Cooperation is no Panacea : Inter-municipal Cooperation, Service Delivery, and the Optimum Scale of Operation. A Study of how Cooperation Affects Performance in Local Service Delivery
Doctoral thesis
Published version
Date
2022Metadata
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- Doctoral Dissertations [381]
- PhD theses in Social Sciences [37]
- Publikasjoner fra CRIStin [4078]
Original version
Blåka, S. (2022). Cooperation is no Panacea : Inter-municipal Cooperation, Service Delivery, and the Optimum Scale of Operation. A Study of how Cooperation Affects Performance in Local Service Delivery [PhD. thesis]. University of Agder.Abstract
Inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is one of the most widely-used organizational alternatives in local governments’ attempts to adapt to ever-increasing demands for high quality and cost-efficient services. Although IMC is widespread, studies of its effects are largely lacking. The existing studies show contradicting results, causing more and more scholars to ask what determines whether or not cooperation is successful. This study contributes to filling this gap by asking, when and how shared service delivery is beneficial. The study’s empirical work is constituted of four separate articles. Each article uses one specific service as an empirical case for analyzing the effects cooperation on one or two distinct dimensions of performance. Together, these studies provide an empirical ground for comparing and discussing how the effects of cooperation may depend on cooperation size and tasks characteristics.
Has parts
Paper I: Blåka, S. (2017). Does cooperation affect service delivery costs? Evidence from fire services in Norway. Public Administration, 95(4), 1092-1106. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12356. Published version. Full-text is not available in AURA as a separate file.Paper II: Blåka, S. (2017). Service Quality, Inter-municipal Cooperation and the Optimum Scale of Operation : The case of local fire departments in Norway. In Jarle Trondal (Ed.), The Rise of Common Political Order. Institutions, Public Administration and Transnational Space (p. 233-250). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786435002.00021. Published version. Full-text is not available in AURA as a separate file.
Paper III: Blåka, S., Jacobsen, D. I. & Morken, T. (2021). Service quality and the optimum number of members in inter‐municipal cooperation. The case of emergency primary care services in Norway. Public Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12785. Published version. Full-text is available in AURA as a separate file: https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2778853.
Paper IV: Blåka, S. (Under review). Does cooperation affect service delivery costs? Privatization, cooperation, and the optimum number of members in Norwegian local auditing services. Original manuscript. Full-text is not available in AURA as a separate file.