Public–private partnerships as instruments to achieve sustainability-related objectives: the state of the art and a research agenda

ABSTRACT

The growing importance of public–private partnerships (PPPs) suggests the need to assess their contributions to sustainability-related objectives. With a systematic review of business and public administration literature, this study elaborates on whether empirical evidence indicates that PPPs are appropriate instruments to accomplish the sustainability objectives of governments and which success factors are crucial for this purpose. Results reveal that business research on PPPs rarely integrates sustainability concepts; findings pertaining to their contributions to sustainability remain inconclusive. However, various success factors show the potential of PPPs, if appropriately managed. These findings suggest an agenda for research on PPPs in the context of sustainability.

KEYWORDS:

• Public–private partnership
• sustainability
• literature review
• success factors
• research agenda

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation–sponsored Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2017.1293143.

Notes

1. The full sample of articles is available in the Supplemental data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation–sponsored Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim.

Notes on contributors

Alexander Pinz

Alexander Pinz (M.Sc.) is PhD candidate and works as a research assistant and lecturer at the Chair for Business Administration, Public and Non-profit Management at the University of Mannheim. His research focuses on value creation, and the successful management of public and non-profit organizations, and collaborations, particularly in the context of development cooperation.

Nahid Roudyani

Nahid Roudyani (M.Sc.) obtained her master degree in management from the University of Mannheim. During her studies, she focused on the management of public-private partnerships. Currently, she is employed as commercial sales manager in the energy sector at Siemens AG where she works with customers from both the public and the private sectors.

Julia Thaler

Julia Thaler (PhD) is professor for public management at the Universität der Bundeswehr München. Her research interests concern sustainable governance and organization management as well as human resource management in public institutions, non-profit organizations and cross-sector collaborations. Her work has appeared in such journals as Public Management Review, International Journal of Public Administration, Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Non-profit Organizations.