A grounded theory study of the establishment of public-private alliances in official development assistance programmes

Abstract

This paper uses a grounded theory methodology to develop a conceptual model of the main concerns of the partners and the social and decision-making processes associated with establishing public-private alliances in official development assistance programmes. The results suggest that the establishment of PPAs is the result of the complex interaction of 'Processes and Process Issues', 'Alliance Initiation', 'Alliance Leadership', 'Modifiers' and 'Alliance Relationships'. Although individual alliance is context specific, there are five key areas where attention should be focussed during the establishment and where the participants can potentially influence the establishment to optimise the chance of success.