Business improvement districts and their management organisations : A review of their history, institutional forms and functions

Business improvement districts (BIDs) are areas/districts designated for the delivery of supplementary local public services. Their management organisations (BIDMOs) are authorised to deliver these services to designated areas. In this paper, the variations in the legal statuses of BIDMOs in the US (local governments as BIDMOs, public authorities and non-profits) and other countries (eg the task performer model in Germany) are summarised. To present the contexts of these variations, the long and recent historical evolutions in the 20th century are traced. The three different ways BIDs are conceptualised in academic literature (BIDs as neoliberal tools, BIDs as public–private partnerships and BIDMOs as actors in metropolitan governance) are summarised and their implications for understanding their roles in metropolitan governance discussed. The following implications of the definitions, history and conceptualisations for practitioners are presented. First, it is important for all practitioners to understand the complexity of and variations in BIDs and their evolution in order to appreciate their significance in metropolitan governance in today’s world. Secondly, practitioners should be aware of the implications of the various provisions of the BID-enabling laws, such as the direct approval and remonstrance models in their creation. Thirdly, they should be aware of the variations in the services that may be provided by BIDMOs and the authorities they may exercise, as well as the historical trend of widening of the range of these services and authorities. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.