Abstract: Despite the rapid expansion of public sector network research over the last three decades, theory development tends to focus on public service delivery. This article introduces public asset delivery as an alternative setting for network governance. Asset delivery networks pose unique challenges to the theory developed under the service delivery archetype. First, using transportation infrastructure as an exemplar, we theorize asset delivery networks by juxtaposing incongruous concepts from the context of service delivery, including 1) purpose orientation, 2) task structure, 3) network activation, 4) governance mode, and 5) risk management. Second, we further identify points of convergence between the two settings, including attention to 1) network-domain interaction, 2) network effectiveness, 3) complexity, and 4) publicness. The general aim of this article is to expand the conceptual space of network governance to more adequately cover the under-theorized setting of asset delivery. 

Abstract: A foundational assumption in public administration is that funding flows from government to nonprofits. Police foundations reverse this arrow, channeling private donations to police departments with minimal public oversight. This study tests competing predictions from government failure theory and philanthropic failure theory, analyzing whether foundation funding enhances police capacity or shifts organizational behavior toward particular sub-populations. Using 242 large U.S. cities over 1989 to 2019 with an instrumental variables strategy, we measure police department responses to changes in foundation donations by arrest type and race.

Abstract: Governments worldwide promote social enterprise clusters as tools for social innovation, yet existing scholarship treats social enterprises as a single category. This study develops a typology of social enterprise clusters based on two competing institutional logics, market and community, and illustrates it through a comparative case study of Social Venture Valley and Seoul Innovation Park in Seoul, South Korea. Findings show the two logics produce coherently different organizational profiles across nine dimensions organized into properties, networking behavior, and growth and impact. An epilogue documenting the closure of Seoul Innovation Park suggests that community-logic clusters may be more politically vulnerable than market-logic clusters.

Abstract: Transformative innovation policy faces a legitimacy-durability paradox: broadening stakeholder engagement increases democratic legitimacy but exposes science and technology investments to political contestation, undermining policy durability. This study analyzes the transition of S&T policy from "low politics" to "high politics" through the case of the UK Industrial Strategy, which was abandoned after four years despite broad stakeholder support and replaced with a more traditional innovation approach with reduced oversight. 

Abstract: Despite decades of anti-stigma efforts, a significant treatment gap persists in mental health care. This study examines whether credence qualities, the perceived inability to evaluate the utility of psychiatric services, explain the treatment gap among individuals who already perceive a need for care. Using a cross-sectional survey of 225 Seoul residents with perceived need and a hurdle regression separating the initial visit decision from continuation, this study finds that credence qualities are the strongest predictor of initial help-seeking (23 percentage point decrease per unit, p<0.001), while perceived cost and having a friend who visited a psychiatrist also matter. Neither social stigma nor treatment stigma is significant. In the continuation model, credence qualities have no effect while perceived cost remains significant. The two-stage pattern is consistent with credence goods theory: uncertainty about treatment quality suppresses entry into care but dissolves once treatment is experienced.

Abstract: The revision of the “Mental Health Act” into the “Act on the Improvement of Mental Health and the Support for Welfare Services for Mental Patients” in 2016 led to the tightening of procedures for involuntary hospitalization through the implementation of the “Committee for Review as to Legitimacy of Admission” (hereinafter “Admission Review Committee”). This study evaluated whether the Admission Review Committee has achieved its goal to promote the human rights of people with a mental illness through qualitative analysis of stakeholder experiences. The evaluation is based on interviews with a total of 27 subcommittee members from all the five national psychiatric hospitals which have an Admission Review Committee in place. Those interviewed were psychiatrists, lawyers, mental health professionals, patients and their families, and investigators. As a result, a total of four categories and 16 themes emerged from the thematic analysis. Our study shows that the Admission Review Committee has promoted human rights by functioning as a minimum safeguard to prevent unjust involuntary hospitalization and forced transfer to psychiatric hospitals. However, insufficient procedural assistance has limited the right to self-determination, and the committee heavily relied on paper review rather than the face-to-face investigation with people with a mental illness. For a better supportive committee for the human rights of people with a mental illness, we suggest that the committee adopt the face-to-face review process, procedural assistance services, and a governance system closely connecting medical facilities with local communities.

https://doi.org/10.15709/HSWR.2021.41.2.259