Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of shared cognitive frames, in particular, that of institutional logics, on the deployment and use of performance measurement systems (PMSs) in the public sector.

Using novel priming techniques derived from behavioral and social psychology, three institutional logics – the public, market-managerial and professional logics – are differentially surfaced in three independent experimental groups. The influence of these primed institutional logics on performance measurement use preferences are then empirically assessed using appropriate analysis of variance techniques.

Contrary to theoretical predictions, the paper reveals logic congruence regarding some uses of PMSs in the public sector, and divergence regarding others. Individuals applying a public logic were more likely to propose performance measurement use for strategic planning or strategic alignment; while those applying a professional logic were more likely to propose performance measurement use for learning, compared to otherwise primed individuals.

Considering the sample size and the novelty of the priming tools, it is feasible that other potentially significant effects may have been missed.

The paper addresses a gap in literature regarding the influence of shared cognitive frames on performance measurement use in public sector organizations. The paper further presents priming techniques embedded within an experimental design as an appropriate method for the micro-level study of attitudes, preferences and judgments in the public sector.

The purpose of this paper is to deliver further insights into empirical research on corporate governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by systematizing existing knowledge, identifying current investigation backlogs, and deriving specific implications for future empirical research to address the lack of empirical knowledge in this field.

The study follows a literature analysis approach through a systematic, quantitative analysis of broad-based database queries from EBSCOhost and Web of Science to derive recommendations for future empirical research on SOE-oriented corporate governance.

The results indicate that empirical SOE-oriented corporate governance research is a growing field with wide-ranging opportunities for investigation. Given the lack of qualitative empirical research (representing only 21.7 percent of the studies identified) and the massive focus on regression analyses (69.9 percent) and secondary database data (77.2 percent), future empirical approaches should consider different methods and data sources. More qualitative research is needed for exploratory designs and canonical correlation-based statistical methods seem helpful for confirmatory approaches. In addition, 50.4 percent of the studies identified have a Chinese background, indicating room for studies from different cultural contexts.

Given the range of the research field and the eclectic nature of the analytical approach, it is unlikely that every relevant scientific publication is included.

Since this study is the first of its kind, it contributes to SOE-oriented corporate governance research by drawing on a wide-ranging selection of studies and analyzing them to derive straightforward recommendations for future empirical research.

The increase in the variety and complexity of forms of collaboration between public, private and non-profit actors (OECD, 2005; Skelcher, Mathur, & Smith, 2005) is laying the groundwork for a future scenario in which governments must effectively manage all the necessary networks to develop the relational state (Mendoza & Vernis, 2008). When we analyse the specific intergovernmental issues leading to this future scenario, one of the most important is the issue of effective management. This is true for the networks in which the government participates or leads, and also true in terms of ‘network portfolio’, a concept we introduce in this chapter. Our study is based on an analysis of 44 local intergovernmental networks. It serves as the basis to illustrate different ways in which the network portfolio concept can contribute to improving our understanding of network management within public management. In other words, the question we aim to answer is: how can a ‘network portfolio’ focus help to improve our understanding of network management within public management? Actively incorporating this perspective will help public decision-makers strategically manage the global set of networks in which they participate and help these decision makers make better decisions about collaborative public networks.

Multifaceted issues such as safety, social inclusion, poverty, mobility, rural development, city regeneration or labour market integration require integrated approaches in their steering. Governments are looking for instruments that can address the boundary-spanning nature of many social problems. In their quest to achieve valued social outcomes, they struggle with their new role, and the inadequacy of both market working and government-led central agency. After three decades of New Public Management (NPM)-style reforms, the strengths and weaknesses of this philosophy have become widely apparent. Fragmentation is a prominent observation in many evaluations of the NPM approach. The fragmentation of both policy and implementation lead to unsatisfactory public outcomes and a heightened experience of a loss of control on the part of policymakers. Achieving valued and sustainable outcomes requires collaboration between government departments, private actors, non-profit organisations, and citizens and requires tools that integrate the lessons of NPM with the new necessities of coordinated public governance. The public administration literature has in recent years been concerned with the ‘what's next?’ question, and many alternatives to NPM have been proposed.