Sustainable Development, Governance and Performance Measurement in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs): A Methodological Proposal

Abstract

Institutionalized Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are a widely debated phenomenon, addressed by both scientific literature and policymakers. The most important contribution of this work is to describe the various theories used for understanding the performance expectations of PPPs, as the focus on performance is still poor despite the growing interest in participant companies (mixed-owned companies), especially at the local level. While analyzing the evaluation of the performance of these entities, a wide stream of literature has focused on profitability and efficiency, showing a substantial difference in terms of the performance of such companies compared to private capital ones. All this leads us to consider the Public Value theory as the best framework in literature to address the many dimensions of performance and business strategy in PPPs while pursuing sustainable development. The interest in this area has increased lately, mainly due to the growing complexity within this dynamic context. Therefore, it seems meaningful to carry out a systematic review of the relevant published literature in this field. This study contributes to the literature on sustainable development in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) that are seen as a form of mixed-owned companies, trying to address their multilayered performance expectations within the public value perspective and to understand how the role of performance measurement is influencing business strategies and the attitude towards sustainable environment. This will prove useful to scholars, policymakers and practitioners alike.

Cultural organizations, digital Corporate Social Responsibility and stakeholder engagement in virtual museums: a multiple case study. How digitization is influencing the attitude toward CSR

“…According to Vollero et al (2020: 53) the rise of globalization and the growth of the Internet have called for the sustainable development of a global business ethics (Esposito & Dicorato, 2020), thus making cultural differences among nations critical to the definition of CSR agendas of multinational companies (Deigh, Farquhar, Palazzo, & Siano, 2016; del Mar Miras‐Rodríguez, Carrasco‐Gallego, & Escobar‐Pérez, 2015; Hur & Kim, 2017). Several comparative studies have, therefore, tried in the past few years to describe the role played by cultural factors (Hofstede et al, 2005) in CSR performance and communication (Dal Maso et al, 2017; Kim & Ji, 2017).…”

Understanding Social Impact and Value Creation in Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Italian Civil Service

“…Moreover, if the public defines the objectives of general interest, approves the activities, finances them, or co-finances them and requires the collaboration or prevalent implementation by the third sector and the private sector, how can this generated value be measured? Esposito and Dicorato [76] highlight how the public sector needs to determine the impact of the resources used through the partners' ability to generate value, legitimize social activities, and guarantee operational and financial sustainability. The literature gap linked to both hybrid organizations and the evaluation of the value generated is repeated and coincides with a mutual interest in enhancing the impact on the social and economic system.…”

“…As anticipated, a second current of theories tends to evaluate the impact of social activity through social legitimacy [76], highlighting the importance of specific factors such as autonomy, trust, steering, and ability to influence performance [103].…”

Tackling covid-19 crisis through energy efficiency investments: Decision support tools for economic recovery

“…The up-to-date review indicated that there are available tools focussing on assessing obstacles to mainstreaming EE investments, such as risk identification [ [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] ], energy performance [ [20] , [21] , [22] ], funding scheme and models [ 7 , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] ]. Although the aforementioned studies contributed to the overcoming of EE efficient investments barriers from different views and the existing methodologies, in the chaotic and emergent environment under covid-19 pandemic, more contributions are not enough, and it is beneficial for the whole energy market and society by providing more holistic perspectives.…”