· · · Institutional Repository

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) for international trade is increasingly impor- tant. The EU-funded projects ITAIDE and CASSANDRA propose further innovations to solve the trade con- trol and facilitation dilemma.

ICT enables business-to-government (b-to-g) information exchange, which can be used to enhance control and compliance by businesses. However, sharing information can cause resistance by businesses, as for them information is key to competitive advantage, whereas governments need this information to conduct their tasks at lower costs. In this paper, the adoption of a b-to-g information-sharing platform is analyzed from a stakeholder theory perspective. The analysis shows that for stakeholders not the information-sharing infrastructure itself is their primary concern, but it is the governance thereof. A successful adoption and stakeholder management strategy was that companies have the sense-of-urgency and clear requirements to develop a public-private governance model. Governments can set the conditions to ensure that public functionality is also developed. We argue that stakeholder analysis should be used in developing adoption and implementation strategies.

With increasing global trade and growing emphasis on security, enhanced information sharing between actors in global supply chains is required. Currently, the data about cargo available in the supply chain does not provide a timely and accurate description of the goods. To solve this data quality issue, data should be captured upstream at the point where goods are packed for transport to the buyer. Without ICT, it was not possible to get timely access to the original trade data. The data pipeline concept is an IT innovation to enable capturing data at the source. The data pipeline accesses existing information systems used by the parties in international supply chains. This paper explores the data pipeline concept and the benefits that businesses and governments could obtain from such an innovation. This study also identifies the need for a public-private governance model that has to accompany the technical innovation.

Improving public service delivery is a very complex domain and the complexity is difficult to grasp by stakeholders having various degree of knowledge and involvement. An emergent and promising method for dealing with complex problems is simulation gaming, which can be used to capitalize the intrinsic experiences and knowledge of people and mobilize their creativity to come up with new solutions. A simulation game refers to a situation in which human participants play a role and follow rules of play to simulate complex situations. We developed a simulation game for the field of public-private service delivery. The purpose of the game is to facilitate public organizations to get to the core of problems in service delivery and to stimulate the collaborative development of innovative solutions for public service delivery. Playing the game at a municipality shows that the game is suitable for creating awareness and for the identification and development of alternative solutions. The game can be used to substitute the “authoritative-know-all” approach by a “wisdom of the crowds” approach, incorporating the social collaboration that is a key concept in Web 2.0 thinking.

Government agencies and businesses cooperate and invest heavily to achieve reliable and secure global supply networks. A so-called data pipeline, which integrates data from various parties in the supply chain and incorporates data from new tracking and monitoring technologies, would enable real-time data management for businesses. This IT infrastructure has a global scale, since it has to function both within and across countries and continents. Governments can use this data pipeline to improve the coordination of border management and reduce the administrative burden for businesses. Furthermore, businesses and government can collaborate to capitalize on modern IT and use the innovation for improving risk and data management. This paper explains a conceptual model of the data pipeline and its governance implications. As this global infrastructure cannot be built by government alone but needs to be largely realized by businesses, a public-private governance model is needed. Governments, and even supra-national institutions, would need to create the right technical, organizational, and legal environment (e.g. standards, harmonization of procedures, mutual recognition), and have to provide alternative incentives to stimulate the development of those parts of the pipeline that are without commercially viable business models.

ICT enables business-to-government (b-to-g) information exchange, which can be used to enhance control and compliance by businesses. However, sharing information can cause resistance by businesses, as for them information is key to competitive advantage, whereas governments need this information to conduct their tasks at lower costs. In this paper, the adoption of a b-to-g information-sharing platform is analyzed from a stakeholder theory perspective. The analysis shows that for stakeholders not the information-sharing infrastructure itself is their primary concern, but it is the governance thereof. A successful adoption and stakeholder management strategy was that companies have the sense-of-urgency and clear requirements to develop a public-private governance model. Governments can set the conditions to ensure that public functionality is also developed. The authors argue that stakeholder analysis should be used in developing adoption and implementation strategies.