Public-Private mixing

Subtitle:A knowledge transfer perspective

In many modern day societies, social conventions and governance arises at the crossroads of three evolving meta-institutions, i.e. civil society, the state represented through its government and the market. Their responsibilities in the progress of society are continuously challenged, and the battle of ideas every so often leads to temporary situations of transitory balance. These transitory situations set the agenda on public-private mixing and address solutions for both the development of public goods and services as well as remedies for market and government failure. In the last decades the dominant discours therein has pulled the centre of gravity towards the workings of the market, expressed in the public sector through for instance, the granting of autonomy and privatisation of state-owned enterprises, and the provision of public goods and services by means of private finance. Consequently, the entrepreneurial spirit and its accompanying creative destruction are thus introduced into the realm of public goods and service delivery, bringing about a reorientation of strategic objectives, and invoking the need to address underlying coping mechanisms. The research presented in this dissertation therefore studies particular types of public-private mixing with a clear focus on the role of knowledge management and knowledge transfer in these domain crossing settings for the involved public sector partners. At different organizational levels, the research finds that the act of transferring knowledge in an explicit manner is often absent in real-life situations typified by public-private mixing, whilst at the same time finding that explicitly and non-explicitly transferred knowledge does however affect the perceived effectiveness of decision-making ability under mixed conditions. As a result the main findings of the dissertation are somewhat contradictory as they find that knowledge transfer is important, and yet not fully utilized by public sector actors when confronted by situations typified by public-private mixing.

ISBN:9789057184598

Keywords:Public-Private Partnerships, Knowledge Management, public sector, Stakeholder Management