Corporatization implies disintegration of public authority, leading to not only structural but also cultural differentiation of government, transforming it into a fragmented and hybrid governance system consisting of an authority and multiple autonomous or semi-autonomous operators. This article addresses corporatization at the local government level in Norway, exploring if and how this change in formal structure triggers the emergence of separate cultures in the operator entities. Described as an institutionalization process, new norms, cognitions and identities seem to develop in these entities, creating a sense of ‘us’ (the municipal company) and ‘them’ (the municipality), thus strengthening the regulative separateness through normative and cultural-cognitive elements. Findings from our multiple-case study indicate that this process may be relatively fast and strong, transforming local government into a system comprising various hybrid types, especially segregated and assimilated types. The stronger the structural differentiation is, the stronger cultural differentiation seems to be.

中文翻译：

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地方政府的公司化：促进文化差异和混合？

公司化意味着公共权威的解体，不仅导致政府的结构分化，而且导致政府的文化分化，将其转变为由一个权威和多个自治或半自治运营商组成的碎片化和混合治理体系。本文探讨挪威地方政府层面的公司化，探讨正式结构的这种变化是否以及如何触发运营商实体中不同文化的出现。被描述为一个制度化的过程，新的规范、认知和身份似乎在这些实体中发展，创造了一种“我们”（市政公司）和“他们”（市政）的感觉，从而通过规范和文化加强监管分离——认知要素。我们的多个案例研究的结果表明，这一过程可能相对快速和强大，将地方政府转变为一个包含各种混合类型，尤其是隔离和同化类型的系统。结构分化越强，文化分化似乎就越强。