Despite the multiple stakeholder-centered complexities involved, the public–private partnership (PPP) modality is increasingly the vehicle of choice for the provision of public services in the developing world. This article asks how PPPs might overcome sustainability challenges in a meaningful way while examining which stakeholder-centered interventions are effective in facilitating rather than undermining the continuity of the partnership operations. We draw on the notion of democratic accountability and an in-depth qualitative sector-level case study in Uganda. The findings underscore the primacy of practices that help to reduce stakeholder information asymmetry, increase partnerships’ procedural legitimacy, and improve the understanding of substantive partnership outcomes.

PurposeThis paper explains the evident disproportionality in the levels of adoption of the modality of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in Uganda by tracing the peculiar preconditions and enablers of the model's relative high adoption in the electricity sector.Design/methodology/approachKey conceptual suggestions from historical institutionalism (HI), critical juncture and path dependence are used to orient the data collection and analysis. The direct experiences and perceptions of key informants involved in policy, regulation and operations in the electricity sector are thematically analyzed.FindingsThe primacy of specific policy, institutional decisions and actions sequentially undertaken at the international, national and sectorial levels in shaping the conceivability and possibility of PPP modality is foregrounded. In particular, international advisory for the changed role of the state and the government's subsequent decision to enact and reenact specific institutional frameworks at the national and sectorial levels created important disruptions to the status quo and paved a new and relatively stable institutional path conducive for private sector participation.Research limitations/implicationsTheoretically, the paper demonstrates the ability and power of HI to support the exploration and framing of multilevel and path-dependent explanations of institutional development and policy adoption. Practically, suggestions in terms of policy, legal and regulatory enablers for the adoption of PPP are made to shape practitioners' decision-makingPractical implicationsPractically, suggestions in terms of policy, legal and regulatory enablers for the adoption of PPP are made to shape practitioners' decision-making.Originality/valueThe importance of considering factor combinations and sequences in explaining the emergence, adoption and proliferation of public policy instruments and phenomena is underscored. In addition, the discourse on PPPs is moved beyond rationalization on how to even out their adoption (and subsequently the associated benefits) across sectors.

The proliferating phenomenon of public-private partnership (PPP) in public service provision continues to lay a firm foundation for the growth of organizations of hybrid character (van Gestel, Denis, & Ferlie, 2020). Unfortunately, the effects of such organizational arrangements on critical management practices remain underexplored (Berman, 2012). Analytically focusing on purpose-based taxonomy of practices including hiring, training, compensation, and employment relations (Chuang, Chen, & Chuang, 2013), this paper theoretically explores the possible implications of the PPP modality on human resource management (HRM) practice at the organizational level. Thirteen (13) critical propositions are delineated from interpretively intersecting extant knowledge from PPP and HRM strands of literature. In essence, the analysis suggests a) the high dependence of HRM practice and decision-making on the structural and institutional context, b) the necessity for more agility, characterized by adaptability and dynamism, and c) the need for a changed management competence profile of practitioners focusing on strategic and integrative skills sets in a PPP organization context. The paper advances the propositions as important insights for practitioners and as potent directions for further research.

Although complex realities of governing Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) at the post contractual phase are emerging as major foundations of discord that threatens PPPs sustainability in developing countries (DCs), the nascent nature of the model’s application in most DCs has meant that the specific issues of concern remain obscure and scattered. Using the concept of governance as an orienting lens, an intensive analysis of one of the pioneer PPP projects in the electricity sector in Sub-Saharan Africa is undertaken to explore the main issues. The evidence is drawn from transcripts of interviews with policy, regulative, and operative actors directly involved with and/or familiar with the project. These are supplemented by a review of exclusively accessed and publicly available documents. The findings underscore the primacy of eight governance issues that are organised in three thematic areas including; the roles and responsibilities of actors, regulatory and contractual control, and emergent and complex external stakeholder behaviour. The findings essentially suggest that at the post contractual phase, (a) PPP will be challenged by context specific realities related to how the sector is organized, the prevailing sources of authority, and end user behaviour, (b) PPP agreements are incapable of precisely providing for all emergent realities thus require adaptation and/or complementation, and (c) demonstrate that responses need to be deliberately concerted as well as inclusive of context-relevant actors to guard against a) severely undermining provisions of the existing contract, b) partner (and other external stakeholder) opportunism, and c) counterproductive distortion of balance of power.

Despite an increasing adoption of cross sector collaborative models, especially contractual Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), as an important public services delivery modality, PPPs continue to experience serious institutional gaps that challenge the course of their implementation. This paper utilizes the new institutionalism theoretical lens and draws on interview and documentary evidence from a concession-type Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Project to foreground the different mechanisms used to remedy contractual gaps that are, inadvertently, necessarily or strategically, left open by contracting partners due to the lack of sophistication in setting efficient and precise institutions at the contracting phase. The study discerns the primacy of three socially constructed institutions complementation mechanisms including (a) contract renegotiations and amendments, (b) the development of new regulatory guidelines and standards, and (c) the establishment of inclusive coordinating structures. Based on the evidence, the paper argues that when confronted by emergent and unique challenges unanticipated in the elaborate contractual provisions, there still remains viable opportunity through an ongoing, concerted, and in a collective manner for responsible actors to complement initial institutions in a way necessary to overcome challenges and stay the main cause of the partnership. Other implications relating to specific sector structures and sector regulation are highlighted along with insights for future work.