Management efficiency of state-owned enterprises (SOE) is being widely discussed not only in Lithuania, Central Eastern Europe, but also globally (mainly focusing on such countries as China, having state monopoly in most of the industries). Moreover, this topic is interesting to scholars both in the context of public governance reforms and a specific area of public administration. On the other hand, the topic of SOEs management is quite specific due to its duality: firstly, it is an area of public governance with an intensive intervention of the government, and secondly, SOEs are autonomous enterprises having dual -social (e.g., creation of work places, implementation of state-level projects, etc.) and economic (e.g., profitability, return on investment, etc.) -goals. Following the paradigms of (post) new public governance, principal agent theory, corporate governance guidelines established by such international organizations as the OECD, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and others, this paper is focusing on the management and performance of SOEs, trying to find an evidence of positive effects related to the implementation of corporate governance principles in Lithuanian SOEs. The paper seeks to identify those aspects of corporate governance which are the most relevant in terms of their potential effect on the management efficiency of Lithuanian SOEs.

Vadovaujantis tarptautinės valstybės valdomų įmonių (toliau – VVĮ) praktikos apžvalga ir akademinės literatūros analize, šiame straipsnyje siekiama paaiškinti ir apibendrinti pagrindinius VVĮ veiklos efektyvumui turinčius įtakos veiksnius. Tam pasitelkiamas VVĮ valdymo kontrolės ir autonomijos balansu paremtas aiškinimas, išskiriant pagrindinius įmonių valdymą apibrėžiančius veiksnius ir siekiant susieti juos su VVĮ veiklos efektyvumu. Specifinis Lietuvos (kartu ir viso posovietinio bloko valstybių) VVĮ valdymo klausimas išsamiai nėra nagrinėtas. Dėl to šiame straipsnyje norima giliau pažvelgti į pagrindinius VVĮ valdymo modelio elementus, suprasti, kodėl ir kas lemia VVĮ santykį su pagrindine jos savininke (valstybe), kaip jis turi būti plėtojamas, siekiant padidinti ne tik VVĮ pelningumą ir jų įnašą į biudžetą, bet kartu – pagerinti VVĮ teikiamų paslaugų ir kuriamų produktų kokybę, užtikrinti tinkamą viešojo intereso (pvz., natūralios monopolijos teikiamų paslaugų atveju) ar valstybės interesų (pvz., strateginių ir / ar su valstybės saugumu susijusių sričių) įgyvendinimą. Atitinkamai, remiantis svarbiausiomis viešojo administravimo paradigmomis (tradicinė biurokratinė sistema, naujoji viešoji vadyba (NVV) bei post-NVV), VVĮ veiklos efektyvumas nagrinėjamas per įmonių kontrolės ir autonomijos prizmę siekiant suformuoti analitinį modelį, kuris galėtų būti pritaikytas Lietuvoje vykdomai VVĮ valdymo reformai ir jos poveikiui analizuoti.

The article concentrates on the main challenge tackled by the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reform initiated by the 15th government of the Republic of Lithuania – an attempt to improve the corporate governance practices and management efficiency of Lithuanian SOEs. According to the insights offered by the new public management (NPM) paradigm, resource dependency theory (RDT) and principal-agent theory (PAT), the present research seeks to identify a quantifiable relationship between the composition of the board (which is one of the core aspects of the Lithuanian SOE reform) and return on equity (ROE) in Lithuanian SOEs (which is selected to be the key variable defining management efficiency). Based on key relationships among the selected parameters of the board (e.g., size, political independency, gender diversity, other) and SOE management efficiency identified, this paper offers practical public policy recommendations in the field of SOE management efficiency.

Following previous research on the management efficiency of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Lithuania, this paper extends the discussion via analysis of the broader period of time not only focusing on 1 year caption (2012), but trying to identify the impacts (if any) of the corporate governance reform of the SOEs in Lithuania looking at the data of 2012–2014. To ensure the consistency and comparability of the results, the theoretical background is sought to be maintained as similar as in the previous papers, following the paradigms of (post) new public management, principle-agent theory, corporate governance guidelines established by such international organisations as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the International Monetary fund and others. In addition to the quantitative part of the analysis (quantitative analysis of the relationship between management of SOEs and results of its operations as measured by Return on Equity (ROE)), case studies representing biggest Lithuanian SOEs and – accordingly – 3 main sectors Lithuanian SOEs are acting in are analysed to understand if and what (i) actual changes of the corporate governance principles are impacting the management effectiveness of SOEs, as well as (ii) what are the limiting factors (if any) reducing the positive effects of the changes being introduced with the new reform. For both parts of the analysis (quantitative and case studies) we focus on (i) the main elements of corporate governance being introduced by the SOE reform and (ii) the relations of the SOEs and the shareholder of theirs (Government and the society). By applying the above described approach, the paper seeks to (i) understand not only the effects of corporate governance on management and performance of SOEs per se, but also include the time dimension with the purpose to understand (confirm) if previous findings (e.g., the fact that board independence and transparency were the key factors influencing SOEs management efficiency in 2012) are sufficiently sustainable outcomes of the reform, which would still be valid in the 3 year period (2012-2014), as well as (ii) explain the most relevant (in terms of impact on management effectiveness) corporate governance principles that should be applied or be promoted stronger in Lithuanian SOEs.