Lifting the veil of Maya : Measuring the implementation gap of public management reforms in Italy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to build a working definition of public administration's management capacity (PA‐MANCAP) aiming at empirically testing the existence and size of an implementation gap in public management reforms in Italy. Design/methodology/approach – A confirmatory factor analysis is developed to assess the validity of the proposed operational measure. Data are taken from a survey administered on 204 local governments in Italy. Findings – The validity of the measure is assessed for all the attributes that conceptualize PA‐MANCAP except for the information and communication technology dimension. Findings from a survey of 102 major Italian municipalities indicate a situation with areas of light and shadow with regard to the implementation of public management reforms in Italy. Originality/value – The paper presents a valuable insight for both academics and practitioners in order to benchmark the managerial capacity of various local governments and to develop additional quantitative research into the determinants of the implementation gap of public management reforms in Italy and abroad.