Helle Zinner Henriksen

Kim Normann Andersen

Rony Medaglia

Public Sector IS Maturity Models: Legal Pluralism Invades Public Schools

Keywords: public sector, IS, adoption, maturity models, public schools, primary schools

Online applications and processing of tax forms, driver licenses, and construction permits are examples of where policy attention and research have been united in efforts aiming to categorize the maturity level of e-services. Less attention has been attributed to policy areas with continuous online citizenpublic interaction, such as in public education. In this paper we use a revised version of the Public Sector Process Rebuilding (PPR) maturity model for mapping 200 websites of public primary schools in Denmark. Findings reveal a much less favorable picture of the digitization of the Danish public sector compared to the high ranking it has received in the international benchmark studies. This paper aims at closing the gap between the predominant scope of maturity models and the frequency of citizen-public sector interaction, and calls for increased attention to the activities of government where the scale and frequency of the interaction between citizens and government will challenge our concepts of maturity.

Introduction

In 2002, the Danish government published the "Act on transparency and openness in education" (2002 Act), introducing the requirement for public primary schools to use the Internet to provide data regarding student grades and wellbeing. The results of the take up of such measures in public primary schools are indeed very far from the objectives set out in the act. The "360 degree review of schools," a recently published report, calls for a much stronger focus on results, thus reemphasizing the recommendations from the 2002 Act.

The objective of this paper is to highlight the potential tension between law-driven digitization of public sector activities and adherence to the legal acts. Digitization represents a challenge in relation to the numerous ways of interpreting how the rules and regulations are actually implemented in a satisfactory manner, leading to the phenomenon of stage models and also to the, by now somehow dated, debate on the digital divide.

These observations have driven this study of how Danish publish schools live up to the objectives of the 2002 Act. Three main issues have formed the basis for this study on public schools' use of the Internet: -Can grades for each school be accessed simply and quickly on the school website? -Are assessment criteria and indicators of the achievement of objectives for grade levels available through the website? -Does the school website provide a comparison of objectives and grades with other schools? Our tool to analyze the public school websites is the Public Sector Process Rebuilding (PPR) model [START_REF] Andersen | E-government and Public Sector Process Rebuilding[END_REF][START_REF] Andersen | E-government maturity models: Extension of the Layne and Lee model[END_REF]. The PPR model provides a natural extension of the political statements about openness and comparison mediated through the digital channels. Its essential premise is that the central challenge for the public sector is to organize performance with the user in focus, and to do this with activity content as the focal point in each public agency using ICT.

In the following section we present and discuss a revised version of the PPR model, used as analytical framework to analyze the data of this study. In section 3 we outline the methods used for sampling, data collection and analysis, and highlight some limitations of the study. In section 4 we present and discuss the findings. In the conclusion section we provide a summary of the study results, reflections on the findings, and outline implications for future research on the topic area.

Analytical Framework

The maturity model as a tool of categorization of e-government

The maturity model we have used to assess school websites is a normative model with four maturity levels (see Figure 1 below). It has as its assumption that the overall goal is to move up to the highest level possible. This assumption is shared with other maturity models for IT in government [START_REF] Layne | Developing Fully Functional E-government: A Four Stage Model[END_REF][START_REF] Moon | The Evolution of E-government among Municipalities: Rhetoric or Reality?[END_REF][START_REF] Baum | Gartner's four phases of e-government model[END_REF][START_REF] Siau | Synthesizing egovernment stage models -a metasynthesis based on meta-ethnography approach[END_REF][START_REF] Dhillon | Realising transformational stage egovernment: a UK local authority perspective[END_REF]. It is obviously debatable whether it is a unified and shared objective to pursue the evolutionistic target of ranking on the highest level of a given maturity model [START_REF] King | Evolution and Organizational Information Systems: An Assessment of Nolan's Stage Model[END_REF]. For example, for some schools it can make more sense, from an economical point of view, to remain at a level rather than to rush towards a higher and initially cost-driven level. It is also debatable whether maturity models capture the objectives of being online. For example, Layne and Lee's [START_REF] Layne | Developing Fully Functional E-government: A Four Stage Model[END_REF] maturity model has data integration and technological complexity as the two key dimensions; on the basis of these two dimensions, it develops four maturity levels: catalog, transaction, vertical integration and horizontal integration. In comparison with the PPR model and the Gartner Group Open Government Maturity Model [START_REF]Gartner Group Open Government Maturity Model[END_REF], the Layne and Lee [START_REF] Layne | Developing Fully Functional E-government: A Four Stage Model[END_REF] model is less ambitious in relation to services for citizens because its focus is more technical and organization-oriented.

The PPR maturity model has two dimensions. The horizontal dimension is the activity orientation, while the vertical dimension reflects the user/ customer focus of the homepages. The maturity level of each website is assessed depending on the extent to which the activities and the clarity of user/ customer are in focus. In comparison with the original PPR model, in this study we rephrase the levels of maturity, and adjust the variables for assessing each website. In addition, we add the dimension "sophistication of IT use" to improve the visualization of using IT as a cornerstone of maturity. The model has four phases of maturity. The first phase (cultivation) is characterized by having no links to key data. In the public school case, this refers to parameters such as marks for grade levels. At this level, there is a long time gap between updating of information on targets and follow-up on previous data; thus websites are designed without a visible focus on user needs. However, this does not mean that public schools in this group are not using IT.

The second phase (extension phase) represents schools with unclear objectives and strategies for the extent to which the Internet should be used, and there is a strong element of reservation towards greater openness about grades. Although general objectives are available and there are links to websites whereby the user can click on data about the school, there are no direct links to the school's data, and users of the website are not encouraged to consult the data. One characteristic of this group of schools is that it seems unclear whether the aim of the website is to create openness, to give as little and as unbiased information as possible, or whether the aim is to keep the user away from pursuing the data. There is thus great risk that the website does not live up to what the digital user wants.

The third phase (customization phase) has unique links to websites where information about grades can be found, as well as links to the school's objectives, and indicators for the retrieval of these are available. There is a solid effort to create credible and visible processes. There are individual user interfaces, and the Internet is used as a key tool to increase transparency. The strategy for these sites seems clear: Internet technology is used for users to easily and simply gain insight into key output targets.

Finally, there is the fourth and final step (sustainability phase). Schools classified at this level use Web 2.0 tools and rich media for dialogue and engagement with current and / or future users. At this stage, it is simple to find data about grade average and variation. There is also data on teachers' job satisfaction and other information that supports the user's assessment of whether schools have clear objectives and whether these are being met. This group of schools is characterized by seeing the Internet not as a means to insulate themselves from users, but as a means of improving transparency and openness -with end users in focus. The four steps can be seen as an expression of legal pluralism.

Legal pluralism

In the field of sociology of law, the concept of legal pluralism caught our attention due to an observable difference in the implementation of the 2002 Act. Legal pluralism focuses on how informal norms shape behavior independently of the explicit rules stated in the law. Legal pluralism has been defined as "the presence in a social field of more than one legal order" [START_REF] Griffith | What Is Legal Pluralism[END_REF]. Legal pluralism represents a deviation from the legal centralist conception [11], which is how most non-lawyers perceive law: an exclusive systematic and hierarchical ordering of normative propositions [START_REF] Griffith | What Is Legal Pluralism[END_REF]. This view is supported by an acceptance of laws and rules as instruments to maintain a civil society where citizens accept common norms stated in the law [START_REF] Durkheim | Classical Sociology. Emilie Durkheim on civil society[END_REF]. None the less, the acceptance of more than one legal order is well recognized in society where interpretation of legal rules plays a central role. This is best depicted in TV-series such as "Law & Order" where the excitement is the verbal battle of the interpretation of rules and regulation.

The popular court-room dramas get to the root of a dilemma which jurisprudence has been struggling with for centuries: justice. Is justice given e.g. by God or is it socially constructed? Legal pluralism belongs to the latter view " legal centralism would be "a myth, an ideal, a claim, an illusion", whereas legal pluralism would be the fact" [START_REF] Dupret | Legal Pluralism, Plurality of Laws, and Legal Practices:Theories, Critiques, and Praxiological Respecification[END_REF]. The view points to law as a means of social control where groups of individuals determine what is socially acceptable within a given range of possible outcomes. Regulation such as the 2002 Act is in other words not a binary code of legal or illegal. Adherence to the Act depends on the expectations of the social group exposed to the publishing of grades. If parents expect grades to be published in a Phase IV format (the sustainability phase) then the school would receive complaints if there were broken links or misleading links represented by Phase I in the maturity model. If the school does not provide the necessary information parents would make use of the commands provided by the 2002 Act. Figure 2 shows how we have interpreted the four maturity steps with respect to linking to grade information related to legal pluralism. The school outside the grey area might provide information to parents through their intranet, but does not provide information via public websites. These schools do not live up to the 2002 Act at all. In the grey area, there are four types which, to some extent, live up to the 2002 Act. Schools in the cultivation phase make it difficult for users to find information because the link to the UNI-C national base provides information about all public schools, or no direct link/ guidance for accessing the central UNI-C base. A variation of the cultivation phase is the case where the school web-site provides a broken link. The broken link can reflect that there is infrequent maintenance of the web-site or it can reflect that it has low priority to allocate qualified staff which can secure a robust web-site. The next level, the extension phase, provides a link to the UNI-C base, thus leaving it up to users to find the school in the list of +1,500 public schools included in the UNI-C base. In the customization phase, there is a deep link to specific schools. In the fourth phase, the sustainability phase, the school draws its information on grades from the UNI-C base, thus ensuring that information is automatically updated but also making certain that the data fit into the layout of the overall school website.

Based on the normative maturity model presented in Figure 1, we have analyzed 200 public school websites. The total number of public primary schools in Denmark is 1,510. The 200 schools analyzed in this study have been selected based on their location. Denmark is divided into five regions that vary in population density. The ratio between population density and number of schools in each region determines the number of schools selected from each region.

The categorization of sites is based on an assessment of the accessibility of the websites. The method is seen as an appropriation of how a real user would use the website. We have lent inspiration from the Human-Computer Interaction discipline and applied the cognitive walkthrough method [START_REF] Wharton | Applying Cognitive Walkthroughs to more Complex User Interfaces: Experiences[END_REF]. Our application of the cognitive walkthrough method means that we perform the assessment of the schools' interface in a task-specific manner (i.e., if the school posts grades on its website), where the assessment is guided by a questionnaire that draws on the parameters in the PPR model.

We have set twelve variables to guide the scoring and assessment of the individual sites. We have used an unweighted distribution of points from the 12 criteria reflecting the degree of user orientation and activity orientation. Each variable has a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. The value of zero has been given in those cases where it was not possible to access the variable. The total score thus ranges from 0 to 60 points. The twelve variables are:

-Output such as grade average and variation is clear from the website -Cost data, satisfaction surveys, etc., centrally located and communicated -Use of Web 2.0 and rich media for dialogue and mediation -Unique link to websites where ratios for school outputs can be found -Customized user interface -The school's objectives and progress indicators are available -General data on quality is available -Specific output indicators of educational objectives for each grade are available, but kept in general terms -Links to websites with key figures exist, but with strong reservations about this data -No links to key data quality or quantity of teaching -Simple websites where the general / average user is in focus -The content update is not frequent As a result, each website has been classified in one of the four phases, with 0-24% of the maximum score (60) for placement in the first group, 25-49% of the total score for placement in the second group, 50-74% in the third group, and 75% or more of the maximum score for placement in the last group.

In assessing the 200 individual sites, we have devoted no more than 15 minutes to assess the 12 variables. It is our assumption that additional time for assessment would not be in line with what actual users would expect to require for finding information. If, for instance, there was a link to relevant information and this information was last updated in 2005, we coded the website to be in phase 2 of the maturity model presented in Fig. 1.

It should also be noted that we did not systematically examine whether there were historical data on the grades available on the websites. Obviously, it would be more interesting for users if there were time series available on the website. It could be questioned whether variables are additive, and whether discrete variables could be considered as a continuum. Both these problems were present in the analysis of the collected data, where a number of schools ranked relatively high on some variables and lower on others. We acknowledge that an unweighted classification is a source of potential errors, leading to an underestimation of the degrees of maturity.

The assessment of websites was meant to represent a broad range of schools by region. We evaluated 28 schools in the North Jutland region, 30 schools in Zealand, 52 in South Denmark, 50 in Mid-Jutland, and 40 in the Capital Region. Table 1 illustrates the number of schools assessed, and the total number of primary schools in the regions. Data on the number of schools can be retrieved from www.nogletal.dk. Despite the attempt to create a stratified selection, there is a minor anomaly in the data, which theoretically could give a biased result. However, it is our assessment that this would not be the case if we had taken the samples outside the selected data population. Scores have been given from a general assessment of the websites. We did not make an assessment of website design, but only of its usability and ability in providing openness and transparency. We assumed identical digital user skills and similar levels for digital inclusion among the various schools. We have not investigated any correlations with the size of the school in terms of number of students or budget and use of the Internet. We acknowledge that there could be different resources and prioritization of information on the Internet in larger schools, compared to smaller schools. It should also be noted that there may well be websites with high aesthetic value and high general IT maturity, as well as profound internal digitization, all of which do not necessarily translate into high value in the digital portal and in business focus. The schools that ranked low on our scale could indeed be good in reaping the benefits of IT in areas other than openness and the transparency of grades given to pupils.

The cognitive walkthrough as research method has recently been criticized for its tendency to focus on surface issues related to the interaction, overlooking more complex behavioral issues in the interaction between user and device [START_REF] Harrison | Formal analysis of interactive systems: opportunities and weaknesses[END_REF]. However, for the purpose of this particular study, the objective is precisely to see if and how public schools manage to translate the spirit of the law into a public access of grades, regardless of complexity.

Main results

In Table 2 we have summarized the main results of the survey of the 200 schools. Nearly two thirds of the schools are placed at maturity phase 1 (66%). Twenty percent of schools (39 schools) are located on phase 2, while a total of 30 schools (15%) are in phases 3 and 4. Seventy-five percent of schools in the first phase have fewer than 5 points.

The overall conclusion is that the majority of the schools are in the cultivation phase. At the opposite end of the scale, in the sustainability phase (step 4), four of the total twelve schools in this category barely match the requirement for this category. None of the 200 schools has received a maximum score. We have applied the measures in a liberal manner, thus leaving no doubt regarding the benefit of the school. In practice, this means that if there has been uncertainty whether there are clear links to grades, we have consistently coded them as though there were links to grades. The main result is that more than two thirds of the schools do not live up to the goal of openness and transparency on grades online, and could even have been higher if we had used more rigid coding than we did.

In our assessment, 131 of the 200 surveyed schools are located at the absolute bottom stages of the maturity model, namely, the cultivation phase. One example is the Holme School website which contains links to quality reports; however, the links are not active and there is nowhere on the website to find information about the average grades given to the school pupils. The website features a teaching environmental assessment, but this is not commented on, and there are no plans for how the evaluation is followed up. The Holme School website well represents schools in the cultivation phase category.

At the second stage of the PPR maturity model, the extension phase, there are 39 schools, approximately 20% of the 200 schools included in our sample. At this stage it is possible to find links to grades granted by the school, but no direct links to the grades within the schools' own website. The user is guided to sites and must then choose from a list of all Danish schools. Typical of this stage is also a widespread reluctance to make even that information available. For example, on the website of the school of Langmark, we found a document questioning the benefits of having student grades available on the web. The school website makes it clear that it is a legal requirement to publish grades online, but it further emphasizes that it is difficult to see how this could be beneficial if published in isolation. In a website page it is stated that the students' "social, personal, professional and democratic competencies represent equal values" -and these are not necessarily reflected in the grades. This statement somehow discourages the parents' interest in monitoring the grades.

A discussion on the appropriateness of publishing grades online falls outside the scope of this paper, but it is obvious that the user of the Langmark school website is not exactly encouraged to search for grades. It should be emphasized that schools at this stage are on a higher scale than what more than two thirds of the schools are, namely, the first step in the maturity model.

Twenty percent of the schools have taken a step up in the maturity model, albeit reluctantly. The Langsø school, for instance, is in this category. The website provides links to the grades of ninth graders, but not for other classes, and does not give access to historical data. There is no link to compare with other schools, and the majority of information on this website has not been updated since last year or longer. The latest information on objectives, for instance, is from 1999.

In the third stage of the model (customization), there are clear and unambiguous links to information about grades for students. There are only 9% of schools in this category. These include the Mariager Fjord School, which has links to grade data in several places on the site, but data appear to remain relatively fragmented. We have found examples outside the selected population of a number of private and independent schools within this stage.

The sustainability phase (stage 4 of the PPR model) clearly provides grade average scores and other figures on the website. The Karise school and the Western High school fall into this category. The two schools located in the Zealand and Jutland regions are examples of extensive information about the grades. One of the schools has the information integrated on the website, and the update of this content is generated using the direct link to the data provider. We could classify only 12 of the 200 schools in this fourth and most advanced stage of the maturity ladder. This corresponds to only 6% of schools. However, four of the schools in this category scored barely enough points to be categorized being at the fourth step.

Using a revised version of the Public Sector Process Rebuilding (PPR) model [START_REF] Andersen | E-government and Public Sector Process Rebuilding[END_REF][START_REF] Andersen | E-government maturity models: Extension of the Layne and Lee model[END_REF] for mapping 200 websites for public primary schools, this paper reveals a much less favorable picture of the Danish public sector, as compared to the high ranking received in the international benchmark studies. This study has attempted to answer three overarching questions; -Can grades for each school be accessed simply and quickly on the school website? -Are assessment criteria and indicators of the achievement of objectives for grade levels available through the website? -Does the school website provide a comparison of objectives and grades with other schools? The answer to these questions is: only to a limited extent. The majority of the schools do not live up to the objectives of transparency and openness with respect to the measures we have studied. Of the 200 schools surveyed, only 15% come up to a level where they have fully implemented the spirit of the law on transparency, comparability and openness over the Internet. The remaining schools (85%) are far behind the goals of the 2002 Act on transparency and openness in education.

The study indicates that it is difficult to see how the law is internalized in the digital management and communication to end-users. There may be two possible reasons for this. Either schools are unaware of how to put information on the Internet, or they are trying to deliberately avoid comparability and accessibility. Whether it is due to ignorance or reluctance, the result is that Danish children and parents in practice do not have access to information about the quality of teaching in the different schools.

In the beginning of this paper we point to legal pluralism, which suggests that we find the explanations in the deliberate avoidance, or at least in the different interpretations, of implementing the law as it was intended. There seems to be acceptance of more than one legal order or interpretation of the law [START_REF] Griffith | What Is Legal Pluralism[END_REF]. In this particular case, the shaping of the norm [START_REF] Durkheim | Classical Sociology. Emilie Durkheim on civil society[END_REF], which appears not to create full and user-friendly transparency and openness, can be excused, to some extent, by the complexity of handling the relatively new channel of communication, the Internet. This challenges the perception of successful e-government implementation in Denmark. It is critical because the domain under investigation holds the position of a high degree of scale and frequency of the ongoing interaction between citizens and government. It is further critical because the particular activity of making grades publicly available represents a task that has a relatively low level of discretion as soon as the grade is granted to a student. The discretion is present when the grade is granted to the student; however, as soon as grades from all students are granted, the fulfillment of the 2002 Act is to publish the grades online without further discretion, and does not involve redistribution of resources or individual case assessment.

In many of the websites included in this study it is explicitly argued by the schools that data on grade point average is misleading. It is mentioned that publication of grades can be counterproductive to other objectives of the school, such as welfare, and that the publication of grades may lead to a unilateral focus on those. Furthermore, on several websites it is argued that parents' and pupils' intranets are already in use, and that the information about grades and student action plans are disseminated through this forum, and thus not visible on the public Internet.

This set of arguments may be subject to further investigations. As far as the use of parental and pupil intranet is concerned, it must be stressed that this platform is closed to students and parents with a direct membership of each class. The parents' and pupils' intranet does not enable future school customers to obtain information. Instead, the publishing and dialogue on grades have to rely on costly physical or asynchronous digital channels that are not necessarily accessible to interested parents who might want to enroll their children in a particular school.

As stated earlier, the PPR model provides a natural extension of the political statements about transparency, openness, and comparison, but has as essential premises not only that the central challenge for the public sector is to organize the performance with the user in focus, but also to do this with content in the activities as the focal point in each school using ICT. In several previous studies, we have found that it appears to be the opposite: IT solutions in the public sector have employees and/ or internal business operations as the focus [START_REF] Andersen | Fads and Facts of E-Government : A Review of Impacts of E-Government[END_REF]. Furthermore, it appears that the institutional interests and structures, rather than individual actors and activities, govern the use of IT [START_REF] Fountain | Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change[END_REF].

This development might be expected, but compared to benefits of objectives, including transparency and openness by means including the Internet, this can act as a limitation to individual teachers. Teachers have particular objectives and goals for their teaching which go beyond high grades and direct measurable outcomes. They may be interested only somewhat in open dialogue mechanisms to achieve their objectives.

The thesis behind the PPR model is such that the litmus test of whether digitization has led to more openness and transparency is not whether one can find information on the web by sacrificing enough time and resources, but rather if the user can simply and quickly find the information. It is a normative model and there is not necessarily an obvious and clear link to the core services of providing quality teaching and high ranking in the maturity model.

The study has not been intended to explain the differences or lack of digital maturity. We acknowledge that in the search for possible causes for the lack of maturity through interviews with school management, it is the teachers and other school employees or other government agencies who would potentially lead to a more varied picture of the individual schools. We aim at conducting such interviews in follow-up research to the data presented in this paper. Also, we acknowledge that we did not do a reverse-link check of links to nationally stored data on the Ministry of Education website. Clearly, an investigation of hyperlinks from the schools' websites to the data stored at the Ministry of Education and the use of the centrally stored data would be another valuable avenue for further research. Finally, we want to call for research attention to the design of maturity models, a fundamental issue that should be addressed with more care when using maturity models to classify multi-faceted institutions, such as public schools. In the ongoing search for maturity models that can cover the areas with most ongoing citizen interaction, attention needs to be given to accounting for the dynamics and transformative elements within each phase.

FocusFigure 1 -

 1 Figure 1 -The adjusted PPR maturity model for analysis of the websites in primary schools

Figure 2 -

 2 Figure 2 -Four types of legal pluralism in relation to the 2002 Act

Table 1 -

 1 Number of primary schools and total number of schools assessed by region

		Number of	Number of	Average	Average number
		public	schools	size of	of students per
		schools	included	school	class
	North Jutland Region	211	28	292	19.1
	Mid-Jutland Region	381	50	358	20.4
	South Denmark Region	394	40	313	20.1
	Denmark Capital Region	299	30	514	21.6
	Zealand Region	225	52	387	20.4
	TOTAL	1,510	200	372	20.5

Table 2 -

 2 Main Results: Maturity Levels by number of schools (n,%)

		Number of schools	Percentage distribution
	Phase 1: Cultivation	131	66%
	Phase 2: Extension	39	20%
	Phase 3: Customization	18	9%
	Phase 4: Sustainability	12	6%
	TOTAL	200	100%


Bjoern Niehaves
email: bjoern.niehaves@ercis.uni-muenster.de

Ralf Plattfaut
email: ralf.plattfaut@ercis.uni-muenster.de

Market, Network, Hierarchy: Emerging Mechanisms of Governance in Business Process Management

Keywords: Public Sector, Business Process Management, Collaboration, Innovation Networks, Quantitative Study

Both financial pressure and customer and service-quality orientation force governments to "innovate their processes." With governmental processes affecting a large variety of stakeholders both inside and outside the government sector, involving these stakeholders in process innovation becomes an important means of increasing know-how, capacity, and ultimately ensure the legitimacy and acceptance of reform efforts. We contribute to the study of collaborative process innovation by applying a governance theory perspective, in order to understand the factors that impact on collaboration. Our quantitative study of 357 local governments reveals that, with an increasing maturity in process innovation, all types of collaboration (market, network, hierarchy) are increasing in importance. Moreover, we find that, under financial stress, governments tend to involve network partners (e.g. other local governments) in process innovation, while a lack of process management knowledge leads to market-oriented collaboration with consultants. We derive implications for management practice and discuss how the study enhances our understanding of process innovation and collaboration in the public sector.

Introduction

Innovation networks and collaboration have become key themes in eGovernment research. With governments being under immense reform pressure, various approaches attempt to modernize, improve or restructure public administrations, be it practices in the context of New Public Management [START_REF] Pollitt | Public management reform: a comparative analysis[END_REF] or eGovernment [START_REF] Lenk | Der Staat am Draht[END_REF]. Due to this high pressure, the diversity of demands, and new areas of responsibility, local governments rely increasingly on innovation networks. Various internal and external actors are involved in reform processes, such as software and consulting companies, local government associations [START_REF] Reichard | Local public management reforms in Germany[END_REF], or individual citizens. Influential research in innovation management (for instance [START_REF] Von Hippel | Innovation by User Communities: Learning From Open-Source Software[END_REF] and [START_REF] Chesbrough | Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology[END_REF]) suggests that access to external knowledge, in order to enlarge an organization's own pool of capabilities, is a key to innovation success. External actors can contribute by providing distinct perspectives on the topic at issue, as well as domain-specific knowledge which does not exist in the public sector organization itself. With the importance of collaboration in eGovernment being widely acknowledged, [START_REF] Gil-Garcia | Collaborative E-Government: Impediments and Benefits of Information-Sharing Projects in the Public Sector[END_REF][START_REF] Sorrentino | Does the Answer to eGovernment Lie in Intermunicipal Collaboration? An Exploratory Italian Case Study[END_REF][START_REF] Becker | Does the Answer Lie in Collaboration? -A Case Study on E-Government and Societal Aging[END_REF], current eGovernment literature fails to provide a general framework that integrates distinct types of collaboration and, second, to understand to empirically investigate contextual factors that impact on collaboration schemata.

Process innovation is an essential element of eGovernment and public sector reform [START_REF] Traunmüller | Directions in E-Government: Processes, Portals, Knowledge[END_REF][START_REF] Kubicek | Methodology for Analysing the Relationship between the Reorganisation of the Back Office and Better Electronic Public Services[END_REF][START_REF] Palkovits | Processes in e-Government -A Holistic Framework for Modelling Electronic Public Services[END_REF][START_REF] Scholl | The dimensions of business process change in electronic government[END_REF][START_REF] Scholl | E-Government Field Force Automation: Promises, Challenges, and Stakeholders[END_REF][START_REF] Niehaves | Democratizing Process Innovation? On Citizen Involvement in Public Sector BPM[END_REF]. It seems to have established as common sense that municipalities need to innovate their business processes: cost-cutting, especially in times of the financial crisis, as well as citizen and service quality orientation, have led to calls for a program of process innovation in public organizations [START_REF] Scholl | The dimensions of business process change in electronic government[END_REF]. Most recently, for all European member states, the EU Service Directive requires the establishment of a single point of contact for all administrative services, providing yet another major impulse for public sector process innovation [START_REF] Weber | Towards an Implementation of the EU Services Directive with Semantic Web Services[END_REF]. In this respect, Business Process Management (BPM) is an established contemporary concept of process innovation that builds on Business Process Reengineering, a more radical approach, and Total Quality Management, a more incremental approach to process innovation. BPM integrates the two perspectives into an approach to process innovation that makes use of both radical and incremental efforts. While BPM-driven process innovation has been heavily researched in the context of eGovernment, the current literature has yet failed to understand the role of collaboration and networks in process innovation [START_REF] Fisher | The Business Process Maturity Model. A Practical Approach for Identifying Opportunities for Optimization[END_REF][START_REF] Rosemann | Towards a Business Process Management Maturity Model[END_REF][START_REF] Niehaves | Collaborative Business Process Management: Status Quo and Quo Vadis[END_REF].

In this paper, we contribute to the study of collaboration and process innovation in the public sector by (1) developing and applying a governance theory framework for differentiating and comparing distinct types of collaboration. [START_REF] Lenk | Der Staat am Draht[END_REF] We investigate empirically, whether organizations that are more mature in their process innovation initiatives feature different collaboration schemata. We thus provide an overview of future challenges for public sector process innovation with regard to involving process stakeholders. [START_REF] Reichard | Local public management reforms in Germany[END_REF] We study a range of contextual factors and their effect on collaborative process innovation. These factors include financial stress, organizational size, and the level of internal process management knowledge.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Firstly, we build a theoretical foundation for studying collaborative process innovation, by utilizing governance theory and drawing on the BPM literature. We then set out our hypotheses and research design, a quantitative study of 357 local governments in Germany. The presentation of results is followed by a discussion of the implications for both theory and practice. The final part of the paper is concerned with limitations and potentially fruitful avenues for future research.

Theoretical Background

Business Process Management

BPM is a key concept for both E-Government research and practice. It is an approach for analyzing and improving business processes, integrating both incremental and revolutionary predecessors as Business Process Reengineering or Total Quality Management. Thus, BPM is not only about a one-off reorganization of both organization and IT, but more a permanent activity of monitoring business processes and comparing their achieved results with the desired ones. Public sector organizations employ BPM in order to streamline business processes. This is often closely connected to the introduction of new information and communication technology and, hence, has become a key concept in E-Government research [START_REF] Traunmüller | Directions in E-Government: Processes, Portals, Knowledge[END_REF][START_REF] Kubicek | Methodology for Analysing the Relationship between the Reorganisation of the Back Office and Better Electronic Public Services[END_REF][START_REF] Palkovits | Processes in e-Government -A Holistic Framework for Modelling Electronic Public Services[END_REF][START_REF] Scholl | The dimensions of business process change in electronic government[END_REF][START_REF] Scholl | E-Government Field Force Automation: Promises, Challenges, and Stakeholders[END_REF][START_REF] Niehaves | Democratizing Process Innovation? On Citizen Involvement in Public Sector BPM[END_REF].

Successful BPM requires specific assets and capabilities which are costly to obtain. Contemporary research on business process change emphasizes that expertise, skills, and capabilities, as well as information systems and other assets are needed if success is to be achieved [START_REF] Rosemann | Handbook on Business Process Management[END_REF]. Capabilities include, for example, business process modeling or process analysis. Organizations that wish to build up such capabilities have to train their employees or hire experts in these areas. Assets include BPM suites or workflow management systems. In this respect, organizations have to purchase solutions. Hence, the capabilities and assets needed for successful BPM are associated with considerable costs.

In modern public and private sector organizations, BPM capabilities are obtained with the support of a plethora of actors. Stakeholders from both inside and outside the organizational boundaries are involved in BPM projects [START_REF] Niehaves | Collaborative Business Process Management: Status Quo and Quo Vadis[END_REF]. Moreover, organizations that become more mature in BPM are said to collaborate with more actors [START_REF] Rosemann | A model to measure business process management maturity and improve performance[END_REF].

Governance Theory

Governance Theory differentiates between three forms of governance, hierarchy, network (or cooperation), and market [START_REF] Powell | Neither market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organization[END_REF]. The characteristics of each, especially with regards to BPM, are described below.

Hierarchy. A classical Weberian bureaucracy operates according to the governance form hierarchy, with the primary means of communication being routines. The actors involved are bound through employer/employee relationships. These relationships create a quite stable and reliable work environment, affecting both commitment among partners and handling of conflict. However, this governance form has one major downside. Due to contractual constraints, the flexibility of the organization is rather limited. A hierarchical organization is restricted in its choice of partners, at least for short-term decisions. It takes time to set up or terminate commitments such as labor contracts. A BPM-related example corresponding to this form of organization is a firm that deploys its own employees for a BPM-related task.

Network. The network form, as identified by Powell, is claimed to be based on complementary strengths and common interests among independent partners. Probably, the most important characteristics of a network are the relationships between its members, which constitute both the primary means of communications and the mechanism for solving conflict. According to Powell, the latter is due to member concerns about their own intra-network reputation. Organizations working against the network, such as through betrayal, will probably simply be expelled from the network, as the other members share a common interest. This is also a good example of network flexibility. In general, all network actors have to agree on new partners. However, changes in the network occur more frequently than in hierarchical settings. In a BPM context, organizations could improve inter-organizational operational processes along their supply chain.

Market. Economic actions relying on market mechanisms are regulated mainly by prices. Additionally, contracts and property-rights regulations provide guidance. As long as the market structure does not suffer from monopolies or lock-ins, this form provides the greatest flexibility, since the company is not bound to its partners, as it would be in hierarchical or network forms. This means, on the other hand, that partners are not necessarily interested in the fate of the company, such that Powell attests "low commitment" [START_REF] Powell | Neither market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organization[END_REF] among the partners. Even worse, the general atmosphere might be dominated by suspicion and control, with conflicts usually being resolved in court. Teece et al. also emphasize the risk of poor asset protection resulting from purely market-based arrangements [START_REF] Teece | Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management[END_REF]. In the sense of the present work, obtaining a BPM capability in the market can, for example, mean hiring external consultants who help the organization carry out complex BPM projects.

According to theory, the organization's choice between these three forms -the 'make-or-buy decision' [START_REF] Walker | A Transaction Cost Approach to Make-or-Buy Decisions[END_REF] -depends on several aspects. Following Williamson's argumentation [START_REF] Williamson | Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications[END_REF] and [START_REF] Williamson | The Institutions of Governance[END_REF], Powell points out that "transactions that involve uncertainty about their outcome, that recur frequently and require substantial 'transactionspecific investments' -of money, time or energy that cannot be easily transferredare more likely to take place within hierarchically organized firms" [START_REF] Powell | Neither market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organization[END_REF]. However, "exchanges that are straightforward, non-repetitive and require no transaction-specific investments will take place across a market interface" [START_REF] Powell | Neither market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organization[END_REF]. Furthermore, he comes to the conclusion that transactions performed within a hierarchy tend to be less efficient than market transactions, but market transactions tend to cause greater costs [START_REF] Powell | Neither market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organization[END_REF]. Thorelli adds the network-paradigm to the Williamson argument and explains its benefits. He claims that power, influence, and trust are cornerstones of the network paradigm [START_REF] Thorelli | Networks: Between markets and hierarchies[END_REF]. Therefore, the downside of this concept is that managing and maintaining a network requires significant effort by all parties involved [START_REF] Thorelli | Networks: Between markets and hierarchies[END_REF]. However the "effectiveness, efficiencies or risk-reduction gained in [network arrangements] is felt to exceed transaction costs of myriad spot transactions or the major resource commitments, difficulties of performance evaluation, etc. typically associated with all-out internalization" [START_REF] Thorelli | Networks: Between markets and hierarchies[END_REF]. Error! Reference source not found. gives an overview of the major characteristics of the three forms of governance (see [START_REF] Powell | Neither market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organization[END_REF]).

Hypotheses

In practice, all governance forms are observable with regard to public sector BPM.

Organizations can rely on their own staff to implement process-related reforms (hierarchy). They can cooperate with other partners as local government associations or customers (in terms of citizens and local companies), or "buy" BPM capabilities in a market, e. g. from software or consulting companies. However, up to now, the choice of governance form (or governance mix) appears somewhat arbitrary. In this paper, we analyze the influence of several variables on the BPM governance form and formulate different hypothesis based on related theory (see Figure 1 for an overview of the hypotheses). Firstly, BPM maturity refers to how mature an organization is with regards to BPM capabilities. It is regarded as exerting a considerable impact on the choice of collaboration. The BPM Maturity Model of Rosemann et al. [START_REF] Rosemann | A model to measure business process management maturity and improve performance[END_REF] argues that maturing organizations include more and more actors from their respective hierarchy. Moreover, highly mature organizations are expected to manage processes collaboratively.

Fisher coined the term "intelligent operating network" with respect to such situations [START_REF] Fisher | The Business Process Maturity Model. A Practical Approach for Identifying Opportunities for Optimization[END_REF]. Accordingly: H1: The more mature an organization with regard to BPM capabilities, the more likely it is source its BPM capabilities using hierarchical, network, or market settings.

Secondly, one could assume that a relationship between the number of employees in an administration influences the choice of governance form. Here, we argue that larger organizations have more potential to fulfill BPM-related tasks using hierarchical sourcing.

H2: The more employees a municipal administration has, the more likely is it to source its BPM capabilities using hierarchical governance.

All influences are hypthesized to be positive, with the exception of: a) Financial stress with a negative impact on market-oriented governance Thirdly, process improvement projects entail costs. This is especially true when the necessary resources are acquired through market relationships. Hence, organizations that perceive their financial situation as critical are more likely to rely on internal or network resources and less likely to source from the market.

Number of Employees

H3: The higher the level of perceived financial stress, the more likely the organization is to source its BPM capabilities using hierarchical or network settings and the less likely the use of market governance. Fourthly, BPM projects require substantial knowledge. This knowledge may be related to tools, modeling techniques, project management skills, etc. Hence, one could argue that organizations that do not internalize this knowledge have to rely on external partners. In this context, we hypothesize that organizations with greater knowledge scarcity tend to rely on BPM resources sourced via cooperation or the market.

H4: The greater the amount of BPM knowledge scarcity in a municipal administration, the more likely it is to source its BPM capabilities using network or market governance.

Data Collection. We collected the data for this study in 2008 using an online questionnaire. We invited 8,000 government officials, each responsible for BPM in a single local administration to participate. Hence, we contacted around two thirds of all ~12,250 local governments in Germany. We hoped to collect a homogeneous sample of all organizations in the public sector (at a local level), which should ensure a certain robustness of the data. With 357 completed questionnaires, we achieved a response rate of roughly 4.5%. These organizations are distributed over all German large-area federal states (plus Berlin). We did not detect any participation bias.

Questionnaire. The questionnaire for the study was constructed with regard to both our presented hypotheses and the existing theory. However, for this specific study, only a part of all questions asked are relevant. Other questions focus, for example, on efforts to establish BI-solutions in public administrations. With regard to BPM Maturity, we relied on six common dimensions of BPM [START_REF] Rosemann | Handbook on Business Process Management[END_REF]. For the dependent variables, we asked for the perceived importance of relevant actors in both BPM agendasetting and implementation [START_REF] Niehaves | Collaborative Business Process Management: Status Quo and Quo Vadis[END_REF] and [START_REF] Becker | Stakeholder Involvement in Business Process Management Agenda-Setting and Implementation[END_REF]. Importance is, amongst others, such as frequency or strength, a criterion that is widely applied to measure links in social networks [START_REF] Rosen | Social networks and online environments: when science and practice co-evolve[END_REF]. The constructs and the respective questions can be requested from the authors.

Data Analysis. After the data collection (online questionnaire), we employed SPSS 17.0.0 to analyze the structured data. In order to further understand the relationships between the constructs, we employed the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling algorithm [START_REF] Chin | Permutation Based Procedure for Multi-Group PLS Analysis: Results of Tests of Differences on Simulated Data and a Cross of Information System Services between Germany and the USA[END_REF][START_REF] Marcoulides | A Critical Look at Partial Least Squares Modeling[END_REF][START_REF] Henseler | Testing Moderating Effects in PLS Path Models: An Illustration of Available Procedures[END_REF]. We used the centroid weighting scheme, because it does not overestimate effects, as is the case with the factor weighting scheme [START_REF] Wilson | Modeling Reflective Higher-Order Constructs using Three Approaches with PLS Path Modeling: A Monte Carlo Comparison[END_REF]. The software package was SmartPLS [START_REF] Ringle | SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) Beta[END_REF]. The constructs were modeled using reflective indicators (a detailed discussion on formative versus reflective indicators can be found in Diamantopoulos [START_REF] Diamantopoulos | Formative versus Reflective Indicators in Organizational Measure Development: A Comparison and Empirical Illustration[END_REF]). Missing values were treated using the mean replacement algorithm [START_REF] Afifi | Observations in Multivariate Statistics: I. Review of the Literature[END_REF]. This data analysis procedure enabled an evaluation of the above hypotheses.

Results

We present our study results in a three-stepped approach. Firstly, we show the validity of our constructs (outer model) in terms of internal consistency and inter-vs. intraconstruct correlations. Secondly, we present the paths and their corresponding coefficients (outer model). Finally, although not a major focus of this study, we analyze the model with regard to the coefficient of determination.

Outer Model. The results derived using the above mentioned methodology are listed in Table 2. The internal consistency reliability (ICR) of all latent variables was measured with Cronbach's Alpha. In general, an ICR above .9 is considered as excellent, one between .7 and .9 as high, one between .5 and .7 as moderately high, and all others as low [START_REF] Hinton | SPSS explained[END_REF]. All reliabilities in our study are in the high or excellent range (note that BPM PreKnow and Number of employees were measured using single items) (Table 2). Moreover, correlations between the constructs were lower than the square roots of the shared variance between the constructs and their measures in every case. According to Fornell and Larker [START_REF] Fornell | Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error: Algebra and Statistics[END_REF], this indicates convergent and discriminant validity. We employed a bootstrapping method (500 iterations) using randomly selected subsamples to test the significance of our PLS model. Analyzing the item loadings, we observed that our latent variables are indeed measured by the corresponding items (Table 3). Inner Model. In our proposed model, not all paths are proven to be significant using the bootstrapping method (Table 4). We observe high positive influences of Lack of BPM Knowledge on Market, of Perceived Financial Limits on Network, and of BPM maturity on all three governance types. These 5 paths are also shown to be significant. All other hypotheses were falsified by our analysis.

R²

. Coefficient of Determination. The coefficient of determination (R²) is defined as the proportion of variance in the data explained by the statistical model (and not by random error terms or constructs not included). In our analysis, we did not focus on the coefficient of determination, but on the influence of BPM PreKnowledge, Perceived Financial Limits, Number of employees, and BPM maturity on the choice of BPM governance. Hence, the R² of our model is comparably slow. However, we can explain about 6.5 to 13% of the variance in the dependent variables (Table 4).

Discussion

Our study suggests that several factors influence the choice of governance mechanism for public sector BPM. Relating to our research question, we observe a high influence of BPM maturity as well as of other contextual variables (Fig. 2).

Firstly, organizations that are more mature are more likely to collaborate with any BPM actors. In this respect, the influence of BPM maturity on all market, network, and hierarchy is positive. Hence, our first hypothesis is confirmed.

Secondly, we assumed that a larger number of employees in local administration would lead to a greater reliance on BPM capabilities sourced through hierarchical governance settings. However, our study seems to falsify the related hypothesis H2: The choice of governance mechanism is not related to the size of the organization.

Our third hypothesis was that a higher level of financial stress would lead to greater collaboration in hierarchical and network settings and a lower reliance on market actors. However, our study reveals a different picture. Financial stress is unrelated to hierarchy and market settings. Apparently, the inclusion of such actors is not dependent on the financial situation of the respective organization. Yet, according to our study, a greater financial stress leads to greater collaboration with network actors. In this respect, we assume that organizations in similar settings (e. g. neighboring cities) collaborate both with each other and with other actors, e. g. government associations or citizens and local companies, once they face financial stress.

Fourthly, as hypothesized, a lack of BPM knowledge in municipal administration leads to a higher level of collaboration with market actors. However, the other part of H4 is falsified: BPM knowledge is not related to sourcing BPM capabilities in network governance.

Fig. 2. Significant influences

The contemporary development of BPM capabilities in local administrations is a major influence on the collaboration type in terms of the choice of governance mechanisms. The more mature organizations become in their BPM capabilities, the more they are to collaborate with all actors, independent of market, network, or hierarchy sourcing. However, this is not the only influence. Contextual factors are important for the choice of governance form, too.

This study contributes the influence of BPM development on collaboration and governance mechanisms to theory on BPM capability development or BPM maturity. The continuous development of BPM capabilities in public sector organizations leads inevitably to a higher importance of all market, network, and hierarchy actors. Organizations that improve their capabilities to change and improve business processes will collaborate more intensively. However, contextual factors such as a lack of BPM knowledge or financial stress are also important. Firstly, local government organizations facing financial stress collaborate with such network actors as other local governments, local government associations, or customers in the form of local companies and citizens. Secondly, local governments that lack BPM-related knowledge are forced to obtain it through market mechanisms, i.e. buy the necessary knowledge from consulting companies.

Moreover, this study extends governance theory to the fields of BPM and public management. Firstly, it is important to note that successful BPM can be achieved with the aid of multiple actors using different governance mechanisms. However, the more mature organizations become in BPM, the more they collaborate. Secondly, future governance theory studies should include such contextual factors as financial stress or lacks of knowledge in order to investigate the choice of governance mechanisms.

For both practitioners and scholars, it is important to note that the role of process managers changes over time. In immature organizations, process managers can be described as "arm-chair-like lone cowboys". However, once organizations start to mature, the role changes to that of an "orchestrator of different actors." Process managers in future public organizations (assuming a positive development of capabilities), must be able to collaborate with actors from different governance mechanisms. Hence, their skill set will also have to change.

Furthermore, given that organizations facing financial stress evidently collaborate closely with network actors and typical local administrations face financial stress, information technology supporting this collaboration needs to be designed. Both theory and practice have to come up with solutions for methods and tools to support network collaboration. In this context, design science approaches appear to be fruitful.

The study suggests that local administrations as clients of consultancy companies (market governance) have to become more professional (client professionalization) and incorporate the knowledge generated in consulting projects more effectively. So far a lack of BPM knowledge leads to greater collaboration with market actors. However, this collaboration induces costs that can be avoided with the aid of an active knowledge transfer from consultancies to local governments. In this respect, the results of BPM consulting projects need to become more sustainable. However, not only consultancies are to blame for the prevailing lack of sustainability, but also local governments as clients. Government professionals are advised to improve their knowledge management in order to get the best out of consulting projects. Researchers can support this process with both the design of appropriate tools and an analysis of current shortcomings.

Our study is subject to limitations. Firstly, we only analyzed one country. While we believe that the results are fairly typical for Western countries, they may be different for other cultural settings (in particular Asia or Africa). Secondly, our study yields low coefficients of determination. Hence, other contextual factors not covered by our study could influence the choice of governance mechanism. Thirdly, the concept of BPM maturity is questioned in contemporary research. Other forms of describing the capability development could be valuable, too [START_REF] Plattfaut | Development of BPM Capabilities -Is Maturity the Right Path?[END_REF]. Fourthly, one could question whether public sector organizations understand the concept of BPM in the same way as scholarship. As we introduced the concept shortly in the questionnaire hope to overcome this limitation. However, slight misunderstandings are still possible.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Hypotheses

Acknowledgement

This paper was written in the context of the research project KollaPro (promotional reference 01FL10004) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. We would like to thank the reviewers and chairs for their guidance and helpful remarks as well as our student assistants for their support in the data collection process.