Cost-efficiency and coproduction: an awkward couple? A structured literature review

Co-production is both a recurrent way of organizing public services and a maturing academic field since the seminal article by Parks and colleagues (Parks et al. 1981). The debate on co-productions has analyzed a number of... [ view full abstract ]

Co-production is both a recurrent way of organizing public services and a maturing academic field since the seminal article by Parks and colleagues (Parks et al. 1981). The debate on co-productions has analyzed a number of facets. A significant number of contributions have attempted at sharpening the paradigm of co-production, providing taxonomies and conceptual maps of the different kinds of co-production (Nabatchi, Sancino and Sicilia 2017, Brandsen and Honingh 2016, Bovaird 2007), as well as conceptualizing the theoretical background of the concept (Osborne and Strokosch 2013). Beside typologies, many authors focused on the effects of co-production on organizational and societal outcomes. In this respect, some work found co-production to improve overall service quality (Jakobsen and Andersen 2013, Vamstad 2012) and to allow service customization to different user needs (Bovaird and Downe 2008). This can lead to a better relationship between citizens and public agencies, resulting in improved quality of democratic governance (Vanleene, Verschuere and Voets 2015). However, other studies suggests that co-production can face the obstacle of resistance from professional groups (Zambrano-Gutiérrez, Rutherford, and Nicholson-Crotty 2017), eventually making it hard to deliver up to the expectations (Femke D. Vennik et al. 2015).In the more recent streams of co-production research one cluster of effects has been partly overlooked, at least comparatively: its economic effects and, in particular, its impact on the costs of public services. This is partly surprising since the effects of co-production on  public spending were at the core of some early contributions in the field (Brudney and Duncombe 1992) that pointed at how the inclusion of citizen inputs either decreases production costs or increases service levels within a given budget (Brudney 1993). In times of fiscal crisis and austerity (Kickert 2012, Lodge and Hood 2012), it might be meaningful for research and policy to systematically re-assess the effects of co-production. Therefore, the present contribution aims at conducting a literature review to verify whether studies on co-production allow to appreciate whether and under which circumstances co-production affects the cost-efficiency of public services.In order to answer these questions, a structured literature review has been performed, following the SRL (Structured Literature Review) methodology (Massaro, Dumay and Guthrie 2016). SRL approach differs from traditional narrative reviews since, like other meta-analysis methods it adopts a replicable and transparent process. At the same time, when compared to most common meta-analysis or systematic review logics, it is better suited to incorporate findings from contributions whose ontology is not positivist or that are simply based on small samples. This makes the method especially suited to public administration and management studies. The literature review focused on academic studies available online in full text and published in English language since 1981, when the seminal article by Parks et al. was published. This article does not try to systematize the entire literature on co-production, but only the contributions addressing explicitly its effects on costs. Selected articles were charted through an ad hoc framework which included relevance, main findings, relationship between co-production and cost, methodology used and number of citations.