Conference Agenda

Recent research on policy accumulation and bureaucratic overload (e.g., Knill, Steinbacher, and Steinebach 2021; Adam et al. 2020; Fernández-i-Marín, Hinterleitner, et al. 2024a, 2024b; Fernández-i-Marín, Knill, et al. 2024) implies that implementation of new policy initiatives will be compromised as government bureaucracies become increasingly resource-starved. This important argument chimes with a much older line of theory and scholarship in organization studies, concerned with the effects of “slack resources” on business firms and government agencies (Cyert and March 1963; Bourgeois 1981; Nohria and Gulati 1996; Busch 2002; Mount et al. 2024).

Slack resources – those “in excess of current business requirements” (Bentley and Kehoe 2020, 181) facilitate environmental monitoring, innovation processes and internal deal-making (Daniel et al. 2004; Mount et al. 2024; Carnes et al. 2019). They also act to “buffer” organizations from environmental perturbations (Leuridan and Demil 2022; Moulick and Taylor 2017; O'Toole and Meier 2010; Thompson 1967), improving resilience in the face of adversity. And finally, slack should provide public service organizations with a more-or-less accessible stock of resources necessary for completing new policy tasks, resulting in greater responsiveness to changing societal and/or political demands (Elston and Zhang 2024).

In this paper, we argue for greater integration of the recent literature on bureaucratic overload and the older literature on slack resources. We then test the effects of slack resources on bureaucratic performance with a novel dataset of requests made of the Dutch government by the Netherlands Court of Audit. We use regression and survival analysis to test the effect of slack resources on the bureaucracy’s compliance with this auditor’s “value-for-money” recommendations. This work is funded by the Court of Audit, and is a replication and extension of Elston and Zhang’s (2024) similar analysis of slack resources and policy compliance in the UK.

The aim of this paper is to study how public sector organizations’ use of contracted-in private consultants affects the public sector ethos. In a rule-based democratic society, the legitimacy of the public service rests on its capability to perform its tasks while upholding values such as impartiality, legality, transparency, accountability and a responsible use of resources - efficiency. The (still limited) prior research on effects of private consultancy use on the public sector ethos describes consultants as an ‘invisible public service’ (Howlett & Migone 2014; van den Berg et al. 2019) or a ‘consultocracy’ (Hood and Jackson 1991, 24) and in part claims that consultants challenge public accountability procedures and democratic governance (Ylönen & Kuusela 2019). Others suggest that the ways in which ethos is recognised by private consultancies and public organisations respectively will affect how tasks are defined and distributed between them (Seabrook and Sending 2022). This research is focused on how public sector organizations recognize public sector values when they plan for, procure and evaluate the performance of private consultants. Based on a survey to procurement officers in Swedish central government agencies (N=175) we analyse the use of different types of consultants, the reasons for hiring them and the policies applied in the process.

One research question to be answered in this paper is 1) How do public agencies take public sector values into account when making decisions on hiring consultants to work for them, i.e. when contracting-in services? The ways in which public organizations can act before, under and after a relationship with a private consultant varies, in terms of the measures taken. For example, public agencies can apply different types of contracting strategies in the procurement processes, and pay more or less attention to consultant’s performance and the long-term effects of contracting-in. Importantly, the choices made can be more or less based on an analysis of effects on the public sector ethos. A second research question is 2) What explains (any) observed variation in such agency strategies? In this part, hypotheses about agency task and size respectively are tested. Given the lack of earlier research, we also expect to detect less apparent patterns and offer new hypotheses.

Starting out, the research presented was mainly aimed to contribute to a novel field, producing new insights into increased consultancy use and its effects. As of today, we - and surely many others – feel a strong need to up our game in terms of how a strong defence of the public sector ethos and its known virtues should be presented.

Over the past three decades, the absence of standardised asset management methodologies has prompted organisations to adopt experience-based guidelines and international standards, positioning asset management as a key driver of sustainability and growth. In healthcare, Asset Management Systems (AMSs) are increasingly recognised as essential for the efficient, secure, and sustainable management of assets, yet their potential remains underutilised due to poor coordination, limited workflow transparency, and inadequate maintenance planning, particularly for high-cost medical equipment. This study assesses current practices and future potential of AMSs in Slovenian public healthcare using data from 46 employees in both primary and specialised institutions collected between April and July 2025, analysed through descriptive statistics and independent-sample t-tests. The results show that strategic and organisational dimensions, such as efficiency improvement, planning, and organisation, are well-developed, while operational execution, support functions, and technological integration lag behind. Specialised institutions outperform primary care providers across most AMS dimensions, with the largest differences in planning, operations, and performance evaluation. Although the foundations for AMSs exist, their full potential is yet to be realised, requiring targeted improvements in operations, technology, training, and coordination to enhance asset performance, reduce inefficiencies, and improve patient care. The findings highlight the opportunity for Slovenian healthcare to move from procedural compliance toward integrated, patient-centred asset management, positioning AMSs as a strategic driver of efficiency, sustainability, and quality.

Public procurement is fundamentally regarded as a mechanism to achieve cost savings and enhancing public service performance (Thai, 2001; McCrudden, 2004). When assessing public procurement performance, literature predominantly focuses on its determinants and strategies to improve the efficiency, transparency, and accountability (Patrucco et al., 2016; Bosio et al., 2022; Hochstetter et al., 2023; McBride et al., 2024). These analyses tend to concentrate on the process itself and the quality of goods and services procured; few of them makes explicit connection between public procurement and organization performance. Public service performance refers to the multi-dimensional assessment of a public organization’s ability to achieve its goals and meet public needs, encompassing outcomes, processes, efficiency, fairness, and accountability (Boyne, 2006; Van Dooren et al., 2015; Christensen & James, 2022). This gap has become increasingly salient amid the ongoing digital transformation of governments, where substantial investments in digitalization necessitate a deeper understanding of its actual outcomes.

This study investigates the impact of public procurement on the performance of government digitalization, drawing on evidence from Chinese local governments. The Chinese government has been vigorously promoting digital transformation, establishing big data bureaus at both central and local levels to spearhead this initiative. Consequently, local governments are increasingly investing in digital goods and services procurement in a bid to gain recognition for their digital advancements. Recent studies have synthesized the successful experiences of China's digital reform, highlighting that digital governance has enhanced the efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery and upgraded the service delivery model (Li et al., 2023; Zhu et al., 2024; Song et al., 2025). Nonetheless, a considerable number of digital initiatives have been reported to fail, and there exists substantial variation in digital transformation performance across different local governments.

More specifically, this study aims to address three interrelated research questions: To what extent can public procurement drive improvements in the digitalization of public service? Which specific dimensions of digitalization performance (e.g., efficiency of service delivery versus substantive model upgrades) are more amenable to improvement through procurement? Furthermore, what procurement strategies can governments employ to optimize the returns on their digital investments?

Empirically, this study compiles a unique dataset of public procurement records from 2019 to 2023, sourced from city-level government procurement websites in China. Using supervised machine learning techniques, we classified procurement projects specifically serving government digitalization purposes, encompassing categories such as hardware and software; applications, models, technological infrastructure and digital platforms; software development and maintenance services. To measure the performance of government digitalization, we utilized the Digital Service Delivery Capacity Index from the annual Report on the Development of Internet Service Capability of Local Governments in China (Tang, Li et al., 2019-2023), which assesses digital transformation outcomes across three dimensions: service supply capacity, responsiveness, and service intelligence.

The empirical analysis controls for a range of covariates, including population, GDP, urbanization rate, Internet penetration level, and higher education enrollment rates. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, we employ two instrumental variables: one-period lagged procurement expenditure and urban new-energy vehicle ownership rates.

Public services operate within an increasingly unpredictable and complex landscape, where various systemic risks—ranging from financial crises to environmental disruptions—pose serious threats to their stability and continuity (World Economic Forum, 2025). To navigate these challenges, an adaptive risk governance framework (Marjolein van Asselt & Ortwin, 2011) is essential to ensure the resilience of public services (eco-)systems (Enang et al., 2020; Goda & Kijima, 2015). Risk management in public sector organizations is carried out to ensure compliance with ISO 31000 international standard or risk practitioner's guide COSO’s ERM – Integrating Strategy and Performance, focusing on the organizational risk management (Ahmeti & Vladi, 2017; De Oliveira & Abib, 2024; Gourbier et al., 2024). However, public services (eco-)systems go beyond the boundaries of single organization (Osborne et al., 2015; Vargo & Lusch, 2016; Petrescu, 2019). The IRGC’s risk governance framework (IRGC, 2005; Renn, 2008; Florin & Bürkler, 2017; Mazri & Florin, 2015) provides a systemic perspective for early identification and handling of risks marked by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity applying an inclusive approach for multiple stakeholders' involvement. The IRGC framework's structure—pre-assessment, appraisal, management, communication—is highly adaptable for systemic risks in complex systems, including cascading failures and interdependencies in public service ecosystems (Schweizer, 2019). Thus, this research examines how the IRGC framework can be effectively applied in public services management, offering a structured approach to decision-making and improving risk management strategies to enhance service (eco-)systems resilience. This leads to the following research question: How can IRGC framework application in public services management increase the resilience of public services (eco-)systems?

The research aims to explore IRGC framework applicability in public services management for resilience of public services (eco-)systems. The study first clarifies the resilience of public services (eco-)systems in today’s dynamic context, establishing the need for a governance-based approach. Second, it analyses the IRGC framework (IRGC, 2005) in terms of its structure, logic, and key characteristics relevant to public services. Finally, it develops a theoretical justification for IRGC framework application, examining its potential application, conditions for successful implementation, and necessary refinements.

The research applies a critical review of literature related to risk governance and resilience in public services management, indicating the features and gaps of the IRGC framework. Conceptual refinement is used to identify adaptation areas, particularly in aligning risk governance with public services management features, resilience theory, and complex systems thinking. Additionally, refinements are proposed in three key areas: stronger public engagement mechanisms, improved cross-organizational coordination, and better alignment with agile management practices.

Findings indicate that aligning/alignment of the IRGC framework into public services management can enhance governance efficiency, improve risk identification and mitigation (Ibty et al., 2023), increase stakeholder engagement (Tavares & Santos, 2013), and support transparent decision-making. This structured approach ultimately contributes to developing resilient public services (Asnawi et al., 2023), ensuring their adaptability and long-term sustainability in the face of emerging challenges.