Creating a collaborative network for welfare services in public sector. A knowledge-based perspective

This study analyses the creation of a collaborative network among a group of small Italian Municipalities finalized to share their welfare services, the provision of which represents one of the most relevant challenges for Public Administrations, both for the growth of needs of people and the decrease of resources available. This study starts from the literature analysis on collaborative networks, and then examines the network creation as a process of organizational change based on a knowledge perspective, identifying the main organizational variables. These variables emerge from a content analysis run on materials from interviews conducted with informants involved in the process. Based on the results of the content analysis, a fsQCA was run, suggesting a specific combination of variables. ‘Openness to change' appears as a necessary condition in both the phases in which the process can be organised, while in the second also ‘knowledge sharing’ emerges as necessary.