IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zag/busexc/v12y2018i2p59-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Priorities Regarding The Management Of Public Utility Services In The Western Region Of Romania

Author

Listed:
  • Oana-Ramona Lobont

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania)

  • Alexandru Bociu

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania)

  • Nicoleta-Claudia Moldovan

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania)

  • Iulia Para

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania)

Abstract

Public utility services are an important vector for the development of regional and local communities. Providing these services is equally important to citizens, central, regional and local authorities, and academics. The management of public utility services needs to be completed in the spirit of an efficient and performant process. This paper highlights the perception of the users of public utility services regarding the quality of various public services. Also, it identifies potential improvement measures that can be adopted by the authorities with competences in the field of utility services. In this respect, we apply a methodology based on the survey method, considering a sample of 220 respondents, between December 2014 and April 2015 at the level of the Western Region of Romania, namely the counties of Timis, Caras-Severin, Arad and Hunedoara. The main conclusion of the study reveals users’ dissatisfaction with the quality of public utility services provision, as well as the lack of communication between authorities and citizens.The results of the present paper can form a basis for well-grounded proposals for efficient measures which need to be implemented by local and regional authorities in order to improve the provision of public utility services.

Suggested Citation

  • Oana-Ramona Lobont & Alexandru Bociu & Nicoleta-Claudia Moldovan & Iulia Para, 2018. "Priorities Regarding The Management Of Public Utility Services In The Western Region Of Romania," Poslovna izvrsnost/Business Excellence, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 12(2), pages 59-69.
  • Handle: RePEc:zag:busexc:v:12:y:2018:i:2:p:59-69
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/315004
    Download Restriction: None
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tim Coelli & Antonio Estache & Sergio Perelman & Lourdes Trujillo, 2003. "A Primer on Efficiency Measurement for Utilities and Transport Regulators," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15149, December.
    2. Lawrence O. Mbeng & Jane Probert & Paul S. Phillips & Roy Fairweather, 2009. "Assessing Public Attitudes and Behaviour to Household Waste Management in Cameroon to Drive Strategy Development: A Q Methodological Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-17, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jan Kluge & Sarah Lappöhn & Kerstin Plank, 2023. "Predictors of TFP growth in European countries," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 109-140, February.
    2. David Saal & David Parker & Tom Weyman-Jones, 2007. "Determining the contribution of technical change, efficiency change and scale change to productivity growth in the privatized English and Welsh water and sewerage industry: 1985–2000," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 127-139, October.
    3. Mariani Abdul-Majid & David Saal & Giuliana Battisti, 2011. "The impact of Islamic banking on the cost efficiency and productivity change of Malaysian commercial banks," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(16), pages 2033-2054.
    4. Mehdi Farsi & Aurelio Fetz & Massimo Filippini, 2007. "Benchmarking and Regulation in the Electricity Distribution Sector," CEPE Working paper series 07-54, CEPE Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich.
    5. Luc Baumstark & Claude Ménard & William Roy & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2005. "Modes de gestion et efficience des opérateurs dans le secteur des transports urbains de personnes," Post-Print halshs-00103116, HAL.
    6. Mosheim, Roberto & Lovell, C.A. Knox, 2006. "Economic Efficiency, Structure and Scale Economies in the U.S. Dairy Sector," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21440, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Carlos Pestana Barros & Peter Wanke & Otávio Figueiredo, 2015. "The Brazilian Soccer Championship: an efficiency analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(9), pages 906-915, February.
    8. Walter, Matthias & Cullmann, Astrid & von Hirschhausen, Christian & Wand, Robert & Zschille, Michael, 2009. "Quo vadis efficiency analysis of water distribution? A comparative literature review," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 225-232, September.
    9. Jinjin Zhao, 2020. "Productivity change in the privatized water sector in China (1999–2006)," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 227-241, April.
    10. Johannes Sauer, 2003. "The Efficiency of Rural Infrastructure - Water Supply in Rural Areas of Transition," ERSA conference papers ersa03p463, European Regional Science Association.
    11. Sanford Berg & Chen Lin, 2008. "Consistency in performance rankings: the Peru water sector," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(6), pages 793-805.
    12. Asekenye, Cresensia & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Mukherjee, Deep & Okoko, Nasambu & Kalule Okello, David & Kidula, Nelson & Deom, Mike & Puppala, Naveen, 2013. "Productivity Gaps Among Smallholder Groundnut Farmers: A Comparative Analysis for Uganda and Kenya," 2013 Fourth International Conference, September 22-25, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia 160673, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    13. Dassler, Thoralf & Parker, David & Saal, David S., 2006. "Methods and trends of performance benchmarking in UK utility regulation," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 166-174, September.
    14. Karim L. Anaya & Michael G. Pollitt, 2014. "Does Weather Have an Impact on Electricity Distribution Efficiency? Evidence from South America," Working Papers EPRG 1404, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    15. Germà Bel & Jordi Rosell, 2016. "Public and Private Production in a Mixed Delivery System: Regulation, Competition and Costs," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 533-558, June.
    16. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Wang, Hung-Jen, 2006. "Pitfalls in the estimation of a cost function that ignores allocative inefficiency: A Monte Carlo analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 317-340, October.
    17. Andor, Mark A. & Parmeter, Christopher & Sommer, Stephan, 2019. "Combining uncertainty with uncertainty to get certainty? Efficiency analysis for regulation purposes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(1), pages 240-252.
    18. Gitto, Simone & Mancuso, Paolo, 2009. "Productivity change in Italian airports," MPRA Paper 34367, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Stronzik, Marcus, 2013. "Investitions- und Innovationsanreize: Ein Vergleich zwischen Revenue Cap und Yardstick Competition," WIK Discussion Papers 379, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    20. Tovar, Beatriz & Javier Ramos-Real, Francisco & de Almeida, Edmar Fagundes, 2011. "Firm size and productivity. Evidence from the electricity distribution industry in Brazil," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 826-833, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zag:busexc:v:12:y:2018:i:2:p:59-69. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dario Dunković (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fefzghr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.