Kristina Zumbusch

Trapped in a net: network analysis for network governance

Purpose – Especially at the regional level co‐operation is seen as a prerequisite for innovation and competitiveness. Hence, political interest in fostering knowledge intensive networks is high. New forms of governance and additional strategic intelligence for decision makers are requested. Thus potential of the social network analysis (SNA) is discussed as methodology providing the information needed for strategic management of innovation networks. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact as a regional governance tool.Design/methodology/approach – First, benefits and risks of innovation networks are discussed based on literature review. Second, the potentials of the SNA for their systematic monitoring are examined. Herewith specific attention was paid to the manageability and reduction of complexity to demonstrate SNA applicability for network governance. Analysis was based on automated data retrieval of electronic documents available, e.g. at governmental institutions, research databases, and the i...

Multiple Rationalities in Regional Development

In the last few years, a great upheaval has shaken existing organisation structures at a regional level. For a variety of reasons, organisations have been set up in which regional actors from politics, administration, economy and sometimes also from civil society work together. To make a distinction between the existing hierarchical administrative structures and these new intermediary organisation forms, usually the notion of a regional governance system is applied (Furst 2010). A feature that is inherent in this regional governance system is the often problematic treatment of the different rationalities of actors coming from different systemic backgrounds. This chapter will home in on the problem of multiple rationalities in regional development, and show approaches to dealing with this situation in a positive manner.

Outcome Evaluation of StartBiz

The following paper presents the results of the outcome evaluation of StartBiz; an online tool for start-ups in Switzerland. StartBiz is provided by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and allows start-ups to enroll with trade registers, VAT, social insurances and accident insurances without any additional fees directly via the internet. The outcome evaluation was required to learn about generated benefits for start-up companies that have used StartBiz so far. At the same time, the evaluation was aimed at providing decision-makers in the SECO with strategic information for their future e-governmental activities (esp. planned expansion of StartBiz to an electronic One-Stop-Shop for small and medium sized enterprises). The paper contributes to the debate of evaluating e-governmental activities by emphasizing an outcome orientation based on the assessment of quantitative benefits. It underlines the advantages but also the disadvantages of such a focus for future outcome evaluations in the field.