A Study of Decision Making in British Business Improvement District Organisations

Frank, Fafiyebi Olaniyi (2021) A Study of Decision Making in British Business Improvement District Organisations. Masters by Research thesis (MPhil), Manchester Metropolitan University.

Preview

Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

The British BID industry has been growing rapidly since the passing of the BID legislation in the year 2004 by the UK government. BID organisations are known for the ability to generate private funds for the purpose of supporting local councils in the development of town and city centres in the UK. The vast literature on BID however has been on issues such as the evaluation of BID organisations, the undemocratic nature of BIDs, and the impact of BID organisations in communities paying less attention to how BID organisations make place-based decisions that are vital to their host communities. This research explores the BID industry in the UK from the lens of organisational behaviour and identifies the determinants of decision-making within BID organisations, as well as how BID organisations manage the different stakeholder groups participating in the governance of places. Case study methodology was to examine decision-making in four BID cases. Findings from the study suggest that there are three determinants of decision-making used by BID organisations: Funding, BID governance, and Nature of Projects. BID organisations engage with stakeholder using a tactics known as Enrolment. Through enrolment, BID organisations inform, consult, collaborate, and empower their stakeholders to get involved in their decision-making process. A decision-making framework for understanding Place-Based Decision-Making (PBDM) among BID organisations is proposed based on the findings of this study. The framework maps out the steps in making decisions by BID organisations. Contributions arising from this research are: The strategy used by BID organisations in engaging their diverse stakeholder groups, a framework illustrating the decision-making phases in BID organisations.