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Performance of municipally owned corporations: Determinants and mechanisms
Author(s) -
Voorn Bart,
Genugten Marieke,
Van Thiel Sandra
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
annals of public and cooperative economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.526
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-8292
pISSN - 1370-4788
DOI - 10.1111/apce.12268
Subject(s) - corporatization , bureaucracy , business , service delivery framework , service (business) , marketing , economics , political science , market economy , politics , law
Practitioners often expect service delivery by municipally owned corporations (MOCs) to differ substantially from delivery by municipal bureaucracy. However, research into the circumstances under which municipal corporatization is effective is scarce. We investigate determinants of MOCs’ performance based on a questionnaire sent to all Dutch MOCs, finding no evidence that many expected predictors of performance matter for performance. Key factors driving MOCs’ performance relate to size, resource access, and the interaction between their multiple principals. We suggest that in studying local corporatization, researchers should look less at traditional principal–agent conflict and more at intermunicipal coordination.