Corporatization is the process of transforming state assets, government agencies, or municipal organizations into corporations. It refers to a restructuring of government and public organizations into their administration. The result of corporatization is the creation of state-owned corporations where the government retains a majority ownership of the corporation's stock. In contrast, the term may also refer to the construction of state corporatism, where state-owned corporations are created and delegated public joint-stock, publicly listed companies, in order to introduce corporate and business management techniques to social tasks resembling corporate nationalism as an alternative to privatization.['] Corporatization can also refer to non-corporate entities like universities or hospitals becoming corporations, or taking up management structures or other features and behaviors employed by corporations.[']
History
The move towards neoliberaleconomic reform and New Public Management public service reform in the 1980s led to privatization of public functions in many countries. Corporatization was seen as a half-way house on the road to privatization. These state-owned enterprises are organized in the same manner as private corporations, with the difference that the company's shares remain in the ownership of the state and are not traded on the stock market. Corporatization is today often seen as an end in itself in order to introduce autonomy in organizations, hoping that this brings efficiency gains. Some argue that the trend towards corporatization has sped up due to the financial crisis, although there is evidence that there has been a trend towards corporatization since at least the start of the century.
Reasons and effects
Corporatization can be used to improve efficiency of public service delivery, as a step towards privatization, or to alleviate fiscal stress.
(Potentially) improving efficiency
A key purpose of corporatization is externalization. The effect of corporatization has been to convert state departments into public companies and interpose commercial boards of directors between the shareholding ministers / city council and the management of the enterprises. Such externalization creates legal and managerial autonomy from politicians, which could potentially increase efficiency, as it safeguards the firm from political exploitation. However, corporatization can also fail to bring efficiency, because this autonomy reduces the government's ability to monitor its management. Whether corporatization is beneficial may depend on the nature of the service that is corporatized, where autonomy may be less beneficial for more politicized and complex services.
Step towards privatization or hybridization
Although corporatization is to be distinguished from privatization, once a service has been corporatised it is often relatively easy to privatise or part-privatise it, for example by selling some or all of the company's shares via the stock market. In some cases there are laws to prevent this.[] Corporatization also can be a step towards the creation of hybrid forms of organization, such as institutional public-private partnerships or inter-municipal service organizations.
Alleviate fiscal stress
Corporatization is also a means to alleviate fiscal stress, as corporations can become standalone organizations that do not count towards municipalities' budgets.
Prevalence
Corporatization of state enterprises and collectively owned enterprises was a major component of the economic restructuring program of formerly communist nations, most notably the People's Republic of China. China's contemporary socialist market economy is based on a corporatized state sector where state companies are owned by the central government but managed in a semi-autonomous fashion. Corporatization has also been used in New Zealand and most states of Australia in the reform of their electricity markets, as well as in many other countries and industries.
Major areas
National level
On a national scale, major areas of services which have been corporatized in the past include:[']
National railroads, the initial impetus to corporatization of functions that had belonged to national and local governing bodies began in the sphere of national railroad construction in the mid-19th century.
On a local scale, major areas of services which have been corporatized include:
Corporatized water, for example, the Dutch water supply companies are publicly owned corporations. For involvement of private corporations in water supply, see water industry and water privatization.
