No abstract

Governments around the world, but especially in Europe, have increasingly used private sector involvement in developing, financing and providing public health infrastructure and service delivery through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Reasons for this uptake are manifold ranging from rising expenditures for refurbishing, maintaining and operating public assets, and increasing constraints on government budgets stifle, seeking innovation through private sector acumen and aiming for better risk management. Although PPPs have attracted practitioner and academic interest over the last two decades, there has been no attempt to integrate the general and health management literature to provide a holistic view of PPPs in healthcare delivery. This study analyzes over 1400 publications from a wide range of disciplines over a 20-year time period. We find that despite the scale and significance of the phenomenon, there is relatively limited conceptualization and in-depth empirical investigation. Based on bibliographic and content analyses, we synthesize formerly dispersed research perspectives into a comprehensive multi-dimensional framework of public-private partnerships. In so doing, we provide new directions for further research and practice.

The effects of a 2-year health-related school physical education program on standardized academic achievement scores was assessed in 759 children who completed Metropolitan Achievement Tests before and after the program. Schools were randomly assigned to condition: (a) Specialists taught the Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids curriculum; (b) classroom teachers were trained to implement the curriculum; and (c) controls continued their usual programs. The Trained Teacher condition was superior to Control on Language, Reading, and Basic Battery. The Specialist condition was superior to Control on Reading, but inferior on Language. Despite devoting twice as many minutes per week to physical education as Controls, the health-related physical education program did not interfere with academic achievement. Health-related physical education may have favorable effects on students' academic achievement.

Today,``lean'' may no longer be fashionable but its core principles (flow, value, pull, minimizing waste etc.) have become the paradigm for many manufacturing (and service) operations. Given this pre-eminence, the paper seeks to establish what impact it has had on the overall competitive positions of adopter firms. Combining normative and critical theory (from lean production and resource-based view of the firm literature) with empirical material drawn from three case studies, the paper argues that lean production can underpin competitive advantage if the firm is able to appropriate the productivity savings it creates. Similarly, the ambiguity of lean production in practice means that the implementation process can create strategic resources to underpin sustainable competitive advantage. Problematically, however, the paper also suggests that being``lean'' can curtail the firm's ability to achieve long-term flexibility. It concludes with suggestions for further work.