A Local-State Government Spatial Data Sharing Partnership

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Chapter 4 – Research Design and Methods
establishment and direction setting component examines the processes which led to the
formation and signing of the partnership agreements. It includes the initial goals of the
collaboration, organisational changes that were effected to accommodate the new
arrangements, negotiation issues and the details of the final agreement. The extent to
which the initiating organisation researched the arrangements is also examined, especially
their understanding of prospective partners’ capacities. The partnership agreement issues
of importance included the term, incentives, responsibilities and flexibility.
The limited understanding of the partnership processes and performance were identified as
a gap in current research and its importance is supported by recent authors (Child et al.
2005; Prefontaine et al. 2003). The description of the operation and maintenance
component of the collaboration provides an indication of how embedded the partnership is
within the organisational structures. Important aspects which were examined included the
structure of the operations within the organisational unit, the project management, support
mechanisms for the partners, communication and resourcing. The governance
arrangements of each partnership were investigated to determine their inclusiveness of
stakeholders, decision making and responsiveness. Finally, key outcomes were examined
as a measure of the effectiveness of the partnership.
Case Study Comparisons
The comparative investigation of the case studies provided a mechanism to compare the
partnerships structures and operation. Comparisons across the three case studies were
undertaken to investigate the determinants for collaboration (Dedekorkut 2004; Gray 1985;
Mulford & Rogers 1982; Oliver 1990; Schermerhorn 1975), the performance in each of the
framework dimensions (Prefontaine et al. 2003) and the contribution of each partnership to
state SDI development (Williamson et al. 2003). The state government case study
reporting and analysis is presented in Chapter 5. For this component the unit of analysis
was considered to be the data sharing initiative or project.
4.4.3 Stage 3 - Local Government Multi-Participant Questionnaire
In order to assess the motivating factors, capacity and effectiveness of local-state
government data sharing partnerships, a questionnaire was designed and delivered to the
local governments in the three state government jurisdictions. The purpose of the
questionnaire was to assess a range of factors that could influence the success or otherwise
of the data sharing partnerships, particularly from a local government perspective. The
design of the questionnaire was constructed around an SDI framework to assess local
government capacities and their appreciation of policies, data holdings, people, access