Management Control in Public-Private Partnerships - A Comparative Study between International Organizations and Development Cooperation Agencies

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Abstract

The purpose of this comparative research study is to identify management control (MC) patterns being applied in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) with international organizations (IOs) and development cooperation agencies (DCAs), as well as to determine critical factors that are relevant for a partnership project’s success or failure. Based on the results, it aims to elaborate general implications and recommendations for the design of MC in such PPPs. While IOs and DCAs are tackling the same societal issues, they distinguish by the way they are governed and by the type and number of stakeholders influencing their activities. Thus, the partnership experiences from both perspectives will be brought together to get a more diverse view on MC in those PPPs. The study will contribute to the literature on MC in inter-organizational relationships (IORs), with emphasis on PPPs.

The PPPs on the scope of this study aim to address global challenges, such as climate change or poverty. Private sector involvement is considered as crucial to overcome these challenges. A structured literature review has revealed that present literature did not yet examine those PPPs from an explicit MC perspective or with respect to critical success factors. Hitherto, research on DCA- and IO-related PPPs paid little attention to MC but took rather a business ethic perspective. Previous MC-related PPP research has mainly focused on national or regional projects. More theory-oriented studies dealt with IORs while more practice-oriented studies analyzed corporate joint ventures or inter-firm relationships.

A combination of the actor-centered institutionalism (ACI) and the transaction cost economics (TCE) will build the theoretical framework of this study. From a macro perspective the ACI approach shall help to characterize the actors involved in PPPs, their mode of interaction as well as the surrounding institutional framework. From a micro perspective, the TCE shall help to identify and analyze MC patterns implemented in the PPPs and before the background of underlying contractual arrangements.

In line with existing studies it is envisaged to conduct qualitative interview-based multiple case studies, which extend and complement previous research. Taking a multi-stakeholder perspective partnership project experiences from 20-25 experts mainly from the private sector, from IOs and from DCAs will be captured in order to examine empirically verifiable assumptions, which are theoretically anchored in the ACI and the TCE.

Key words are: Critical success factors, development cooperation agency, international organization, inter-organizational relationship, joint venture, management control, private sector, public-private partnership.

Author

• Thomas Konrad, Technische Universitaet Dortmund