ABSTRACT
As in many countries, there is a critical public debate in Greece on the performance of state enterprises, with media reports of incidents or impressions of malfunction and inefficiency. Criticism is usually levelled at:
the low productivity of public enterprises, in particular that of their employees, who are perceived to return less than the privileges they assume;
the lack of innovation and management initiative;
the deficits in ‘problem’ firms and in some utilities.
State bureaucracy and tight controls, political interventionism, and outdated management systems and structures are assumed the main causes of low performance. Much of this criticism, however, is based on selective experience and partial case study, rather than on systematic research and analysis of performance, and the factors which affect it.