Interactions fostering trust and contract combinations in local public services provision
International Journal of Public Sector Management
ISSN: 0951-3558
Article publication date: 11 May 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between trust and contract in the context of externalized local public services provision.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi-theoretical framework is used to analyse different combinations of control mechanisms (i.e. trust and contract) with reference to three cases of externalized water service provision in Estonia consisting of inter-organizational relationships between local governments and water companies with different ownership structures (public, private and mixed public-private).
Findings
The relationship between trust and contract, which can either be substitutes or complements, or eventually erode each other, is contingent upon the capacity of interacting individuals (and related organizations) to keep interests aligned in water services provision.
Originality/value
The relationship between trust and contract is analysed by considering the interactions between key actors within the underlying governance setting.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to Jan van Helden and the participants in the Workshop ‘The Public Shareholder: The ethics, regulation, and risk of public utility commercialization’ (Montréal, May 2014) and in the 38th European Accounting Association Annual Congress (Glasgow, April 2015), as well as two anonymous reviewers, for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
Citation
Argento, D. and Peda, P. (2015), "Interactions fostering trust and contract combinations in local public services provision", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 28 No. 4/5, pp. 335-351. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-08-2015-0154
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited