Contingent Reshaping and Agile Governance of Public Organizations amid Rapid Digital Technological Shifts: A Case Study of Hangzhou’s “City Brain”

Abstract

The rapid development of digital technologies has profoundly transformed the external environment of public organizations, while traditional bureaucratic structures have encountered increasing challenges in adapting to dynamic and complex governance contexts. Existing studies have mainly focused on the application of digital technologies in improving governance efficiency, with insufficient attention paid to how digital environments drive organizational restructuring and governance transformation. Based on contingency theory, this study develops an Environment–Structure–Performance (E-S-P) analytical framework and examines the adaptive transformation of public organizations through a case study of Hangzhou’s City Brain. The study explores how high-frequency digital environments generate structural mismatches and how public organizations achieve agile governance through contingency-based restructuring. The findings indicate that digital technologies reshape public organizations through three dimensions: data-driven integration, accelerated temporal coordination, and intelligent decision-making. To adapt to these changes, public organizations promote organizational restructuring through cross-departmental collaboration, process optimization, and the integration of technological capabilities with administrative decision-making. This study contributes to understanding the organizational mechanisms underlying digital governance transformation and provides insights into how public organizations can achieve agile governance in the digital era.