Infomediaries and collaborative innovation: A case study on
Information and Technology centered Intermediation in the Dutch Employment and
Social Security Sector
Issue title: Innovation and ICT in Public Policy –
papers from the European Group for Public Administration Conference 2008
Affiliations: [a] Tilburg School of Politics and Public Administration,
Tilburg University, The Netherlands | [b] TiasNimbas Business School, Tilburg University and
B&A group, The Netherlands | [c] Erasmus University Rotterdam and Center for Public
Innovation, The Netherlands
Abstract: In this article we have explored the significance of specific
intermediary organizations for collaborative innovation in the Dutch Employment
and Social Security sector: 'infomediaries'. Infomediaries have been
established to promote and support collaboration between other organizations
through informational and technology centered intermediary services. However,
how they actually do so in practice is not yet well understood. The aim of this
article is threefold. First, it offers a conceptual underpinning for
infomediaries and their activities. Second, the article offers an empirically
informed insight in the actual ways in which infomediaries facilitate and
promote collaborative innovation. Finally, we connect the empirical phenomenon
of the infomediary organization to the wider debate on the role of intermediary
organizations in innovation. Despite the fact that infomediary activities are
constrained by a resilient institutional dynamic not malleable to burgeoning
inter-organizational collaboration, we argue that they help promote
collaborative innovation through the provision of services aimed at aligning
the 'business', 'informational' and 'technology' domains of several
collaborating organizations on a strategic, structural or operational level.
Our research suggests that infomediaries are relevant to collaborate innovation
by bringing about alignment in specific ways. They act as symbolic analysts in
the conceptualization of new collaborative arrangements between parties; as
discursive instigators in the development and framing of a collaborative
discourse; and finally as bricoleurs providing parties with practical,
makeshift tools and coproducing instruments.
