Making the Team Wor_ The Nature of Challenges in Public-Private Partnerships, a Case Study

Researchers indicate how the current societal challenges can be solved through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) that aim to create social value. One of the examples is social value creation through innovation in smart cities. Due to the diverging logics and governance modes between public and private organizations, PPPs however face major challenges, already largely identified in literature. As deeper understanding of these difficulties is called for, this research set out to investigate why they arise through an in depth case study. Building on the insights already gained by scholars, this study conducted a process research, resulting in a causal loop diagram providing a narrative of how three processes made the initial managerial enthusiasm and high relational embeddedness to decrease. The results indicate a paradoxical situation internal to the PPP, as well as a remaining high involvement of the host organizations and the goals associated with their logics: social and economic value creation. The three processes are intertwined and motivate the private actor to decrease its efforts, through which it hampers social value creation.