Adoption of comprehensive risk management in local government

What is it about?

Using survey data, our article describes and explains the diffusion and adoption of risk management (RM) in local governments.

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Why is it important?

Our research show that risk environment and institutional characteristics of public sector entities, including persisting silo mentality, do not provide a particularly strong incentive neither for politicians nor public managers to pursue voluntarily the adoption of a formal and comprehensive Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) model. This implies a need for tailored solutions for local governments. We claim that part of the slow adoption of ERM is due to the insensitivity of the developers of such models to the needs and realities of public sector organisations. Thus, if business management models are not sufficiently tailored to the factual needs of local governments, their voluntary adoption is likely to be meagre.