 Public values as essential criteria for public entrepreneurship: Water management in FranceTsanga Tabi Marie Utilities Policy, 2016, vol. 40, issue C, 162-169 Abstract: Historically, major private companies were the dominant players in urban water supply in France. However, a new era of water supply restructuring is underway, whereby formally private water corporations are being made public. Given that many such public water corporations adopt practices associated with private entities, it is essential to identify what is expected of “public” entities by virtue of the fact that they are public. In this article, we examine the foundational ideas behind the raison d'être of public entities, which engender priorities that differ from their private sector counterparts. Using a research-action methodology, water utility management, staff and consumers of Greater Nantes were asked to specify the meaning of “public” and how it should be operationalized in the case of publicly owned utilities. The research shows that the attainment of public values is what lends legitimacy to a public utility charged with the provision of essential services. In this case, even in a context of neoliberal governance, where private values of an economic nature conflict with public goals; public values take precedence in the management and the regulation of the service. Keywords: Public values; Public entrepreneurship; Water management (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juipol:v:40:y:2016:i:c:p:162-169 DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2016.02.005 Access Statistics for this article Utilities Policy is currently edited by Beecher, Janice More articles in Utilities Policy from Elsevier |
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