Francois Bernard Duhamel, Isis Gutiérrez-Martínez, Sergio Picazo-Vela and Luis Luna-Reyes
Collaborations between public administrations and private sector represent a specific challenge to manage contractual and organizational relationships among partners with…
Abstract
Purpose
Collaborations between public administrations and private sector represent a specific challenge to manage contractual and organizational relationships among partners with different goals, working cultures, norms, rules and processes. Therefore, the main research question of this paper is: What are the antecedents of effective collaboration in public-private IT outsourcing relations? Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of collaborative interface characteristics as scaffolding structures to manage public-private IT outsourcing relations effectively.
Design/methodology/approach
Two cases of public-private IT outsourcing relationships in Mexico were used to compare and contrast the main antecedents of collaborative interface characteristics. Case selection was based on the success in each case, as perceived by the collaborating members involved. A successful case and a less successful case of application development for the provision of public services from two state administrations in Mexico were chosen. Data gathering took place via face-to-face interviews.
Findings
The quality of the organizational interface depends on the interactions between exchange of knowledge and mutual trust, along with the commitment between partners. Trust, commitment and knowledge sharing interacted to enhance interface characteristics that have an impact on public and political values.
Research limitations/implications
This paper used and extended an outsourcing technology enactment model to emphasize the quality of organizational interfaces as a main antecedent for the success of public-private IT outsourcing relations.
Practical implications
Effectively designing work practices and contracts implies the development of flexible contracts, objects and routines to adjust project requirements to fulfill better public-private goals. Such flexible contracts and practices are only possible in a trusting environment where participants shape their mutual understanding of the project.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature on public-private IT outsourcing relationships by offering a theoretical framework on key antecedents and processes of success of these relationships.
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Luis Luna-Reyes, Carlos Juiz, Isis Gutierrez-Martinez and Francois Bernard Duhamel
Information technology (IT) constitutes an important driver for innovation in the public sector. However, taking advantage of IT to innovate requires the existence of other…
Abstract
Purpose
Information technology (IT) constitutes an important driver for innovation in the public sector. However, taking advantage of IT to innovate requires the existence of other organizational and institutional capabilities within the public organization. Using absorptive capability theory, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between principles for IT governance and dynamic capabilities across semi-urban (between 10,000 and 149,000 inhabitants), urban (between 150,000 and 600,000 inhabitants) and metropolitan (more than 600,000 inhabitants ) municipal governments in Mexico.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reports on three workshops involving 34 chief information officers (CIOs) from semi-urban, urban and metropolitan municipalities. The workshop agenda included a series of brainstorming exercises to discuss – among other topics – the capabilities required for digital government innovation. The capabilities collected during the workshops were codified by the authors based on their relationship to the six IT governance standardized principles and the four dynamic capabilities identified in the literature. The authors used descriptive and correlation analyses to show the importance of governance principles and dynamic capabilities for innovation, as well as the relationships between those two dimensions, in each type of municipality.
Findings
This study shows that specific IT governance principles may enhance innovation capabilities linked with knowledge acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation. Moreover, the ways in which IT governance principles support innovation are linked to size, resources and complexity of the local government. In conclusion, this study discusses the primary IT policy implications to improve possibilities to innovate in the public sector.
Originality/value
Although researchers and practitioners agree that following principles of good governance may enhance performance and innovation in the provision of public services, the link between the principles of IT governance and capabilities to spur innovation has not yet been fully established in the literature. Thus, in this study, empirical evidence of this linkage is provided.
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Francois Bernard Duhamel, Isis Gutiérrez-Martínez, Hugo Cordova-Díaz and Sergio Cue-Funes
This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework showing factors favoring the adoption of information systems (IS)-based service innovations in the public sector at the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework showing factors favoring the adoption of information systems (IS)-based service innovations in the public sector at the organizational level.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design is based on the development of a theoretical framework from the technology–organization–environment framework and from a case study of an outsourced IS-based electronic document management system from six different ministries in the same state in Mexico.
Findings
Strong contrasts in the degree of adoption of the service innovation appeared among various ministries involved in state government, revealing differences in the presence or absence of key variables, integrated into theoretical framework, including perception of external pressure; perception of benefits and risks and organizational readiness; and political, sociotechnical and economical inertia in given institutional conditions, leading to different public value outcomes associated with intraorganizational efficiencies and to the relationship between public administration and politicians.
Practical implications
Public managers must consider process mapping and sources of political, sociotechnical and economical inertia in given institutional conditions, to ensure a satisfactory adoption of service innovations in public administration and create public value. The promotion of a more structured and enduring professional career system in such context is another key to the adoption of innovations.
Originality/value
Based on theoretical and empirical grounds, the main contribution of this paper is to emphasize, through an integrated theoretical framework, the relatively unexplored roles of process mapping in organizational readiness and of political, sociotechnical and economic sources of inertia in relation to specific agents in the adoption of public sector service innovations at the organizational level in the context of the public administration in Mexico to produce public value.
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Jorge Alberto Durán Encalada and François Bernard Duhamel
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the type of logistics services required by firms is related to the freight characteristics, and to the cost and other dimensions of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the type of logistics services required by firms is related to the freight characteristics, and to the cost and other dimensions of the services in Mexico.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an exploratory study using Anova analysis and correlations, on the basis of a sample of 266 freight movements in Mexico, in order to test two main hypotheses.
Findings
The authors found an association between some logistics services, according to their level of customization, with the freight characteristics, and a positive relation of those customized services with security and reliability, on the one hand, and a negative relation with cost of the services, on the other hand.
Research limitations/implications
Size of the sample and some subjective measures of logistics services performance.
Practical implications
For shipping companies to be aware of existing limitations of Mexican logistics service providers in relation to customizing their services and the attributes associated with these services. This knowledge will contribute to firms' better planning of their freight movements.
Originality/value
Authors extend the supply chain analysis considering logistics variables variables such as freight characteristics, logistics services requirements, and the firms’ priorities for contracting these services, such as cost and other attributes.
Propósito
examinar cómo se relaciona el tipo de servicios logísticos requeridos por las empresas con las características de la carga, y con el costo y otros atributos de estos servicios.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
estudio exploratorio que utiliza análisis Anova y correlación Pearson de 266 casos de transporte de cargas para probar dos hipótesis asociadas al propósito.
Hallazgos
se encontró una conexión entre algunos servicios logísticos – de acuerdo con su nivel de customización– y las características de la carga, y una relación positiva entre los servicios logísticos customizados y las prioridades de seguridad y confiabilidad. Además, se halló un vínculo negativo con los costos.
Limitaciones de la investigación
tamaño de la muestra y uso de algunas mediciones subjetivas del desempeño de los servicios logísticos.
Implicaciones prácticas
para las empresas embarcadoras tener en cuenta las limitaciones que tienen los proveedores de servicios logísticos en México, en cuanto a la customización de los servicios logísticos y los atributos favorecidos en la provisión de estos servicios. Esto contribuirá a una mejor planeación de las áreas logísticas de las empresas en el manejo de sus cargas.
Originalidad/valor
extender el análisis de las cadenas de suministro para considerar variables logísticas como son las características de la carga, los servicios logísticos requeridos y las prioridades que las empresas consideran en la obtención de servicios en términos de costos u otros atributos.
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Isis Gutiérrez-Martínez and Francois Duhamel
The purpose of this paper is to explore how business organizations design and implement sustainability practices to foster competitive advantage.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how business organizations design and implement sustainability practices to foster competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study is based on an exploratory multiple case study involving 11 Mexican hotels recognized as “champions” in sustainability. Data gathering took place via in-depth interviews with hotel managers.
Findings
The key internal resources and capabilities must be supported by integrated microfoundations. The interaction between attributes of key resources and microfoundations reveals four transversal dimensions, namely, leadership orientation, organizational culture, team-based organizational structures and human resources and control management systems to build a sustainability-based competitive advantage in the hospitality industry.
Practical implications
The implementation of sustainability processes in the hospitality industry depends on the ability of leaders to craft systems, build commitment and align interests and goals consistent with sustainability. Business managers may find some guidance for implementing sustainability-related initiatives from the results of this paper.
Originality/value
This work presents both theoretical and practical contributions, integrating and operationalizing a set of key resources (using the VRIO framework) and microfoundations approach to create and maintain a sustainability-based competitive advantage, in contrast to existing studies where those resources and conditions are examined in a piecemeal fashion.
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The development of public art in French New Towns in the 1970s and 1980s was one of the most spectacular forms of state intervention in urban policy. Along with the new…
Abstract
The development of public art in French New Towns in the 1970s and 1980s was one of the most spectacular forms of state intervention in urban policy. Along with the new architecture programmes, the hundreds of works of art that adorn the public realm of the French New Towns help to differentiate them from the grands ensembles. This public art, which was highly publicised at the time, represents a heritage intrinsically linked to the urban history of New Towns but also to the history of French cultural policies at the end of the twentieth century. Artistic and town planning innovations underlie many public art projects. Artists and town planners participated, on a city scale, in the cultural developments that sought to respond to the expectations of the May 1968 crisis. In New Towns, the role of art was not simply to provide a backdrop to beautify the city but also to contribute to the success of new urban neighbourhoods. This involved placing visual landmarks in the urban space, confronting the residents with living art (painted walls, sculpted staircases, light paths, etc.).
The appropriation of these works of art by the public and councils was far from unanimous. It was only at the beginning of the twenty-first century that a heritage reflection emerged and led to a list of works of art being drawn up, with a view to protecting them. With the disappearance of state supervision over certain New Towns (1998–2002), damaged works has become a stigma in the public realm. A policy of restoration is being therefore introduced in certain New Towns, with public art participating in the identity of councils that do not hesitate to present themselves as ‘contemporary towns’ and take on the restoration or achievement of certain works that they now consider to be their heritage.
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Maria Gravari-Barbas and Sébastien Jacquot
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms involved in the progressive integration of marginal and peripheral urban areas, located close to established tourist…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms involved in the progressive integration of marginal and peripheral urban areas, located close to established tourist destinations, into the visited tourism perimeter, and the interplay of the supporting public and private actors. It focusses on the intertwining processes of commercial gentrification, heritagization and aestheticization of former “ordinary” or marginal areas as tools for and indications of their tourism development. It explores how the metropolitan tourism geography is progressively redesigned.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a comprehensive literature analysis, the Saint-Ouen flea market was selected as the object of study. The methodology is based on extensive in situ observations, a systematic analysis of the press and a corpus of tourist guides and several in-depth interviews with local public and private stakeholders.
Findings
This paper shows that combined public (Parisian urban and tourism stakeholders) and private interests led to the integration in the tourism perimeter of a space that was once on the margins of the tourism and metropolitan area. It highlights the mechanisms of this integration and the link between touristification, gentrification, aestheticization and artification. It was found that private investors and political decision makers regard Saint-Ouen flea market as a major opportunity for tourism and real estate development, which leads to some contradictions regarding heritage protection. Finally, it shows that market traders opposed the evolution of a commercial place into a place of symbolic consumption. At another level, it shows the stakes of tourism diversification in a metropolitan tourism destination that is characterized by overtourism.
Research limitations/implications
More studies are needed to identify not only the potential of flea markets to diversify tourist areas and practices, but also any potential resistance. The consequences on metropolitan tourism can be the subject of additional investigations: can this tourism diversification reduce overtourism in the centre, or is it only a diversification that functions as an additional driver of attractiveness? This research opens new perspectives on the modes of diversification (spatial and experiential) of metropolitan tourism as well as on the role that commercial changes play in these evolutions. It also makes it possible to question the modes of engagement of investors and traders in tourism.
Originality/value
This is an in-depth analysis of the case of Saint-Ouen flea market. The issues raised herein are applicable to similar peripheral urban areas, flea markets especially, that are rarely studied on the tourism-aestheticization-gentrification nexus. The analysis also shows the diversification of places and imaginaries of metropolitan tourism.