Introduction

Citation

Erakovich, R., Sipovac, D. and Hart, S. (2013), "Introduction", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 26 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm.2013.04226baa.001

Introduction

Article Type: Introduction From: International Journal of Public Sector Management, Volume 26, Issue 2

The purpose of this Symposium is to present theoretical, empirical and applied papers that focus on creating innovative approaches of cooperation of public, private and social sectors’ partners to build a robust economic and market economy in countries of Eastern Europe, especially Serbia and Montenegro. The goal is to develop understanding of the complex partnership process and how to increase economic opportunity while securing sector risks.

Encouraging and supporting market growth and investment are not automatic and depend crucially on the implementation of appropriate and effective policies through legal and regulatory frameworks. This reform environment depends on the collaboration of business leaders and policy makers.

The 2010 G20 meeting of world leaders in Seoul concluded that when two key groups, business leaders and public policy makers, work collectively, value is generated for citizens, employees of firms, suppliers, downstream partners and communities. Increasing private sector participation in the Serbia economic structure is a key factor that helped the nation to sustain an average real GDP growth of over 6 percent during 2007 and 2008. The government continues to implement reforms to strengthen Serbia’s economic structure. Sector collaboration can sustain and increase this effort.

Open issues of Serbia’s regionalization and collaboration between public and business administration and democratic processes sets complicated demands on society as a whole. The task requires answers and practical solutions through new paradigms to develop innovative sustainable action.

Varga and Vujisic, in State Aid for Innovation Clusters in the Republic of Serbia, present the contrasting view that State aid alters market behaviors and distort competition needed for market growth. Their proposed notion of clusters of public-private partnerships supported by public finances is working to build economic growth in various industries and needs further examination. In the same frame, Vladetic promotes communal public service and the laws that promote it influence on economic development in the State. Building on the theme of public utility management in Serbia, Petrovic provides an examination of current Serbian legislation in Conducting Public Utilities in Serbia: Providing and Maintaining Services in Kragujevac. Petrovic, examining a bottom up strategy, provides that the public utility is a business of common interest and argues why local self-government of these services increases local economic development by enabling local organizational and financial decisions, thus increasing citizen quality of service and choice.

In 2011, the Serbian law was changed to include the private sector in enforcement by implementing private bailiffs. This unique public-private partnership is examined and its successes noted by Planojevic in Private Bailiffs as Partners of the Serbian State and how the concerns in the use of private bailiffs has been negated by professionalism.

A key element used by populations worldwide is water. Sharma and Nayak examine how multi-stakeholder partnerships are a holistic solution to address issues of water management in their thesis, An Isodynamic Model of Water Management. A key is the inclusion of multiple stakeholders and creating a synergistic leverage of information, community participation, agreements and time series data to create social trust.

Collaboration in existing private and public sector institutions is examined by Stankovic in Coca-Cola and the University of Belgrade. This partnership is future focused by promoting socially responsible behavior in areas such as ecology, healthcare, equality and culture for students by providing scholarships that include engagement in local communities. Bruce, in Sri Lanka Textile Industry’s Public Private Partnership project, outlines how the development of informal stakeholder groups creates innovative methods to develop human resources in this profession.

Finally, Erakovich and Anderson examine the organizational and management dynamics of cross sector collaboration. It is here that sector values are recognized, barriers to change are eliminated and a process for network building of public, private and nonprofit sectors to build sector capacity are realized.

A common theme in all of these innovative scholarly works is that while a top down strategy of centralization worked in the past to maintain a State’s economic profile, the need is to now move toward a bottom-up strategy of decentralization to look beyond current designs of public-private partnerships, to create opportunities to find ways to build capacities of existing resources while encouraging political, social and economic investment in Eastern Europe to build the new global economy.

Rod Erakovich, Dusan Sipovac, Sandra HartGuest Editors