Barriers to development of private sector investment in water and sewage industry

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadi Sarvari ◽  
Daniel W.M. Chan ◽  
Nerija Banaitiene ◽  
Norhazilan Md Noor ◽  
Michael Beer

PurposePrivatization is a complex issue in many developing countries; therefore, it is vital to examine the obstacles that prevent its proper implementation. The goal of this study is to identify and analyze the barriers to private sector investment in the Water and Sewage Industry (WSI) and to suggest effective ways to attract the private investors to this sector.Design/methodology/approachThe obstacles to private sector investment in the WSI were identified by conducting a desktop literature review and interviewing an expert panel, using the fuzzy Delphi technique. The most important barriers were identified and categorized. A structured survey was then developed and distributed to private sector investment experts. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) was applied to further examine the responses and to rank the identified barriers.FindingsThe results showed that the greatest barrier to privatization is the weakness of insurance companies in controlling investment risks, and the second greatest barrier is the weakness of the country's capitalist culture. A review of recent success stories revealed that these barriers can be overcome with transparent price policies and increased interaction between the public and private sectors, which motivate private investors to invest in the WSI.Originality/valueThe elicitation of this study can be useful to both private and public sectors for the development of infrastructure projects, particularly for the WSI.

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-86
Author(s):  
Do Tien Sy ◽  
Veerasak Likhitruangsilp ◽  
Masamitsu Onishi ◽  
Phong Thanh Nguyen

This paper identifies the concern factors of private investors associated with Public-Private Partnership (PPP) transportation projects in Vietnam. The concern factors are incorporated into four main groups: (1) company profile; (2) finance; (3) opportunities; and (4) risk perceptions. The paper examines the different perceptions by the public and private sectors about these concern factors adopted by experienced professionals related to PPP transportation projects. Based on a questionnaire survey in Vietnam, the most concern factors of private investors are their own capacity, demand issues, legal and political risks, long-term income, and financial sources issues of the PPP project. Moreover, five factors that represent the significant differences between the private and public sectors including political risks, enhancement of company’s strength in its industry, construction risks, demand issues, and financial viability of the company are also discovered. Addressing the different perceptions is indispensable to ensure the public sector can establish necessary policies that appeal to both domestic and foreign private investors. The paper at the same time hopes to provide some of lessons for the private sector.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 285-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenio Anessi-Pessina ◽  
Josette Caruana ◽  
Mariafrancesca Sicilia ◽  
Ileana Steccolini

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the convergence of private and public sector accounting standards is affecting conceptual and practical issues relating to heritage. More specifically, the paper is intended to provide a better understanding of the state of the art in national and international accounting standards on heritage assets, and of the views influencing such standards. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative documentary analysis is carried out to explore the variety of existing positions and views on heritage, ranging from the scholarly literature, through potential stakeholders and users, to international and national standard setters. Findings The analysis shows that the path of convergence between public and private sector standards and practices is still problematic. After more than two decades of debate around the nature, definition, measurement, and reporting of heritage, these issues are far from settled. Research limitations/implications In the light of calls for increased measurement and reporting of public sector “assets”, and specifically for the definition of standards to recognise heritage, the paper suggests the need to strongly reconsider whether the convergence between public and private sector standards is desirable, feasible and effective. As such, the risks of embracing simplified or hybrid forms of accounting and reporting for heritage should be more seriously assessed. While reporting on heritage is important, it is fundamental to keep it distinct from reporting on government’s regular operations, in order to appreciate its specific value, nature and features. Originality/value Looking at European national standards for heritage, the IPSASB’s proposals, and the reactions to the latter by relevant stakeholders, the paper provides a pluralistic view on the positions and experiences about heritage, contributing to the debate on the convergence between private and public sector accounting standards.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moumita Acharyya ◽  
Tanuja Agarwala

PurposeThe paper aims to understand the different motivations / reasons for engaging in CSR initiatives by the organizations. In addition, the study also examines the relationship between CSR motivations and corporate social performance (CSP).Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from two power sector organizations: one was a private sector firm and the other was a public sector firm. A comparative analysis of the variables with respect to private and public sector organizations was conducted. A questionnaire survey was administered among 370 employees working in the power sector, with 199 executives from public sector and 171 from private sector.Findings“Philanthropic” motivation emerged as the most dominant CSR motivation among both the public and private sector firms. The private sector firm was found to be significantly higher with respect to “philanthropic”, “enlightened self-interest” and “normative” CSR motivations when compared with the public sector firms. Findings suggest that public and private sector firms differed significantly on four CSR motivations, namely, “philanthropic”, “enlightened self-interest”, “normative” and “coercive”. The CSP score was significantly different among the two power sector firms of public and private sectors. The private sector firm had a higher CSP level than the public sector undertaking.Research limitations/implicationsFurther studies in the domain need to address differences in CSR motivations and CSP across other sectors to understand the role of industry characteristics in influencing social development targets of organizations. Research also needs to focus on demonstrating the relationship between CSP and financial performance of the firms. Further, the HR outcomes of CSR initiatives and measurement of CSP indicators, such as attracting and retaining talent, employee commitment and organizational climate factors, need to be assessed.Originality/valueThe social issues are now directly linked with the business model to ensure consistency and community development. The results reveal a need for “enlightened self-interest” which is the second dominant CSR motivation among the organizations. The study makes a novel contribution by determining that competitive and coercive motivations are not functional as part of organizational CSR strategy. CSR can never be forced as the very idea is to do social good. Eventually, the CSR approach demands a commitment from within. The organizations need to emphasize more voluntary engagement of employees and go beyond statutory requirements for realizing the true CSR benefits.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  

Purpose The authors assumed PSM would be higher in the public sector, but they set up a trial to find out if this was the case. Design/methodology/approach To test their theories, the authors conducted two independent surveys. The first consisted of 220 usable responses from public sector employees in Changsha, China. The second survey involved 260 usable responses from private sector employees taking an MBA course at a university in the Changsha district. A questionnaire was used to assess attitudes. Findings The results found no significant difference between the impact of public sector motivation (PSM) on employee performance across the public and private sectors. The data showed that PSM had a significant impact on self-reported employee performance, but the relationship did not differ much between sectors. Meanwhile, it was in the private sector that PSM had the greatest impact on intention to leave. Originality/value The authors said the research project was one of the first to test if the concept of PSM operated in the same way across sectors. It also contributed, they said, to the ongoing debate about PSM in China.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142
Author(s):  
Taeyeon Oh ◽  
Jihyeon Oh ◽  
Junhee Kim ◽  
Kisung Dennis Kwon

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the perception of public and private officers of stakeholder at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games 2018. This event was selected as the subject of this research as it is the most recent mega-scale international sporting event and, given that the organizing committee (OC) is currently operating, it afforded a unique opportunity to investigate the staff of the organization. To clarify the research questions, this research identified stakeholders of Olympic Games.Design/methodology/approachThe research questions were examined by a stakeholder analysis that measured and compared perceptions conducted according to the stakeholder theory (Freeman, 2010) and previous research (Naraine et al., 2016).FindingsThis study identifies eight stakeholders of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games: the OC, the International Olympics Committee, National Olympic Committee, central government, local government, media, sponsors and non-government organizations. The authors pointed out that public officers are more sensitive to the opinions and movements of community members than private staff. Conversely, the authors found that the private staffs regard the media and influential stakeholders as more important compared with public officers.Originality/valueBased on the findings from the Olympics committee, this study contributes to the academic literature related to sporting events and their stakeholders by providing the most up-to-date identification of stakeholders.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel E. Collier ◽  
Daniel L. Sherrell ◽  
Emin Babakus ◽  
Alisha Blakeney Horky

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential differences between types of self-service technology. Specifically, the paper explores how the dynamics of public and private self-service technology influence customers' decision to use the technology. Design/methodology/approach – Existing customers of private and public self-service technology were surveyed from the same industry. Using structural equation modeling, the authors examine how relevant self-service constructs influence evaluations and attitudes of customers across both settings. Findings – The analysis reveals that customers' control and convenience perceptions differ across public and private self-service technology. Additionally, customers placed a heavier emphasis on the hedonic or utilitarian evaluation of a service experience based on the type of self-service technology. Practical implications – For managers of self-service applications, understanding the unique differences of public and private self-service technology can aid in the implementation and adoption of the technology. By properly understanding the differences of the self-service types, managers can provide a beneficial experience to the customer. Originality/value – By identifying and describing two distinct categories of SSTs, this study allows managers and researchers to better understand how and why individuals choose to utilize individual self-service technologies. Through understanding the unique dynamics of a public and a private SST experience, retailers can determine the appropriate strategy for customer adoption based on the utilitarian or hedonic functions of the technology.


PLoS Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. e1003717
Author(s):  
Sarah Yu ◽  
Hojoon Sohn ◽  
Hae-Young Kim ◽  
Hyunwoo Kim ◽  
Kyung-Hyun Oh ◽  
...  

Background Public–private mix (PPM) programs on tuberculosis (TB) have a critical role in engaging and integrating the private sector into the national TB control efforts in order to meet the End TB Strategy targets. South Korea’s PPM program can provide important insights on the long-term impact and policy gaps in the development and expansion of PPM as a nationwide program. Methods and findings Healthcare is privatized in South Korea, and a majority (80.3% in 2009) of TB patients sought care in the private sector. Since 2009, South Korea has rapidly expanded its PPM program coverage under the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme as a formal national program with dedicated PPM nurses managing TB patients in both the private and public sectors. Using the difference in differences (DID) analytic framework, we compared relative changes in TB treatment outcomes—treatment success (TS) and loss to follow-up (LTFU)—in the private and public sector between the 2009 and 2014 TB patient cohorts. Propensity score matching (PSM) using the kernel method was done to adjust for imbalances in the covariates between the 2 population cohorts. The 2009 cohort included 6,195 (63.0% male, 37.0% female; mean age: 42.1) and 27,396 (56.1% male, 43.9% female; mean age: 45.7) TB patients in the public and private sectors, respectively. The 2014 cohort included 2,803 (63.2% male, 36.8% female; mean age: 50.1) and 29,988 (56.5% male, 43.5% female; mean age: 54.7) patients. In both the private and public sectors, the proportion of patients with transfer history decreased (public: 23.8% to 21.7% and private: 20.8% to 17.6%), and bacteriological confirmed disease increased (public: 48.9% to 62.3% and private: 48.8% to 58.1%) in 2014 compared to 2009. After expanding nationwide PPM, absolute TS rates improved by 9.10% (87.5% to 93.4%) and by 13.6% (from 70.3% to 83.9%) in the public and private sectors. Relative to the public, the private saw 4.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.9% to 5.3%, p-value < 0.001) and −8.7% (95% CI −9.7% to −7.7%, p-value <0.001) higher rates of improvement in TS and reduction in LTFU. Treatment outcomes did not improve in patients who experienced at least 1 transfer during their TB treatment. Study limitations include non-longitudinal nature of our original dataset, inability to assess the regional disparities, and verify PPM program’s impact on TB mortality. Conclusions We found that the nationwide scale-up of the PPM program was associated with improvements in TB treatment outcomes in the private sector in South Korea. Centralized financial governance and regulatory mechanisms were integral in facilitating the integration of highly diverse South Korean private sector into the national TB control program and scaling up of the PPM intervention nationwide. However, TB care gaps continued to exist for patients who transferred at least once during their treatment. These programmatic gaps may be improved through reducing administrative hurdles and making programmatic amendments that can help facilitate management TB patients between institutions and healthcare sectors, as well as across administrative regions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 509-519
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Nowacki ◽  
Sandra Grabowska ◽  
Teresa Lis

Abstract A research was conducted among the employees referred to work in the home office in connection with the announced state of the epidemic in Poland. The research was conducted using a questionnaire method, the study was attended by 199 respondents. The research is burdened with an error in the selection of statistical sample units, which resulted from the respondents’ involvement and their truthfulness. The aim of the article is to assess the activities of employers from the private and state sectors in Poland, related to the delegation of employees to work in the home office, and to analyze the skills and possibilities of self-organization of work by employees. An important result of the survey was to demonstrate the differences in the behavior of public and private sector employers. The study shows that the private sector has adapted better to sudden changes than the state sector.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 462-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad Ahmed Javed ◽  
Sifeng Liu

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between outpatient satisfaction and the five constructs of healthcare projects’ service quality in Pakistan using Deng’s grey incidence analysis (GIA) model, absolute degree GIA model (ADGIA), a novel second synthetic degree GIA (SSDGIA) model and two approaches of decision-making under uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe study proposes a new synthetic GIA model and demonstrates its feasibility on data (N=221) collected from both public and private sector healthcare projects of Punjab, the most populous province of Pakistan, using a self-administered questionnaire developed using the original SERVQUAL approach.FindingsThe results of decision analysis approach indicated that outpatients’ satisfaction from the private sector healthcare projects is higher as compared to the public healthcare projects’. The results from the proposed model revealed that tangibility and reliability play an important role in shaping the patient satisfaction in the public and private sectors, respectively.Originality/valueThe study is pioneer in evaluating a healthcare system’s service quality using grey system theory. The study proposes the SSDGIA model as a novel method to evaluate parameters comprehensively based on their mutual association (given by absolute degree of grey incidence) and inter-dependencies (given by Deng’s degree of grey incidence), and tests the new model in the given scenario. The study is novel in terms of its analysis of data and modelling. The study also proposes a comprehensive structure of the healthcare delivery system of Pakistan.


2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 634-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neetu Jain ◽  
Prachi Bhatt

Purpose – In the ever increasing competition in the employment market, an organization’s need to become a “great place to work” has gained significant momentum. Employer branding has thus emerged as an essential management practice employed by the organization to create its image as desirable employer in the eyes of prospective employees. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the understanding of employer branding through the eyes of “potential” young employees in Delhi and North Central Region, India. The results presented in this paper throw light on the perceived importance of employer branding among the prospective employees via analysis of various branding factors chosen for the study. The study results report that the perceived significance of employer branding factors differs mainly across gender and age of prospective employees. Notably, public and private sectors are being perceived significantly different by the potential job applicants on employer branding factors. Thus, this paper presents important findings enabling employers to build brand value and an attractive reputation in the job market so as to attract and retain the best talent. Design/methodology/approach – Survey methodology was used to test the hypothesis. The sample was selected from Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) primarily from the students of business schools who were randomly selected to fill in the questionnaire. As they are the potential hires, it seemed appropriate to know their preference of employer branding factors. They are ready to join the corporations therefore, data extracted would be much more suitable as they can throw light on their immediate preferences and provide insight into the research study. For collection of data an online structured questionnaire was administered. A total of 270 questionnaires were administered and 239 filled questionnaires were received. Findings – From the results it can be seen that private sector emerged as preferred sector of choice for the majority of potential employees. However, there are some factors which are handled well in private sector as compared to public sector and vice versa. There are some factors like – stability of the company, work-life balance and job security which potential employees perceive as important and therefore, need to be addressed by both public and private sector organizations. Research limitations/implications – Limitation of this study is that the findings cannot be generalized therefore, provide opportunities for further research. Moreover, the sample included only students as prospective employees seeking a new job or a career change. Thus the results obtained on a sample of relatively inexperienced job seekers, might partially reflect commonly held stereotypes of attractive organizations. Hence, it is interesting to use other samples such as experienced job seekers or those who are currently employed. Another limitation is that the study is restricted to Delhi and NCR region hence, the data is not representative of a wider population. Further research may expand the scope in terms of sample size as well. Future research may also explore the extent of employee attraction and retention vis-à-vis employer branding factors in organizations. A final avenue for future studies consists in exploring the processes which underlie the organizational choice decisions of prospective applicants. Practical implications – This study has added to the growing body of research on employer branding factors by generating more knowledge and arguments in favor of certain employer branding factors in the workplace. If organizations truly want to attract good talented people then management needs to bring about the necessary organizational support and infrastructure at the early and middle stages of an employee’s career which are most often the stages where important choices are made. They need to be more considerate toward employee needs. Efforts can be made to build a good work culture by paying heed to their preferences. Therefore, this study helps establish a foundation for implementation of various employer branding factors which are perceived important by the potential job applicants, especially in Indian context. The findings are of particular important for human resource (HR) managers and policy makers in both public sector as well as private sectors in these times of increased inter-sectoral personnel movement. These findings can be utilized as a guiding instrument while inter-sectoral recruitment is being made. These would also enable employers to take appropriate action in order to build their employer brand based on certain discussed employer branding factors so as to attract talent which in turn would also help them in retaining talent. Social implications – There are many employer branding factors which tend to affect the mindset of potential employees in selecting their prospective employer. Employers can therefore, endeavor to understand those factors at length so as to attract talent which in turn would also help in retaining talent. Originality/value – Results throw light on the perceived importance the potential employees give to various employer branding factors taken for the study. Perceived significance attached to employer branding factors differs across gender, age, education background, etc. It was also found that for some important employer branding factors public and private sectors are being perceived significantly different by the potential job applicants. Thus, paper presents important findings that would enable employers to take actions in order to build their employer brand so as to attract talent which in turn would also help them in retaining talent.


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