Creating a collaborative network for welfare services. A knowledge creation perspective

This study analyses the creation of a collaborative network among a group of small Municipalities in Veneto, in North East of Italy, 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 asking for more care and the decrease of resources available to satisfy this demand. Starting from the literature on collaborative networks, the study examines the creation of this network as a process of organizational change based on a knowledge perspective, identifying organizational variables that play a relevant role in the process itself. These variables emerge from a content analysis run on materials from interviews conducted with informants involved in the process. On the basis of the results of the content analysis, a fsQCA analysis was run, suggesting a specific combination of variables. The variable ‘openness to change’ appears as a necessary condition in both the phases in which the process can be organized, while in the second also knowledge sharing emerges as necessary.