Public administrators' engagement in services co-creation: factors that foster and hinder organisational learning about citizens

Abstract

Citizens and public organisations are increasingly engaging in the co-creation of public services. To be successful, such co-creation efforts require public organisations to engage in organisational learning about citizens' value-creation processes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of such organisational learning, drawing on Payne, Storbacka, and Frow's framework about value co-creation management. A model consisting of five factors is suggested and tested via a survey administered to a sample of 204 local government administrators in Italy. The findings highlight the significance of two positive antecedents (public administrators' level of citizen orientation and expected benefits from co-creation) and three negative antecedents (perceived citizens' lack of competencies and experience, perceived biases in citizens' perceptions, and lack of resources) of organisational learning. From the managerial perspective, the model tested in this study can be used by public organisations to evaluate their level of organisational learning.