As indicated in Chapter 1, partnership, risk and performance management are essential elements within a PPP administrative environment. To achieve VfM outcomes during the PPP operational phase, each element must be prudently managed by each partner. Although it is the responsibility of the private partner to deliver agreed services, the public partner is ultimately responsible for ensuring that these services are actually delivered and that they (at least) meet the minimum standards.
The main research question was formulated in Chapter 1 as:
"How can partnership, risk and performance management practices be better utilised by the public sector to improve the operational performance of PPP, leading to improved VfM outcomes?"
This question was disaggregated into logical basic introductory questions, process sub-questions, and a synthesising question. Table 2.1 indicates the question order and status. In the main, sub-questions are those that must be addressed in the process of satisfactorily answering the main question. The nature of each question will influence the type of information needed to answer it; and the type of information required will determine how the data should be collected.
Table 2.1 Research Questions.
Question Number | Research Questions | Nature of Data Required |
2 | "What is privatisation?" | Secondary data |
3 | "What are PPPs?" | Secondary data |
4 | "What is VfM?" | Primary and secondary data |
5a | "What are the principles, processes and problems associated with partnership management?" | Primary and secondary data |
5b | "How does partnership management relate to PPP?" | Primary and secondary data |
6a | "What are the principles, processes and problems associated with risk management?" | Primary and secondary data |
6b | "How does risk management relate to PPP?" | Primary and secondary data |
7a | "What are the principles, processes and problems associated with performance management?" | Primary and secondary data |
7b | "How does performance management relate to PPP?" | Primary and secondary data |
8 | "How can partnership, risk and performance management be synthesised into a model of better practice management that will lead to improved VfM outcomes in the operational phase of PPPs?" | Primary and secondary data |
Essentially, Table 2.1 describes the data requirements anticipated for the research. Secondary data will largely be gathered through literature review and reference to publicly available documents. Primary data will require unique collection methods and these will be elaborated more extensively in Chapter 8. First, however, the overall research design must be positioned within epistemological and methodological perspectives.