Successful collaboration between smart city consortium and Hong Kong Government in Covid-19 dashboard: the case of leadership in practice

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discover why such a public partnership project had been successful with a non-profit third-party alliance such as a smart city consortium (SCC) promoting smart city development.

Design/methodology/approach

This descriptive case study is primarily based on analysing data collected from various texts, public statements, media interviews and three semi-structured interviews with key members involved in the Covid-19 dashboard project.

Findings

The data and analysis reviews that both interpersonal and interorganisational trust, dedication and proactiveness of the leaders at SCC were major contributing factors to why SCC was able to partner with the Hong Kong Government in the Covid-19 dashboard in the first place and that the success was also a direct outcome of effective mass collaborative knowledge management activities.

Research limitations/implications

The research in leadership attributes and activities in the non-profit alliance has been few and this collaborative partnership between the alliance and the government is an example of the importance of further research in smart city leadership.

Practical implications

In deploying projects for mass collaboration and knowledge sharing in smart city development (which is multi-disciplinary in nature). there are still many new and evolving organisational practices and leadership matters that many business leaders and city managers can learn from.

Social implications

Smart city development projects involve the notion of sharing data in an open environment enabled by software and mediating tools. Successful projects such as this Hong Kong Covid-19 dashboard which serves a diverse audience can further promote the importance of an open data policy regime for the benefit of the public.

Originality/value

This case study covers a highly original and unique case study with the leaders at the SCC and representatives from the Hong Kong Government.

Citation

Chun, D.J.Y., Nabsiah, W.A. and Tan, C.L. (2022), "Successful collaboration between smart city consortium and Hong Kong Government in Covid-19 dashboard: the case of leadership in practice", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 1172-1187. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-01-2021-2604