Title: Organising infrastructure networks – two descriptive case studies on value creation

Authors: Maila Herrala; Pekka Belt; Harri Haapasalo; Pekka Pakkala

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4610, FI-90014, Finland. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4610, FI-90014, Finland. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4610, FI-90014, Finland. ' Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 2100, FI-02015 TKK, Finland

Abstract: Shortage of public capital and inefficiency of public provision have resulted in new approaches to organise infrastructure services. Privatisation and public-private partnerships have been under discussion for decades. This paper develops a framework for analysing infrastructure networks from value creation perspective and utilises it for two municipal case services in Finland. The study shows the importance of analysing municipal ownership and governance arrangements in order to improve the operational efficiency of infrastructure networks. In addition, the analysis of public service providers from business perspective is justified.

Keywords: value creation; value networks; ownership; governance; infrastructure networks; waterworks; roads; Finland; municipal services; public services; operational efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEM.2012.047042

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 2012 Vol.4 No.2, pp.104 - 121

Published online: 15 Nov 2014 *

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