Elements of public-private partnership management: Examining the promise and performance criteria of Business Improvement Districts

摘要

Throughout the world Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are challenging and re-shaping traditional assumptions of public management — its promises and performance — at the most local of government levels: the neighbourhood and town centre. Key to this metamorphosis is the concept and application of public-private partnerships which merge public and private management technologies, public entrepreneurship and social capital. This merger forges a distinctive form of public management — public-private partnership management, an expertise within public administration — which brings together the knowledge and skills of business, government, planning and community development in a collaborative manner and achieves a form of citizen-driven governance. The BID model is becoming a worldwide mainstream policy and management tool for local governments in collaboration with their business districts to apply entrepreneurship, social capital and the management of public-private partnerships at the heart of community revitalisation and development. This paper discusses how and why public-private partnership management is a distinct profession, and further examines the role of BIDs in an evolving application of public-private partnerships which build local management capacity for community and downtown revitalisation.