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Resource allocation and capital investment practice in Swedish local governments – a messy business
Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics, Department of Management Accounting and Logistics. (Centre for Management Accounting Research (CMAR))ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0378-2995
Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics, Department of Management Accounting and Logistics. (Centre for Management Accounting Research (CMAR))
2018 (English)In: Paper presented at the 8th Global Innovation & Knowledge Academy Conference (GIKA), Valencia, Spain, June 25-27, 2018, Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy , 2018Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The purpose of this paper is to explore capital investment practices in Swedish local governments, outline some critical issues of the resource allocation process and also to reveal the behind rationales used for and influencing decision making of large tangible investment projects. Through a survey to all 290 Swedish local governments, in combination with interviews in two municipalities, the resource allocation process is mapped and analyzed.

Our results confirm and support the existing literature in the area of capital investment practice in local governments, in terms of the large spread of financial- and non-financial criteria used in the process of evaluating new projects. Additionally, we find support for the fact that local governments which have adopted New Public Management to a larger extent also tend to use more sophisticated capital investment routines and methods. 

The main contribution with this study is added granularity about capital investment practices in local governments in general and more in depth insights about the tension in use of diverse and conflicting decision rationales. These rationales that exists in the municipalities during the resource allocation process are financial-, operational-, and political. Altogether, the capital investment practice in Swedish local governments reveals a complex and even messy picture.

In conclusion this research also provides additional insight to some potential inclination effects and consequences of today´s capital investment practice in local governments and agencies.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy , 2018.
Keywords [en]
Capital investment practice, Investment methods and criteria, Local governments, New public management, Decision rationales
National Category
Business Administration
Research subject
Economy, Ekonomistyrning
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-71586OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-71586DiVA, id: diva2:1225404
Conference
8th Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy Conference (GIKA), Valencia, Spain, June 25-27, 2018
Available from: 2018-06-26 Created: 2018-06-26 Last updated: 2018-11-02Bibliographically approved

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Alpenberg, JanKarlsson, Fredrik

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf