Purpose The purpose of this study is to increase the current understanding of how public sector organizations dynamically balance exploration and exploitation of digital initiatives, i.e. the enactment of digital ambidexterity. Design/methodology/approach This study uses Zimmermann, Raisch and Cardinal’s perspective of configurational practices for addressing the enactment of digital ambidexterity. The method comprises a qualitative, interpretative case study of a large municipality in Sweden, using both interviews and secondary data. Findings Through the perspective of configurational practices, the study identifies and describes a set of sub-practices that constitute the enactment of digital ambidexterity. This is then used for theorizing how configurational practices involve the balancing of closeness and distance. Research limitations/implications This study is limited by being a single, non-longitudinal case of a Swedish municipality that has implications for generalizability and transferability. Moreover, it opens up for new perspectives to the future study of the enactment of ambidexterity in the public sector. Practical implications Organizations striving for digital ambidexterity are recommended to use the configurational approach to assess and design their governance to build ambidextrous capabilities through a combination of closeness and distance. Social implications This study is aimed at strengthening public sectors abilities for continued relevance for its stakeholders over time. With increased need for digital innovation within the public sector, the findings and recommendations derived from the study lead to increased innovation capability, which in turn is expected to lead to increased relevance of services. Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that addresses how ambidexterity is enacted within the public sector following the configurational approach. As such, it opens up for new perspectives on organizational ambidexterity.

Increased complexity and the risk of fragmentized business processes and data in many-to-many relationships is hindering development of interoperability. This study aims at clarify what are the success factors for overcoming issues of business process and data fragmentation in the development of enterprise interoperability in multi relation collaborations. A case study allowed for in-depth understanding of experiences and conditions. Seven deep interviews with actors in the Danish electricity market provided empirical data. A literature study formed the base for the analytical framework. Success factors fell into the categories of general project and change management, business process and information and data.

Public sector organizations are invariable stuck in a contortionist position in regards to how they approach digitalization. Centralized delivery models for IT drive efficiency in the short term, but at the same time they have been identified to potentially counter-act innovation. This study utilizes an interpretative case study of 21 Swedish public agencies and their centralized IT function to analyze how existing IT governance configuration impacts organizational ambidexterity. The empirical base consists of 31 interviews and studies of secondary material in the form of steering documents. The findings show that IT Governance is experienced as decreasing the level of innovation in the organization and hence negatively impacting ambidexterity by systematically skewing the balance between efficiency and innovation. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research, and propositions for future research for better understanding IT governance configuration in the context of ambidexterity are presented and discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to contribute to research concerning the role of digital infrastructure in digital government. This is done by answering the research question: how does digital infrastructuring constrain ambidexterity in public sector organizations? Design/methodology/approach The research is designed as a clinical inquiry in a large Swedish municipality, involving data collection in the form of interviews and internal documents. The method of analysis involves both exploring generative mechanisms in digital infrastructuring and theorizing on the findings based on previous literature. Findings The findings identify four generative mechanisms through which stability and change in digital infrastructuring constrain ambidexterity in terms of both efficiency (exploitation) and innovation (exploration). Research limitations/implications This study’s limitations are related to international and intersectoral transferability and risks associated with its approach to clinical inquiry. The main implications are its contribution to the literature on how stability counteracts not only innovation but also efficiency and how change counteracts not only efficiency but also innovation. Practical implications This study identifies clear generative mechanisms that should be avoided by managers striving for digital government, and it offers clear recommendations for said managers regarding how to avoid them. Social implications This study offers implications for national-level digital infrastructure policy and contributes to efforts to increase the capabilities of digital government. Originality/value As two of the four identified generative mechanisms are novel contributions, this study offers a concrete addition to existing research. This study has resulted in factual change in the studied organization as well as at the national level through successful dissemination of the findings for both policy and practice in other public sector organizations.

Most organizations today are involved in transformation initiatives; this has led to a burgeoning interest in the phenomenon of digital transformation strategy. Here, we present the findings of a clinical field study of a large Swedish municipality that has been involved in an ambitious digital transformation program since 2017. Despite explicitly not having a formal strategy, the organization utilizes a pseudoformalized and emergent strategy-as-practice for digital transformation that involves a set of key traits that have emerged over the years. We show how these traits have emerged and theorize on how the process can be understood as rhizomatic strategizing. The strategy emerges over time through a series of de-and reterritorializations, expanding through amalgamating new concepts into a strategy-as-practice for digital transformation.