Co-Production and Value Co-Creation in Outcome-Based Contracting in Public Services

This paper contributes to theorizing and analysing different processes of co-production and value co-creation within outcome-based contracting (OBC). It investigates how different OBC mechanisms are implemented in practice, and with what implications for public service users’ experiences and outcomes. Using realist synthesis techniques, the paper analyses existing evaluations that focus on users’ experiences of OBC in welfare-to-work services and a homelessness project. It highlights how OBC can affect equality, effectiveness and innovation within public services. The paper also exemplifies the importance of analysing how the political and policy context of public services affects both service pathways and their outcomes.     

Handbook on development policy and management

ABSTRACT

Although the public service logic (PSL) has been an important equipoise to the predominant goods-manufacturing logic, there is potential to broaden its scope. An explicit integration of social context may contribute to an enhanced conceptual understanding of the PSL, at the same time addressing a major challenge in healthcare: disparities among population groups. A ‘representative co-production’ approach is suggested. In such an approach, group representatives’ knowledge and skills are used in evaluating, designing, and delivering services with the purpose of supporting other group members’ value co-creation. A case is provided, demonstrating representative co-production in access to preventive health services.     

Collective Action and the Sustainability of Co-Production

Abstract

This article addresses the sustainability of citizen/user participation in the provision of public services, often referred to as co-production. Co-producing public services not only promises to limit cost, but it also requires a change in the relations and behaviour of public servants and citizens/users, in order for the latter to make a long-term commitment to co-production. The article notes that Olsen proposes two logics of collective action, not just one. Focusing on small group interaction can provide an important strategy for achieving sustainable co-production, particularly of enduring welfare services. However, Ostrom criticizes too simplistic approaches based on size alone for promoting social cooperation in collective action situations. She proposes seven structural variables of importance in resolving social dilemmas. Several of them can also be perceived as factors that facilitate sustainable citizen participation in co-production. Some additional factors are also considered important for sustainable co-production, like the nature of the service itself, organizational diversity, a dialogue between the staff and clients, and facilitating small group interactions in large organizations. This article concludes that governments should develop more flexible, service-specific and organization-specific approaches for promoting co-production, rather than looking for simple ‘one size fits all’ solutions to the challenges facing public service delivery, particularly of enduring welfare services. It also proposes a research agenda on sustainable co-production.     

Operationalizing Co-Production in Public Services Delivery: The contribution of service blueprinting

Abstract

We have argued for public services to move away from product-dominant logic towards a service approach. By taking a services orientation, the experience, inter-organizational, and systemic nature of public services delivery can be considered along with the role of the service user as a co-producer. In this article, we unpack how co-production can be operationalized through the application of service blueprinting. This article presents an example within higher education where the creation of a blueprint brought together staff and students to focus on the design of student enrolment, resulting in improved student experience and supporting co-production.     

The marketing firm and co-creation: An empirical study of marketer and customer's co-creation process

This study empirically investigates the marketer and customer's co-creation process within the context of the marketing firm. Based on principles from bilateral contingencies, findings from a conjoint study (n = 98) indicate that utilitarian and informational reinforcing consequences from the marketer have a stronger impact on customers' co-creation behavior relative to informational reinforcing consequences from other customers. Consequently, analyzing the impact of important reinforcing contingencies through the lens of bilateral contingencies expands our understanding of how and why co-creation outcomes might occur. Also, a good co-creation process may increase the business companies' research and intelligence and, as a consequence, strengthen their competitiveness.     

Knowledge processing and ecosystem co-creation for process innovation: Managing joint knowledge processing in process innovation projects

Process innovation drives industrial competitiveness and sustainability but remains elusive since it requires co-creation and the sharing of idiosyncratic design knowledge in ecosystems of providers and customers of process equipment. This paper investigates how firms can manage knowledge processing through co-creation in joint process innovation projects. Analysis of cross-comparative case studies –including nine industrial ecosystem actors – identifies three types of technological challenge (complexity, novelty and customization) that creates knowledge-processing requirements (uncertainty, equivocality) during the value co-creation process. To manage these knowledge-processing requirements, this paper explains how three joint knowledge-processing strategies (joint problem solving, open communication and end-user involvement) help ecosystem partners make sense of the requirements and demands in process innovation. In this context, the procurement approach (such as contracting and relationship development) helps to facilitate higher levels of joint knowledge processing, drawing on the diverse knowledge of ecosystem actors to secure successful process-innovation outcomes. The present study contributes to the emerging literature on co-creation in process innovation by developing a framework that highlights the knowledge-processing dynamics in ecosystem relationships for process innovation. The implications for management extends to a practical tool that guides project managers in ensuring appropriate levels of joint knowledge processing among ecosystem actors.

     

Value Co-Creation through Patient Engagement in Health Care: A micro-level approach and research agenda

Abstract

Patient engagement has gained increasing prominence within academic literatures and policy discourse. With limited developments in practice, most extant academic contributions are conceptual, with initiatives in the National Health Service (NHS) concentrating at macro- rather than at micro-level. This may be one reason why the issue of ‘value co-creation’ has received limited attention within academic discussions of patient engagement or policy pronouncements. Drawing on emerging ideas in the services marketing and public management literatures, this article offers the first elucidation of the importance of studying ‘value co-creation’ as a basis for further empirical analysis of patient engagement in micro-level encounters.     

The Multiple Facets of Co-Production: Building on the work of Elinor Ostrom

Abstract

This article revisits Elinor Ostrom’s pioneering formulation more than three decades ago of the notion of co-production, which remains foundational, but closer scrutiny reveals further unexplored potential. This article focuses on the two parts of the term ‘co-production’, namely, its ‘production’, aspect with its sense of a process of turning inputs into products, and its ‘co’ aspect, with its sense of some kind of relationship. Both aspects have multiple facets, which are in some respects at odds and in others congruent with each other. The article canvasses ways of combining, trading off, and/or choosing between them.     

Religiosity as a source of influence on work engagement: a study of the Malaysian Finance industry

Abstract

The majority of work engagement studies have been conducted using a quantitative approach with limited attention to the institutional and social contexts. Meanwhile, the role of religion in shaping people’s philosophy and behaviour in life and work has been gaining attention from management researchers. Studies have revealed the positive impact of religiosity on a number of human resources and organizational outcomes. However, few studies treat religious belief as a job or personal resource from a HRM perspective. This study fills part of this research gap by focusing on the relevant factors that may affect work engagement in the Malaysian Islamic context. Drawing on data from 41 semi-structured interviews with mid-ranking professionals from the finance sector, this study responds to calls for more focus on contexts and for deeper qualitative investigations into individual dynamics that concern religiosity and work engagement. It provides evidence that religiosity plays an important role in work engagement. Our findings have implications for people management in organizations that have a diverse workforce representing multiple religions.     

Disentangling the Role of Management Control Systems for Product and Process Innovation in Different Contexts

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the relationship between the use of management control systems and different types of innovation (product and process), taking into account innovation contexts (high-tech versus low-tech sectors). We develop and test our hypotheses based on a large sample of Spanish manufacturing firms and find that input controls have a positive association only with process innovation in both innovation contexts. Behavior controls have similar effects on both types of innovation outcomes for high-tech firms, while they have stronger positive associations with process than with product innovation for low-tech firms. Output controls are equally relevant for product and process innovation in both contexts.     

Conditions for policy implementation via co-production: the control of dengue fever in Brazil

In this paper, we identify the conditions that must be present for effective policy implementation using co-production. To this end, we investigated five cases in which co-production was used to combat the vector of dengue, the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, in Brazil. Data were analysed using content analysis and crisp-set QCA methods to identify the combination of conditions that explain successful outcomes. Five conditions were found to be necessary for effective implementation via co-production: technical, economic, normative, cognitive and structural. The contribution of this study is to provide empirical evidence with respect to the conditions that effectively lead to successful outcomes.     

Double-edged effect of talent management on organizational performance: the moderating role of HRM investments

Abstract

More than a decade after the publication of the book The War for Talent, there has been growing interest in the role of talent management in achieving organizational success. Although past studies have empirically investigated the role of talent management and its positive association with organizational performance, few studies have integrated the bright and dark sides of talent management. Using a sample of 444 firms in South Korea, this study finds that talent management has a double-edged effect on firm outcomes, including innovation and voluntary turnover rate. Moreover, it finds that the effect of talent management considerably varies across organizational contexts. Specifically, this study identifies the conditions under which the negative role of talent management changes across different levels of human resource management investments. Demonstrating the dual direct effect and contextual effect of talent management, this study provides reference for future studies on talent management, specifically those that aim to discover the mechanisms influencing the distinguished role of talent management in organizational outcomes. This study further discusses the theoretical and practical implications.     

Entrepreneurship at the Local Government Level: Stimulating and restraining forces in the Swedish waste management industry

Abstract

This article explores influential forces on public sector entrepreneurship in two different organizational forms: the local government administration and the local government corporation. In arguing for the need to consider the context of organizational form, this article presents a development beyond existing research on public entrepreneurship (PE) which so far has been conducted only to a limited extent. The inductive analysis identifies factors not previously perceived as influential on PE. These findings support the importance of distinguishing between organizational forms. Finally, the findings can be used for formulating hypotheses possible to test in larger research designs.     

Collaboration,Co-Production,Networks: Convergence of theories

Abstract

This article suggests a framework to study service delivery networks that draws on the theories of collaboration, co-production, and networks combined. We introduce four dimensions of co-production under ‘coproduction-oriented collaborations’. This framework allows us to ‘zoom in and zoom out’ when we study networks. Using the case method approach, the framework is applied to analyse four networks in Singapore. Findings suggest that network process, network structure, and characteristics of actors are crucial to a network’s performance and coproduction’s effectiveness. This article also offers implications for practice that in certain contexts the usage of these concepts is for managerial effectiveness and not for enhancing democratic values.     

Co-Production in Developing Countries: Insights from the community health workers experience

Abstract

Co-production nowadays ranks high in global development strategies of international and philanthropic organizations. Although long-standing experiences in developing countries can provide a relevant contribution to the co-production theory, it is necessary to verify what contextual and conceptual conditions might alter the existing theoretical models. This article makes a theoretical contribution by modelling propositions that can withstand logical and empirical scrutiny. The literature is reviewed to identify key co-production concepts, their interrelationships, and the underlying assumptions. A longitudinal case study is analyzed to expand the existing theoretical propositions. Policy implications for scaling-up programmes are drawn.     

Why People Co-Produce: Analysing citizens’ perceptions on co-planning engagement in health care services

Abstract

The aim of this article is to comprehend the motivation of citizens to co-produce. More specifically, it considers citizens’ motivations to engage in co-planning activities of health care services. The article brings together theoretical insights and empirical data. First, we integrate insights from different strands of literature. We combine literature on citizen participation, political efficacy, co-production, volunteerism, public service motivation, and customer engagement to offer a first understanding of citizens’ motivations to actively engage as co-producers of public services. Next, empirical data are derived from one specific case: citizens participating in client councils in health care organizations. Q-methodology, a method designed to systematically study persons’ viewpoints, is used to distinguish different perspectives citizen have on their engagement in co-production. Our analysis of citizens’ motivations to engage in client councils enables us to identify four types of citizen co-producers, which we label: the semi-professional, the socializer, the network professional, and the aware co-producer. Implications for future research studying citizens’ motivations in a broader range of co-production cases are discussed.     

A systematic review of barriers to public sector innovation process

ABSTRACT

This article provides a systematic review of the empirical literature on barriers within public sector innovation processes, based on data from 63 articles. We investigate the nature of barriers using four dimensions: (i) classification; (ii) interrelations; (iii) innovation process and (iv) types of innovations. A new classification is developed to show that interaction-specific barriers emerge during collaborative innovation. Significantly, we identify that the nature of barriers are more complex than has previously been recognized, where there has been an emphasis on organizational barriers. We identify that the nature of barriers differ in process and innovation types. Moreover, they show interrelations across the process.     

Realizing public values: enhancement or obstruction? Exploring value tensions and coping strategies in the co-production of social care

ABSTRACT

We examine the potential of co-production to enhance or obstruct the realization of public values by analysing what value tensions co-producers experience and what coping strategies they follow. In-depth study of a social care initiative in Flanders shows that co-production enhances the realization of values relating to services delivered, relationships between public servants and citizens, and the democratic quality of the service delivery process. However, public servants and citizen co-producers experience tensions between values, such as efficiency, individual freedom of co-producers, reciprocity, and inclusion. In trying to deal with these value tensions, public servants are found to follow a variety of coping strategies, whereas citizen co-producers tend to escalate tensions or avoid coping with them. The type of coping strategy followed, however, influences if and what values are ultimately represented in the service delivery process and its results.     

A novel method as a diagnostic tool for the detection of influential observations in the Cox proportional hazards model

It is important that the process of studying and modelling the prognosis of disability should be conducted using time-to-event data, as the dynamic nature of disability could cause intervention on the modifiable (prognostic) factors, thus changing the course to a more favourable outcome. In disability research, the Cox PH model is frequently used to identify prognostic factors for the life expectancy of people with disabilities and to evaluate the treatment effects on the time to event. Accurate detection of influential observations is an important factor when fitting the Cox PH model, as influential observations in the Cox PH model can cause model misspecification, inaccurately determined factors, missed valuable biological information and/or violation of the proportional hazard assumption. In this paper, a novel multiple case detection method for influential observations is recommended in the Cox model. The aim of the paper is to inform clinicians and researchers who use the Cox PH model for describing the survival time as a function of multiple prognostic factors, regarding the importance of the detection of influential observations that can lead to misleading conclusions if they are present in the data set. The efficiency of the proposed method is presented through the real dataset. Additionally, in the specific case of North Cyprus, the aim is emphasize the importance of survival modelling studies that determine the prognostic factors affecting the lives of people with disabilities, to improve life quality and to develop a plan for healthier and higher quality life styles programmes for people with disabilities. As a first step, it is recommended that a system of database records of disabilities should be established and maintained by the government to raise public awareness.

     

Managing implementation processes

Abstract

In order to improve financial decision making in local governments in Germany, accrual output-based budgeting is being introduced. As the dynamics of implementation processes are often neglected, we research the shift from established rules and procedures to the application of accrual accounting, especially how public managers deal with new financial management systems and how their expectations are fulfilled. Based on a dynamic capability approach, six case studies in German municipalities are conducted. In a comparative analysis we focus on the dynamics of implementation processes. The findings emphasize that the application of accrual accounting is dependent on strategic orientations of top managers, involvement of middle managers and the capability to develop new structural routines in managing change.