Collective digital transformation: Institutional work in municipal collaboration

Abstract

Digital transformation is dramatically changing the provisioning of public sector services. As such, it has moved from an added channel to fundamentally reshaping the public sector. Albeit transformative, this increased utilization of digital solutions is not equally distributed within the sector. Much has been written about the digital divide and how the shift to digital services marginalizes groups of citizens, yet less is known about the differences inferred through uneven digital transformation across municipalities. While certain municipalities have been quick to adopt digital solutions, others fall behind, increasing the performance spread and significantly challenging the notion of equal access to public sector services. In this study, we explore a revelatory case of inter-municipal collaboration targeted at counteracting this growing inequality among citizens belonging to two different municipalities. We find that collective digital transformation is enacted with a strong emphasis on assuring the complementarity rather than homogeneity of the two involved parties. This finding is discussed from the perspective of institutional work and collective ambidexterity to identify future research opportunities in the study of collective digital transformation.