Successful remunicipalization processes in Italian waste management: Triggers, key success factors, and results
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523221077574 |
| Author | Giulia Romano,Claudio Marciano,Mario Minoja |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Successful
remunicipalization
processes in Italian waste
management: Triggers, key
success factors, and results
Giulia Romano
University of Pisa, Italy
Claudio Marciano
University of Torino, Italy
Mario Minoja
University of Udine, Italy; Bocconi University, Italy
Abstract
In recent years, many countries have experienced remunicipalization in the public
service sector, especially in the fields of water and urban waste management.
Using a multiple-case design, examining five successful urban waste management
remunicipalizations in Italy, this study investigates the triggers, key success
factors, and results of this process. We find that remunicipalization is triggered by
the simultaneous occurrence of motivations and opportunities, and the presence
of one or a few fully committed actors. This process, in turn, results in significant
improvements in a company’s performance from a triple bottom line perspective,
provided that certain key success factors—regarding the municipality, the utility
and its management, and stakeholder relationships—are met. The external context
provides legal and institutional conditions that affect the overall process, triggers,
and results.
Corresponding author:
Giulia Romano, Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Via Ridolfi, 10, Pisa 56126, Italy.
E-mail: giulia.romano@unipi.it
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2023, Vol. 89(3) 648–666
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00208523221077574
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
Points for practitioners
Remunicipalization debate needs an in-depth analysis of municipalities that have experi-
enced this process and insights into the triggers, processes, and impact of remunicipali-
sation. Experiences unfold through three main phases. Efficiency and meeting
performance targets are important but should be balanced with other values linked
with the well-being of communities. The process is triggered by simultaneous motiva-
tions and opportunities and by one or a few fully committed key actors.
Remunicipalization induces significant firm performance improvements from a triple
bottom line perspective.
Keywords
remunicipalization, reverse privatization, triple bottom line, urban waste management
Introduction
In the past decades, European countries have experienced a privatization wave in public
service provision. The desired results have not always been achieved, supporting, in
many countries, a growing remunicipalization trend that encompasses different sectors
(Bél and Gradus, 2018; Kishimoto and Petitjean, 2017; Petersen et al., 2018).
Studies have highlighted many reasons for this trend in public service provision
(Hefetz and Warner, 2004), where pragmatic motivations (e.g. seeking higher efficiency
and investments or lower tariffs) over ideological drivers are prevalent (Albalate and Bél,
2019; Albalate et al., 2021a, 2021b; Clifton et al., 2019; Voorn, 2021). However, the role
of policymakers, contextual factors, and policy implementation need further investigation
(Albalate et al., 2021b; Gradus and Budding, 2020)—in particular, in the waste sector.
This study adopts a multiple-case design (Bourgeois and Eisenhardt, 1988; Eisenhardt
and Graebner, 2007) to investigate the triggers, processes, key success factors (KSFs),
and results of five successful urban waste management (UWM) remunicipalization
cases in Italy, from the triple bottom line (TBL) (Elkington, 1997) perspective, consider-
ing economic, environmental, and social dimensions of performance.
The rest of this article is organized as follows. The next two sections describe the the-
oretical foundations and methods. The two following sections then present and discuss
the results. The final section concludes.
Theoretical background
Researchers have only recently started studying remunicipalization (Gradus and
Budding, 2020), as its definition is still being debated (Clifton et al., 2019; Lobina and
Weghmann, 2020). This is due to the complexity of the contracting process, decision-
making (Hefetz and Warner, 2004), and other processes required to achieve remunicipa-
lization (Voorn, 2021).
Romano et al. 649
To continue reading
Request your trial