Public-private Interaction Research Articles

The Perils of Taking Property Too Far.

Many policies governing biobanks revolve around ownership and control of the materials and information in them. Those who manage biobanks may be tempted to seek the broadest legal rights possible over material and data. However, we suggest that even if ownership and control were clearly defined by the law and readily obtained by biobanks, how legal rights are used in practice matters as much or more than the rules for ownership. We draw lessons from the stories of genetic testing for Canavan disease and inherited breast and ovarian cancers. In both cases, the use or assertion of legal rights led to preventable controversy and suboptimal outcomes. The attempt to acquire and exercise intellectual property rights antagonized and alienated stakeholders, whom we define broadly to include the donors, patients, doctors, research institutions, health care providers, governments, and citizens with an interest in research and its outcomes. By analogy, even if biobanks could acquire expansive and clear property rights over materials and data, biobanks that want to maintain productive relationships with stakeholders must not lose the trust of those who contribute material or others with an interest in research.

Sobre a qualidade do crescimento: atores, instituições e desenvolvimento local

Inspirada na abordagem relacional da Nova Sociologia Econômica, esta pesquisa mostra como diferentes constelações de atores e instituições influenciam o desenvolvimento econômico. Por meio de uma análise comparativa de duas experiências de desenvolvimento local brasileiras da indústria de equipamentos de eletrônica e informática, argumentamos que diferentes padrões de interação dos atores públicos e privados influenciam a qualidade e a sustentabilidade de processos de crescimento econômico.

‘Dynamic behavioral fingerprinting’: what drives the deployment of environmental information and communication capabilities?

This article investigates the impact of organizational drivers for the implementation of business process and network information and communication capabilities (ICCs) supporting cleaner production in the Dutch food and beverage industry. We do so with the intention to promote ‘dynamic behavioral fingerprinting’. Survey results show, that sub-sectors of this industry are driven to adopt environmental ICCs to a different level. Responses range from compliance-oriented (Slaughterhouses & meat sub-sector) to market-oriented (Bakery and biscuits sub-sector). Knowledge of key drivers and their impact offers opportunities to adjust the environmental policy and instruments to sub-sector specifics so that its effectiveness is improved. We therefore propose ‘dynamic behavioral fingerprinting’: mapping “typical” patterns of managerial response towards environmental issues, in order to improve the effectiveness of public–private interaction and cooperation.

Accountability of Networked Climate Governance: The Rise of Transnational Climate Partnerships

Public-private partnerships (PPP) have been advanced as a new tool of global governance, which can supply both effective and legitimate governance. In the context of recent debates on the democratic legitimacy of transnational governance, this paper focuses on accountability as a central component of legitimacy. The aim of this paper is to map transnational climate partnerships and evaluate their accountability record in terms of transparency, monitoring mechanisms and representation of stakeholders. Three types of partnerships are identified with respect to their degree of public-private interaction: public-private (hybrid), governmental and private-private. Most of the climate partnerships have functions of advocacy, service provision and implementation. None are standard setting, which indicates that governmental actors are less willing to “contract out” rule-setting authority to private actors in the climate change. Some partnerships, such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development climate partnerships and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects represent “new” modes of hybrid governance with high degree of public-private interaction. However, many partnerships, not least the voluntary technology agreements such as the APP, rest on “old” form of governance based on the logic of lobbying, corporatism, co-optation and interstate bargaining. Private (business-to business) climate partnerships are to varying degrees geared toward quantitative targets in the Kyoto Protocol. The accountability record is higher for hybrid climate partnerships, such as the CDM, due to extensive reporting and monitoring mechanisms, while lower for the governmental networks, such as voluntary technology agreements. Partnerships do not necessarily replace or erode the authority of sovereign states, but rather propels the hybridization and transformation of authority that is increasingly shared between state and nonstate actors.

An approach to the diagnosis, treatment and referral of tuberculosis patients: The family practitioner's role

The family practitioner in private practice is a key role player within the primary health care system and should play a bigger role in national tuberculosis (TB) control. TB training at medical undergraduate level is often not adequate and continuous medical education is necessary to develop capacity among private family practitioners. The Department of Health should also encourage the involvement of especially the private family practitioners in district TB control, which is a long overdue public-private interaction. This article discusses the role of the family practitioner to better diagnose, treat and refer tuberculosis patients.

When trade liberalization turns into regulatory reform: The impact on business–government relations in international trade politics

AbstractBusiness–government relations on trade issues are generally characterized as protectionist lobbying or – less often – lobbying for the liberalization of markets. However, with the evolution of the trading system, negotiations today concern not just market opening, but also the regulatory frameworks that structure international trade. This transformation has important consequences for the ways in which private interests can contribute to trade negotiations. Instead of simply trying to exert pressure, businesses and other private actors now form working relationships with governments based on expertise, learning, and information exchange. This article illustrates these new forms of public–private interactions with examples from the USA, the European Union, and Brazil.

Bringing the Private Into the Public

Substantial policy and political changes have resulted from a 2001 state takeover of the Philadelphia School District and the subsequent hiring of Paul Vallas as the district’s new CEO. Using the lens of urban regime analysis, which emphasizes the importance of public and private actors in forming a governing coalition, this article analyzes the Philadelphia education regime and the policies it has promoted. The author determines that although decision making is highly centralized under this governing coalition, the role of private actors helps to define the regime as a “contracting regime,” in which public-private interaction shapes the political and policy context.

DO FIRMS PRODUCE BETTER QUALITY RESEARCH WITH GREATER ACADEMIC COLLABORATION?

A substantial and growing body of work points to the increasing value of public-private interaction for the performance and growth of high technology science-based firms and industries. However, research on the effects of this interaction on the resulting quality of a firms' scientific output is scarce. This is an important gap in the literature since the specific mechanisms by which public-private collaboration might improve firm, industrial or even regional-wide performance are not well known. Improvements to research quality through public-private collaboration is one obvious channel by which firms and industry may benefit from co-mingling with academic expertise. This paper attempts to fill this gap by comparing the effect of private-public collaboration on research quality using unique data from the U.K. biotechnology sector from 1988-2001. Specifically, this paper tests whether collaboration with academic researchers improves the the quality of scientific research that U.K. biotech firms produce. The paper concludes that collaborative research does indeed improve research quality, although the status of of the academic researchers and the nature of the biotech firm in question are significant factors in determining how strong a positive effect public-private collaboration has on research quality. For firms this implies that they should seek alliances with high status academics with established research reputations. From a science and technology policy perspective, the paper recommends strengthening support for public science and encouraging collaboration across the public-private divide to ensure that industry can fully reap the benefits of academic science.

Public-Private Interactions in Anglo-Greek Tourism: Reflections on Aspects of the Primary Research Process

The issues discussed in this paper stem from the author's ongoing work in the field of tourism. The main research areas are the relationships between tour operators, the accommodation sector and National Tourism Offices with an emphasis on marketing and promotion, as well as the influence of external factors on the effectiveness of promotional activities. The connections, along these lines, between the UK and Greece are examined in a case study. The paper will illustrate the thought process underpinning the primary research for the study. Its aim is to highlight and analyse a number of methodological considerations and conscious decisions that had to be made during its course, while emphasis is given to the issues revolving around the preparation and implementation of primary research.

The dynamic creation of knowledge: Analysing public–private collaborations

The present paper analyses the creation of knowledge in dynamic collaborations between private firms and public research institutions in Denmark. The focus is on collaborations promoting innovation in projects that involve ‘new’ science. Two case studies are introduced and the role of government in facilitating public–private interactions is discussed. Other themes touched upon are the general uncertainty connected with research-based innovation projects; the problem of managing public–private collaborations; the dilemma of building long-term competencies versus the imperative to create marketable products in the short run; and institutional transformation. The analysis distinguishes between market-pull and technology-push cases. There appears to be a greater need for formal programmes supporting public–private collaboration in the technology-push case, where there is a high degree of market uncertainty, than in the market-pull case.

Under Stress: Europeanisation and Trade Associations in the Members States

Until today, it is relatively disputed how European integration impacts on domestic associations and the patterns of public-private interactions at the national level. While some predict a withering away of national corporatisms, others predict they would be reinforced. By making organization theory available to institution-theoretical approaches, the paper offers a conceptual means that makes it possible to present an encompassing and theory-guided picture of the impact of European integration on societal structures in the member states. Associations - in the presented cases, business associations of the transport sector in Germany and the Netherlands -, as intermediate organisations operate at the interface between private and public actors and incorporate the dynamics of their political and economic environments in both structural and strategic terms. It is argued that the way in which the configuration of associations within a sector changes in the course of European integration relates to efforts at this intermediate level to maintain or increase its relative autonomy from both its constituencies and its interlocutors.

BUILDING PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: Assessing and managing risks in port development

In recent years increasing dependencies between public and private organizations lead to a growing need for public-private partnerships. However, cultural and institutional differences between the public and private domain and, in addition, the difficulties of bringing the two together, constitute a serious threat to successful public-private partnership. The formation of these partnerships is further hindered by confusion of the concept of public-private partnership. The predominant model of contracting out restricts rather than enhances public-private interaction. This article deals with the difficulties and risks involved in building public-private partnerships and tries to answer the question of how to overcome them. The issue is illustrated by an analysis of the attempts made to realize a huge port expansion in the port of Rotterdam by means of establishing public-private partnership.

Cooperating for Survival: Tannery Pollution and Joint Action in the Palar Valley (India)

In 1995 the Supreme Court of India ordered the closure of hundreds of tanneries in Tamil Nadu for failing to treat their effluents. With their survival at stake, local producers opted overwhelmingly for a collective solution, and took immediate steps to form central treatment plants. This article shows how cooperation, facilitated by community ties and shared local identities, enabled the clusters to meet the “pollution crisis.” It examines difficulties that arise from collective action, notably monitoring and compliance, and explores public-private interaction in the pursuit of environmental goals. Sustaining cooperation and future prospects of joint action are also discussed.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUBLIC-PRIVATE CONGRUENCE TECHNIQUE

Summary.-This paper reports on the replication and refinement of a technique for assessing the discrepancy between public social behavios and private interaction proclivities. Generally, we replicated previous findings that this discrepancy predicts concurrent signs of maladjustment. The technique will prove valuable to those interested in the psychology of incongruence. Ford and Hook (1993) recently reported the Public-Private Congruence Technique as a way to assess the incongruence or the discrepancy between public behavior and private experience. The technique was used in the context of social interaction wherein incongruence was defined as the presentation of prosocial behaviors (like smiling and reciprocal conuersation) in the context of private experiences of a less amicable and sociable nature. Essentially, an individual's overtly prosocial glow can belie a covert desire not to be engaged in an ongoing interaction with others. Subjects are measured on this incongruence by examining seven artistically rendered pictures which illustrate the target, with whom the subject is instructed to identify, engaged in various social interactions; privately, the target wishes to terminate or to have avoided these interactions (e.g., smiling and conversing while privately wishing to escape the interaction). For each picture the subject completes a 5-point scale measuring how frequently the subject has been in the target's incongruent situation. An advantage of the technique's score (the mean frequency) is that it measures a psychological discrepancy-high public versus low private prosociability-without using a literal discrepancy value (like X - Y) which can be attended by a number of quantitative and conceptual liabilities. Ford and Hook (1993) reported high reliabilities as well as significant validity indices for the technique. They also found that the correlation between public-private incongruence and maladjustment (see Rogers, 1961) was stronger for college-age women than men. The present study was done to replicate and extend the findings for Ford and Hook's (1993) study of 50 women subjects. In this study we individually tested 45 college-age women on the seven public-private pictures and an over-all incongruence score was obtained for each subject. Two days later the subjects completed the following scales: anx

Organized Capital and Local Politics

Many analyses of urban political economy tend to overlook the significance of local business organizations and public-private committees in the urban political process. This article analyzes local business organizations and joint committees in Swedish municipalities. Political stability seems more important than ideological orientation of the local political elite for the creation of joint committees. Business influence on local politics is contingent on the institutionalized forms of public-private interaction. Business demands on local politics cover almost all urban service sectors, and local authorities have largely responded to these demands.

Applying “Most Different Systems” Designs

In every polity, development policy choices often remain either implicit or largely ignored. Whereas economic growth can be measured with some precision, development policy choices continue to constitute an inadequately defined and residual category. This article compares development policy since the 1970s within two very different policy systems: the southeastern American state of Alabama, and the western Caribbean island of Jamaica. After reappraising the validity of such “most different systems” designs, within the context of state-society structure, it further reviews the ambiguous nexus between economic growth and sociopolitical development. Subsequently, it singles out state policy toward private enterprise, and public-private sector interaction, as primary points of departure for an exploration of comparative development policy choice and implementation.

Toward developing a national transportation planning model: A bilevel programming approach for Korea

The paper addresses specific issues associated with solving a bilevel transportation planning model in which public-private interaction is explicitly represented. Provisions for interaction between the public and private sectors in planning models would shed light on many important issues of planning strategy because the private sector pursues its own interests, while the public sector attempts to broaden public interests in a mixed economic system.