Politics and Public Services: Looking Beyond economic rationality and Public Value

Purpose: To understand whether new public management and public value theory are sufficient to guide the strategic behaviours adopted by public sector organizations for their service delivery companies. Design/methodology/approach: This article uses a longitudinal case study of a joint stock company running an airport service in Tuscany. Findings: Public value theory should be further developed to guide managerial behaviours in a very complex decision-making environment. Research limitations: Only one case study is used so results cannot be generalized in a proper statistical way. Practical implications: Public managers could learn the usefulness of managerial theories for their decision-making.