Public-private partnerships : cognitive biases in the field

This paper identifies two key managerial challenges of public-private partnerships (PPPs), i.e., (1) the management of multi-organizational complexity, and (2) the management of multimanagerial level complexity. We argue that the literature on human judgment and decision making (JDM) can offer valuable insights into these challenges. Specifically, (subpar) performance of PPPs may partly be determined by cognitive biases whose occurrence and prevalence in turn depends on the specific characteristics and context of PPPs. A three-step approach to deal with cognitive bias is suggested. Based on two observations about decision making, we advance the notion of premature narrowing of focus as a major determinant of cognitive bias that can be resolved through (1) structure-modifying debiasing (i.e., “fixing” cognition), procedural debiasing (i.e., “fixing” decisional context), or (3) rebiasing (i.e., manipulating cognition or decisional context), if and when the benefits of improved performance outweigh the costs of managerial intervention. We illustrate the relevance of JDM research for our understanding of challenges in public-private collaborations by analyzing data from an evaluation study of a partnership project between the Dutch Highways and Waterways Agency and a Dutch maintenance contractor. Implications for future research are discussed.