This paper is concerned with inter-organisational information systems (IS) in e-government. Inter-organisational IS are usually considered to establish information exchange between public agencies. However, there may also exist other types of inter-organisational e-government. Different public agencies can cooperate on shared digital resources of diverse kinds (shared websites, shared IT components, shared back-office systems). This paper develops a conceptual framework on four different types of inter-organisational e-government. Study of inter-organisational information exchange is usually made by the aid of the concept of interoperability and the four defined levels of interoperability (legal, organisational, semantic and technical). When broadening the view to other types of inter-organisational e-government, besides information exchange, it is also necessary to broaden the concept of interoperability. This concept is in the paper replaced by the concept of co-governance dimension. A conceptual framework is formulated with seven co-governance dimensions: normative, regulatory, performative, relational, semantic, presentational and technical.

The four types of inter-organisational e-government and the seven co-governance dimensions are pivotal parts of a conceptual framework within a research project studying eight important digital resources in the Swedish public sector.