Exploring Barriers and Stepping Stones for System Based Monitoring: Insights from Global Supply Chains

Abstract

Across the world, businesses and governments are attracted to narratives of self-regulation and system based monitoring, particularly the ones in which government agencies reuse business data and risks assessment for supervision purposes. These types of innovations are attractive because theoretically, `good' businesses can benefit from fewer inspections by authorities and authorities can focus their scarce resources on the `risky' businesses that are not in control of their processes. However, there are few academic accounts of such innovations. To this end, this article explores the barriers and stepping-stones for the cultivation of system based monitoring in a public-private setting. We employ a reflexive interactive design approach and show its application in an on-going international project with businesses and government authorities. Findings indicate that a collaborative reflection on the structure of the current issues contributes to opening up both the problem and solution space, and how this opening up is funnelled down to stepping stones for system based monitoring. Our research extends and complements existing literature on public-private collaboration and contributes new knowledge about an alternative form of cultivating innovations trough business-government interactions.