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The Emperor with No Clothes – Inter-organizational ICT Cooperation Within Municipal Regions

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Building Sustainable Health Ecosystems (WIS 2016)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 636))

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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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Turku School of Economics, Information Systems Science, University of Turku, 20014, Turun Yliopisto, Finland

    Tomi Dahlberg & Ari Helin

Authors
  1. Tomi Dahlberg
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  2. Ari Helin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tomi Dahlberg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Hongxiu Li

  2. University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Pirkko Nykänen

  3. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Reima Suomi

  4. Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

    Nilmini Wickramasinghe

  5. Åbo Academi University, Turku, Finland

    Gunilla Widén

  6. Åbo Academi University, Turku, Finland

    Ming Zhan

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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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

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44672-1_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44671-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44672-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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