Ensuring project success through collective competence and creative conflict in public–private partnerships – A case study of Bygga Villa, a Swedish triple helix e-government initiative

This paper presents a study of one public–private partnership in e-government in Sweden, Bygga Villa, that involved 16 organizations from academia, government, and industry to develop an innovative internet portal for the private construction industry. Our research purpose was to answer (1) What are the challenges to developing collective competence in public–private partnerships? and (2) How can these challenges be overcome to achieve project success? We found that the potential for conflict due to differing goals, resource scarcity, and interdependence of tasks was the greatest challenge for Bygga Villa’s ability to develop collective competence while the partnership overcame this challenge through (1) co-developing a clear project charter, (2) recruiting a project leader with strong knowledge broker skills, (3) conducting joint problem-solving tasks using boundary objects, and (4) ensuring an understanding of the “big picture” through continuous open and balanced communication. Moreover, the project was successful due to members’ ability to embrace conflict and turn it into creative conflict through dialogue while ensuring a high level of project satisfaction by the partnership’s individual members.