Aidan Vining, Mark Moore and Claude Laurin
This paper addresses the social value of commercial enterprises that are jointly owned by a government and private sector investors and where the shares are listed on a stock…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper addresses the social value of commercial enterprises that are jointly owned by a government and private sector investors and where the shares are listed on a stock exchange: thus, “listed public–private enterprises” (LPPEs). The theoretical part of the paper addresses how differences in ownership patterns influence the behavior and performance of LPPEs.
Design/methodology/approach
We develop a conceptual taxonomy, drawing on the empirical evidence on the behavior and performance of public–private hybrid enterprises and on the application of agency theory to that evidence. The taxonomy discussion predicts how different ownership patterns affect enterprise productive efficiency and the ability of governments to achieve social goals through LPPEs. We review the empirical literature on government enterprise ownership and on the concentration of private share ownership to deduce how these matter for owner and managerial behavior and productive efficiency. We review the literature that considers the informational content that listing of an enterprise's shares on a stock exchange can provide to enterprise owners, managers and other domestic audiences with a policy interest. We employ a social welfare perspective to derive policy implications as to when the LPPE governance structure is most appropriate.
Findings
We show how the monitoring and performance weaknesses of state ownership are offset by some private ownership, particularly when combined with listing on a stock exchange. We demonstrate the effects of different governance structures on enterprise productive efficiency. We find that the LPPE structure is particularly appropriate as an alternative to nationalization or to full privatization and regulation of natural monopoly public utilities, and as an alternative to full private ownership and taxation of non-renewable natural resource extractive enterprises.
Originality/value
This paper explicitly addresses the question of why and how the combination of government ownership, private investor ownership and listing on an exchange is socially valuable in providing information on productive efficiency to governments.
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Managing the interface between the corporation and government has become one of the most rapidly growing management areas. The examination, evaluation and teaching of this aspect…
Abstract
Managing the interface between the corporation and government has become one of the most rapidly growing management areas. The examination, evaluation and teaching of this aspect has been the work of the Max Bell Business‐Government Studies Programme at York University in Canada. The author describes the work of the programme to date and pays particular attention to the research being undertaken. The Programme has established itself as a major force in research and teaching in this area in Canada. The way in which both the public and private sectors can operate in the best interests of society as a whole is important to all.
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With the events leading up to the election of the Harris Conservative government in Canada's province of Ontario in June of 1995, the debate over “workfare vs. welfare” began to…
Abstract
With the events leading up to the election of the Harris Conservative government in Canada's province of Ontario in June of 1995, the debate over “workfare vs. welfare” began to heat up. Ontario traditionally has been Canada's wealthiest province and has developed generous social programmes for her own citizens. As well, over the years, the nation has counted on Ontario's wealth to provide considerable funding for the transfer payments which have supported Canada's poorer provinces. However, in recent years, Ontario has been experiencing a serious economic recession. The effects have been to dramatically increase the provincial government's debt load and to place a burden of taxation on businesses and consumers to pay the interest on this debt, while sustaining the costly social safety net. Many citizens of Ontario have come to regard this debt load as a major obstacle to economic recovery and have targeted social programmes as the focus for serious budget cuts.
Niall Corcoran and Aidan Duane
The management of organisational knowledge and the promotion of staff knowledge sharing are largely neglected in higher education institutions. The purpose of this study is to…
Abstract
Purpose
The management of organisational knowledge and the promotion of staff knowledge sharing are largely neglected in higher education institutions. The purpose of this study is to examine how enterprise social networks can enable staff knowledge sharing in communities of practice in that context.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is framed as an Action Research project, covering three cycles over a 12-month period. During the Diagnosing phase, a conceptual model was developed for empirical testing. Data were collected through 30 semi-structured interviews and a number of focus groups. This was supplemented by content analysis and reflective journaling.
Findings
The findings support the conceptual model and provide insight into the antecedents necessary for the creation of an enterprise social network-enabled knowledge-sharing environment, the motivators for and barriers to participation, and the perceived organisational and individual benefits of increased staff knowledge-sharing activity.
Research limitations/implications
As the study has a higher education focus, all of the findings may not be generalizable to other types of organisation. Further development of the conceptual model and testing in other contextual settings will yield greater generalizability.
Practical implications
A number of findings have practical implications for the management of higher education institutions, such as the evidence of a divide between faculty and other staff. In general, the study findings provide an opportunity for educationalists to better understand the scope and impact of employing social media platforms for knowledge sharing.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the growing body of work on organisational implementations of social media, and should be of interest to practitioners and researchers undertaking similar projects.
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William Maguire and Lyn Murphy
The purpose of this paper is to suggest how decision-makers may work towards a broader perspective on value than that expressed in financial economics-based accounting terms to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest how decision-makers may work towards a broader perspective on value than that expressed in financial economics-based accounting terms to enhance value in healthcare.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review published academic research and reports on practice across a range of disciplines.
Findings
The authors find that while value is a multidimensional concept, which is open to perceptions that differ across stakeholders in healthcare, financial economics-based accounting is essentially mono-disciplinary and dominates decisions. Enhancing value in health is a wicked problem, and a trans-disciplinary approach has the potential to enable decision-makers to enhance value.
Practical implications
The suggest that a trans-disciplinary approach, which dissolves disciplinary boundaries, is capable of enabling decision-makers to work towards understanding and enhancing value by fostering awareness of stakeholders' perceptions of value. A critical caveat is that a trans-disciplinary approach does not guarantee ready-made or immediate solutions; it does, however, offer the means to struggle towards a destination which may be continually shifting.
Originality/value
This study highlights the importance of a broader understanding of the concept of value than that implied by financial economics-based accounting and recognises the perceptions of stakeholders. It explores the inter-relationship among “the view from nowhere”, wicked problems and trans-disciplinarity and recommends a trans-disciplinary approach with a view to enhancing value in that broader sense. In this way, it contributes to the accounting literature, which has previously paid little attention to some of these aspects.