Jashwini Jothishna Narayan
School of Management & Public Administration, Faculty of Business & Economics, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

Series: Business Issues, Competition and Entrepreneurship
BISAC: BUS025000

This book uncovers the factors that determine financial performance of public enterprises. Literature provides clear evidence that reforms have not corrected the ills of all public enterprises across the world, giving rise to the question: Why is it that reforms fare well in certain public enterprises while others remain plagued? This is the central theme of this book. The author used Fiji as a country case study. Fiji is a small, developing coup ridden, Pacific island economy. Nevertheless, like other countries across the world, Fiji has also tried to reform its public enterprises. Drawing from the existing literature on the success and failure of reforms throughout the world, this book shows how reforms have led to better financial performance in some public enterprises, while others remain the same or have worsened.

Overall, this book will enhance the understanding of reforms and the related positive and/or negative consequences. In addition, given the reform related transformations currently underway globally in public enterprises, books such as this are not only timely, but can also have policy implications. This book can thus provide practitioners, policy makers as well as the scholars with insights on what affects financial performance of public enterprises.

The author sought to write a book that appeals to readers seeking to understand small developing island public enterprise issues. Public enterprise issues are a global concern and interest many. As background information, the decision to write a book on this subject matter is related to author’s research conducted during her MA and PhD studies. Additionally, the fact that there are many books on the subject matter but only on larger and more developed countries gave incentive for this compilation’s creation. There exists a noticeable gap in something similar to a small, developing island nation. This book is the author’s PhD thesis in Management and Public Administration. The research published will enhance its availability and fill the gap that exists in public enterprise reforms in small island economies. (Imprint: Nova)