"Public-private partnerships: Interdisciplinary challenges for business history"

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are collaborative frameworks in which the public sector partners with private companies on large-scale projects through service agreements (Hodge & Greve, 2007). Although PPPs have a longstanding history, they have become especially prominent in recent decades as public entities increasingly seek private financing for infrastructure (De Vries, 2013; Fertik & Lamoreaux, 2020).
Throughout much of the 20th century, infrastructure in Europe was typically funded by public budgets and implemented by government organizations (for examples in the U.S., see Moore, 2011). Since the late 20th century, however, the rise of PPPs represents a significant transformation, with advocates seeing PPPs as ways to facilitate financing, increase flexibility, reduce public risk, and expedite project timelines. Conversely, critics argue that PPPs often defer costs and may raise corruption risks. In Finland, the Helsinki-Lahti highway project of 1999, which used a lifecycle model (Nevalainen, 2020), set a precedent for PPP use and is now applied across various national infrastructure and municipal projects.
Despite their importance in both societal and business contexts, PPPs remain underexamined within business history, with most studies focusing on single companies, countries, or industries (e.g., Rodrigues & Sangster, 2012; Pereira, 2019). This may stem from PPPs’ broad definition and diverse implementations, particularly in international contexts, which complicate study (Hodge & Greve, 2007). However, given PPPs' central role today, they offer a valuable subject for historical inquiry (Hasselgren, 2013; De Vries, 2013).
This presentation, part of a planned business history project on the long-term adaptation of Finnish businesses, examines the evolving relationship between the state and private sector as a central theme. We aim to: (a) review international business history discourse on PPPs, (b) compare these discussions with political science and economics perspectives, and (c) highlight cases demonstrating how historical research can deepen our understanding of PPPs as socio-economic phenomena.