Citizens versus Consumers' Willingness to Coproduce Public Services: Using Public Co-producers and Citizenship Primes to Promote Coproduction

Coproduction of public services entails the users of services working with producers jointly in the production process. In experiments we assess the effect of an appeal to service users to coproduce emphasizing the publicness... [ view full abstract ]

Coproduction of public services entails the users of services working with producers jointly in the production process. In experiments we assess the effect of an appeal to service users to coproduce emphasizing the publicness of the co-producer partner compared to a private for-profit co-producer. The public organization is expected to increase users’ assessment of the pro-social motivation of the producer, reduce concerns about possible appropriation of donated time for profit, and to increase donated time. We further prime users to consider themselves as either citizens with a duty to assist coproduction or consumers reflecting a more market-like customer focused mode of interaction less oriented to volunteering. In a first experiment we examine the outcomes of both types of manipulation on users’ willingness to contribute time for a hypothetical local public service. This experiment found that the public organization cue raised volunteered time but the citizenship prime had no effect. A further experiment will replicate the study and additionally examine users’ assessments of the pro-social motivation of producers that in part bring about the effects on their willingness to coproduce.