Anna A. Amirkhanyan

Closer Than “Arms Length” Understanding the Factors Associated With Collaborative Contracting

This article focuses on collaborative relationships between contractors and government agencies and explores which contract characteristics, contractor traits, and environmental factors are associated with the development of such relationships. The study uses data from the Partnership Impact Research Project, a three-round longitudinal survey of over one hundred child care centers and Head Start agencies in Ohio. Our findings suggest that stronger collaborative contracting relationships are associated with greater contract specificity, better contractor service quality, and contractor affiliation with a larger organization. On the other hand, a contractor’s financial autonomy and nonprofit status are negatively related to collaborative relationship strength. We also find that a contractor’s internal management capacity is positively associated with the development of shared procedures governing contractual relationships.

What is the Effect of Performance Measurement on Perceived Accountability Effectiveness in State and Local Government Contracts

Designing and implementing performance measurement systems in public contracts is not easy. Little evidence is available on what measures work better in producing managerial benefits. This study evaluates the effect of different performance measurement practices on accountability effectiveness in government contracts. The findings suggest that performance measurement has a positive impact on governments ability to effectively manage contracts. More specifically, measuring costs, client impact, service timeliness, and disruptions, as well as specifying detailed processes for service delivery, are associated with higher perceived accountability effectiveness. At the same time, evaluating quality and client satisfaction, and using informal monitoring techniques have a negative impact on accountability effectiveness. The results of this study provide motivation for contract managers to optimize performance monitoring and reduce transaction costs by relying on measures that are more likely to improve contract implementation.

Faith-Based Assumptions About Performance Does Church Affiliation Matter for Service Quality and Access?

To date, the common rhetoric and assumptions on the performance of faith-based organizations (FBOs), ironically, appear to be faith based rather than empirically supported: There is a paucity of research evaluating the effectiveness of FBOs that uses sufficiently rigorous methods and multiple measures of organizational performance. This study seeks to inform the debate on the relative effectiveness of FBOs by comparing religiously affiliated and secular nonprofit nursing homes using two distinct but complementary measures of organizational performance: service quality and access for impoverished clients. Using nationally representative panel data on 11,877 church-affiliated and secular nonprofit nursing homes, this study examines the effect of ownership with several regression models. Overall, the findings fail to confirm the assumption that FBOs perform better than secular nonprofit organizations in the context of the nursing home industry. Isomorphic pressures and commercialization trends within the nursing home industry are discussed to help explain these findings.

Putting the Pieces Together: A Comprehensive Framework for Understanding the Decision to Contract Out and Contractor Performance

Abstract Contracting out is currently one of the most prevalent mechanisms of the privatization movement. Understanding its trends and rigorously analyzing its implications is an increasingly salient issue for public management research. This article builds a multi-stage theoretical framework addressing two broad research questions. The first is to identify the array of economic, political, organizational, and institutional factors that may impact a government agencys decision to contract out. The second is to detail the various organizational and environmental factors influencing contractor performance. Particular attention is paid to effective contract monitoring and its relationship to contractor performance.