Measuring the Organizational Effectiveness of Public-Private Partnerships: A Case Study of the Department of Energy's Clean Cities Public-Private Partnership Program

This thesis measures the organizational effectiveness of public-private partnerships (PPPs) by using the DOE’s Clean Cities PPP program as a case study. A survey was sent to 109 Clean Cities coordinators with questions pertaining to coalition characteristics and strategies. The survey results formed the basis for the analysis of the effectiveness of the coalitions. Coalitions can have an independent or subsidiary organizational structure. Furthermore, the broad/overarching organizational structure of Clean Cities coalitions serves as an important characteristic that determines a coalition’s organizational operations. In measuring the Clean Cities program in terms of organizational effectiveness, the structure of coalitions (e.g., independent and subsidiary) appeared to be a central variable to use in differentiating the coalitions. By examining statistically if independent and subsidiary coalitions were the same or different across several categories (e.g., coalition characteristics and collaboration success with various stakeholders), this research found that the broad/overarching organizational structure made no difference in the ability of members to deliver results successfully. However, some differences were found in examining if subsidiary and independent coalitions were the same or different across other categories that could not be examined statistically, such as other coalition characteristics and the strategies members use in carrying out their organization’s mission statement. From this analysis, it can be concluded that even though a coalition’s broad/overarching structure makes little to no difference in determining organizational success, how an organization’s internal structure is developed and/or managed was found to be important to members in delivering results successfully. A coalition’s internal organizational structure refers to the strategies members use to get work done and fulfill their missions. A coalition’s internal structure and other key characteristics of success highlighted by survey respondents were consistent with findings in the literature describing the success factors for public-private partnerships.;Keywords: Public-private partnerships, The Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Public-private partnership program, Clean Cities coordinators, Independent coalition, Subsidiary coalition.