Analyzing digital government partnerships: An institutional logics perspective

Abstract

Digital government is transforming public service provision through collaboration between governments and companies. However, establishing digital government partnerships is complex and challenging, with governments often lacking a clear view of the influencing factors in various configurations and their underlying logics. Based on the theory of institutional logics, this study discusses the state, market, and corporation logic in digital government partnerships, and identifies six influencing factors. Employing a multiple qualitative comparative analysis method, the analysis of 31 provincial regions in Chinese mainland over five years derived 19 solutions that lead to a high digital government performance. These findings reveal the causal relationships between the configurational strategies for digital government partnerships and the different outcomes in terms of digital government performance. A series of propositions are derived to explain the logic multiplicity behind the configurations. This study theorizes the configurational relationships of the influencing factors and their underlying logics to enhance the understanding of the intricate diversity and dynamics exhibited within digital government partnerships.