Determinants of Cross-boundary Information Sharing Success: Comparing Intra-agency, Inter-agency, and Cross-sectoral Collaboration Initiatives

Abstract

Cross-boundary information sharing has been studied for many years now and it is still a very important challenge to government agencies from around the world. Existing literature points to important differences on the determinants of information sharing depending on which organizations are involved and how different they are from each other. Whether the organizations are part of a bigger entity or not seems also important. This study systematically compares the determinants of information sharing success in three different types of inter-organizational collaborations: (1) intra-agency, (2) inter-agency, and (3) cross-sectoral. The study employs data from a national survey distributed to public managers and other actors involved in public health and criminal justice information integration initiatives at the state and local level in the United States. The analysis results confirm that each type of cross-boundary information sharing has distinctive types of determinants affecting the success of the initiative. The results also demonstrate that four variables – effective communication, the involvement of executive, exercise of formal authority, and interoperable standards - significantly predict the likelihood of intra-agency IIS success. Two variables – informal leaders and technical infrastructures - significantly predict inter-agency success. Finally, only one variable, information needs, predict the probability of cross-sectorial information sharing success. From a practical perspective, public managers may want to differentiate how they manage the partnership depending on the types of information sharing to ensure the success of information sharing initiative.