| 1. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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A Study of Small Enterprises with Focus on Entrepreneurship and E-government in a Regional Development Context
- 2014
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Ingår i: Uddevalla Symposium 2014. Geography of Growth. The Frequency, Nature and Consequences of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Regions of Varying Density<em></em>: Revised papers. - Trollhättan : Högskolan Väst. - 9789187531026 ; , s. 165-183
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper aims to describe and analyse a sample of small enterprises located in a region undergoing structural change with focus on entrepreneurship and e-government and is a further development of a previous study that focused on how municipalities supported entrepreneurship and destination development. In this study the focus is extended to include small enterprises contributing to development of tourist destinations within the same region. In-depth qualitative interviews were made with twelve managers from ten small enterprises. Based on a theoretical discussion of entrepreneurship, e-government and regional development, the results indicate that networks and strategic networking were important for these small enterprises both in terms of developing the enterprise but also to develop entrepreneurship for regional development. The findings further indicate that municipal information, communication and competence development in order to support entrepreneurship and the development of small enterprises could be improved. The importance of face-to-face contacts was stressed. The use of local e-government was hitherto limited to e-services for public procurement. The entrepreneurs who used the e-services had mainly positive experiences, although despite the complexity of the e-services. The respondents did not ask for more municipal e-services, but that could be a consequence of their limited experience of the potential of local e-government. The use of social media among the enterprises was limited due to lack of time, competence and motivation for most of the enterprises, although the potential of social media for marketing was seen as extensive. A few of the respondents were on the other hand very skilled in their use of digital media, as a consequence of their professional knowledge and business orientation.
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| 2. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Challenging Organizational Issues When Municipal Contact Centers are Implemented in Sweden
- 2013
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Ingår i: Electronic Journal of e-Government. - 1479-439X. ; 11:2, s. 198-209
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two case studies of the implementation of Contact Centres(CCs) in Swedish municipalities were compared and discussed from anorganizational perspective. The research method was semi-structured qualitative interviews with different personnel categories in both municipalities. Several challenging organizational issues for management and employees were identified:the implementation strategies varied among the cases and affected the pace of implementation, attitudes and motivation, the mental construct and understanding of the implementation. The financing of the CC and recruitment strategies created problems, but in somewhat different ways and in phases of the process in each case. The potential of using registered information as asource for planning and decision-making was not fully utilized, although somestatistics were produced. In both cases there was a combination of formal andinformal learning strategies and flexible co-operation among the employees inthe CCs which contributed to continuous learning processes and a good,co-operative working climate. There was a need for continuous updating ofskills in both cases, but with slightly different focus, related to theorganization of the work. The organization in response groups required morespecialist competence, compared with the organization without response groups,which required more general competence. Some challenges for the caseadministrators in the back offices were to adapt to a more process-oriented organizationof their work, and to co-operate more with their colleagues both in the backoffice and at the CC. They now had the possibility to plan their administrativework in a better way than before, but some administrators missed the previousspontaneous contacts with citizens. Initially, many case administrators wereafraid of losing their jobs and work tasks to CC, contributing to negativeattitudes towards CC and hampering the learning process in taking part in theimplementation process.
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| 3. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-
(författare)
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E-government and E-governance : Local Implementation of E-government Polices in Sweden
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- It is recognized in international research that the public sector has been transformed into a networked, open and more flexible, informal and interactive governance structure. This is described as a transition from “government to governance”. Sweden is one of the international leaders with regards to e-government development. The objective of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of how e-government policies are implemented in an e-governance context, through empirical case studies in Sweden. The focus is on the local level. The overall research question is: How is e-government policy put into practice when focusing on the local level? This is reported in four articles.Case study methodology is used as research method, including interviews, focus group interviews, document studies, and some participatory observations. The analysis is partly based on an inductive methodological approach, since this is a new, emerging field of innovative policy and practice.The analysis arrives at three overarching conclusions: (1) In practice, when e-government policy is implemented and translated at the local level, it tends to happen in an e-governance setting conducted by policy entrepreneurs or promoted by entrepreneurial behaviour in public administration. E-government policies are implemented in relation to local cultures, norms and economic structures. (2) Implementation of e-government and e-governance initiatives requires trust in the service provision among public administrators as well as among citizens. Efficiency and citizen-centred approaches in the redesign of information relationships between public administration and citizens to create some sort of added value are crucial. (3) The thesis indicates that there are two main implications of municipal contact centres (CCs): they localize public services and they combine different services into a one-stop practice striving to provide “holistic” services to the individual citizen. However, although the use of ICT is essential for the organisational transformation, the results indicate that the organisational settings and internal anchoring are greater constraints than new technology for implementation of local e-government and e-governance initiatives in the form of contact centres. One example for potential added value is the source of information of citizens’ issues through the implementation of municipal contact centres, which may have a positive impact on the conditions for local planning.
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| 4. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Editorial
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business. - 1476-1297 .- 1741-8054. ; 21:3, s. 269-274
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-
(författare)
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Entrepreneurs and Policy Networks : A Study of the Implementation of two Swedish Municipal Contact Centers
- 2012. - 1
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Ingår i: Uddevalla Symposium 2012<em> </em>. - Trollhättan : University West. - 9789197794343 ; , s. 79-93
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to discuss lessons learned of policy entrepreneurs to analyze how local policy entrepreneurs are acting in setting up local municipal contact centers - a Swedish local e-governmental initiative. The increased interest in political entrepreneurship has both analytical and practical grounds and implications. The networked governance settings demand new roles of entrepreneurial actors, which are approached here in relation to their localization, how they act to expand action spaces for themselves as well as others in the local community.…This case study is based on qualitative field studies. The main methods used were interviews with key actors, document studies and observations. The results indicate two main implications of Contact Centers; they localize public services and combine different services into a one-stop operation, striving to provide a ‘holistic’ approach to the individual citizen in her local context. However, contact center implementation also includes an organizational change within the municipalities, facilitating a reorganization of back-office procedures in order to optimize the efficiency and quality aspects. The policy entrepreneurs forming the contact centers promoted them from different perspectives and with varying ambitions. In one of the studied cases the core values of inclusion and participation grounded the design of the contact center, while in the other case the issue as such was the key – a new organizational approach. This is here explained as two illustrations of different approaches of policy networks and entrepreneurial behavior.
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| 7. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-
(författare)
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Establishment of Customer Centres in the Public Sector in Sweden : the Citizens' Views
- 2010
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on e-Government. - Reading, UK : Academic Publishing Limited. - 9781906638634 ; , s. 63-70
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Today there is a development in Sweden towards reforming the public sector with the help of information technology (IT). The international name for this is eGovernment. This is a political decision aiming not only for increased IT-use in the public sector, but also for the implementation of an organizational change within the municipalities in Sweden. This has led to several Swedish municipalities customer centres having been established.The main function of a municipal customer centre is to supply services to the citizens more efficiently by primarily using telephone and ICTtechnology in order to handle customer contacts. The employees at the customer centres are educated in different subject areas in order to being able to directly answer and solve routine questions and tasks from the citizens that are not too complicated without having to send the questions to the back office of the organisation. This paper aims to analyze some of the consequences for the citizens.The empirical data comes from four municipalities in Sweden and the research method of the study is qualitative (semi-structured telephone-interviews with citizens and recorded interviews with different personnel categories from three municipalities) . The analyzing model used is the “the MOA-model”. It was implemented in order to analyze the establishment’s focus on the customers and it was also used as this study’s theoretical frame of reference.The main result shows that the establishment of the customer centres is something positive from the citizens’ point of view. E.g., the accessibility to the public municipal service has increased for most of the citizens and their experience of the delivered service via the telephone contacts was positive, as well as the registering of every issue with the customer centre which implies that the citizens can govern the needs for public municipality service. However, there are some negative aspects, e.g. the use of touch tone, and there is still a risk of creating a digital divide, especially among elderly citizens.Keywords: Public customer centres, citizens, e-governance, municipality, New Public Management
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Lessons Learned from the Implementation of Contact Centers in Swedish Municipalities
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on e-Government. - Reading : ACAD CONFERENCES LTD, CURTIS FARM, KIDMORE END, NR READING, RG4 9AY, ENGLAND. - 9781909507227 ; , s. 63-70
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract: Two case studies of the implementation of contact centers (CCs) in Swedish municipalities were compared and analyzed. The purpose of the article is to focus on lessons learned from the perspectives of the management and the employees in the organizations according to the MOA-model. The research method used was semi-structured qualitative interviews with different personnel categories in both municipalities. According to our findings the implementation strategies varied among the two cases. The strategies affected the pace of implementation, attitudes and motivation aspects and understanding of the implementation. The potential of using registered information as a source for planning and decision-making was not fully utilized in the municipal organizations, although some statistics were produced. In both cases there was a combination of formal and informal learning strategies and flexible co-operation among the employees in the CCs which contributed to continuous learning processes and a good, co-operative working climate. Some learning challenges for the handling officers at the back offices were to adapt to a more process-oriented organization. Initially, many handling officers at the back-office were afraid of losing their jobs and work tasks to CC, contributing to negative attitudes towards CC, and hampering the learning process in taking part in the implementation process. The establishment of a CC is a comprehensive organizational change process affecting the whole municipal administration. A challenge for the municipalities is to formulate relevant strategies and manage the implementation in order to involve all employees.
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| 10. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-
(författare)
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Local e-Government in Sweden : Municipal Contact Center implementation with focus on Citizens and Public Administrators
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Community Informatics. - 1712-4441. ; 10:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the article is to analyze the implementation of municipal contact centers (CCs) - an e-government initiative on the local level - from the perspectives of citizens and public administrators. This article is based on case studies from four Swedish municipalities. The results indicate that the CCs: contribute to increased access to municipal service, localize public services and combine different services into a one-stop practice striving to provide a "holistic" approach to the individual citizen in her local context. However, the quality of the service also depends on the organizations of the work within the back-office of the municipality. All issues from the citizens were registered which contribute to increased knowledge about the citizens needs and perceptions regarding municipality services and planning in urban issues.
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