Chapter 3: Digital Governance for Addressing Performance Challenges Within Inter-municipalities

This chapter focuses on performance measurement and management systems (PMMS) in the inter-municipal cooperation context by considering the development of new capabilities required to exploit the digital governance potentialities in which data integration is essential. The analysis relied on the advent of digital governance, the Italian public informative systems reform, as well as on local governments (LG) renewals through the Union of Municipalities (UMs) – one of the most widespread structured forms of inter-municipal cooperation – based on the sustainability of local service delivery. Through a review of the literature and the conceptual outcomes resulting from the analysis of the dynamic capabilities (DCs) theory applied to digital governance, this chapter aims at suggesting a useful contribution for an effective improvement of PMMS in the public sector networks, with the consequent improvement of resilience in policy management. Thus, the broad information required by the UMs and the complexity of its administration together with the constraints regarding the need to share a common vision and strategy, plan objectives, targets, measurement, and evaluation processes are considered. In particular, three propositions have been developed as guidelines for achieving coordination, coherence, and integration of measuring and managing performances in public networks. This evidence will offer insights allowing scholars and practitioners a practical understanding of whether and how DCs – applied to digital governance – address PMMS challenges within an inter-municipal cooperative context.