Co-creating value in public services delivery – building a conceptual framework within a Public Service Logic framework

This is a conceptual paper. It explores the nature of the ‘co-creation of value’ within public services delivery. It argues that it is often poorly conceptualised and without clear theoretical underpinnings. This has led... [ view full abstract ]

This is a conceptual paper. It explores the nature of the ‘co-creation of value’ within public services delivery. It argues that it is often poorly conceptualised and without clear theoretical underpinnings. This has led it to become a diffuse topic, poorly researched and with difficulties in applying either as a design concept or as an evaluation metric within public services research and practice. This paper seeks to redress this significant gap by developing a dynamic framework of the co-creation of value in public services delivery.

The paper is in three parts. The first part reviews existing approaches to value (including ’public value’) within public services research. It evaluates their strengths but also their significant short-comings. It highlights in particular the relationship between ‘value and ‘values’, as well as individual and public value, and evaluates the existing research that has explored these dynamics. The second part then builds an alternative conceptualisation of ‘value’ in public services delivery that is rooted in the Public Service Logic framework. It disaggregates value into a cluster of related but distinct concepts and relates them to the process elements of its co-creation within public service delivery and  that derive from the nature of public services as ‘services’ (that is, co-experience, co-construction, co-production and co-innovation).

The final part of the paper then considers the import of this revised conceptualisation, for our understanding both of value co-creation in particular and of the process of public service delivery in general. In conclusion, the implications of this for theory, research, and policy and practice are considered.