Search Results (775)

Payment method selection for the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase of Public–Private Partnership (PPP) projects remains underexplored, despite its critical role in balancing risk and project control. Drawing on the theories of risk allocation and project control rights, this paper developed a theoretical model for payment method selection of the O&M phase of PPP projects through literature review; 13 influencing factors associated with the model were verified by interview. A survey of PPP professionals in China was analyzed to group these factors into four categories: maturity of pre-project work (MPPW), capacity of potential investors (CPIN), operating cost risk (OCRI), and capacity of local government (CLGO). The findings also reveal two distinct influencing mechanisms: the Cost-Plus-Fee (CPF) approach is preferred when MPPW, CLGO, and OCRI are high, but CPIN is low. Conversely, the Fixed-Price (FP) approach is favored when these factors are reversed. This study advances PPP financing and governance literature by integrating risk allocation and project control rights theories into a novel framework, enhancing the understanding of payment method selection in complex contexts. Besides, unpacking the influence mechanisms provides practitioners with a structured approach to better understand the determinants of payment method selection, thereby supporting more informed risk management, control allocation, and project outcomes in real-world settings. Full article

China has experienced rapid growth in municipal solid waste generation, highlighting the need to improve the effectiveness of waste sorting governance in urban areas. As the implementation of MSW sorting policies relies heavily on public acceptance and sustained participation, evaluating policy implementation from the public perspective is particularly important, yet comprehensive evaluation frameworks remain limited. This study develops a bottom-up evaluation framework integrating large-scale social media discourse, questionnaire validation, and multi-criteria decision-making. It links LDA topic modeling with policy optimization, constructs 12 multi-actor policy pathways, incorporates DEMATEL-ANP network weighting, applies modified VIKOR for pathway ranking and improvement identification, and verifies robustness using DANP and CRITIC. Results reveal that the Public–Private Partnership model combined with compulsory policies and commissioned property management achieves the highest performance (Pathway P3: management outsourcing PPP + mandatory policy + commissioned property management). Public attitude and participation behavior emerged as central upstream criteria in the influence structure, while P3 remained the top-ranked pathway across DANP- and CRITIC-based VIKOR tests and v = 0.3–0.7. The findings indicate that effective waste sorting requires mandatory rules, professional commissioned property management, convenient facilities, and sustained community support, with pathway-specific improvement directed to the most salient economic, social, and environmental weaknesses. Full article

This article provides a critical and thematically structured literature review of Envi-ronmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) urbanism as it intersects with the right to the city, green gentrification, affordable housing, public-private partnerships, and partici-patory governance. Drawing from 52 scholarly and research-led sources centered on 2020–2025, while re-taining selected foundational earlier works, the study examines how ESG frameworks are adopted, contested, and operationalized across diverse urban contexts. While ESG has emerged as a dominant paradigm in urban planning and real estate, the review reveals its frequent co-optation by market-driven agendas, which risk reproducing socio-spatial inequalities under the guise of sustainability. At the same time, the literature highlights promising alternatives rooted in environmental justice, multispecies ethics, legal reform, and community-led planning. The review advances the argument that ESG must be reframed not as a universal compliance model, but as a situated, justice-oriented framework capable of responding to the complex ecological and social realities of contemporary urbanization. By foregrounding relational governance, inclusive design, and equitable urban futures, the article contributes to an emerging research agenda that challenges technocratic sus-tainability and reclaims ESG as a transformative tool for spatial and environmental justice. Full article

Over recent decades, housing affordability challenges have become increasingly complex as a result of economic and social transformations affecting access to adequate housing. Alongside traditionally vulnerable groups, new population segments have emerged that face increasing difficulties in accessing the housing market despite not qualifying for public housing programmes. Against this background, the progressive reduction in public resources has made it necessary to adopt alternative intervention models capable of mobilising private capital without compromising social equity objectives. Accordingly, Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly regarded as suitable instruments for supporting social housing interventions, although significant challenges remain in balancing affordability objectives and financial viability. Rather than proposing a new financial appraisal model, this study develops a planning-oriented scenario-based decision-support framework that supports the comparative evaluation of alternative Public–Private Partnership (PPP) configurations for affordability-oriented urban regeneration. Financial appraisal is integrated as one component of a broader planning and housing policy decision-support process. The methodology is applied to a case study in Southern Italy, in a district characterised by settlement criticalities, unmet housing demand, and limited public resources. The case study illustrates how scenario-based comparative appraisal can support planning and housing policy decisions by identifying the governance and implementation conditions under which affordability objectives and financial feasibility can be jointly pursued. Full article

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are implemented through individual contracts, but their performance is often judged with indicators observed at broader sectoral or national levels. This study develops a measurement alignment framework comprising intervention–measurement alignment, statistical visibility, attribution distance, outcome completeness, and comparison credibility and applies it to Croatian PPPs. The analysis combines the national PPP register with Eurostat data for 2000–2024. It uses a six-sector difference-in-differences benchmark, applies small-cluster inference and a 9999-draw Webb wild-cluster bootstrap, adds hours worked and national-accounts gross fixed capital formation, and evaluates timing, pandemic, contamination, spillover, intensity, and leave-one-out sensitivity. In the six-sector benchmark sample, the current-price GVA coefficient is 0.149 and statistically uncertain, whereas the real GVA coefficient is 0.256 and remains supported by the wild-cluster bootstrap (p = 0.009). In the 16-sector comparison sample, current-price and real GVA estimates remain positive but are estimated with wider uncertainty. Employment, hours worked, real productivity, and real investment show no robust broad effects, while event-study diagnostics reveal poorer pre-treatment comparability in the 16-sector comparison sample. The evidence supports a cautious positive output association, not a general causal growth claim, and demonstrates that PPP accountability requires indicators aligned with project mechanisms, geography, timing, and accounting visibility. The framework explicitly recognizes environmental performance as a required outcome domain, but the available sector-level data do not permit a direct estimate of PPP environmental impacts. Full article

Background/Objectives: Healthcare workforce shortages and the challenges facing healthcare professionals are among the most pressing issues confronting contemporary health systems. This study examines the social representations of public, private, and public–private partnership (PPP) healthcare organisational models and professional practice elicited from public-sector physicians and nurses in Portugal. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between October 2022 and May 2023 using a non-probability sample of 308 physicians and nurses classified as public-sector professionals. Participants completed a free-association task concerning the public, private, and PPP healthcare models and their professional practice. The evoked terms were examined using prototypical analysis within the structural approach to Social Representations Theory. The representation of the public healthcare sector included elements such as accessibility, universality, equity, slowness, disorganisation, and resource limitations. The private healthcare sector was characterised by elements including cost, profit, speed, organisation, inaccessibility, and service quality. Results: The representation of PPPs included better management, efficiency, profit, interests, and quality, alongside a relatively frequent “No opinion” response. Professional practice was characterised by elements including caring, dedication, empathy, resilience, exhaustion, perceived undervaluation, and remuneration. Conclusions: These findings describe the social representations elicited from the present sample of public-sector physicians and nurses and should not be interpreted as evidence of objective differences between healthcare organisational models or as direct measures of motivation, resilience, burnout, sector preference, or working conditions. The findings are exploratory and hypothesis-generating and may inform future comparative research involving professionals working across different healthcare settings, as well as studies using dedicated measures of professional and occupational outcomes. Full article

Background: Managing agrologistics supply chains under infrastructure scarcity requires integrative, spatially explicit decision-support tools. This study develops a macro-level digital twin of the multimodal agricultural supply chain in Kazakhstan’s Almaty region to optimize freight allocation and guide strategic investment planning. Methods: Our methodology integrates Earth observation data (ESA WorldCover 10 m) with a large-scale multimodal road–rail graph network (1.39 million nodes) to identify 135 crop production clusters. Using linear programming in MATLAB, we optimize the regional distribution of 322.2 thousand tons of seasonal maize, wheat, and soybeans while localizing new storage silos using Green Field Analysis. Results: The baseline simulation reveals a critical storage capacity deficit, yielding a Capacity Coverage Ratio of only 23.8%. However, implementing optimal multimodal rail-road routing mathematically reduces the Logistics Cost Index from 8,642,195 to 4,716,175 units, achieving overall cost savings of 45.4%. Conclusions: The proposed digital twin and its performance metrics provide a scientifically grounded, data-driven toolkit for public–private partnerships, ensuring robust infrastructure investment localization and facilitating the transition toward the Agriculture 4.0 paradigm. Full article

Robust evaluation methods are essential for assessing the sustainability of public–private partnerships (PPPs) and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study examines the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) People-first PPP and Infrastructure Evaluation and Rating System (PIERS) through three green PPP initiatives in Slovenia, focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable mobility. Using structured scoring across five dimensions—access and equity, economic effectiveness, environmental sustainability, replicability and stakeholder engagement—the analysis considers project-level performance, national SDG alignment and methodological applicability. The results indicate strong overall sustainability performance, but identify stakeholder engagement as a significant weakness, largely due to institutional constraints. Comparison with Slovenia’s national SDG progress in 2023–2025 shows broad alignment between project outcomes and wider sustainability achievements. The methodological review also identifies scope for improving the applicability and adaptability of PIERS indicators. Although primarily designed as a self-assessment tool, PIERS provides a systematic framework for integrating SDG principles into PPP management, especially in relation to SDGs 7, 9, 11 and 13. The study contributes empirical evidence and methodological insights for more sustainable public investment governance. Full article

The sustainable management of cultural and landscape heritage is a complex challenge involving many actors and disciplines. This study analyses the governance system of the Po Delta to identify improvements for reconciling heritage protection with sustainable development. Through a literature review, cultural institution mapping, and empirical surveys, the study examines existing network dynamics in the sense of sustainability. The results highlight a need for a mesostructure to facilitate cooperation among local authorities and cultural institutions. Full article

The return of African cultural objects represents an opportunity to practice what Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy call “a new relational ethics.” Oftentimes, repatriation begins and ends with the literal return of physical objects. This does little to address legacies of colonial theft, value extraction, and epistemicide. It can also reinscribe the power of Western interpretive frameworks and reproduce Western patterns of state power by returning objects to Western-style institutions within postcolonial nation-states. This essay considers the return of the Benin bronzes as a case study for these missed opportunities and alternative paths forward. It follows the various and sometimes competing means by which Benin bronzes came “home:” whether to the postcolonial nation of Nigeria, to the Oba of Benin himself, or to the controversial public-private partnership known as the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA). This essay considers how these various means of return, and these various meanings of “home,” can work against one another and can be co-opted as neoliberal and neocolonial forms of control. The essay also explores alternative paths forward through the framework of relational ethics. Sarr and Savoy first applied the phrase to the return of African cultural objects in their 2018 report. This essay expands on Sarr and Savoy’s report and builds from Native American and Indigenous scholars like Margaret Kovach and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, who identify opportunities to remake relations as a means of restitution. This includes remaking relations between indigenous communities, Western institutions, and postcolonial nation-states. It also includes remaking relations between human beings and the more-than-human world, including spirits of the ancestors, outside the systems of Western knowledge and value production. Full article

Fiscal shocks in post-land-finance China are weakening the funding basis of capital-intensive metro public-private partnership (PPP) projects, but the system-level mechanism through which public fiscal stress becomes subcontractor-level financial viability pressure remains underexplained. This study examines a section-level metro PPP project ecosystem in a sub-provincial Chinese city to trace this transmission mechanism and its financial implications. The analysis combines de-identified audit evidence and interviews with a scenario-based structural NPV model and 800,000 model-generated Monte Carlo realizations under calibrated institutional scenarios. The evidence indicates that quasi-bureaucratic SPV internal capital-market arrangements convert fiscal shortfalls into vertical and horizontal cross-subsidization practices, preserving short-term project continuity while shifting cash-flow pressure downstream. This condition is defined as a strategic resilience trap: practices that preserve short-term project continuity while potentially eroding the project ecosystem’s long-term adaptive capacity. Under calibrated assumptions, improving the contract-payment channel reduces model-generated losses by approximately 4%, suggesting that payment punctuality addresses only one part of the wider internal capital-market mechanism. Full article

This study examines the effectiveness of government support mechanisms in fostering venture capital (VC) ecosystems in emerging economies, with a particular focus on Kazakhstan. While venture capital is widely recognized as a key driver of innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic diversification, many developing countries face persistent structural barriers, including underdeveloped financial markets, limited private investment, and regulatory inefficiencies. To address these challenges, this research adopts a multi-source qualitative design, combining a systematic literature review with semi-structured interviews conducted with venture capital experts and practitioners. The analysis evaluates key policy instruments—such as co-investment schemes, tax incentives, startup accelerators, and regulatory reforms—and assesses their role in shaping VC activity. The findings indicate that although Kazakhstan has made significant progress in establishing institutional support for venture capital, critical constraints remain, including bureaucratic complexity, investor risk aversion, and limited exit opportunities. The study contributes to the literature by integrating global best practices with context-specific evidence, offering policy-relevant insights into how governments can more effectively design and implement interventions to strengthen venture capital ecosystems in developing economies. Full article

China’s extensive experience with Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) over the past decade offers valuable lessons for international infrastructure governance. Central to the PPP concept is the imperative to deliver Value for Money (VfM), and VfM assessment serves as a critical tool to determine whether the PPP modality is appropriate for a given project. While China’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) introduced a qualitative VfM assessment framework in 2015, its conceptual ambiguity, indicator overlap, and procedural inconsistencies have limited its effectiveness in guiding PPP decisions. This paper critically examines the existing Chinese qualitative VfM framework through comparative analysis with two international approaches: the UK HM Treasury’s three-dimensional VfM approach and the UN ESCAP’s developmental framework for Asia–Pacific countries. Through pair-wise and structural comparison, the study identifies key gaps in the Chinese model, including the absence of a preliminary applicability screening stage and insufficiently specified treatment of output clarity, scope stability, interface coordination, private-sector capability, revenue sustainability, and asset-life/contract-term alignment. Drawing on international insights, a refined VfM framework is proposed, featuring a pre-screening mechanism, a refined indicator system, and enhanced scoring methodology. The framework is applied to a complex, large-scale PPP case in China through a retrospective reassessment to illustrate its operability and diagnostic usefulness. Results show that the refined approach preserves the original positive VfM judgement while improving analytical clarity, procedural transparency, and the traceability of expert scoring. The paper concludes by discussing how a more structured qualitative VfM procedure can contribute to evaluation governance in PPP decision-making, while also identifying the need for further testing across additional PPP cases in China and beyond. Full article

The transition towards sustainable, resilient and digitally integrated port ecosystems has increased the need for collaborative innovation approaches capable of supporting broader sustainability transitions. In this context, open and sustainable innovation (OSI) offers a strategic mechanism for integrating economic, environmental and social objectives within complex maritime ecosystems. Although previous studies have explored technological innovation and isolated sustainability initiatives in ports, limited empirical attention has been given to how stakeholders perceive OSI and how its implementation is operationalised across a national port system. This study addresses this gap by investigating the central research question: how do key stakeholders perceive and implement OSI practices within the Portuguese port system? Specifically, it analyses organisational culture, governance structures, stakeholder engagement mechanisms, institutional barriers and sustainability-oriented innovation practices. The research adopts a qualitative approach based on ten semi-structured interviews with representatives of five Portuguese port authorities occupying senior management and strategic positions. The findings show that OSI is widely recognised as important for competitiveness, sustainability performance and alignment with transition agendas, but its implementation remains uneven across ports. Organisational resistance, fragmented governance, regulatory complexity and limited monitoring mechanisms constrain the institutionalisation of OSI practices. Nevertheless, collaborative initiatives involving universities, innovation networks, public–private partnerships and digital platforms indicate a gradual shift towards more integrated and participatory governance models. The study concludes that OSI can support sustainability transitions in port ecosystems when enabled by coordinated governance, stakeholder collaboration and organisational capabilities. Full article