Co-production Research Research Articles

Getting Back to Basics: Advancing the Study and Practice of Coproduction

ABSTRACTThis article discusses three sets of insights generated in this special issue relating to the intended objectives and desired outcomes of coproduction, the inherent tensions in coproduction activities, and important factors for designing and implementing coproduction processes. It also identifies several problems with coproduction research, and asserts that scholars must get back to the basics and address the need for a clear and consistently applied definition, the need to develop and apply frameworks, typologies, and theories, and the need for more explanatory research. The article concludes with a set of research questions to advance the study and practice of coproduction.

Co-production in mental health research: reflections from the People Study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the process of co-producing mental health research where work was shared between university academics, charity-based researchers and a Lived Experience Advisory Panel. Design/methodology/approach – The authors express the opinions of a research team made up of people with experience of using mental health services, being carers and being academically trained researchers from a range of health and social science disciplines. Some had experience in several areas. The paper is co-produced to provide collective reflection and recommendations. Findings – Co-production of research is not well documented in published literature. The authors believe there is scope to develop co-production approaches, but further conceptual and theoretical work is needed alongside empirical studies. A socially situated complex research project, possibly involving multi-stakeholder groups, demands flexibility in approach. Similarly to user-controlled and other emancipatory methodologies, co-production makes the democratisation of research a primary objective in order to produce better quality and more relevant studies. Co-production also addresses inequalities in power and control within research projects; this way of working does provide a healthy challenge to traditional research hierarchies. Practical implications – Lessons learned should be honestly shared to develop co-production research methods. Projects need to have a strategy for how to value different contributions and facilitate constructive relationships if discord emerges. Establishing clear project roles, expectations and process for payment are essential in developing genuine collaborative partnerships. Originality/value – It is a viewpoint paper.

Narratives of experts by experience: the impact of delivering training in partnership on the subject of personality disorder

Purpose – As part of an attitudinal shift surrounding personality disorder stigma, a training package termed the Knowledge and Understanding Framework (KUF) is delivered in collaboration between experts by experience (EBE) and professionals. The purpose of this paper is to explore the narratives of EBE delivering KUF; in particular the impact of this role and its varying contexts. Design/methodology/approach – Eight women took part in the study and a narrative analysis explored their stories. Findings – The analysis suggested five temporal chapters: first, life before becoming involved: “Like being in a milk bottle screaming”; second, a turning point: “It wasn’t actually me that was disordered it was the life that I’d had”; third, taking up the trainer role: “It all just […] took off”; fourth, the emergence of a professional identity: “I am no longer a service user”; and fifth, impact on self, impact on others. Originality/value – The use of qualitative literature is sparse within co-production research. The study therefore adds value in exploring in-depth experiences of the phenomena.

Modes of customer co-production for international service offerings

Purpose – Much has been written about the manifestations and managerial implications of customer co-production in service offerings. However, there have been relatively few references to issues of co-production in international service environments. Co-production is very relevant in international environments because of the requirements for interaction between producers and consumers, which interaction spans international borders and national cultures. The purpose of this paper is to apply an established theory of co-production, the Unified Service Theory (UST), to the international service context. This provides the authors with structured models for conceptualizing the co-productive nature of international service offerings and assessing-related managerial implications. Design/methodology/approach – The UST provides a model of co-productive service delivery. Extending that model, the authors develop a taxonomy of international service based on the “four modes of service supply” provided in the General Agreement on Trade and Services instituted by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Then, using data from the WTO and World Bank, the authors propose and test six hypotheses for predicting service exporting focus corresponding to the co-production taxonomy. Findings – Based on the analysis of empirical data, the authors find more service exporting focus in small, growing, high-wage economies that have a significant service base and focus in merchandise exporting. The strength of these effects differs for different modes of service supply. Research limitations/implications – The authors also discuss cultural issues of international service, but the empirical analysis of culture effects is thus far inconclusive. Also, the analysis is limited to modeling and studying dyadic relationships, i.e., service providers in one country involved in an interchange with customers in another country. A natural extension would be to consider triads and more complex networks of co-productive service offerings. Practical implications – This research shows how managerial implication of the UST can be extended to international service contexts. The authors review managerial implications pertaining to meeting variable demand, describing service characteristics, and pricing. Originality/value – Co-production research is well-established in service management literature. This paper extends that research to international contexts by describing the WTO taxonomy in terms of the UST. This allows the authors to apply various insights of co-production to international service offerings.

Coproduction without experts: a study of people involved in community health and well-being service delivery

Coproduction (equal professional-public involvement in service delivery) has been widely promoted as a means of revolutionising health and social care. Service providers/professionals are tasked with working more in partnership with service users/clients, recognising their experiences and knowledge as critical to the success of the interaction. Fundamental to the coproduction model is the notion that service providers and service users are separate groups, with different interests, identities, training and work protocols. This paper reports findings from a pilot research project which examined coproductive practices in two different health and social care organisations in the UK in 2012. In both settings we observed a range of initiatives in which most of the facilitators were people who had initially been service recipients, but become service deliverers in the spirit of coproduction. Analysis of fieldwork notes and interview transcripts indicated that though facilitators developed expertise, they were reluctant to call themselves ‘experts’ and their learning was rarely recognised by them as expertise. To progress coproduction practice and research, we suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the ways that knowledge, experience and expertise are distributed across organisations, as well as the significance of context in service change.

Co-production: The State of the Art in Research and the Future Agenda

In this introductory article to the thematic issue, our aim is to discuss the state of the art in research on co-production of public services. We define co-production, for the purpose of this article rather narrowly, as the involvement of individual citizens and groups in public service delivery. We discuss the concept along three main research lines that emerge from the literature: what are the motives for co-production? How can co-production be organized effectively? What are the effects of co-production? Secondly, we also critically assess the state of the art and discuss some conceptual and methodological issues that are still open to debate. Thirdly, we propose some directions for future research: greater methodological diversity and the need for empirical and comparative research with a specific attention for theoretical advancement in co-production research.

Beyond co-production: practice-relevant scholarship as a foundation for delivering impact through powerful ideas

This article aims to shift the conversation from politics to purpose in co-production research by introducing practice-relevant scholarship as a foundation for delivering impact through powerful ideas. The article is intended as an invitation to re-engage in research practice mindful of the multiplicity of impacts it can deliver. A greater sensitization towards delivering impact provides scope for forming important collaborations with a whole host of partners (across geographical, scientific/professional and practice fields).

Co-production, emergent properties and strong interactive social research: the Georgia Basin Futures Project

A strong programme in interactive social research can be distinguished by the relationships it seeks to establish among four key parties in the research process - the sponsors of research, the research team, independent organisations (from the governmental, non-governmental and commercial sectors) and the interested public. The knowledge that is the result of a research project is a co-production of researchers, players and partners, and is therefore an emergent property of their interaction. The Georgia Basin Futures Project is one attempt to operationalise a form of strong interactive social research. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Diesel fuel from vegetable oils: Status and opportunities

The technical and economic aspects of using vegetable oils as alternative sources for diesel fuels have been studied extensively during the past two decades. Although much of the recent research and development on the production and use of diesel fuel substitutes has been carried out in developed countries, the need for such substitutes and the potential for their production is much greater in developing countries. This report will review some of the results obtained from using vegetable oils and their derivatives as fuel in compression ignition engines and examine opportunities for their broader production and use. It will include some historic background, as well as current and potential yields of candidate crops, the technology and economics of vegetable oil conversion to diesel fuel, the performance of various oils, the potential inherent in diesel fuel coproduction, environmental considerations, and other research opportunities. Vegetable oils will not entirely displace petroleum as a source of diesel fuel. There are, however, technical, economic, and environmental considerations that can lead to their wider use in this application.