Expanding the concept of contractual and relational governance interplay in public-private partnerships: A dynamic realist approach

This working paper presents a preliminary conceptualization of a process theoretical approach for studying the interplay between contractual and relational governance activities in Public Private Partnerships. Taking into account that “action” is not necessarily an instrumental consequence of decisions, we argue that day-to-day practitioners aim at balancing their role as a member of an organization, a part of a PPP team and personal professional interest. Their subjective concern for improving or maintaining their positions trustworthy "experts" drives modes of interaction and governing activities. The approach integrates the traditional functional-regulatory approach extensively used for studying the interplay in terms of complementarity/substitutivity, with theoretical insights from critical realism theory on trust and control in working organizations. The illustrative case is the interaction between a public project manager and a private facility manager during the introduction of changes in the exploitation phase of a Public Private Partnership in the Netherlands.