Inter-organizational management control in public sector outsourcing

Increasingly the public sector (worldwide) contracts for services previously managed in-house. In such a development a major function that government plays is to manage these contracts and relationships so that policy and welfare are effectively implemented. In this project we aim to create knowledge about how government agencies control their suppliers to ensure that they are aligned with the goals and purposes of the mission that they have been assigned for and that they are coordinated with the responsible government agency. The project builds on several empirical studies and draws on the inter-organizational management control literature with its roots in transaction cost theory.