Social capital and ICT adoption in the public sector

Although the research domain on social capital and the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is relatively immature, there is a fast growing body of evidence that social capital plays an important role in the adoption process of ICTs – especially in the case of ICTs supporting transorganizational cooperation. In most Western democracies the trend towards ever more inter-organizational linkages and consequently trans-organizational ICTs is becoming apparent. An increasing number of academics claim that social capital is a necessary enabler for the creation, diffusion and adoption of cross-boundary ICTs. There is for instance strong anecdotal evidence that interpersonal ties between members of separate organizations can bridge between different interests when transorganizational ICTs are being developed and implemented. However, there are still some substantial theoretical and empirical blind spots as regards the exact relation between social capital and ICT adoption processes. Therefore the aim of this article is to gain insight into the mechanisms of social capital and its effect on the adoption of ICTs by partners in public sector networks. The article demonstrates that social capital may particularly be an important enabler in the early stages of the adoption process in which opinions are influenced, agendas are set, coalitions are formed and critical mass is gained.