Abstract
ICT has a significant role in the development and production of municipal services, and in the daily work of municipal civil servants. Yet, municipalities typically develop and operate their ICT activities independently with limited ICT resources, both money and people. Limited resources are the key incentive for inter-municipal ICT cooperation. This article investigates how ICT cooperation is carried out within 20 municipal regions. As the theoretical basis we review transaction cost economics (TCE), resource based view (RBV) and the constructs of Granovetter’s social network theory. They are used to outline potential economic and social benefits emerging from ICT cooperation and to describe social mechanisms that influence the realization of such benefits. Our empirical data reveals that there are distinct differences in the effectiveness of ICT activities, in the amount of ICT cooperation and in the governance of ICT cooperation. Our analysis reveals that the emperor will not have clothes – ICT cooperation benefits – unless the cooperation is properly organized and governed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ministry of Finance. https://wiki.julkict.fi/julkict/Kuntauudistus/ict-muutostuki-1. Accessed 30 Nov 2015
Dahlberg, T.: The creation of inter-organisational IT governance for social welfare and healthcare IT – lessons from a case study. IJNVO 16(1), 38–71 (2016)
ePS2, Tietohallintoyhteistyö, Kari Hyvönen, presentation material, 4 November 2015
Williamson, O.E.: Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications – A Study in the Economics of Internal Organization. The Free Press, New York (1975)
Wiengarten, F., Humphreys, P., Cao, G., McHugh, M.: Exploring the important role of organizational factors in IT business value: taking a contingency perspective on the resource-based view. Int. J. Manag. Rev. 15(1), 30–46 (2013)
Granovetter, M.S.: The strength of weak ties. Am. J. Sociol. 78(6), 1360–1380 (1973)
Granovetter, M.S.: The strength of weak ties: a network theory revisited. Sociol. Theory 1, 201–233 (1983)
Granovetter, M.S.: Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness. Am. J. Sociol. 91(3), 481–510 (1985)
Granovetter, M.S.: The impact of social structure on economic outcomes. J. Econ. Perspect. 19(1), 33–50 (2005)
Williamson, O.E.: The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. The Free Press, New York (1985)
Geyskens, I., Steenkamp, J.-B.E.M., Kumar, N.: Make, buy, or ally: a transaction cost theory meta-analysis. Acad. Manag. J. 49(3), 519–543 (2006)
Barney, J.: Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. J. Manag. 17(1), 99–120 (1991)
Das, T.K., Teng, B.-S.: A resource-based theory of strategic alliances. J. Manag. 26(1), 31–61 (2000)
Park, N.K., Mezias, J.M., Song, J.: A resource-based view of strategic alliances and firm value in the electronic marketplace. J. Manag. 30(1), 7–27 (2004)
Scott, J.: Social Network Analysis, 3rd edn. Sage Publications Ltd., London (2013)
Väestörekisterikeskus. http://vrk.fi/default.aspx?docid=8816&site=3&id=0. Accessed 17 Mar 2016
Kuntaliitto. http://www.kunnat.net/fi/kunnat/toiminta/yhteistoiminta/Sivut/default.aspx. Accessed 24 Mar 2016
The Constitution of Finland, Ministry of Justice, Finland. http://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/1999/en19990731.pdf. Accessed 21 Mar 2016
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dahlberg, T., Helin, A. (2016). The Emperor with No Clothes – Inter-organizational ICT Cooperation Within Municipal Regions. In: Li, H., Nykänen, P., Suomi, R., Wickramasinghe, N., Widén, G., Zhan, M. (eds) Building Sustainable Health Ecosystems. WIS 2016. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 636. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44672-1_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44672-1_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44671-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44672-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)