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Be it about blending intangibles to deliver to market needs or directed at fulfilling aspirations pushing at technological frontiers, inter-firm collaborations across industry boundaries are much in vogue. This paper aims to classify some collaborations as “odd couple collaborations”. These are fuelled more by aspirations of the partner firms, and not as much by market pull. The study provides key distinguishing characteristics for these and an understanding of what makes them tick.

The paper draws on secondary sources in the public domain to understand the motives and performance of several inter-firm collaborations. Odd couple collaborations are examined and some essential performance enablers are highlighted.

A typology that distinguishes odd couple collaborations from other inter-firm collaborations is drawn out. Analysing the performance of such collaborations, and a need for partners to work on the visibility and appeal of such collaborations, is discussed. Stringent market evaluation of the offering and careful creative blending of intangibles are also highlighted as key enablers.

The paper contributes to a vast body of research on inter-sector or distant collaborations by isolating and examining a niche that is fast becoming pronounced. The analysis of odd couple collaborations provides cues for effective strategies for superior value from such collaborations. As organisations constantly seek to extend their innovative potential, these insights may prove useful for both practice and research.

Public entrepreneurs are an under-researched group in local government. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual complexities of public entrepreneurs who pursue more creative ways of “doing more with less” to cope with dynamic financial and societal anxieties of Greek local government fiscal austerity policy reforms. Precisely, this study aims to the understanding of how specific contextual influences impact, first, on the nature of public entrepreneurship and, second, on manifested outcomes. A systematic approach marks the authors attempt to assess the broader impact pointing out the implications for research, policy and practice.

A case study of Greek local government draws on 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews with public entrepreneurs across top, middle and front-line levels of management, field notes, documentary and archival evidence.

The findings demonstrate unique Greek contextual complexities such as contradictory tensions between triggered decentralisation of control and responsibilities of the local government and attempts of external reinvention rather than internal renewal. These complexities influence public entrepreneurs’ systemic entrepreneurship behaviours in Greek local government since the implementation of fiscal austerity policy reforms in 2010. Their representation is manifest in policy, administrative and technological outcomes with public value consequences.

This research contributes to a deeper understanding of public entrepreneurship in context. Greek local government public entrepreneurs bring original insights on the contextual influences of their systemic enactment and manifested outcomes, with implications for research, policy and practice.

The chapter proposes that a new public enterprise (NPE) now characterises developments in local policymaking and service delivery. The NPE places the local public sector in a leading role, either in the direct ‘contracting in’ of services previously contracted out to the private sector, or in the co-ordination of partnerships between public, private and voluntary sector providers. Such remunicipalisation is non-ideological in nature, and international in its scope, being prompted by pragmatic considerations of cost and effectiveness.

The discussion draws from the authors' cumulative primary research on local public services and regeneration and specifically from a series of interviews with local leaders and senior managers conducted in 2018 and 2019.

It was found that traditional conceptions of ‘public’ vs ‘private’ are largely outmoded. Contracting ‘in’ is practised even by those on the Right of the political spectrum. The public sector is a leader of local partnerships and it is no longer assumed that the private sector brings greater efficiency or effectiveness.

The term ‘new public enterprise’ is used in an innovative way to describe the changed relationship between public, private and voluntary sectors. This has significant implications for both practice and theory. The empirical prevalence of the NPE can readily be identified in the UK and internationally. Its theoretical implications are challenging but promising.