Authors such as Brandsen and Pestoff (2006) assume that mechanisms of co-production are able to foster users’ engagement in the service-delivery process and subsequently improve organizational performance. Based on this idea, this paper investigates whether mechanisms of co-production correlate with social service providers’ organizational performance. Therefore the paper highlights and evaluates the impact and value of various dimensions of co-production in public services delivery.
According to Voorberg et al. (2015), most studies that elaborate on the co-production of public services do not define factual objectives of co-production strategies. Moreover, empirical studies on the effect of co-production on, for instance, organizational performance of social service providers are scarce.
Social service providers such as childcare providers, nursery homes, or refugee aid organizations make important contributions to public welfare and social cohesion. Based on research of Pestoff (2012), we consider the level of participation in decision-making (policy and strategy formulation) and the provision of social services (policy and strategy implementation) as drivers of social service providers’ performance, and distinguish between economic, political and social co-production of service providers and their users.
The basic population considered are parents who have children in day care facilities in Germany. Parents represent indirect service users of childcare providers (Smith and Friedman 1994) as their children are the direct beneficiaries. An online survey yielded a sample of 843 parents. The study uses the generated data to validate a model that includes the perceived degree of co-production as an independent variable as well as person-organization (P-O) fit and the perceived level of information supplied to the parents (e.g., about daily routines) as mediators. We consider parental satisfaction as well as corporate image and loyalty intention as indicators of social service providers’ performance. We measured these latent constructs by means of reflective scales and reflective-reflective higher-order constructs. The data resulting from the online survey was analysed with SEM methodology.
SEM results show that the perceived degree of social and political co-production at the organizational level has significant effects on the information supply and P-O fit perceptions, but no significant direct effects on the considered indicators of performance. Mediation analysis reveals indirect effects of social co-production on all performance indicators. The level of economic participation has significant direct effects on corporate image and loyalty intention but no effect on the mediators. Interestingly, the effect of economic co-production on loyalty intention is negative. This study demonstrates that co-production relates to organizational performance. Political and social co-production strengthens (mitigates) emotional attachment to the organization (information asymmetry between users and service providers), which in turn improves perceived organizational performance. These findings suggest that social service providers should consider implementing participatory mechanisms of social and political co-production. However, because of the negative effect on service user loyalty, managerial decisions with regard to economic co-production have to be made with caution.
Value co-creation, co-design and co-production in public services
