Homkes, Rebecca
(2011)
Analysing the role of public-private partnerships in global governance: institutional dynamics, variation and effects.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
While the promotion and growth of global public-private partnerships (PPPs) is indisputable,
the same enthusiasm has not fuelled their disciplined study; thus, their potential to deliver on
their promise of being effective and legitimate governance entities is far from established.
Addressing this lack, this work investigates the universe of transnational PPPs in form,
functioning and effects. It suggests that as PPPs are institutional innovations, partnership
analysis can benefit from applying theoretical constructs from international regime research
complemented with adjacent literature from management and organisational studies.
Building an analytical framework based on the notions of input and output legitimacy, the
work analyses how variation in partnership inputs (focus, actors involved, organisational
dynamics and institutionalisation) interacts with varying internal management processes to
result in varying outputs. The thesis utilises the operational notion of effects rather than the
more subjective notion of partnership effectiveness, and considers effects related to goal
attainment and problem solving.
Applying a systematic methodology, the work also defines and describes the universe of PPPs,
creating a transnational partnership database (TPD) which pulls together all existing sources,
thus encompassing 757 partnerships.
The resultant analysis reveals a marked variation across the universe of transnational
partnerships as well as distinct differences in their operational capacity. It also highlights that
while highly institutionalised PPPs are more likely to produce tangible outputs and effects, the
extent of these is highly dependent upon internal management. By building a cumulative
understanding of these institutional models, the work furthers debates regarding the role of
PPPs as legitimate and effective governing actors.
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