Digital Co-Production of Public Services

Research objective: This research analyzes how relationships between different levels of local bureaucracy (top, mid, and street-level) – and the context of rules and values in which they operate – affect the practices of co-production of public health services. Theoretical Framework: The study is based on two distinct theoretical concepts rarely associated in the literature: the co-production of public services and levels of bureaucracy. Methodology: It is a qualitative research examining the family health strategy in three medium-sized Brazilian municipalities. Results: The six co-production arrangements identified showed that co-production practices materialize in different ways, sharing more or less power with users, depending on the different patterns of relationship between levels of bureaucracy and the bureaucracy and citizens. Originality: Few studies analyze co-production from the state’s point of view. Therefore, this research explores a gap in the literature, focusing on the relationships between levels of bureaucracy and their influence on public service co-production practices. Theoretical and practical contributions: The results raised four points to be theoretically developed, points that also deserve the attention of practitioners operating in co-production: (1) Any level of bureaucracy can offer resistance or openness to co-production, and this is not hierarchically determined; (2) A structure of support and incentive for co-production by the top and mid-level bureaucracy does not guaranteethe engagement of street-level bureaucracy; (3) The collaboration of top and mid-level bureaucracy is essential to expand co-production results; (4) Different relationship patterns between levels of bureaucracy and between the bureaucracy and citizens. Keywords:Co-production, Levels of bureaucracy, Co-production arrangements, Co-production of public health services.

The availability of different types of data collected by Internet of Things-IoT can be exploited to enhance transparency and promote government action for citizens. However, in this field, how has the approximation between government and citizens been achieved for the co-production of digital public services? Thus, this research aims to identify the applicability of IOT in the coproduction of public services and what the characteristics of related models applicable to public administration. In order to do so, this article carried out a systematic review of the literature, in the period from 2012 to 2018. For this purpose, the database of advanced search Scopus. In general, many authors see IoT as facilitating the concept of smart cities, as well as a new way of managing communities based on information sharing and collaboration. Furthermore, the data collected through IoT can improve the capacity to predict problems in the development of a collective intelligence. The review has shown that there are advantages in the co-production of public services from the use of IoT as an instrument for reaching public value for public administration. However, the exploration of quality aspects of e-government service offerings and the understanding of user preferences are research questions that need to move forward in the face of relevance to society.

Purpose Citizen engagement and public service co-production have been identified as essential ingredients of the recipe for public services’ quality improvement. However, the process of citizens’ involvement has rarely been investigated in the scientific literature. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on this issue, examining the expectations and perspectives of people involved in an ongoing process of collective public service co-production implemented in Val Brembilla, a small-sized municipality located in North-Western Italy. Design/methodology/approach A mixed research strategy was designed. First, seven focus groups involving both citizens and entrepreneurs participating in public service co-production were established. Second, a semi-structured survey was administered to 463 co-producers (including both citizens and entrepreneurs), in order to elicit their perceptions and expectations. Findings An institutional trigger, namely, the decision of the municipality’s board to purchase the Kuwait Expo 2015 pavilion, initiated the process of public service co-production. Although citizens did not fully agree with the decision to buy the pavilion, due to its negative implications on the municipality’s finances, they were found to be willing to participate in public value co-creation. The opportunity to promote territorial identity through public value co-creation represented the main driver for citizens and entrepreneurs’ involvement. Practical implications Collective public service co-production is a sustainable and effective way to enhance the provision of public services. Several barriers are thought to prevent citizens’ engagement in collective public service co-production. First, people expect to be engaged from the initial steps of the process; second, the distinguishing role of territorial identity in influencing citizens’ behaviors and expectations should be recognized and properly addressed to avoid shortcomings in citizens’ engagement. Originality/value This paper investigates an ongoing collective public service co-production experience; moreover, it highlights the role of public service co-production in enhancing the public sector entities’ ability to recognize the evolving needs of the community.

Increasing the participation of inhabitants in the activities of local authorities has been one of the topics in the discussion on sustainable development for a long time. In rural development, there is also a demand for increasing the participation of inhabitants. This is possible thanks, among other things, to tools that enhance bonds in local communities, encompassing processes based on the mechanisms of the co-creation and co-production of public services, or various forms of participation in the decision-making processes of self-government. In Poland, some regional self-governments (voivodeships) have introduced solutions based on a system of grants for small local communities (villages/sołectwa) linked to deliberative participation, co-creation, and co-production processes. The goal of this article is thus to analyse the design, operation, and scale of grant mechanisms implemented by regional authorities for local communities in Poland’s rural areas (sołectwa). The first stage of the research process was a review of the literature, followed by analysis of the existing solutions and mechanisms for supporting small local communities in individual regions of Poland by financing or co-financing projects that engage inhabitants in the co-creation and co-production of public goods or services. Based on this, the key assumptions considered when creating this type of mechanism of support by voivodeship self-governments were determined. A subsequent stage of research involved analysing the case study of a solution introduced in 2016 by the Łódź regional self-government. The research results indicate that the analysed grant system model stimulates local communities that were previously passive/excluded by other programmes and that, as a result of the stable conditions of a grant contest, the process of “learning” and “imitating” the actions of the communities that succeeded occurs. The research results indicate that the proposed system of grants, which is conditionally based on the participation and co-operation of the inhabitants, seems to be an effective means of activating communities. The findings also point to features that could determine the success of the introduced grant model, such as its simplicity, limiting the bureaucracy (partially limiting the influence of local authorities on who obtains grants), and the transparency of the procedure.

Public agencies are being pressured for innovation, driving service delivery towards a more personalized, outcome-driven, participative, efficient and collaborative model. This paper captures the perception of policymakers responsible of strategies for e-government in local governments about the influence of Web 2.0 technologies on: (a) the design and coproduction of public services; (b) the easy access to services and the problem solving in the execution of public services; and (c) the evaluation of public services and the improvement of efficiency and accountability. To answer these research questions, an e-survey was sent to policymakers responsible of strategies for e-government in large Spanish local governments. Findings indicate that Web 2.0 technologies are seen as simple adaptations of offline behaviour in public services, which fail to generate meaningful interaction with citizens. It responds to the “representation” strategy, which is focused on the “push” tactic in which no interactions are allowed and a means of “crowdsourced democracy” is produced.

Client motivation to participate in co-production of public services, a relevant object of market research, is analysed in the paper. The object is analysed from the interdisciplinary viewpoint, i.e. from the perspectives of marketing and public administration. Client motivation is analysed as one of the activities of managing client participation which is essential seeking client active co-production of public services. A necessity to manage client participation has been in the focus of research works but the managing process itself has been scarcely analysed. Research, where managing client participation has been analysed as a purposefully influencing and behaviour-oriented activity, has been lacking. From the marketing viewpoint clients must be motivated to actively participate in co-production of services. Summing up research findings, it is stated that studies, where client motivation has been systematically analysed, are scarce. The influence of the ways of motivating clients to actively participate in co-production of services has not been evaluated either (active participation is understood as productive and beneficial public service clients’ activities by providing the necessary resources). Problem question raised: How (in what ways) to motivate clients so that they became active co-produces of services? Research object: Ways of motivating clients employed by the public service providers. Aim of research: Having defined the concept of motivating clients to participate in public services to identify the ways of motivating employed by the public service providers and to rank these ways by the strength of influence on activeness in participation. In the first part of the paper managing of client participation in public services is defined and the role of client motivation in it is showed. Further, the concept of motivating clients is defined and clients‘ motives to participate in public services are identified. Research methodology is presented. The research field, elderships of Lithuania, was chosen. Personal purposeful interviews were conducted to identify the ways of motivating. Employees only of those elderships, where population participation in services is of a relatively high level, were drawn to the sample. Real clients of public services were surveyed to establish the relationship between the ways of motivating and activeness in participation. The paper is concluded by presenting the identified material and non-material ways of motivating employed in practice in Lithuanian elderships and the findings of qualitative research – the relationship among particular variables. Ranks of the ways of motivating by the strength of influence on a dependent variable, i.e. client activeness in participation, are presented. The following conclusions are drawn: motivation is established as identification of motives for client behaviour and employment of suitable material and non-material ways seeking to motivate clients to participate as the co-producers of public services. Material and non-material ways of motivating clients employed in practice in the elderships have been identified. Most often employed ways of motivating: appreciation expressed by the elder in person; appreciation/congratulation in public events; events as a reward for participating in co-production of public services, etc are presented. It has been identified that non-material ways of motivating more strongly correlate with the level of client participation in services than the material ones. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.23.3.1375

Governments are facing demands towards more transparency, better connectivity and collaboration among different actors in public service provisioning. Their constituencies demand that public services better reflect citizens' needs and social innovation. Integrating Internet, Web 2.0, social media and new concepts of open government and community governance bear tremendous potentials for engaging citizens and businesses in co-creation and co-production of public services and therewith addressing their high expectations. This paper first reviews existing concepts of co-creation and co-production. Subsequently, the Social Government (SocialGov) concept is introduced, which implements new trends of co-creation and co-production of public services in a collaborative environment. In SocialGov, the actors collaborate on the par with one another and the citizens and businesses take over social and public responsibility in their local communities.

Co-production is currently one of the pillars of the public sector reform around the world. The potential of this concept is increasingly recognized in the design and improvement of public services in cities. Co-production is a partnership among citizens, public institutions and enterprises, which enables all the parties to be more involved in the management of the city and contributes to greater control over public resources (Horne, Shirley, 2009). In the subject literature, it is pointed out that these reforms are directed to the implementation of effective public services, are a response to the deficit of active citizenship and active communities and enterprises that are insufficiently involved in the processes of designing and co-creating innovative public services in cities. The basic - and basically still valid today - conceptualization of co-production was carried out in several works published in the first half of the 1980s. The aim of this paper is to analyse the state of research on the issue of co-production in public services and to identify the main research areas related to this subject. The paper was based on a systematic review of literature, which included, among others, the emergence of basic literature and selection of publications, bibliometric analysis and content analysis. The results of the conducted research show that the issue of co-production in public services is a new subject, still not well recognized in the literature and which may constitute a current and interesting area of research.

The application of big data technology provides support for the co-production of public safety services. Existing research often focuses on how technology influences co-production, but lacks attention to the key actors that drive co-production and the mechanisms that facilitate it. This study examines the role of government in the digital co-production of public safety services, using the practice of Shenzhen as a case study. Shenzhen has built 125 information systems based on over 100 billion pieces of big data, forming a model of digital safety service co-production. The study reveals three types of digital co-production, characterized by “government-business joint planning, passive participation of businesses and the public, and active cooperation among government, businesses, and the public” in the “design-production-application” stages. The study shows that the government is not only a co-producer but also a proactive actor in activating the willingness of non-governmental entities to participate. Local governments mobilize non-governmental participation through three mechanisms: empowerment, profit enhancement, and value co-creation. The “power-interest-value” paradigm is applicable for analyzing the co-production of public services and helps to explain the transformation mechanisms of co-production behavior.

ABSTRACTDrawing on the results of a systematic literature review of empirical studies, this paper sheds light on six broad factors that facilitate the initiation and implementation of co-production in public services. The factors are classified into two overarching categories: organizational factors, including organizational arrangements, professional roles, and managerial tools; and procedural factors, including participant recruitment, participant preparation, and process design. For each set of factors, the paper provides a series of management implications. It concludes with additional observations for practice.

Research on and practical attention for the coproduction of public services is increasing. Coproduction is seen as a way to strengthen the quality and legitimacy of public service and reduce costs. Scholarship on coproduction of public services repeatedly ignores the role of the new media. This is surprising since many proponents highlight its potential for changing traditional, government‐centric approaches to delivering public services. This article shows that digital communities form an important addition to the government‐centric form of public service provision since they foster both an exchange of experiential information and social‐emotional support.

Homeownership has been widely regarded as a critical determinant of public participation in social science research. However, the role of homeownership in public service coproduction has been under-researched. This study advances a theory of public service coproduction that accounts for the effect of homeownership and its underlying mechanisms by theorizing that homeownership increases coproduction participation by directly motivating individuals to protect their financial investments and indirectly improving their knowledge about government. Original data from a random telephone survey of 2,167 residents conducted in August 2022 in Beijing, China were used to test the hypotheses, and a series of analytical tools (e.g., weighted models, matching, and sensitivity analysis) were used to validate the theorized effects and mechanisms. Results consistently show that homeowners are more likely to report public service complaints to the government than nonowners. These findings have important implications for future theoretical research and practical efforts to promote public service coproduction.

This paper presents an empirical study of asylum seekers in Glasgow and their capacity to co-produce the public services they use. It is divided into three parts. The first briefly examines the theory of co-production, revisiting a conceptual framework for co-production developed through the integration of the public administration and services management literatures (Osborne and Strokosch, 2013). Second, the paper examines the capacity of asylum seekers in Scotland to co-produce, considering their position as a marginalised group in society which significantly challenges many of the assertions about the nature of co-production. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of this new evidence for our understanding of the links between public services consumption and citizenship, asking two fundamental questions: can asylum seekers, as non-citizens, co-produce the public services they receive and, if so, what forms does co-production take; and what are the implications of this for social inclusion and citizenship?

This introductory article discusses the topic of coproduction and outlines the special issue. In particular, we explain some different uses of the concept of coproduction, outline our focus on coproduction as the collaboration between public service agents and citizen-users in the provision of public services, and contextualize coproduction, specifically looking at the legal context in which coproduction takes places. We then portray the international collaboration that has been set up within the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) Study Group on Coproduction of Public Services. Next, we highlight the included articles and explain what they teach us about coproduction and what we must still learn.

This paper offers a theoretical framework for digital co-production in public services and considers the benefits and limitations such services can have for citizens. Based on examples from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare administration, we argue that digital services are being developed in primarily four directions, depending on a choice of goal and strategy. The four types of services create value for citizens in different ways, but also have different limitations. The proposed framework, along with the examples given, provides important insight into the multiplicity and limitations of public sector digital services.