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Research article2018Peer reviewedOpen access

The many outcomes from contracting out: The voice of public managers

Lindholst, Andrej Christian; Hansen, Morten Balle; Randrup, Thomas Barfoed; Persson, Bengt; Kristoffersson, Anders

Abstract

This paper argues that adopting a stakeholder approach to the study of contracting outcomes produces more rich and rounded representations of the realities of the contracting out of public services. We revisit the research on contracting outcomes, highlighting the public manager perspective as key for gaining deeper, more detailed insights. The public manager perspective is explored in an inductive analysis of answers to open-ended survey questions collected from public managers with contracting experience within the context of municipal park management in Scandinavia. The emerging managerial perspective is summarized in a best-case, worst-case and complex-case scenario highlighting the mix, complexities and trade-offs in a composite set of contracting outcomes. The nature of contracting outcomes as complex and composite rather than unidimensional and clear-cut is one key finding. Furthermore, the importance of some specific outcomes (e.g. learning) complements existing research themes. Our findings sustain the initial argument, demonstrating how the stakeholder approach can produce new insights. A key implication is that future research can benefit from assessing contracting outcomes by providing voice to multiple stakeholders.

Keywords

Contracting out; marketization; outcomes; public management; qualitative analysis; stakeholder

Published in

Environment and planning. C, Politics and space
2018, volume: 36, number: 6, pages: 1046-1067

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Management
Construction Management
Business Administration

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654417733992

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/90242