A comprehensive framework for the activation, management, and evaluation of Co-production in the public sector

Co-production analyses the practices in which state or firms and lay actors work together in any phase of the production cycle. In the public sector, citizens are not seen as mere recipients of services but as co-producers at different stages. Scholarly interest in co-production has grown steadily in the past years. However, the research has yet to integrate the many co-production concepts into a distinctive theoretical comprehensive framework able to strengthen the understanding of the interrelated dynamics at play. The article conducts a systematic in- depth qualitative review of the co-production literature for the public sector. The results highlight the main components into four pillars of a comprehensive theoretical framework to guide scholars and practitioners in the activation and management of co-production as well as in the evaluation of its outcomes. The article concludes by formulating a future research agenda for co-production in the public sector

Un modello per la misurazione delle performance delle reti: il caso studio del network anti-malaria Tigray

Nonostante un aumento considerevole della letteratura sulle reti di interesse pubblico, la prassi ha compiuto progressi maggiori della teoria su molti aspetti. In particolare, pochi autori hanno superato un approccio ‘euforico’ ai network, investigando criteri per la valutazione delle loro performance. L’articolo intende contribuire a questo filone di ricerca con l’obiettivo di migliorare la comprensione sull’identificazione delle dimensioni più rilevanti di performance e su come queste siano influenzate da fattori esogeni ed endogeni. Si presenta un modello integrato in seguito a una analisi della letteratura sul tema e l’analisi approfondita di un caso studio longitudinale. Il caso studio – un network volto a combattere la malaria nella regione di Tigray nel nord dell’Etiopia – appare particolarmente rilevante per gli scopi della ricerca poiché è caratterizzato da una elevata complessità del problema di salute affrontato e presenta interessanti caratteristiche in termini di meccanismi di gestione della rete. Il network Tigray include un insieme diversificato di attori – pubblici, privati e non profit, operanti a livello sia globale sia locale, localizzati in Europa e Africa. La rete ha raggiunto risultati importanti, in cinque anni di attività, contribuendo a salvare le vite di centinaia di migliaia di persone. Con un investimento di circa US$570.000, la rete ha curato 130.000 persone nelle loro case, portando a una riduzione del 40 in confronto a quello di controllo. Inoltre, il carico di pazienti malarici nelle strutture ospedaliere è diminuito di un quarto e l’impiego dei test diagnostici rapidi ha consentito un risparmio di US$ 1,41 per paziente esaminato. La ricerca copre un periodo di cinque anni durante il quale i partner – Novartis Italia, il Ministero italiano della salute, l’Organizzazione mondiale della sanità, il Tigray health bureau, l’Istituto dermatologico San Gallicano e l’ospedale italiano di Makallè operante sul territorio – hanno lavorato insieme su due aree: le attività di coordinamento e guida del network, che sono il focus di questo paper, e le attività cliniche e di project management sul campo. Vale la pena notare che le performance della rete sono il risultato della simbiosi tra le due aree, entrambe caratterizzate dall’entusiasmo e l’impegno costante dei partner. I risultati della ricerca sono sintetizzati in un modello interpretativo multidimensionale e dinamico sulla performance delle reti. Il modello integra prospettive ed approcci teorici precedentemente sviluppati in modo frammentato, sia sulla base dell’analisi della letteratura sia in seguito all’analisi empirica del caso studio

Governmental accounting reforms at a time of crisis: the Italian governmental accounting harmonization

Purpose: Acknowledging fiscal crises as critical junctures for policy makers, this paper investigates how the recent fiscal crisis has affected the paradigmatic approach to the design of an ongoing governmental accounting (GA) reform. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyses the Italian GA harmonization as a peculiar instance of an ongoing GA reform at the crisis outbreak. A longitudinal narrative analysis of official documents is complemented with semi-structured interviews with key policy makers and participant observations. Findings: The fiscal crisis is found to play an indirect role in the Italian GA reform, which, promoting centralization of competencies in the fields of GA, determines the intensification of the approach adopted before the crisis outbreak. Research limitations/implications: This paper extends the knowledge on the nature of post-crisis reforms by highlighting how fiscal crises can work as catalysts for paradigmatic approaches to ongoing GA reforms. This paper analyses the designing of a GA reform, whereas the long-term adaptations and outcomes of the reform are not taken into consideration. Practical implications: The tight link between GA and financial management issues featuring the current paradigmatic approaches to reforms suggests the need to design GA reforms consistently with fiscal and financial management policies. Originality/value: Whereas the extant literature on the nature of post-crisis reforms analyses the latter as responses to the former, this paper enlarges the knowledge on the topic by focusing on a peculiar instance of a GA reform that was ongoing at the crisis outbreak

Implementation of strategic and performance management reforms in italian central governments

Public policies promoting the use of performance management systems in the public sector are not new but have intensified in the past two decades as a result of a greater awareness of its relevance for national and international development and competitiveness. Previous research on performance management in the public sector has put the emphasis on an implementation gap between policy objectives and the public managers’ practices, especially in southern European countries (Cepiku et al., 2012). This implementation gap is exhibited through a formal approach to policy guidelines and limited employability of performance information in decision-making. The paper considers the state of development of performance management in the public sector as the result of the interaction between public policies and public management practice. Namely, it analyzes the impact of the latest performance management reform of 2009, promoting specific analytical models, on the ability of Italian central government to perform strategic analysis and formulation activities, and on the system to actually provide performance information supporting coherent decision-making. The empirical analysis reports a mixed and still unsatisfactory state of art of the implementation of measurement tools and techniques, which are reported and discussed

Two ships passing in the night? Practice and academia in public management

The article addresses the concerns raised about the growing divide between research and practice in public management. In-depth interviews were undertaken with academicians and practitioners, along with the analysis of secondary data and the review of the literature on knowledge production and collaborative research in the attempt of providing an empirical contribution on the nature and extent of the gap, its determinants and the attitudes of practitioners and academicians on the feasibility of possible solutions put forth by the literature