Control mechanisms exercised in Malaysian housing public-private partnerships

There is a dearth of publications on the actual implementation of housing public-private partnerships (PPPs), especially in developing countries. Control mechanisms used by public agencies in Malaysia under PPP arrangements to ensure private partner compliance were examined. The governance archetypes which prevailed in the PPP relationships were also identified. The control mechanisms typology prepared by management accounting scholars was used as the theoretical framework. Qualitative data, mainly from informants, were collected from 10 public agencies using the multi-case approach. The case studies were found to adopt specific control mechanisms when choosing suitable partners (exploratory phase), crafting the agreement (contract phase) and firming up control activities (execution phase). These mechanisms are associated with bureaucracy and hybrid governance archetypes, but not the market governance archetype. Recommendations to improve the effectiveness of certain control mechanisms deployed by the case studies are presented at the end of the paper. Public agencies in Malaysia and abroad which share the same housing PPP variant as Malaysia's are recommended to adopt transferable best practices contained within the respective control mechanisms. Construction management scholars should consider adopting the control mechanism typology for their own research undertakings.