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The purpose of this paper is to investigate public procurement activity within the Cumbria County Council and its effects on the local supply chain. The paper seeks to identify the role of public procurement within the county, in relation to the propensity for income retention (or leakage) at local level. In addition, the paper seeks to consider issues related to public procurement in peripheral and rural areas, with particular reference to small and medium businesses operating in Cumbria, and to provide a spatial analysis of money flows at regional and national level.

Quantitative data, from primary and secondary sources, were obtained from a survey questionnaire conducted among the Council's suppliers and from SpikesCavell, an agency specializing in collecting procurement data, respectively. The study focuses on public sector suppliers. It analyses suppliers' attributes and characteristics such as size, location and sector of activity are used in order to explore suppliers' patterns of spend in relation to inward and outward cash‐flows within the County. Additionally, the paper explores the effects of the local authority's procurement in terms of advantages/disadvantages for the local supply chain.

The paper highlights the ability of competitive tendering systems to achieve cash saving and reduce wastage; but questions whether the adoption of such systems in the public sector produces positive economic effects on the local supply chain in peripheral and remote areas.

There is a lack of research on the impact of public procurement at regional and sub‐regional level and its significance as a source of income and businesses operating within local supply chains. This paper seeks to contribute to filling this research gap by presenting and analysing data associated with procurement activity within a peripheral local authority.

Considers the role of marketing in an increasingly profit‐oriented local authority. Discusses the problems involved when a public service espouses marketing principles, but concludes that only marketing can make most effective use of the scarce resources available to local authorities.

Recent UK policies emphasise increased community participation in decision‐making. However, research points to an “implementation gap” whereby policy has not led to genuine community empowerment in practice. This paper aims to investigate community empowerment and influence over service providers brought about by the Communities First programme in Wales, a regeneration programme which aims to empower local communities.

The research analyses nine Communities First partnerships with a mixture of interviews, focus groups and community‐led partnership reviews. The case studies reflect the rural/urban geography of Wales and the varied governance models evident in Communities First.

Through Communities First, residents feel empowered to manage positive change in their communities. However, key public agencies have not responded adequately to this policy agenda. Notably, there has been a failure to “bend” mainstream services.

The findings point to future research with public sector agencies to identify the exact points at which community “voice” is lost and how it could be better assimilated into policy development and service delivery mechanisms.

Community empowerment requires adequate training for development staff and support mechanisms for community participants. Roles of public sector organisations attending community partnerships need to be clearly defined. At an organisational level, incentives, including funding, and sanctions are needed in order to change ways of working.

Communities and public agencies face challenges in delivering the empowerment agenda. The research identifies key issues in achieving empowerment objectives by examining the eight‐year experience of the Communities First programme.

Identifies, classifies and compares a number of emerging models of co‐ordination and control in the management of public services which provide a scheme for an initial evaluation of the new “steering models” at the local level in the UK and Germany. Pays particular attention to issues of strategic management in the complex world of markets and networks which are replacing the hierarchical models of co‐ordination in the traditional classic bureaucracy. Discusses the key issues raised by each model in relation to values of public administration.

Public sector organisations, such as local authorities, are increasingly under pressure not only to improve their performance but also to be able to demonstrate such improvement through effective performance measurement. An increasing number are turning to the balanced scorecard as a way of responding to such pressures and challenges. This paper examines the attraction of the scorecard to local authorities and uses the authors’ experiences with a number of authorities and other public sector organisations to examine the challenges and difficulties of adopting a scorecard approach.

In recent years local authorities and hospitals within the UK have been subjected to substantial change, which has resulted in an explosion in the use of information systems (IS). IS managers, personnel and executives within local authorities and hospitals were interviewed in order to determine the effect of context and culture on the take‐up of IS. Context was considered at an external and internal level. Cultural issues were particularly important in the take‐up of IS. In both local authorities and hospitals the IT culture clashed with the subcultures it was supporting. Highlights three issues: the cultural decentralization of IS, which resulted in an unplanned proliferation of disparate systems; the over‐emphasis on operational systems by the IS function to the detriment of management information systems; and the reinforcing of barriers between subcultures through incompatible IS. Suggests that IS departments within the public sector need to be proactive in their support of subcultures and to enrol them in a common goal of the provision of integrated IS within the organization.

Previous studies on scanning behaviour focused mainly on the performance of the private sector, leaving the public sector, especially local authorities (LAs), largely understudied. Primarily, this paper aims to examine the element of strategic management tools associated with the impact of environmental scanning (ES) on organisational performance in the LAs. It explores the above relationship in the context of public sector organisations in Malaysia.

A quantitative approach has been used for this study where the data were collected through a mail survey (n=75) of local authorities in Malaysia, which consists of four categories – City Council/City Hall, Municipal Council, District Council and organisations that exercise the functions of local authorities.

Overall, the results show that the scope of general environmental scanning is seen as a prerequisite to the successful alignment of competitive strategies as a result of changing the needs and demands of the larger society, and the diverse nature of businesses. In the context of Malaysian LAs, there is a significant relationship between the environmental scanning (operation) and the overall achievement of the organisation's performance.

This paper is limited to the Malaysian context, and, hence, the findings cannot be applied generally.

This study could be used effectively as a road map to assist the council members, senior staff and stakeholders in evaluating their success and steering the organisation's performance and sustainability.

This paper provides important insights into the performance of local governments in Malaysia. To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt to look at a more holistic perspective in exploring environmental scanning of LAs in the country. Increased understanding in this area is of critical importance in relation to implementing effectively the current and future modernisation and reform initiatives. It is of interest to both researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the quality of collaboration towards Sustainable Energy Innovation (SEI) in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects. While the capacity of PFI to encourage collaboration towards innovation is largely advocated by its proponents; however, it remains to be supported by empirical evidence.

Adopting the Complex Product System (CoPS) innovation management model, the authors assess the quality of collaboration at the interface between the innovation superstructure of public sector clients and users, and the innovation infrastructure of private sector designers, contractors and operators. Two interactional elements are examined upon which the quality of collaboration is assessed: openness of communication and alignment of objectives. The authors apply the model to four new-built PFI school projects within the context of the UK government Building Schools for the Future Programme. Semi-structured interviews with total of 50 key stakeholders were used as the primary data collection method.

PFI has introduced a number of problematic issues weakening collaborative efforts towards innovation in the project environment. Particularly, the study underlines the restricting internal contractual relationships within the integrated Project Company and the misalignment of Design-Construction-Operation sustainability objectives. It also highlights ineffective communication with public sector clients and users brought in by the restricted nature of PFI engagement processes as well as the misalignment of public sector-private sector sustainability objectives.

The qualitative nature of the chosen research methodology limits the ability to generalise. The research findings need to be confirmed or rejected by means of quantitative research as representative of all PFI projects.

The study emphasizes the public authority’s role in relation to providing the necessary conditions for the creation of a collaborative environment conducive to SEI in PFI projects.

The study was able to expand the understanding of innovation and collaboration management processes in PFI projects in three respects: First, addressing the limited attention to innovation in PFI research, the study is the first to examine the quality of collaboration in PFI projects towards the implementation SEI. Second, examining the quality of collaboration in PFI projects through the lens of CoPS provides a new understanding of sustainability innovation and strongly indicates that the CoPS model should be expanded to account for the dynamics of innovation processes in the procurement of sustainable CoPS. Third, the explorative nature of the study was useful in generating research hypotheses that can form the basis for future research on SEI in PFI projects.

The preferences of major stakeholders in the Fijian public sector reporting process as to who should set government accounting standards and monitor their application are investigated by comparing the preferences of Parliamentarians, internal and external users, and preparers. There is support from all groups for the introduction of accounting standards but perceptions of the relativity of benefits exhibit diversity. There is disparity in choices of auditors for different types of entities, but there is strong support for the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) as the monitor for departments and for private sector auditors to compete for audits of statutory bodies.

Discusses the implications of activity in the UK which has resulted in the preparation of library plans, and the introduction of best value and benchmarking for public libraries. It provides a review of the distinction between benchmarks and process benchmarking; the development of benchmarking in the private and public sectors; annual library plans and best value, and the implications of the best value process for public libraries.