The Paradigms of Public Sector Combinations

The impact of global economic challenges has determined and will continue to determine ingenious and various types of restructurings within the public sector, including entities combinations. What does it mean by “public sector combination”? What are the types of public sector combinations (PSCs) and the relational factors that affect them? This paper addresses these questions and aims to develop a conceptual framework concerning the combinations of public sector entities (PSEs), identifying and clarifying various types of inter-organizational combinations and the factors that induce government entities towards these transactions. To attain this objective, based upon a qualitative research literature, the study summarizes and analyses through a theoretical approach the paradigms of PSCs, conducting in the end to a detailed and comprehensive understanding of this concept with profound implications. The obtained results enhance the complexity of the approached field and indicate a lack of consensuses over the definition of PSC in the research literature. The paper also underlines that the restructurings, which have occurred in the public sector in recent years, have taken a number of forms that engender confusion. Since there are some uncertainties in the conceptualization of public sector combinations, we expect that this framework adds to the existing body of knowledge and can provide guidance for future research into this area.