Although there are studies on the globalization or cross-national convergence of contemporary neoliberal models of governance – that is, the New Public Management (NPM) model and its revisionist post-NPM alternatives – there is a relative lack of research on how the globalization phenomenon itself has been a major cause of the emergence of such a neoliberal public sector management. In explaining the main causes of these neoliberal reinventions, most scholars highlight issues like fiscal crisis, state failure, and public sector inefficiency. They rarely consider how the dominant actors of globalization may constitute a major force causing the recent neoliberal transformation of the state and market-led reinvention in state policies and management. This article explicates these linkages – between globalization, state formation, and public sector reform – with specific reference to Southeast Asia.     

Expectations and the performance of governance functions between a board,management and other stakeholders: the case of Robotdalen

Previous research has called for an enhanced understanding of the dynamic and interactional aspects of board work in public sector governance. Using a longitudinal case study of Robotdalen, this paper attempts to meet this call through a processual and qualitative study of board work in public organisations. The aim of the paper is to enhance our understanding of the human side of governance and the interactions between a board, the management in the governed organisation and other stakeholders. We do this by addressing the theoretical concept of an expectations gap. The results demonstrated how funding regimes influence governance functions, structures and practices at the organisational level, and how internal actors such as managers also carry out governance functions. Moreover, the results show how an expectations gap shifts and changes over time. In this way we have contributed a more nuanced theoretical understanding of how the governance function is co-produced and the importance of understanding the expectations gap to further understand the dynamics of public sector board work.     

Corporate governance and management practices: stakeholder involvement, quality and sustainability tools adoption

Local public services are the field in which New Public Management (NPM) and Public Governance issues are most in evidence. The local public services are characterized by the rethinking of the role played by local government in the provision of services. An evolution has taken place. From a traditional configuration in which local public services were managed by local governments they moved to a configuration where a separation has taken place between the local government role (which continues to be the guarantor of the satisfaction of public needs) and the role of local public utilities (LPUs) (responsible for delivering the services). This transformation implies both the delegation of resources and authority to lower organisational levels within the public sector and the reconfiguration of accountability chains between the state institutions and the society. In recent years, an intense debate has developed regarding the introduction of new tools and control systems. Particular attention has been paid to planning and control systems, human resources management systems, and performance management systems, leaving a few pioneers to develop their analysis on corporate governance mechanisms with regard their relationships with both the external (stakeholders) actors and the internal (management) ones. On one hand, the OECD wrote guidelines in order to ensure good corporate governance practices, focusing on relations with stakeholders. On the other hand, the dialogue between corporate governance and stakeholders has been already tackled by a number of International organizations guidelines or principles, following a debate on corporate governance that has progressively combined a stakeholder perspective with a more classic shareholder-maximizing model of governance. This article contributes to the debate on the stakeholder involvement process. By means of both a theoretical discussion and an empirical research conducted on 37 Italian LPUs, this paper attempts to analyse specific management tools which can be used to improve the quality of corporate governance in LPUs, by extending the stakeholder involvement. Some NPM’s tools, such as quality standards and sustainability tools imply an effort to offer new forms of organizational behaviour in the decision-making processes (i.e. the choice of the performance indicators and the reporting tools) and to create a dialogue between the enterprise and its stakeholders. In particular, in our study we focus on the adoption of quality standards (ISO 9000 and Customer Satisfaction) and sustainability tools (sustainability reports and ISO 14000 standard) as NPM’s tools to facilitate the stakeholder involvement practices.     

Wholly proprietary versus wholly open knowledge strategies: some empirical evidences from Italian biotech firms

This paper focuses on biotechnologies and biotech companies. Our aim is to develop a model for assessing the openness degree of knowledge governance strategies, applying it to the biotech firms. Biotech production is described as an emerging meta-industry in the global economy, fostering through new products, many socio-economic fields. Its main features are: a close relationship among knowledge, innovation and competitiveness; the need for collaborative research; the importance of small firms. Our paper begins with a brief characterization of the biotech meta-sector. We then review the literature regarding the advantages and disadvantages of ??wholly proprietary?? versus ??wholly open?? knowledge strategies. Next we propose a model and report the main results of its application to biotech companies in Italy. In conclusion, we evaluate the degree of openness of the company knowledge strategies based upon empirical evidence from our research in the field.     

An Empirical Taxonomy of SOE Governance in Transitional China

China’s State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) traditionally have been governed by the Communist Party. Privatization has brought greater numbers of investors who have a stake and demand a voice in how SOEs are managed. Three traditional governance perspectives are agency theory, resource dependence, and institutional theory, but China’s transition introduces several additional governance approaches. Are “capitalism with Chinese characteristics” and “bureaucratic entrepreneurialism” paradoxes? Based on initial interviews of SOE executives, a survey of top managers and board chairs of listed companies, and subsequent interviews and observations in select case companies, this paper develop a taxonomy of SOE governance that now exists in China. Two of the approaches represent the extremes of the old state-centered regimes and the new shareholder-centered regimes. Considering China’s historical and cultural contexts coupled with its current stage of economic transition, two additional approaches to corporate governance are to have a vacuum as neither the state nor shareholders dominate or – in unique contrast to other countries – a hybrid of both.     

Strategic Planning in the Malawi Public Sector: Potential Tool for Progress or Regression?

The process of developing strategic plans in the public sector is regarded as one indicator of positive reform in the system. The assumption is that strategic planning ensures that (just like in the private sector) public sector organizations’ operations should cost less but deliver better service. Ultimately the argument is that public sector institutional governance and responsiveness to the citizenry is not only seen but felt. However, strategic planning has to be done in an appropriate manner for it to deliver. For instance an analysis of the underlying motives, the role of leadership in the process as well as the relevance or viability of the guiding strategic planning model significantly affect the nature of expected results. In the early 2000s, the Malawi public sector embarked on a serious drive towards strategic planning process as part of its reform package. In order to ascertain it’s potential to transform the Malawi public service, this paper focuses at critically analyzing the strategic planning process in the Malawi public sector by among other things asking: who initiated and led the process? What approach determined the process? What is the possible potentiality of the adopted strategic planning approach in enhancing the reform agenda in Malawi? Based on interviews with senior officers in key Malawi public sector institutions, the paper concludes that the strategic planning process is ‘transitional and fluid’ hence lacks the clout to effectively enhance reforms in this sector. Another finding is that lack of effective leadership has largely contributed to the status quo.     

The view from the crossroads: Brazilian culture and corporate leadership in the twenty-first century

The transfer of western leadership theories and practices across the globe has inspired criticism in recent years, suggesting the need for local/indigenous theories of leadership. Such search, however, is troublesome in countries with a heterogeneous cultural background where the constant influence of outside cultural/social/economic parameters abound. The purpose of this article is to identify local/indigenous practices of leadership in one country with a heterogeneous cultural background – Brazil. In this conceptual article, we explore selected literature to investigate the topic of Brazilian culture and its particular style of corporate leadership.     

Corporate Governance und Eigenkapitalkosten - Bestandsaufnahme des Schrifttums unter besonderer Ber��cksichtigung des Informationsaspektes und Forschungsperspektiven

The present paper provides an overview of research concerning the relationship between corporate governance and the cost of equity capital. The purpose is to explore whether and to what extent corporate governance attributes manifest in firms?? cost of capital. Since the separation of ownership and control is seen as the starting point for the academic thinking on this issue, the term of corporate governance from a shareholder perspective is discussed in more detail. Apart from this terminological discussion the emphasis of this paper lies on the critical review of theoretical and empirical literature. In conducting this review, empirical concepts measuring the relevant dimensions and their potential limitations are explained. Based on these limitations I suggest opportunities for expanding research on the relationship between corporate governance and cost of equity capital, thereby showing future research directions.     

Converging and Diverging Governance Mechanisms: The Role of (Dys)Function in Long‐term Inter‐organizational Relationships

This paper explores the dynamic interplay of formal/informal governance mechanisms, in terms of functional and dysfunctional consequences for both sides of the dyad, in long‐term inter‐organizational relationships. Using two longitudinal cases of UK defence sector procurement (warship commissioning) we move beyond notions of complementarity and substitution in governance towards a more nuanced view where the governance mix of inter‐organizational relationships can be convergent or divergent. Our findings, showing that relationships can exhibit functional and dysfunctional behaviour simultaneously, lead us to conclude that mismatches in governance mechanisms can be positive as well as negative. In building a context‐dependent understanding of governance we both summarize the (dys)functions associated with formal and informal governance mechanisms and explore their impact on relationship exchange performance over time.     

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.     

Shifts in modes of governance and sustainable development in the Brazilian oil sector

This article discusses shifts in modes of governance in the Brazilian oil sector over a 60-year period. On the basis of Driessen et al.'s (2012) framework, we discuss the impact of these shifts on sustainable development. Our results suggest that changes in modes of governance were driven by regulation and mostly associated with shifts in both actors and institutional features but that the underlying rationale of prioritising economic outcomes remained unaffected. The results also confirm that a central governance structure remained in place over time and co-existed in different modes of governance. Petrobras was the backbone of this structure and instrumental in empowering and disempowering non-state actors. This article stresses that a mode of governance furthering sustainable development should promote interactions of large numbers of actors and may require active participation of Petrobras to encourage rationales that support improvements in social and environmental domains.     

Risk perception and post-formation governance in international joint ventures in Taiwan: The perspective of the foreign partner

This paper draws on a risk analysis framework in order to develop a systematic understanding of the risks perceived by partners, and to investigate the implications of risk perception for the configuration of control, in the post-formation governance of international joint ventures. The key variables in this framework consist of six situational factors which are considered as potential antecedents of perceived risk: conflict, opportunism, cultural difference, dependence, partner fit, and ownership share; partner's perception of risk; and post-formation governance as a set of outcome variables. The framework is tested using a sample of international joint ventures located in Taiwan. The findings show that conflicts between partners, opportunistic behavior by the local partner, cultural differences, and perceived partner misfit are related to foreign partners' risk perceptions. This study suggests that when foreign partners face likely performance and partnership risks after an IJV is established, they tend to resort to tighter post-formation governance measures in order to increase or maintain their confidence in their joint ventures.     

Strengthening Local Governance in Developing Countries: Partnership as an Alternative Approach

One of the major current concerns in administrative science is the scarcity of partnership-based administration in developing countries, where the capacity of local government is generally weak. Due to the impact of globalisation, the growth of information technology and the rise of third sector organisations, public administration has adopted a new paradigm but given it different names i.e., partnership, public-private partnership, networking, sound governance, good governance etc. As a result, the notion of partnership has emerged as one of the key approaches to meeting the governance challenges of the new millennium focusing, in particular, on building and strengthening the capacity of local governance. As a model, the sustainability of a social system based solely on state capacity has failed in most developing countries. As such, this paper intends to analyse the prospects for partnership based local governance in the developing countries. We argue that there is no alternative to building partnerships at the local government level between the state, private and civil society in order to improve the capacity of local government, enabling it to better attain sustainability, ensure good governance and promote participation in an attempt to mitigate the problems of social exclusion and fragmentation in the delivery of services and products.     

基于联立方程模型的公司治理溢价研究——兼谈如何检验公司治理评价指标的有效性

公司治理溢价研究可以揭示公司治理与企业价值之间的互动机理,不仅有助于深化和丰富公司治理理论,为上市公司优化公司治理指明方向和重点,而且有助于投资者全面评估企业价值.而对公司治理的客观评价是公司治理溢价研究中的关键问题,本文在以往研究成果基础上,以上证公司治理板块的评选结果为参照样本,给出了检验公司治理评价指标有效性的科学方法,进而验证了以DEA方法构建的公司治理效率值指标的有效性;在此基础上利用联立方程模型对公司治理溢价进行研究,解决了公司治理与企业价值之间可能存在的内生性问题;以2007年中国沪市578家A股公司为样本对联立方程模型进行估计.结果表明,中国股票市场存在公司治理溢价,公司治理效率值每增加0.1,流通盘市场附加值就会有37.2%的溢价.     

E-learning methodologies in practice: similarities and differences between North American countries and New Zealand

In this cross-national qualitative study, tertiary instructors from North America (Canada and the USA) and New Zealand were asked to share their perceptions regarding effective e-learning methodologies. The purpose of the research was to identify what similarities and differences in perceptions existed, and what implications, if any, such similarities and differences would have for the development of national and tertiary digital strategies for New Zealand. A comparison of the responses to four primary research questions indicated that while both similarities and differences in perception do exist, the similarities far outweigh the differences.     

The new age of ethical marketing for the 21st century

The premise of this paper is that the strong trends toward ever increasing centralization in the agricultural producing sector of the United States in the 1980s will exacerbate in the middle-to-late 1990s. This, in turn, will lead to both radical changes in the consumer movement by the year 2000, and also to a completely redefined mission for the corporate marketing function as well. Specifically, the deliberate federal policies of the 1980s which led to a “shake-out” of the small family farm units in favor of large agri-business concerns in order to reduce federal subsidies will lead, in the 1990s, to the most noted of deleterious consequences of monopolization, namely ever increasing prices and lowered quality. The authors believe that by the late 1990s the American public will perceive this state of affairs as being intolerable and it will lead them to organize “Big Consumerism”, a cohesive, much strengthened version of the consumer movement of the 1980s. This movement will, among other major activities, establish consumer cooperatives as a way to control costs through the elimination of unnecessary middlemen. In addition, this new consumerism will demand a change in the ethical standards of business behavior which, in turn, will result in a reformation in the role of the “New Marketer”. This “New Marketer” function will be envisioned and practiced by incumbents as informational and educational, adhering to the highest standards of truthfulness concerning the products they are attempting to market. In this regard, the role of governmental agencies will be greatly strengthened and expanded to insure that the marketing profession lives up to these highest ethical standards and practices.     

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?