Coping with competing institutional logics in public-private alliances

Cross-sector inter-organizational partnerships, alliances and networks have become extremely popular. Such phenomena bring together diverse actors with differing, and often competing, institutional logics. Understanding how these logics interact and often hinder the collaborative is important for the management of the alliance. The management of competing institutional logics is central to alliance success. Competing logics are of particular relevance in alliances bring together public- and private-sector actors, as actors from these different sectors draw on very dissimilar premises, assumptions and valid rules. This chapter describes how competing institutional logics are present in public-private joint ventures, and proposes some managerial practices that allow participants in public-private joint ventures to successfully manage competing logics. The chapter draws on a case study of a private economic development company, PTB, set up by various town halls, a savings bank and a small group of leading local entrepreneurs near Barcelona, Spain.