Stakeholder Engagement and the Use of Digital Tools in Strategy Processes in Swiss Municipalities

Local governments are striving to overcome their challenges by developing strategies. Some of them attempt to include leveraging digitalization and implementing data-centric procedures in strategy processes. However, there is a limited understanding of what these processes entail, such as who is involved and what digital tools are necessary for specific purposes and challenges. This paper aims to enhance and broaden this understanding. It employs a mixed-method approach by collecting both qualitative and quantitative data from Swiss municipalities and follows a convergent parallel design to analyze the data. The analysis reveals that larger municipalities tend to have established strategy practices, albeit in an ad-hoc manner without following any standard methods or best practices. The strategy development is significantly influenced by politicians and municipal administration. It mainly takes place around a limited group of internal individuals. So, it doesn’t meet the inclusivity component of Open Strategy. Citizen’s needs are considered by involving internal stakeholders; however, they mostly don’t directly participate in strategy processes. While municipalities do not perceive an immediate necessity for digital tools in their strategy processes, they acknowledge challenges in coordination, communication, and temporal resource management, for which they view digital tools as beneficial.