The collaboration projects studied in this thesis originate from national experiments that took place from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. In those experiments, attempts were made to determine whether collaboration could, as part of the organization of the public sector, generate welfare gains for both the individual user and society as a whole. Other forms of political governance of public organizations were also tested in these experiments. Activities were very often carried out in the form of collaboration projects involving joint evaluation groups and through co-localization. The collaboration projects are about in which actors bring their different v rules, values and preconceptions, from their regular activities into a meeting with other activities with different boundaries in order to organize new boundaries. The purpose of the thesis is to achieve an understanding of why collaboration projects encounter difficulties in contributing to lasting integration between government organizations, and the importance of boundaries in the organizing of collaboration projects. The thesis is based on four articles. The first article elucidates the ways in which different boundaries are constructed when inter-organizational collaborations are being carried out. The second article develops a model for analyzing uncertainty factors in the interaction environment of the project. The third article addresses the problem of implementing, within the public sector, results from development projects in the home organization. The fourth article analyzes the ways in which collaboration projects can help to increase integration between government organizations. The results from the studies show that the collaboration projects do provide opportunities for trying out new forms of collaboration, but also that the actors in collaboration projects have to deal with multiple boundary-related problems. The construction of boundaries must, on the one hand, regulate the activities being carried out in the collaboration projects, in that the boundaries enable the actors to come together in a common activity. On the other hand, the boundaries in collaboration projects must be part of the home organizations’ activities and their boundary constructions. This leads to a complex spatial construction in which different boundaries entail different distinctions and regulations of the relationship to the outside world. In turn, this leads to problems involving the home organizations in the collaboration, resulting in the collaboration becoming confined to only the collaboration projects. / <p>För avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen i företagsekonomi med vederbörligt tillstånd</p><p>av Handelshögskolans fakultetsnämnd vid Göteborgs Universitet framlägges för</p><p>offentligt granskning fredagen den 19 november 2010, kl. 13.15 i CG-salen vid företagsekonomiska institutionen, Vasagatan 1, Göteborg.</p>

Satisfactory collaboration regarding children and youth in need of a comprehensive support is particularly important. Despite extensive research on collaborative work, knowledge of long term development of the collaboration process is lacking. The present thesis concerns inter-organizational collaboration within the framework of a former Swedish policy effort – focusing collaboration between schools, social services, police and the child and youth psychiatry – for the benefit of children and young people in distress or at risk. Applying a critical realist perspective, the overall aim of the thesis is to describe how former collaboration projects develop over time, and to identify significant mechanisms within this development. Through three questionnaire studies, the collaborative process development within the same collaborative settings is described (n=66) over a period of close to seven years. Estimations of 58 collaboration quality indicators within three categories *rules and regulations, *structural aspects and *shared perspectives/ consensus were collected at baseline in 2008, after one year at the final project stage in 2009, as well as five years after the project period (and the policy effort) ended, in 2014 (n=38). Two developmental trends occur: I) an overall positive trend and II) a negative trend on a comprehensive level. I) Collaboration on the target group has increased over time, are mainly incorporated into permanent organizational structures and is judged to have worked well/very well over time. II) Overall deteriorations of high estimates of the 58 quality indicators for collaborations is seen over the five year period, following the project period. However, less dramatic changes is noted on quality indicators concerning shared perspectives/consensus than on matters regarding rules and regulations and structural aspects. Five mechanisms of particular importance for the collaboration development are identified: anchoring, holistic perspectives, engagement, knowledge and clarity.

Information Technology is advancing at a frightening pace. Cloud computing and its subset, Software as a Service (SaaS), are rapidly challenging traditional thinking for enterprise-level application and infrastructure provision. The project-centric nature of the construction industry provides an environment where the utilisation of SaaS is commercially appropriate, given its ability to provide rapid set-up and predictable costs at the outset. Using project extranets, the construction industry has been - unusually for it as an industry sector - early-adopters of this cloud computing model. However, findings from the research highlight that there is a gap in the information and documents that pass from the construction phase into the operational phase of a building. This research considers examples of the SaaS IT model and how it has been used within a construction and facilities management industry context. A prototype system was developed to address the requirements of facilities management work order logging and tracking process. These requirements were gathered during detailed case studies of organisations within both the construction and facilities management sectors with a view to continue the use of building-specific information through its full life-cycle. The thesis includes a summary of the lessons learnt through system implementation within the construction-contracting organisation Taylor Woodrow, and it concludes with an IT strategy proposal that was developed based on a cloud computing model.

Modern manufacturing processes are becoming more integrated and relying on measuring performance to better identify ways of improvement. The AEC industry is now moving in this direction through IT-based Design and Construction Integration (ITDCI). ITDCI is a collaborative knowledge-based activity in which each participant continuously and timely contributes and shares his/her knowledge to realize a specific goal, bonded by a unified and cohesive culture with the use of the supportive IT-tools. Executing the project in an ITDCI fashion requires the satisfaction of these conditions. This research developed a formal model that consists of 75 ITDCI mechanisms distributed over the different phases of the facility development process within colleges and universities to enable the knowledge transfer process and achieve the highest level of integration. The level of ITDCI involved in a particular project can be then measured by quantifying the number of ITDCI mechanisms introduced. The research methodology included the following activities: reviewing the related literature, developing and validating a scenario for the facility development process within typical colleges and universities through literature review and interviews, providing a definition for each phase of the process to be executed in an ITDCI fashion and finally identifying actions or mechanisms that have to be activated to obtain the highest level of ITDCI. The model was validated through an online survey that targeted the members of the Society of Colleges and Universities (SCUP) and a case study. WPI's new East Hall residence facility was used as a case study to validate the model. This model is a significant contribution to the construction industry because it acts as a measuring tool to assess the corresponding level of ITDCI in the facility development process. It also helps to develop a common understanding among industry practitioners on what is required to achieve a desired level of ITDCI in their project. This comprehension would guide them to a better recognition of the benefits and consequences of each specific level of IT-based integration on their project outcomes. It will also enable them to execute more accurate cost/benefit analyses and eventually opt for the optimum ITDCI level. For future work, the model could be expanded to include other types of facilities, such as residential, healthcare and commercial facilities to achieve wider adoption within the AEC industry.