Unravelling interdependence: public-private co-creation of e-services

Governance and the provision of public services are challenging tasks for budget-short governments operating in a highly connected and interdependent network society. Yet, the high degrees of interconnectivity and digitisation... [ view full abstract ]

Governance and the provision of public services are challenging tasks for budget-short governments operating in a highly connected and interdependent network society. Yet, the high degrees of interconnectivity and digitisation of resources, services and interactions are also a source for new ways for value-creation. They enable co-creation of services; non-government actors can be involved in the design, implementation and provisioning of public services. It can help bring in resources, capacity and expertise of actors traditionally not involved in public services. This should help to not only provide more efficient and effective services, but also add to (perceived) legitimacy due to the inclusive approach. In this paper, I empirically investigate the co-creation of electronic service provisioning. Electronic public service delivery refers to the use of ICT’s for public services and products, such as web forms and electronic tax returns. As many services transcend the boundaries between the public and the private sector, co-creation of services through collaboration on integrated electronic service delivery is increasingly being recognised to be capable of greatly improving public value. This paper is on such co-creation of electronic services through collaboration between public and private sector organisations. Co-creation of electronic services presents challenges and interdependencies at multiple layers; inter-organisational, organisational, at the process level, and at the technology level. To identify the various elements that – in the context of integrated service delivery – pose interdependence in a public-private service network, I define a theoretical lens based on coordination theory. The framework is used to study two cases: a webportal co-created by six types of organisations; and a collaborative network with thousands of companies to act as service provision channels and data collectors for public e-services. The paper presents the main factors and tensions that influence the co-creation processes and outcomes.