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Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are characterised by contracts which are necessarily incomplete due to the complexity of their contractual specifications for the contracted services combined with the long-term legal obligations they create. This creates high transaction costs including sharing (and so bearing) risks. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between risk sharing and governance, providing a new perspective for analysis with less emphasis on transaction costs and more on PPPs as strategic alliances.

Three main issues are analysed. First, the definition of PPP in terms of both the type of arrangements and the actors involved, structures varying from one country to another and between contracts. Second, the definition of strategic alliance, identifying which form(s) of PPP is a strategic partnership. Third, reconsideration of incomplete contract theory to identify the circumstances where a strategic alliance can accommodate high transaction costs.

The paper concludes that establishing PPPs as strategic alliances could rectify problems of incomplete contracts by implementing a multidimensional (rather than technocratic) approach to risk governance.

The contribution to knowledge provided by this study is rooted in the conceptualization of PPPs as strategic alliances by distinguishing the tangible characteristics of strategic alliance related to the letter of the contract from the intangible characteristics related to the spirit of the contract with the main purpose being to create both public and private value.

The purpose of this paper is to detect how Value for Money (VfM) in Italian Project Finance (PF) investments can be enhanced and challenging criticalities minimized, with a synergistic interaction of macroeconomic, legal and institutional actions.

Analysis of VfM quantitative key drivers, within a public-private partnership (PPP) framework with specific reference to a recession context, with infrastructural capital rationing implications. Empirical evidence is given by an Italian PF healthcare model, testing the impact of legal and macroeconomic changes.

Deleverage, ignited by W-shaped recession, disinflates PPP investments, so forcing to innovative and penniless solutions. Unreliable and short-sighted legislation and consequent unfriendly business climate may frighten investors, so decreasing competition and VfM.

VfM sensitivity to macroeconomic and legal/institutional parameters is too wide and capriciously erratic to be comprehensively modeled. Tips for further research include pro-growth tax and budgetary policies, risk minimization issues and other synergistic targets.

Guidance to regulators to fine tune legal and institutional tools, so as to create a stable, business friendly environment. Recessions may be softened by sensitive policymaking, or exacerbated by short-sighted ignorance and lack of strategic focus.

Unprecedented analysis of legal and macroeconomic changes on VfM in Italian PF investments, with original tips for VfM optimization, in a comprehensive PPP framework.

Public-private partnership (PPP) growth is often related to infrastructure development needs and public debt increase. Despite huge infrastructure (re)construction needs, the number of PPP projects in Croatia has been rather small so far. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the prospects for PPP projects development in Croatia in the near future. It is examined whether the stance of local authorities towards implementing PPP projects depends more on the necessity of developing infrastructure needs of local citizens or on the available funds for capital investments in local budgets, which are, after covering all operational expenditures, scarce.

The Municipal Assemblies in European Local Governance (MAELG) survey data for Croatia are combined with available secondary data on local budgets’ revenues and expenditures in the period from 2008 to 2010 for the surveyed local government units. The differences between the answers of local representatives were tested for statistical significance by Pearson χ2 test, while ANOVA is used for testing statistical significance of budgetary data comparison. Some descriptive statistics’ results are also used. Apart from the quantitative data, qualitative research on PPPs, especially for fiscally constraint governments is used throughout the paper.

The main findings of the paper are that most Croatian local units are severely fiscally constraint to implement any capital projects. Their public revenues are often reserved for covering operational expenditures only. Since local representatives are mostly affirmative towards private sector involvement in providing public services, there is a room for PPP projects in Croatia. Due to the fact that every PPP contract requires active participation of the public partner, two possible solutions are proposed: pooled financing with a possible option of project’ bonds issuance to institutional investors and engaging publicly owned assets into infrastructure projects’ development.

The value of this paper is that it showed that there is little room for financing infrastructure development in Croatia if budgetary rules are followed straightforward. The paper aims to show fiscally constraint local governments a possible way for financing capital projects and rendering public services to their citizens. These solutions may also be applied in other indebted countries, especially if they own a significant portion of public assets.

The use of public-private partnerships (P3s) for infrastructure delivery, particularly for highway projects, has been increasing in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate the difference of P3s and non-P3 highway projects, in terms of their costs and efficiency.

An empirical model of highway construction costs was estimated using a linear regression model that explicitly accounts for the cost differential between the contracts. The differences between efficiencies was also evaluated through a two-stage analysis, where projects’-specific technical efficiencies were first estimated using stochastic frontier analysis and data envelopment analysis, and then the difference in technical efficiencies between the two groups were evaluated through non-parametric tests of means.

Controlling for various project characteristics, the P3 highway projects in the USA showed higher initial costs than non-P3 projects. However, the efficiency scores showed no significant difference between the two groups. This inconsistency between initial costs and technical efficiency scores suggests the complexity involved in P3 projects, which are not captured in the efficiency analysis.

Limited availability of P3 project data due to their immaturity (in cases of P3 projects that include operation and management) and their complex engineering specifications may have caused biased results. Importantly, the study analyzed project costs as of financial close; post-financial close variations, such as change orders during construction, cost/schedule overruns, and renegotiation of contract terms, are beyond the scope of the analysis in this study.

The present study contributes to the literature as one of the earliest empirical analyses of the performance of highway P3s in the USA. Also, this is one of the first studies to employ frontier analysis methods that focus on the efficiency of highway project delivery.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in Italy in order to highlight challenges and opportunities for a more effective adoption of PPP in Italy. In particular we analyze three key aspects that affect the PPP adoption and implementation, namely the institutional, organizational, and financial ones, and their changes over time.

To reach the aim, we have conducted an empirical research, gathering qualitative and quantitative relevant information, to characterize three key dimensions affecting the PPP adoption and its effective implementation, namely the institutional, organizational, and financial dimension.

The analysis of PPP in Italy reveals that, although it is a relatively recent practice, its use is widely spread in delivering public infrastructures. Nevertheless, there are still some shortcomings, related to administrative, financial, and legal issues, that make the application and use of PPP, although considerable in size, less effective and efficient in Italy than in some other countries. In order to overcome these limitations, different interventions are required in order to strength the practices and advance the body of knowledge.

The study formulates useful recommendations for an effective implementation of PPP based on the analysis of the main constraints for the PPP's development in Italy.

The study overcomes the gap of the existing literature on the Italian PPP that have analyzed the phenomenon under two different approaches. Some researchers have investigated the key aspects characterizing PPPs, by adopting a mono-dimensional perspective. Other studies have analyzed the extent of adoption and diffusion of PPP in Italy, by presenting data on PPP projects by sector and/or by types. This paper contributes to fill this gap by providing both a comprehensive analysis of PPP, based on three key dimensions characterizing the PPP adoption and implementation, as well as by presenting an updated picture of the PPP in Italy.

This paper aims to inform the discussion on why and how non-profit organizations can experience a hybridization process to address the criticism that would assume hybridity as an intrinsic characteristic of all organizations. Specifically, by referring to the academies of intellectuals as the non-profit setting in which investigating the emergence of hybridity takes place, this paper aims at exploring, first, to what extent this emergence could be induced by institutional conditions, and, second, which structural innovations could sustain the academies’ “motion” towards hybridity.

This paper relies on the institutional logics perspective and adopts the case study method applied to a historical context. The case under analysis is the Academy of “the Immobili”, which, in spite of its name, experienced a hybridization process in 1720 because of the decision to involve an impresario in the management of its theatre.

The findings highlight the significant role played by institutional conditions in inducing the emergence of hybridity, even in presence of internal resistance to any “motion” from the non-profit setting. Moreover, the analysis of the innovations associated with this emergence detects the intertwined action of the different decision makers involved in the hybridization process, in spite of their formal separation. These findings strengthen the conceptualization of hybridity within non-profit organizations.

Besides referring to a historical period that is still little explored in terms of hybridity within organizations, the paper focuses on an original context, i.e. academies, representing an ancient typology of cultural organizations. Therefore, the paper also provides the first insights into the hybridization process of cultural organizations from a historical perspective.

This study explores the connection between intellectual capital (IC) components and the competitive advantage (CA) of the hospitality sector in Jordan through the mediating role of service innovation as well as the moderating role of big data analytics capabilities.

Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire from the hospitality sector with a sample of 402 respondents. Data were analysed using SmartPLS, a bootstrapping technique was used to analyse the data. The mediating effect for service innovation and the moderating effect for big data analytics capabilities were performed.

The results showed that the proposed moderated-mediation model was accepted because the relationships between the constructs were statistically significant. The results of the data analysis supported a positive relationship between human capital, structural capital and relational capital and the CA as well as a mediating effect of service innovation. The findings confirmed that there is a moderating relationship for big data analytics capabilities between service innovation and CA. The results illustrate the importance of IC and service innovation in enhancing CA in the Jordanian hospitality sector in light of the big data analytics capabilities.

This cross-sectional study provides a snapshot at a given moment in time, a methodological limitation that affects the generalisation of the limitation's results, and the results are limited to one sector.

This research developed a theoretical model to incorporate IC components, service innovation, big data analytics capabilities and CA. This paper offers new theoretical and practical contributions that add value to the innovation and CA literature by testing the moderated-mediation model of these constructs in the hospitality sector which has been greatly affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study is distinguished from other studies by highlighting the role of IC and service innovation in enhancing CA as service innovation contributes to the formation of many organisational advantages in the Jordanian hospitality sector.