Using public value in digital transformation projects: the beginning of a framework

Two parallel debates have been challenging traditional public administration literature over the past decade: the increasing recognition of the importance of stakeholder and citizen engagement in public service delivery and... [ view full abstract ]

Two parallel debates have been challenging traditional public administration literature over the past decade: the increasing recognition of the importance of stakeholder and citizen engagement in public service delivery and the influence of digitalisation in the public sector. A public value approach provides a means to bring these two trends together to better understand the benefits generated through the co-creation of ICT projects. This paper will propose a framework by which to measure, evaluate and - most importantly - use public value as a conceptual tool in digital government projects which most often are collaborative in nature. At the moment, e-government literature in general cites openness, transparency, empowerment etc. as general "goods" of digital solutions without examining in detail how these aims are in practice achieved or what they mean to different stakeholders. Some recent exploratory research (e.g., Lember, Surva, Tõnurist 2017) suggests that digital solutions can in some occasions lead to "co-destruction" rather than co-creation, dis-empowerment rather than empowerment of citizens. As such, digitalisation can have adverse effects and the value-added/value trade-offs should be evaluated both ex post, ex ante and during the implementation of these projects. Here, a framework to analyse the public value accompanying digital government projects could be of real benefit. The proposed framework takes into account the iterative and agile nature of digital innovations, proposing the framing of public value as a guiding tool in the planning and commissioning of digitalisation projects. As such, the concept of public value could enable to converge various value notions from a variety of stakeholders (civil servants, IT-developers, potential users, citizens etc.) connected to the developments and make these actionable, thus guiding the objectives, design, business case, commissioning and monitoring and evaluation of digitalisation projects. The current work will be followed in the future by an empirical test of the developed framework.