Implementing public-private partnerships:How management responses to events produce (un)satisfactory outcomes

Most research on Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure development focuses on phases prior to construction. The implementation phase itself has received less attention. However, sound public–private agreements and project preparations can fail during project implementation because of, for example, unforeseen events and ineffective responses to them. We conducted case studies on two infrastructure projects to examine which management responses to events during implementation produce (un)satisfactory outcomes. We found that externally oriented responses or a cooperative stance between the public and private partners produce satisfactory outcomes in responding to events. In practice, however, management responses are often internally oriented and non-cooperative, resulting in unsatisfactory outcomes. We identified three explanations for this, related to time pressure in implementation, the organization of the involvement of external stakeholders, and project culture in the PPP. The article concludes with implications for management and policy of infrastructure PPPs

Public-private partnerships as the management of co-production: Strategic and institutional obstacles in a difficult marriage

6. Public-private partnerships as the management of co-production: strategic and institutional obstacles in a difficult marriage Erik-Hans Klijn and Geert R. Teisman INTRODUCTION: THE FOCUS ON PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP Public-private partnerships have enjoyed popularity in western Europe recently (see Osborne, 2000). Public-private partnerships are also an important component - at least in the rhetoric - of Tony Blair’s New Labour policies (Falconer and McLaughlin, 2000; Sullivan and Skelcher, 2002). This has led to an enormous growth in both strategic partnerships (principally the LSP, the local strategic partnerships) as well as those of a more implementational nature (for example for regeneration projects) (Sullivan and Skelcher, 2002). Even in the European Union, traditionally the bastion in which the division of public and private enterprise and market operation forms part of the standard repertoire - there is an increasing focus on PPPs (Teisman and Klijn, 2000). The expertise centre (Kenniscentrum) within the Ministry of Finance in the Netherlands set up at the end of the 1990s to support PPP initiatives in the Netherlands states that: ‘International experiences show that a faster and more efficient implementation of infrastructure projects is possible by means of public-private partnership (PPP). In the Netherlands both public and private actors show great interest in and willingness to adopt PPPs’ (Kenniscentrum, 1998). In short, public-private partnership has everything going for it and it is considered as one of the most important new horizontal forms of governance in the modern network society. What are Public-Private Partnerships? Public…

Public – private partnership: on the edge of project and process management. Insights from Dutch practice: the Sijtwende spatial development project

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the management strategies of cooperation in public – private partnerships (PPPs) in spatial planning. We describe a specific case study: the Dutch location development project ‘Sijtwende’. We deal with the main question of what this case teaches us about the management of complex processes of cooperation between public and private partners. We will describe the difficulties in the cooperation. Furthermore, we will look for important breakthroughs in the process of collaborative development of the area. In this paper we combine theoretical thoughts on PPP models, and management and empirical insights from out in-depth case study, in order to find balances in using project and process management strategies for managing complex spatial planning processes.