An investigation of government employees' support for public-private partnerships

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that may influence support of public-private partnerships (PPPs) by government employees potentially involved in designing and implementing cross-sectoral collaborations. Design/methodology/approach - Based on an original survey of government employees in the USA, this study explores the impact of individual, organizational and environmental factors on their support for PPPs by employing ordinary least squares regression. Findings - Among the individual factors, involvement in PPPs and concerns for efficiency have been identified as factors having positive impact on government employees' support for PPPs. Male government employees seem to be less supportive of PPPs than female government employees. Environmental factors such as public opinion and appointed agency heads positively influence government employees' views of PPPs. No evidence for the significant impact of organizational factors on government employee perceptions of PPPs was found. Research limitations/implications - Factors influencing government employees' attitudes may also have an effect on employees' behaviors when involved in PPPs. Further studies may clarify how attitudes are translated into behaviors and how they influence the performance of PPPs. Investigations into government employees' views of PPPs before and after their actual involvement in partnerships may allow for identifying changes in employees' support for PPPs and their possible causes. Originality/value - This study investigates the impacts of individual, organizational and environmental factors on government employees' support for partnerships with the private sector that remain under-researched in the literature.