Chair of Public Management & Public Policy

Research

With our research projects, our chair seeks to contribute new insights to the scientific field and to solve practically relevant problems. As our society faces critical challenges such as serious public debt and demographic changes, a key question of Public Management & Public Policy is how public services can be fulfilled in an effective and efficient way under the condition of scarcity.


In our research, we focus on Public Corporate Governance, integrated management, political control of core administration and outsourced organisational entities of public authorities, administrative modernisation and outcome-oriented management of policy fields. Public Corporate Governance encapsulates both the legal and factual framework and its design in order to control, monitor, and manage legally and/or economically independent entities of public authorities as well as the day-to-day managing and supervising of independent organizations by politico-administrative bodies. (i.e. rules for good organisation leadership). From an institutional point of view, we focus on a comparative analysis of policy fields in order to generate further scientific insights as well as derive concrete recommendations for the particular national reform perspectives. A special emphasis is given to an international comparative perspective. Our projects are based on theoretical and empirical research, using quantitative and qualitative methods alike. Due to the complexity of these fields, we increasingly pursue inter- and multidisciplinary and problem-oriented research. Current research projects are outlined on the German homepage part.

International Research Group: Governing and Managing Hybridity

In February 2015 the International Research Group Governance and Management of State-Owned Enterprises and Independent Public Entities at Local, National and Regional Level has been formed during the EURAM Public and Non Profit Management Strategic Interest Group Mini-Conference in Leipzig.

In the framework of the annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) the research group had an annual panel from 2015-2018. Together with another panel the group institutionalised a Special Interest Group: "Governing and Managing Hybridity" in 2019. In this format there are meetings and sessions with a special focus on the governance and control of SOEs.


It is the aim of the research group to provide an interdisciplinary forum for scholars of different disciplines and working groups, to advance the knowledge on a world-wide phenomenon and to offer scientific insights for supporting policy makers in the prevailing debate.


Reforms in the provision of public services with new institutional arrangements have made State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) increasingly relevant in many countries. SOEs are defined as enterprises where the state has significant control through full, majority, or significant minority ownership (OECD 2005). In this context the definition should also include enterprises with significant control of municipalities and other government levels/public authorities. SOEs are often prevalent in public services of general interest and services of general economic interest whose performance is of great importance to broad segments of the population. A substantial percentage of public expenditure goes towards SOEs, which demonstrates their importance for providing and managing public services and finances effectively, efficiently and sustainably. However, comparatively few empirical studies focus on SOEs/on the sphere between core administration and the private sector, although empirical data show the relevance. Moreover, it can be observed in the international research arena, that the scarce research long time was additionally fragmented in different disciplines and groups.


If you would like to join the group or mailing list, please contact Prof. Dr. Ulf Papenfuß.

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