Local public services are the field in which New Public Management (NPM) and Public Governance issues are most in evidence. The local public services are characterized by the rethinking of the role played by local government in the provision of services. An evolution has taken place. From a...

The paper explores the cost-benefit of the separation of the function of managing networks and plants activities from the function of providing the final service to users for a public utility organised as a local natural monopoly. The article analyses in particular the problem of investment...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to characterize how those who perform (internal auditors), mandate (audit committee (AC) members), use (AC members and external auditors) and normalize (the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA)) internal audit work, respectively make sense of the notion...

Purpose – As the importance of health care is growing worldwide and it has undergone a significant change, this paper aims to report a case study in a hospital complex that implemented an excellence model framework. Design/methodology/approach – Reported in this paper is a case research...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of innovative industries which face coopetition: firms compete while committing at the same time to R&D joint ventures and other cooperative agreements. These joint activities are likely to occur in presence of complementarities on...

Regulatory practice continues to be criticised and challenged. Issues which were concerning Government, regulators, companies and consumers in 2003 are, in many respects, still unresolved. There is a risk that too many decisions on developments in regulatory policy will be taken by Ministers...

The Porter hypothesis asserts that properly designed environmental regulation motivates firms to innovate, which ultimately improves profitability. In this study, we test empirically the Porter hypothesis and the competing hypothesis that regulation undermines profitability (“costly regulation...

<marquage typemarq="italique"/> In September 2006, the European Council decided to put an end to the exemption Regulation from which liner conferences had been benefiting since 1986. The European Commission pledged to ?facilitate the transition towards a fully competitive system?, while showing ambitions in support of an...