Building Inter-organizational Cooperative Network for IT Collaboration

Information technology has been a central enabler in the process toward network society. Despite the critical role of computers in inter-organizational arrangements, coordination of IT decisions within these networks is a fairly unexplored area, both in research and in practice. The processes through which the orchestration of IT in networks takes place are largely hidden. In this paper we investigate the processes through which three public sector networks tried to reach collaborative agreements in the use and management of IT. We present some preliminary findings in the areas of management, vision, mission, and shared goals in the context of networks' IT governance.