Executive in Residence George Langill, Professor Greg Richards and graduate student Katherine Bock will produce a systematic review of studies of public-private partnerships as part of a consulting project with the federal Crown Corporation PPP Canada.

Public-private partnerships or “P3s” are attracting growing interest as a method of procuring and managing public infrastructure, Langill notes. In P3s, government, public service providers and private enterprise share the role traditionally played exclusively by the public sector. Many sectors of the economy including healthcare now have experience with the model. When he was CEO of the Royal Ottawa Hospital (ROH) Group, Langill oversaw the successful design of the ROH/ uOttawa Institute of Mental Health Research redevelopment project as the first healthcare P3 in Canada. At the time, the positive experiences of other countries, mainly the U.K., provided “supportive background” for the government and the hospital Board, he noted. A decade later, with government and philanthropic spending under continued restraint, there’s an opportunity to review the Canadian and international experience with P3 models in more detail.

The P3 model can provide an opportunity to deliver badly needed public infrastructure to communities on time, within budget and more efficiently and effectively than a traditional approach would have allowed, Langill contends. But decision-making has to be informed by a strong base of knowledge about best practices on issues such as project governance and management, financing and development risk, and the establishment of performance benchmarks, he cautions.

“Given the trend in favour of P3s, we need to pay more attention to what the research says about issues like ‘value for money’ and transfer-of-risk compared to traditional ways of procuring infrastructure to show in what ways the model might make operational or economic sense in a particular case. This change in emphasis is also needed to identify where further research should be focused.

“Our work with PPP Canada provides a chance for us as academics to engage with the world of P3s right here in Ottawa and help contribute a more systematic approach to the method. Taking an evidence-based approach concerns not only the successful acquisition of the capital, but also the efficacy of the project going forward.” 

Professor David Doloreux will research the diffusion of digital technology across the economy as part of a multi-institutional research partnership, “Creating Digital Opportunity: Canada's ICT Industry In Global Perspective,” to be led by the University of Toronto. With support provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the University of Toronto, the Canadian International Council, and other partner universities, firms and organizations, the project commitment totals $5.1 million.

A Research Chair in Canadian Francophonie, professor Doloreux investigates innovation, knowledge transfer and regional development as it relates to the knowledge-based economy. Building on his work focusing on Knowledge-Intensive Business Services Firms, or KIBS, Professor Doloreux’s involvement in this new project will centre on the role and contribution of ICT (information and communication technologies) in KIBS’ knowledge production and diffusion in Ontario. The main objective will be to analyze different types of ICT related-activities as inputs in the management of KIBS’ knowledge production and diffusion, and innovation. 

The research partnership “Creating digital opportunity,” for which funding was announced in August, proposes to answer the question: how can Canada best respond to the challenges posed by a rapidly changing digital landscape, while benefiting from emerging opportunities to promote our economic prosperity?

The partnership includes over 20 investigators at 16 universities across Canada and thirteen committed partner firms, cities and organizations. 

A workshop hosted by the Telfer School September 24 -25 brought together experts from Canadian research institutions and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was organized by Professor Sandra Schillo, Telfer School, and Rainer Frietsch, Fraunhofer ISI. Participants delved into questions related to R&D efficiency, measurement of public research, scientific impact, and innovation policy, building on an earlier Telfer-Fraunhofer workshop that was hosted by the Canadian Embassy in Berlin in November 2013.

“These researchers share a particular interest in the policy implications of innovation, and the topic is of great relevance to both countries,” said Sylvain Charbonneau, Associate Vice-President, Research at the University of Ottawa, in his opening remarks. “R&D efficiency, for example, aims to address issues that need to be solved in order for governments to develop more nuanced policies that are better suited to achieve desired societal outcomes.”

Martine Spence, Vice-Dean (Research) said that the Telfer School’s strategic focus on innovation and entrepreneurship and the renewed Canadian interest in international models of innovation provide an opening for new research connections with the university, industry and the public sector.

“In Canada and elsewhere, universities and their partners are getting a handle on the role they can best play in regard to R&D efficiency, while identifying the knowledge that will be needed to build better innovation systems,” Dr. Spence said.

Germany is a very important partner for the University of Ottawa and more than 80 research collaborations, both at the individual researchers’ level and the institutional level, exist between the university and Germany, Dr. Charbonneau noted. The second day of the workshop coincided with a visit to the university by Germany’s President, Joachim Gauck [This link is no longer available]. President Gauck was on an official visit to Canada September 24 to 27.

A recently published study by Gregory Richards, Telfer School of Management, and Linda Duxbury, Carleton University demonstrates the pivotal role of middle managers as knowledge facilitators in public sector organizations. In particular, the research speaks to the importance of middle managers in enabling the use of knowledge by work teams, the impact of knowledge applicability and the role of common knowledge in teams.

Public sector performance management has been extensively discussed and debated over the last two decades. And it has recently has become more important as a result of citizens demanding more transparency in government operations, managers seeking to ensure value for money and politicians becoming increasingly conscious of eroding economic conditions.

Yet as practitioners and scholars have emphasized the use of performance-measurement systems and frameworks in improving organizational performance, surprisingly few proponents acknowledge the fact that public sector work predominantly involves the delivery of knowledge-based services, the researchers write in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. The team set out to examine the determinants of knowledge acquisition of groups of public sector organizations based on the premise that the performance of these organizations depends to some degree on knowledge processes. Their findings, conducted with 28 work groups in 7 public sector organizations Ottawa, lead to a number of implications. 

1. One of the key precursors of knowledge acquisition in the groups was their perception of the relevance of knowledge, and middle managers appear to influence this perception.
2. Middle managers play a role in helping work groups understanding the importance of new information. They appear to do so by mostly sharing strategy information that enables group members to filter out what’s important from what is not.
3. Common knowledge across group members is also an important element influencing the degree to which groups acquired knowledge. This speaks to the need for team-based training in organizations to establish a common base of reference.

In today’s information-rich environment, the ability to recognize, capture and apply knowledge is a critical issue for public sector organizations, the researchers conclude. This “absorptive capacity” depends to a large extent on the skills and behaviours of the middle managers: more than any other level of management, they play the role of connectors across the organization. In addition, they influence significant control over resources and are in a position to support or constrain innovation and change. The findings of this study suggest more attention should be paid to the development of these managers, especially as it relates to the use of knowledge in improving program delivery.