The rise of neoliberal reforms of the provision of public services has been extensively researched in representative democracies. Less attention has been paid, instead, to explaining them in countries whose institutions have been characterized as neo-patrimonial systems. This study aims to...

This study aims to analyze the concept of corporate diplomacy, that is, the organizational behavior aimed at implementing favorable conditions for carrying out corporate activities. By following a cognitive-linguistic approach, the analysis outlines the meaning of corporate diplomacy along...

Water infrastructure regulatory systems are occasionally characterised by the combination of selected features of alternative models of regulation, such as public ownership, discretionary regulation, and franchise regulation. Issues arise regarding why these combined or 'hybrid' systems appear,...

This paper presents a theoretical discussion of how economic actors figure out how to attain desired future outcomes. While most economic theory has been concerned with the optimization of the use of scarce resources, relatively less attention has been placed on the way in which economic agents...

The construction of markets in Asia is a complex political, social, and economic process that unfolds through various parallel and intertwined activities at various societal and organisational levels. Within the field of economic and organisational sociology, the creation of markets is...

In an effort to reconfigure the system for the delivery of agricultural services, the Regional Government of Sardinia in Italy decided, in 2006, to suppress five public entities, and to establish three regional agencies in their place. Based on interviews conducted with managers and staff within...

In an effort to reconfigure the system of delivery of agriculture services, the Regional Government of Sardinia in Italy decided, in 2006, to suppress five public entities and to establish, in their place, three regional agencies. Based on interviews conducted with managers and staff of these...

Within the area of study of infrastructure, various works have addressed the issue of the development of technological and institutional systems of network industries. In a dynamic perspective, issues arise about how technology and institutions co-evolve, what stimulates improvement of...

Various critiques have been made of the analytic narrative, which is a methodological approach that combines historically oriented research with rational choice models. This paper discusses strengths and limitations of the approach and provides some suggestions for its inclusion in the...

This chapter aims to discuss the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – especially of the so-called Big Data – in the innovation of public service delivery. After reviewing the relevant literature on innovation and innovation diffusion in the public sector, the chapter...