اصلاحات بخش دولتی و مشارکت خصوصی دولتی: نظرسنجی و برنامه ریزی پژوهش Public sector reforms and public private partnerships: Overview and research agenda

1. Introduction Arguably companies operating in free market conditions possess superior management techniques and knowledge than companies operating in the public sector that are regarded as less efficient and effective by many scholars. In order to improve performance and efficiency, many of these companies are adopting a hybrid type of organisational forms where managers from the private and the public sector work together in complex organisational forms, roles and work practices, often with conflicting objectives, incentives and penalties. In this hybrid governance mode we see new forms of operations emerging such as out-sourcing, contracting-out and public private partnerships, which bring their own unique opportunities and challenges for accounting and accountability researchers. This special issue comprises papers that examine and critically review current international trends on public sector reforms, particularly in the context of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and other public sector organisations. Changes to the organizational composition of the public sector introduced by New Public Management-style reforms such as PPPs, leading to corporatisation, contracting-out and privatization in their various forms, have led to an increased decentralisation of responsibilities in public sector accounting (Christensen & Lægreid, 2008; Osborne & Gaebler, 1992). Internationally, public sector reforms, and particularly PPPs, have also given rise to the need for producing and auditing new financial and performance reports and required new forms of accountability. From a global perspective, while individual countries are moulding their own unique approaches, it is possible to identify general trends in new public sector reforms, such as in PPPs which are being increasingly used internationally in order to hide some government deficits.