Enhancing Information Services through Public-Private Partnerships: Information Technology Knowledge Transfer Underlying Structures to Develop Shared Services in the U.S. and Korea

What are e-government success factors for using public-private partnerships to enhance learning and capacity development? To examine this question, the authors developed a comparative case analysis of the development of the Business Reference Model (BRM), a national-level e-government initiative to promote shared information services, in the U.S. federal government and the Korean central government. The results indicate institutional arrangements deeply affect the outcomes of knowledge transfer. The study shows that private sector partners in both countries played various roles as “brokers” of information technology (IT) knowledge between government and the private sector by: raising awareness of the necessity of the BRM; providing best practices; developing pilot projects; and developing implementation strategies. However, the study finds that the two countries took entirely different approaches to working with non-governmental organizations in BRM development with implications for project success and lessons for e-government success. The study is meant to deepen understanding of the embeddedness of public-private partnerships in institutional contexts and the implications of such institutional arrangements for knowledge sharing on e-government success. The study examines knowledge transfer in the context of similarities and differences in partnership structures across two advanced industrialized countries with leading roles in e-governance.