What's in It for the Big Ones? How City- and Suburban Municipalities Vary in Their Motivation to Collaborate

Research shows that small-sized municipalities, in terms of inhabitants, achieve greater operational benefits from shared service delivery than large municipalities. Still, larger municipalities often engage in a higher number of inter-municipal cooperations than smaller municipalities. This paper investigates why large and small municipalities to engage in shared service delivery with each other by analyzing interview data in six Norwegian center city municipalities and their geographical surrounding municipalities. We outline propositions based on three different types of outcomes related to cooperation between organizations: service performance, strategic benefits, and legitimacy. Results indicate that city and suburban municipalities collaborate for different reasons. While surrounding municipalities cooperate to increase operational size, center city municipalities are instead motivated by spatial needs, regional influence and act in response to pressure from institutionalized environments. These findings support the notion that interorganizational relationships should be considered a mixed-motive situation where main goals and motivation may vary between member organizations.