The costs of corporatization: Analysing the effects of forms of governance

Abstract

Public corporations have been constantly in the spotlight, with some commentators arguing that they can help governments provide better public services, and others insisting that their governance is simply too complex. Despite this ongoing debate, few studies have researched public corporation performance. The present

Personnel governance of corporatized public services: Effects of executive resources and corporation forms on turnover

“…The political decisions to transfer public services to public corporations have high potentials for effective and efficient public service provision for public authorities and their citizens but also induce far‐reaching control and governance challenges in a multilevel delegation chain (Bel et al, 2021; Papenfuß, 2020; Voorn & Genugten, 2021). In parliamentary systems, this chain of delegation runs from voters/taxpayers and their representatives in the government to the administration and further to the public corporations' executives (Ennser‐Jedenastik, 2014a).…”

Valuation of sector‐switching and politicization in the governance of corporatized public services

“…Typically, referring to private rather than public/administrative law, public decision‐makers have high flexibility in appointing EDs for public corporations (Bel et al., 2022; Voorn et al., 2017), and recruitment can target the entire labor market. Especially, managers with private‐sector experience can be attracted, which is often perceived as helpful in public service provision to implement strategic/structural change (Boyne et al., 2010) and associated with a deeper entrepreneurial mindset and private values (Bruton et al., 2015; Lapuente et al., 2020), and specialized knowledge of management approaches and tools (Bach & Veit, 2018; George et al., 2019).…”

“…HCT argues that contingencies and organizational contexts affect HC valuation in ED recruitment and pay‐setting (Carpenter et al., 2001; Combs & Skill, 2003; Peng et al., 2015). After corporatization, public services exist in a more complex socioeconomic environment, with market competitiveness alongside public interest (Bel et al., 2022; Christensen & Lægreid, 2003). However, the intensity by which market forces and business logic influence public corporations strongly depends on profit‐making capacity (Andrews et al., 2020).…”

“…The current EDP research is limited to public corporations at the federal level, focusing on the effects of incentive (Bai & Xu, 2005), board structures (Cahan et al., 2005), political connectedness (Meyer et al., 2018), and financial performance (Cao et al., 2011; Gao & Li, 2015; Mengistae & Xu, 2004) with a lack of studies regarding HC. Moreover, there is a research gap for the relevant municipal level, particularly because the valuation of HC varies highly based on organizational goals and contexts (Carpenter et al., 2001; Peng et al., 2015) and a very large number of public corporations have been established in municipalities (Bel et al., 2022; Voorn & Genugten, 2022).…”

What happens when municipalities run corporations? Empirical evidence from 290 Swedish municipalities

“…Pollitt et al 2004). Compared to the traditional bureaucratic model, MOCs have more legal and managerial autonomy, are generally less constrained by laws that regulate use of public resources and are typically able to implement much more flexible personnel management practices (Bel et al 2020;Voorn, Van Genugten, and Van Thiel 2020). Such organisational peculiarities have the potential to enable MOCs to operate more efficiently than traditional bureaucracies.…”