In this paper, we expect to contribute to answer to the last question of the PSG XI’s call-for-papers focusing on a theoretical approach usually considered as irrelevant in public management (McNabb and Lee, 2021): the Strategy-As-Action (Grimm et al., 2006) perspective, more usually known as Competitive dynamics (Chen and Miller, 2012; 2015; Smith et al., 2001). Although this theoretical approach holds potential to improve our understanding of the concrete strategies implemented by public organisations to cope with an increasingly hostile and turbulent environment, it has, to the best of our knowledge, never been used in the field of public management. In this context, this paper aims to contribute to future research on strategic management in government by proposing an analytical model that, focusing on the interactions between the organisation under study and its stakeholders, captures the determinants and consequences of these interactions, as well as the strategic behaviour and repertoire of strategic actions of the organisation analysed, the whole in order to increase the performance of the organisation.

The full paper will be organised as follows. In the first section, we take stock of the literature on the Strategy-As-Action perspective. This stream makes the concrete actions of organisations its basic unit of analysis (Smith et al., 2001) and integrates at once the external (Porter, 1980), internal (Barney, 1991; Peteraf, 1993) and cognitive (Marcel et al., 2011) factors that affect these actions. These (inter)actions, which are embedded in a dialogue between the organisation and its stakeholders, describe relationships of various natures: cooperative, coopetitive or rivalrous (Chen and Miller, 2015; Eymas and Bensebaa, 2021). Finally, action set analysis allows us to characterise the strategic behaviour of an organisation and to study its strategic repertoire in order to improve its performance (Smith et al., 2001).

Based on these theoretical foundations, section two examines prior research on strategy of public organisations. This is a field in which strategic planning plays a major role, particularly because it links the strong legal constraints on public organisations with their operational activities (Bryson, 2015) and is positively correlated with performance (George et al., 2019). Moreover, classical strategic management theories are relatively unused in public context due to the significant differences between the private and public sectors (Joyce, 2022).

Integrating the two research streams, we develop in a third section an analytical model to analyse government’s strategies and make propositions We make proposals on the links between strategic actions, repertoire of actions and behaviour on the one hand and the performance of the public organisation on the other.

References

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Bryson, J.M. (2015). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations. In J. D. Wright (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition) (p. 515‑521). Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Chen, M.-J. and Miller, D. (2012). Competitive Dynamics: Themes, Trends, and a Prospective Research Platform. Academy of Management Annals, 6(1), 135‑210.

Chen, M.-J. and Miller, D. (2015). Reconceptualizing Competitive Dynamics: A multidimensional framework. Strategic Management Journal, 36(5), 758‑775.

Eymas, F. and Bensebaa, F. (2021). Competitive Strategies of Small Independent Retailers. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 49(8), 1232‑1245.

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Grimm, C.M., Lee, H. and Smith, K.G. (2006). Strategy as Action: Competitive Dynamics and Competitive Advantage. Oxford University Press, New York.

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Smith, K.G., Ferrier, W.J. and Ndofor, H.A. (2001). Competitive Dynamics Research: Critique and Future Directions. In M.A. Hitt, R.E. Freeman and J.S. Harrison (eds.), The Blackwell handbook of strategic management (p. 315‑361), Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.

Different theoretical perspectives have been used to analyse public sector organisations’ strategic management (Ferlie and Ongaro, 2022). A dominant theoretical perspective in public administration has been strategic planning, reflecting a scholarly and contextual difference from the wider academic field of strategic management. However, some authors have suggested the usefulness of a resource-based view or some of its theoretical derivatives also when analysing strategic management in the public sector (Bryson, Ackermann and Eden, 2007; Casebeer et al., 2010; Fu and Chang, 2019; Pablo et al., 2007; Piening, 2013; Ferlie and Ongaro, 2022; Ferlie, 2016; Hansen and Ferlie, 2016). RBV, including its multifaceted developments through more than three decades has for some time been the dominant theoretical perspective when studying strategic management in the general strategic management discourse. This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive review of the use of RBV and its leading derivatives in a public administration context. The challenges and possibilities which these authors have identified when using RBV for the public sector are systematised. Further, these challenges and possibilities of using RBV perspectives are tested as an interpretative lens on a dataset based on a qualitative analysis of 51 strategic plans from government agencies in Norway. The analysis concludes with recommendations for possible approaches for research on strategic management in the public sector from the perspective of a resource-based view.

Public management reforms are defined as deliberate attempts to change the structures, processes, and/or cultures of public sector organizations with the objective of getting them (in some sense) to run better. The main drivers of public management reforms in recent decades have been concerns related to fiscal imbalances, ineffective and costly government programs, unresponsive administrative machinery, and intrusive government. The field of public administration has a history of exploring the fundamental principles of good governance, resulting in several seminal papers and books that capture commonalities in the public management reform trends in different contexts. These papers and books have contributed to the field by providing a conceptual lens to grasp the changing nature of public administration, diagnose current problems in the public administration system, and guide the transformation of administrative processes. While there is a considerable amount of academic literature on public management reform and its recognized importance, there is still a lack of research on how a seminal paper or book discusses and influences a research field.

Therefore, the paper aims to provide a comprehensive and in-depth examination of public management reform research. More specifically, the paper seeks to trace the evolution of the literature influenced by the seminal book on public management reform, i.e., Pollitt and Bouckaert's »Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis«. Namely, the unique contributions of this book to the literature on public management reform warrant tracking its influence on the literature. Specific objectives are: 1) to examine descriptive indicators; 2) to find the most relevant countries, journals, and authors; and 3) to analyze thematic evolution. The bibliometric analysis is applied to 4895 academic documents that cited any of the four Pollitt and Bouckaert book editions (published in 2000, 2004, 2011 and 2017) using the bibliometric data obtained from the Scopus database that has been widely and commonly used in previous bibliometric studies. Therefore, several established and innovative bibliometric approaches are applied (i.e., descriptive overview, scientific production and network analysis), and several software tools are utilized (i.e., Biblioshiny, Python and VOSviewer).

The results of the bibliometric analysis reveal that interest in public management reform research increased over time, whereby most of the research has been predominantly driven by the Anglo-Saxon countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States, also known as big promoters of the New Public Management approach in their public administration systems. Furthermore, most of the research has been published in prominent journals such as Public Management Review, Public Administration, and International Review of Administrative Sciences. Finally, the results reveal several research hotspots related to public management reform, such as public administration reform, public governance and accountability, organizational change and performance and efficiency. The findings on how a seminal paper on public management reform diffuses and influences a field of research add to the existing scientific knowledge and facilitate evidence-based policymaking, which is crucial for public management reforms in the future.