The Private Finance Initiative: An Evolving Research Agenda

This article considers the development of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and contends that it is now deeply embedded and intertwined in policies to renew and modernize the United Kingdom's public services. After briefly reviewing prior research based upon the themes proposed by Broadbent and Laughlin (1999), this article suggests a new research agenda to reflect how the PFI has matured and developed in recent years.

Education, Education, Education: the Third Way and PFI

In 1997, New Labour set about the task of reforming public services in the United Kingdom through the use of an ideology that became known as the ‘Third Way’. This research examines the context from which this concept emerged, and explores its relationship with the tools of delivery, with particular reference to the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The paper begins by reviewing the Third Way, before analysing the arguments for and against PFI. Using an example from the Northern Ireland education sector, the paper argues that the characteristics associated with the Third Way are mirrored in the operational tools of public service delivery, such as PFI. The paper concludes that, within the context of the case study reviewed, there is a ‘consistent pragmatism’ in play in relation to how these delivery initiatives are operated and how they relate to their conceptual underpinnings.

Factors That Impact Technology Innovation Adoption Among Irish Professional Service Sector SMEs

This paper disseminates the findings from a study into the factors impacting technological innovation adoption and diffusion specific to the deployment of electronic-commerce strategies within professional service sector SMEs in Ireland. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed and seven factors relating to a firm's external/internal environment were found to underpin adoption. These are: electronic-commerce capability; willingness to change/rate of response to new technologies; technological opportunity recognition; customer orientation; sensitivity to competitive/customer environments; perceptions of technology feasibility; and e-skills development mechanisms. t-tests revealed differences between adopters and non-adopters, and forward stepwise logistic regression is used to assess the extent to which these seven factors actually predict electronic-commerce adoption. It was found that electronic-commerce capability and the willingness to change/rate of response to new technologies are the two most important factors affecting adoption behaviours. © Imperial College Press.