Relevance of Public-Private Partnerships for consulting services. Екатерина Харькова

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      The number of PPPs in Germany grew up tremendously in the last years, which demonstrates the numerous advantages resulting from the cooperation between the public and the private sectors (Figure 1). In accordance with Federal Statistical Office, in December 2015, about 200 PPP projects (conclusion of the contract) are taken into account in national accounts in Germany¹.

      Year

      # of PPP projects

      2002

      2

      2004

      12

      2006

      23

      2008

      28

      2010

      15

      2012

      8

      2014

      6

      2016

      3

      Figure 1: PPP projects in Germany²

      What is a Public-Private Partnership? In its widest sense, a PPP can be defined as a long-term contractual agreement between the public authorities and the private sector. Generally, any combination or blending of public and private resources can be called a “public-private partnership.”

      The demand for Public Private Partnerships as an increasingly attractive tool for infrastructure and urban development is evident, especially in an economic climate where fewer resources are available for public needs. PPPs are involved in a wide range of social and economics projects, but they are mostly popular to build and operate hospitals, schools, prisons, roads, bridges and tunnels and rail networks. They generate a large amount of private and public capital. In this way, such partnerships can be a good target for diverse consulting services.

      The main purpose of this paper is to define an object, the methods, and institutional as well as business frameworks of strategic research approach for the accumulation of information to estimate the relevance of the Public-Private Partnerships as one of the potential Targets for consulting services for one of the Big Four consulting companies.

      The paper begins by describing of the significance of the theme and discussing the object and the method of strategic research approach before moving on to elaborate on the research frameworks as well as research sources and research timing.

      The next section will analyze why the matter of PPP has been accomplished, which are the object and the methods that are applied for researching of this problem (Section 2), which frameworks should be set up to confine results analysis (Section 3), which kind of information is necessary to make an investigation of this economics sector and how much time and information resources should be planned for the research (Section 4).

      The most important findings of this paper are presented in the summary which contains among others the main steps for the conducting of the investigation.

      2 

      Significance, object and methods

      The research about the relevance of PPP for one of the Big Four consulting companies as the most preferred forms of cooperation between private and public sector is to start with a depiction of the significance this theme, a definition of the research object and a description of the applied methods.

      2.1 

      Significance

      Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are modern and efficient forms of administration. They have recently gained prominence as a term to describe a business relationship in which public and private resources are blended to achieve a goal or set of goals judged to be of a collaborative benefit to both the private entity and the public.