Public-Private Partnership for Sustainability Management: Theory and Practice

Dear Colleagues,

There are numerous scientific contributions that have proposed different definitions of sustainable development (Pezzey 1992; Pope et al. 2004; Kuhlman and Farrington 2010; Borgonovi et al. 2018), highlighting that the concept of sustainability is complex, considering its multidimensionality, its impact on different areas of management choices and the need to consider the intergenerational effects of current decisions. Therefore, the study of sustainability often requires a multidisciplinary approach.

Several sustainability issues are of concern to scientists, considering that humanity is already demanding more than the Earth’s ecosystems can renew (Galli et al. 2020): Earth Overshoot Day was brought forward from 22 August 2020 to 29 July 2021. Air pollution, climate change, and waste and water management are issues that have reached such problematic levels that they have had significant negative impacts on the environment, but also on human health and the economy.

The 17th Sustainable Development Goal of the UN 2030 Agenda, which aims to strengthen the means of implementation and renew the global partnership for sustainable development, has given new attention to sustainability and the role assumed by public–private partnerships (PPPs) (Thadani, 2014; Gharaee, 2019).

These are complex and durable forms of cooperation between the public and private sectors based on the sharing of risks, costs, benefits, resources, and responsibilities and aimed at providing public infrastructure or services (Wang, 2018). It seems innovative to develop research on these forms of cooperation from the perspective of their potential contribution with respect to sustainable development.

Hence, the aim of this Special Issue is to contribute to a greater understanding of the management of PPPs for sustainability, from a theoretical and/or practical point of view, also considering the transversality that public–private partnerships have in relation to the different possible areas of their application/impact. Examples of these include:

Health care (Torchia et al., 2015; Cappellaro and Ricci 2017);

Environment (Anwar et al., 2021; Chunling, 2021);

Sustainable Tourism (Geoffrey et al., 2021; De Matteis et al., 2021);

Public services (Yang et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2019);

Sport management (Cabral and Silva, 2013).

Analysis of PPPs directed at sustainability management, taking into consideration the areas just outlined and additional possible areas of PPP application, should allow for contributions to this Special Issue that may cover, but not be limited to, the following topics:

• Characteristics (barriers, strengths/weaknesses, etc.) of PPPs for sustainability management;
• Elements of PPPs governance;
• Gender in the governance of PPPs and its impacts on sustainability;
• The role of digitalization in the functioning of PPPs;
• The use of new technologies in the development of PPPs to obtain products or deliver services aimed at sustainable development;
• Digital society and PPPs development;
• Accountability profiles of PPPs for sustainable development;
• Accounting aspects and functioning of PPPs;
• Performance management practices in PPPs;
• Evaluation of sustainable performance in PPPs;
• The role of PPPs in community building.

Contributions may consider one or more dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, economic, etc.) and may apply qualitative or quantitative research methodologies.

References

Anwar A., Sharif A., Fatima S., Ahmad P., Sinha A., Rehman Khan S.A., Jermsittiparsert K., The asymmetric effect of public private partnership investment on transport CO2 emission in China: Evidence from quantile ARDL approach, Journal of Cleaner Production, 288, 2021, 125282.

Borgonovi, E., Adinolfi P., Palumbo R., and Piscopo G. Framing the Shade of Sustainability in Health Care: Pitfalls and Perspectives from Wester EU Countries. Sustainability, 2018, 10: 4439.

Cabral S., Silva Jr. A.F. An approach for evaluating the risk management role of governments in public–private partnerships for mega-event stadiums, European Sport Management Quarterly, 2013, 13(4), pp. 472-490.

Chunling L.,  Memon J.A., Thanh T.L., Ali M., Kirikkaleli D., The Impact of Public-Private Partnership Investment in Energy and Technological Innovation on Ecological Footprint: The Case of Pakistan, Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10085.

Cappellaro G., Ricci A., PPPs in health and social services: a performance measurement perspective, in Public Money & Management, vol. 37, 6, 2017, pp. 417-424.

De Matteis, F.; Notaristefano, G.; Bianchi, P. Public—Private Partnership Governance for Accessible Tourism in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Sustainability 2021, 13, 8455.https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158455

Galli, A., Iha K., Moreno Pires S., Mancini M.S., Alves A., Zokai G., Lin D., Murthy A. and Wackernagel M. 2020. Assessing the Ecological Footprint and biocapacity of Portuguese cities: Critical results for environmental awareness and local management. Cities 96: 102442.

Geoffrey Deladem T., Xiao Z., Siueia T.T., Doku S., Tettey I., Developing sustainable tourism through public-private partnership to alleviate poverty in Ghana,  Tourist Studies, 21(2), 2021, pp. 317-343.

Gharaee H., Tabrizi J.S., Azami-Aghdash S., Farahbakhsh M., Karamouz M., Nosratnejad S., Analysis of public-private partnership in providing primary health care policy: an experience from Iran, in Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, vol. 10, 2019, pp. 1-17.

Kuhlman, T., and Farrington J. What is sustainability? Sustainability, 2010, 2: 3436–48.

Pezzey, J. Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary Guide. Environmental Values, 1992, 1: 321–62.

Pope, J., Annandale D., and Morrison-Saunders A. Conceptualising sustainability assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 2004, 24: 595–616.

Thadani K.B., Public private partnership in the health sector: boon or bane, in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 157, 2014, pp. 307-316.

Torchia M., Calabrò A., Morner M, Public-private partnerships in the health care sector: a systematic review of the literature, in Public Management Review, vol. 17, 2, 2015, pp. 236-261.

Wang H., Xiong W., Wu G., Zhu D., Public–private partnership in Public Administration discipline: a literature review, in Public Management Review, vol. 20, 2, 2018, pp. 293-316.

Prof. Dr. Fabio De Matteis
Prof. Dr. Elio Borgonovi
Guest Editors

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• public-private partnership
• sustainability management
• sustainable development
• governance
• digitalization
• performance management
• environmental/social/economic sustainability