Totally Publicly-Owned (TPO) Utilities and Financial Performance: What is the role of some aspects of governance?

Abstract

Public services impact on the citizens' lives, especially in the case they are deliv-ered by totally publicly-owned (TPO) utilities, that are funded by public money. This highlights the relevance of performance management in totally publicly-owned utilities from which derives the research aim that is to investigate elements that can influence their financial performance, with a specific attention on gov-ernance. We focus on a sample of all the utilities (116) wholly owned by the Ital-ian capitals of the provinces for the years 2008-2017 (n. 1,350 observations). Ap-plying the Generalized Least Square (GLS) method, the analysis results allow us to conclude that: the female presence and political orientation of the Board of Direc-tor do not impact on the totally publicly-owned utilities' performance, while size variables differently impact. Political implications (potential disconnection be-tween ownership strategies and Board of Director choices; possibility of a joint management of public services by more municipalities expanding corporate governance) and managerial implications (recruitment strategy, management control system supporting corporate governance) are highlighted. The limit of the work is also identified in the conclusion.