1.1 New Public Administration (NPA)

In reaction to the perceived failings of traditional Public Administration (PA), early NPA scholars argued for restoring democratic values by placing citizens at the centre of public service decision-making (White Reference White and Marini1971). This aim was to be facilitated predominantly by structural changes, such as decentralization and delayering, and required the active involvement of civic-minded and educated citizens (Frederickson Reference Frederickson1980).

Whilst the participation narrative is still broadly situated in the public sector context, it has been impacted by the subsequent hegemonic influence of the NPM (e.g., Vigoda and Golembiewski Reference Vigoda and Golembiewski2001). With social equity as its defining feature, NPA argued against the hegemony of the private sector norms associated with NPM. The NPA narrative has been criticized for having had only limited impact upon actual public service reform (Denhardt and Denhardt Reference Denhardt and Denhardt2015). There is also a lack of empirical evidence explaining how the structural changes proposed by NPA can enable greater participation or social inclusion. Finally, NPA has been criticized for facilitating the participation of articulate citizens and elites, rather than the marginalized groups intended (Ingraham and Rosenbloom Reference Ingraham and Rosenbloom1989).

1.2 The New Public Management (NPM)

From the 1980s onwards, NPM has developed as the pre-eminent narrative of public service reform. It emerged from critiques of PA strongly linked to a political agenda that centred on the privatization and marketization of public service provision to ‘roll back the state’ (Hood et al. Reference Hood, Dunsire and Thomson1988). New Public Management has been widely criticized for disregarding citizen participation because of its managerialism (Christensen and Laegreid Reference Christensen and Laegreid2011) and its consumerism (Powell et al. Reference Powell, Greener, Szmigin, Doheny and Mills2010). These strands reconstituted citizens as self-interested and passive consumers. New Public Management sought to empower citizens by exercising individual preferences in the markets/quasi-markets for public services, but not by active participation in the service delivery process. This discourse privileged public managers as ‘experts’, a distinction reinforcing existing power asymmetries between such managers and citizens based on education and expertise. It has also been subject to critique for the atomization of citizens and the undermining of their collective power (Millward Reference Millward2005).

The late 1980s witnessed a range of reforms that tried to match the citizenship focus of NPA with the consumerist focus of the NPM through, for example, consumer councils (Stewart and Clarke Reference Stewart and Clarke1987). However, participation here has typically been framed as an opportunity to reduce costs and increase efficiency rather than to enhance service effectiveness or democracy (Lowndes et al. Reference Lowndes, Pratchett and Stoker2001).

1.3 Public Value (PV)

Public Value emerged as a challenge to NPM in the 1990s and expressed a more collaborative approach with the intent of creating ‘public value’. It originated with the seminal work of Moore (Reference Moore1995) who developed a normative model of strategic development for public managers that emphasized the pursuit of PV. Public Value has subsequently developed into a broad narrative with nuances within it – as a theoretical framework that emphasizes public service improvement (Benington Reference Benington, Benington and Moore2011), a normative narrative (Alford and O’Flynn Reference Alford and O’Flynn2009), and/or a governance framework (Bryson et al. Reference Bryson, Crosby and Bloomberg2014).

Despite these variations, participation is a central construct of the PV narrative and is typically offered as a means of addressing the limits of representative democracy (Yang Reference Yang2016). There is a strong focus in PV on political interaction through networks of deliberation between elected/appointed government officials and civil society with the purpose of facilitating negotiation, cooperation, and decision-making among diverse groups (O’Flynn Reference O’Flynn2007). Participation is operationalized predominantly through formal (e.g., public hearings) and informal (e.g., lobbying) networks.

Creating PV is reliant on citizens’ participation in the decision-making stage to understand their needs, concerns and aspirations. Moreover, recognizing that today’s complex societal challenges cannot be effectively addressed by individual (public) organizations alone, the creation of PV during the service-delivery stage equally relies on cooperative efforts involving multiple actors, including the participation of citizens mainly through third sectors, community organizations and civil society. In this regard, PV narrative suits the emergence of networked/collaborative governance (Stoker Reference Stoker2006). The efforts to integrate discourses on collaborative governance and PV narrative have therefore been gaining attention in recent years (Bryson et al. Reference Bryson, Crosby and Bloomberg2014). Relevant research has sought to provide a normative approach to articulate the importance of collaborative arrangements in creating and safeguarding PV. However, criticisms are raised related to the challenges in coordinating actions, addressing power asymmetries, and ensuring accountability. When poorly organized, collaborative governance can result in PV failure (Williams et al. Reference Williams, Kang and Johnson2016).

A core criticism of PV is its having been developed as a polemic against NPM, but with limited evidence of its own efficacy (Williams and Shearer Reference Williams and Shearer2011). Further, whilst citizens are described as active, participative, and responsible, PV also defines public managers as ‘creative entrepreneurs’ who translate policy into proposals about what is valuable (Moore and Benington Reference Moore, Benington, Benington and Moore2011) and who, crucially, control the extent of participation, thereby reinforcing traditional power relations (Dahl and Soss Reference Dahl and Soss2014). Finally, like NPA, PV has also been reproached for the disproportionate inclusion of organized and articulate elites at the expense of marginal and informal groupings (Williams and Shearer Reference Williams and Shearer2011).

1.4 New Public Service (NPS)

New Public Service emerged from the US in the early 2000s (Denhardt and Denhardt Reference Denhardt and Denhardt2000). It developed from a critique of NPM and a desire to replace it with an open and accessible system of governance, within which the citizen becomes central to decision-making throughout the public service delivery cycle. New Public Service is underpinned by three theoretical perspectives: democratic citizenship, which demands greater citizen engagement and a shared vision of ‘public interest’; models of community and civil society, where the government plays a key role in the renewal of civil society; and ‘organizational humanism’ with a focus on the needs and preferences of citizens, rather than bureaucratic control or objective performance measurements (deLeon and Denhardt Reference deLeon and Denhardt2000). New Public Service proposes a ‘virtuous circle’, where participation is defined as of intrinsic value to citizens and leads to their taking greater civic responsibility – which, in turn, catalyses further participation in public service delivery (Denhardt and Denhardt Reference Denhardt and Denhardt2015). Structural changes are paramount to the NPS agenda, with the role of government ‘to serve rather than steer’. It acts as the negotiator, enabler, and facilitator of collaborative relationships, and public managers play a key role as ‘transformative leaders’ (Jun and Bryer Reference Jun and Bryer2017).

Although NPS takes a strong normative stance, its arguments for participation have not been substantiated by empirical research. Its focus on structural changes, for example, suggests an oversimplification of participation in practice, by overlooking the need to carefully organize and facilitate the processes of participation (Fischer Reference Fischer2006) or to account for the disproportionate influence of social elites. Furthermore, the NPS argument that participation should be institutionalized is hard to implement because it assumes that all citizens have a latent desire for participation that can be awakened. Yet, there is a scarcity of evidence to validate this argument (Brugue and Gallego Reference Brugue and Gallego2003).

1.5 New Public Governance (NPG)

Finally, NPG was first articulated by Osborne (Reference Osborne2010) to describe the impact that approaches to network governance and collaboration within ‘actually existing’ public service delivery have upon PAM. Consequently, NPG built on organizational sociology and network theory to suggest that public management is enacted by networks of actors from the for-profit, public and third sector. Within this narrative, participation was framed in two ways. First, ‘co-production’ was integrated and repositioned within this narrative. Re-conceptualized as co-producers (rather than as consumers, as in the NPM), citizens were here described as working in a horizontal, interactive and co-operative relationship with government (Pestoff Reference Pestoff, Pestoff, Brandsen and Verschuere2012b). The potential advantages of co-production were discussed widely in the NPG literature, including its potential to increase democracy and tackle challenging social issues (Bovaird Reference Bovaird2007).

There has been extensive debate surrounding the varieties of co-production in public services. Researchers have suggested different taxonomies based on ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘what outcomes’ of co-production (Nabatchi et al. Reference Nabatchi, Sancino and Sicilia2017). More research has further explored the context in which and the reasons for which co-production should take place (Steiner et al. 2022). Additionally, recent years have witnessed a growing discourse about the relationship between service co-production and value co-creation (Voorberg et al. Reference Voorberg, Bekkers and Tummers2015).

Second, a new generation of research has repositioned the NPG as a normative framework of ‘collaborative governance’. This work has examined the democratic capacity of various actors to work in co-operative relationships to achieve societal consensus. It has been argued to both increase democracy and reduce the cost of public services (Sorensen and Torfing Reference Sorensen and Torfing2018).

Whilst it has been welcomed for involving a plurality of actors, the inclusiveness of NPG has been questioned. Critics have argued that, in practice, network membership was exclusive to those with the necessary organizational infrastructure, expertise, knowledge, and skills and who could hence manipulate the system for their own gains (Van Tatenhove et al. Reference Van Tatenhove, Edelenbos and Klok2010). In practice, such networks enhanced inter-organizational engagement across PSOs but did not produce greater participation of citizens/communities (Greenaway et al. Reference Greenaway, Salter and Hart2007).

Research on the ‘dark side’ of co-production has also become more prominent recently (Williams et al. Reference Williams, Kang and Johnson2016). It has been criticized for its tendency to benefit disproportionately the well-off sections of society and for its confinement to public services that have already been designed by public managers and for the control over the provision of opportunities for participation that it cedes to public managers (Thomsen Reference Thomsen2017). Such criticism raises important questions concerning the extent to which co-production, and the NPG, can lead to genuine citizen participation or whether it is a ‘de facto’ management tool to retain and strengthen existing managerial and/or elite power (Alford Reference Alford2009).

1.6 Participation and Public Services: An Alternative Approach

Participation in public service delivery has thus been a recurrent element in the major public service reform narratives since the 1960s. However, the motivations behind, processes of, and intended outcomes have varied across the five narratives studied here. These have included expressive and instrumental rationales for participation, both an end in its own right and/or a means to achieve more effective public services (e.g., Sorensen and Torfing Reference Sorensen and Torfing2018). Our analysis suggests that citizen participation has remained on the periphery of decision-making structures. The normative stance of some of the narratives is one barrier to its achievement, alongside the hegemony of a linear model of public service delivery, a preoccupation with structural rather than processual change, and a failure to address the power imbalances endemic to public services. Crucially, four of the narratives discussed here identified participation as something to be ‘added into’ traditional public service delivery, whilst PV identified it as an effective public service delivery outcome. In reality, though, only limited achievements in user participation in public service delivery have been demonstrated over the last fifty years (Roberts Reference Roberts2004). Co-production, for example, has been positioned in several of these reform narratives as a significant route to the achievement of participation in public service delivery (Nabatchi et al. Reference Nabatchi, Sancino and Sicilia2017). However, iterative studies have identified that co-production, in isolation, is itself subject to the systemic problems of power asymmetry and elite capture already identified (Flemig and Osborne Reference Flemig and Osborne2019).

To counter these limitations, we argue for an approach to public service reform that builds on and integrates the extrinsic forms of participation, but which also draws upon the unique insights of service management and marketing (SM&M) theory to understand the intrinsic modes of participation which characterize services – including public services. This approach has become known latterly as PSL and is an evolving one in the PAM literature (e.g., Dudau et al. Reference Dudau, Glennon and Verschuere2019; Hodgkinson et al. Reference Hodgkinson, Hannibal, Keating, Chester-Buxton and Bateman2017; Osborne Reference Osborne2021). It is also one that arguably offers a public service reform framework that has participation at its centre rather than periphery.

The PSL approach to participation in public service delivery has seven distinct features. First, it appreciates that public services are a concrete expression of extant societal values and that participation needs to be understood within this values-based framework (Flinders et al. Reference Flinders, Wood and Cunningham2016). Such societal values will shape the nature and impact of participation in public service delivery. Public managers cannot shape such societal values but they do need to understand and respond to them, as the PV discourse has appreciated. Public Service Logic situates such values within the PSE that is the context for citizen participation in public service delivery (Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Powell, Cui and Strokosch2022; Strokosch and Osborne Reference Osborne2020).

Second, PSL argues that the delivery of public services is not a linear production process of the turning of inputs into outputs, nor is it the sole responsibility of public managers. Rather it is a complex and interactive space where both citizens and public service users interact with societal values and norms, PSOs, the local community, and service delivery processes. Responsive public service delivery is thus not a matter of internal efficacy alone or dependent on the single-handed transformative capacity of public managers as often articulated in the reform narratives, as Pollitt and Boukaert (Reference Pollitt and Bouckaert2017) have noted. Rather it is rather a dynamic process of interaction, negotiation and co-operation between multiple actors, including citizens, and other resources at various levels of the system (Skålén et al. Reference Skålén, Karlsson, Engen and Magnuson2018). Citizen participation, therefore, needs to be understood within these complex and dynamic PSEs, instead of focusing predominantly upon the structural features of public service delivery and reform (Leite and Hodgkinson Reference Leite and Hodgkinson2021).

Third, recent innovations in SM&M theory have moved to identify participation as a core determinant of the value that a user derives from a service: the experience of participation creates expressive value for the service user and instrumental value concerning their needs (Vargo and Lusch Reference Vargo and Lusch2008). Public Service Logic theory explores the nature of such value and its creation and its implications for the role of citizens in public service delivery (Hardyman et al. Reference Hardyman, Kitchener and Daunt2019; Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Nasi and Powell2021).

Fourth, user participation is an intrinsic element of producing public services ‘as services’ (Osborne Reference Osborne2021). It is not something to be ‘added into’ service delivery but rather an element of the process that has to be governed and worked with by service providers – it cannot be avoided (Grönroos and Voima Reference Grönroos and Voima2013). Intrinsic participation processes will thus shape the nature of the public service by bringing the user’s expectations, experiences and needs into the service delivery process. Public services will also shape the public service user’s whole-life experience by how the experience of receiving a service affects their immediate personal well-being and their future expectations of their capacity in society. Positioning public service users and their ‘lived experience’ of service as a defining dimension of its delivery reframes their role from passive consumer who is acted upon, to active service producer and value creator. In contrast to the previous narratives, PSL thus understands public service users as actors who are integral to the realization of their own needs. The core task of public management is to facilitate and support this ‘actually existing’ participation, rather than to ignore or undermine it.

Fifth, participation can also be extrinsic to public service delivery, as articulated within the PAM discourse. In this case, it can be consciously added into public service delivery through co-design and co-production (Trischler and Westman-Trischler Reference Trischler and Westman-Trischler2022). However, the extrinsic processes of participation endorsed by the previous narratives have, to date, been insufficiently persuasive in reorientating away from NPM’s unprecedented emphasis on internal organizational efficacy at the expense of collectively held PVs (Nabatchi Reference Nabatchi2018). By emphasizing the complexity rather than the linearity of the public service production process and the intrinsic processes of participation, PSL supports a deeper reorientation towards the values-based framework centred on the user and societal needs it reflects.

Combining points four and five, it is helpful to make a further clarification. From a PSL perspective, user participation is viewed as an intrinsic element in public service delivery, while co-production, as one type of participation, is extrinsic and thus, optional (Trischler and Charles Reference Trischler and Charles2019). For some services like health care that rely on professions and expertise, it is difficult for users to co-produce services. While their role as service users is still inalienable, and their cooperation matters the service outcome. In fact, no matter how a public service is produced and prepared, whether through a co-production format or not, it should be used by users to create value. In this regard, again, user participation is indispensable. However, we do recognize that in some cases, like prison, service use can be coercive and compulsory. Sixth, participation has import for multiple actors in the PSE, not only the identified service user. Citizens who are not users of a public service can also accrue value, perhaps through a role as a volunteer or carer in a public service, but it can also be through the way that participation in public service delivery enables societal value, such as social inclusion or environmental enhancement (Musso et al. Reference Musso, Young and Thom2019). Needless to say, individual and societal values are not always congruent and can sometimes conflict (Benington Reference Benington, Benington and Moore2011). Further, even individuals who are not citizens can accrue value through participation in public service delivery – such as tourists (Soszyński et al. Reference Soszyński, Sowińska-Świerkosz, Stokowski and Tucki2018) or asylum seekers (Strokosch and Osborne Reference Strokosch and Osborne2016).

Seventh, participation is not a zero sum game for public services. It is as possible to destroy individual and societal value through participation as to create it (Cui and Osborne Reference Cui and Osborne2023a). The service user can destroy value when they refuse to participate according to procedures/rules established by the PSO. This might, for example, be by not following a treatment plan designed with their doctor (destruction of individual value) or by refusing to follow the rules for household recycling or by sabotaging those rules by fly-tipping (destruction of societal value). It can also be destroyed by a failure of the interaction between the public service user and public officials (e.g., the breakdown of trust between a patient and their doctor where treatment proves problematic).

1.7 Bringing Participation to Fruition

The preceding discussion has explored how participation has been framed and evolved within the five recent narratives of public service reform. An alternative narrative has subsequently been proposed – PSL. This integrates insights from PAM and SM&M to emphasize both participation as a core component of public service delivery and the creation of user and societal value as its core purpose. It also shifts the role of the public service users, including their needs, experiences and expectations, from the periphery to the heart of public service delivery. This marks an important departure in theorizing about participation in public services, where the transformative potential of public managers, professionals, and the stakeholder elite has traditionally been the emphasis. This is not to say that public service officials are unimportant or irrelevant. They are not – they have a key role to play. However, this role is predicated upon the value creation and co-creation activities of public service users and citizens – rather than vice versa. This latter element is the mainspring of participation and gives it a context and meaning. In order to achieve this requires a distinctive strategic orientation of public service managers.

1.8 A Strategic Orientation for Participation

Osborne et al. (Reference Osborne, Cucciniello, Strokosch and Nasi2020) have explored how strategic orientation has long been recognized as important for organizational performance (Deshpande et al. Reference Deshpande, Farley and Webster1993). It refers to an organization’s capacity to create a culture of shared values and behaviour to underpin SPM. The literature focuses on three types of strategic orientation: cost-, market-, and customer-orientation. Cost-orientation has an internal focus, aimed at developing a culture of efficiency throughout a firm’s internal value chain. Competition-orientation is the creation of a business culture across the firm that is oriented to market performance. Customer-orientation is the underlying organizational culture that facilitates the understanding of what constitutes ‘value’ for a firm’s customers and how to embed such value at the heart of sustainable business practice. Whilst cost and market-orientation are necessary for organizational survival, it is customer-orientation that is an essential pre-condition of organizational effectiveness and the creation of customer value (Mediano and Ruz-Alba Reference Mediano and Ruiz-Alba2019).

For public services, both an internal cost-orientation and a competition-orientation were enduring features of the NPM. This enhanced the performance of individual PSOs, but at the cost of both the overall effectiveness of public service delivery ecosystems (McLaughlin et al. Reference McLaughlin, Osborne and Chew2009) and their external effectiveness and value creation (Powell and Osborne Reference Osborne2020). Public Service Logic does not dismiss these orientations but rather argues that they need to be supplemented by a user and citizen orientation within an overall strategic orientation for public services. This is the only ways through which the benefits of citizen and user participation can be realized.

A user/citizen-orientation has four implications for public service delivery. First, it needs to be informed by an understanding of the centrality of the user/citizen to the delivery of effective and sustainable public services: it is only in the context of this orientation that cost and market information can be made sense of. Second, public service organizations need to evaluate internal resource and performance measures alone but rather to evaluate these in the context of external value creation and user needs. Third, it is only by embracing a user/citizen-orientation that PSOs can become truly sustainable as services, else they will continue to fail to be ‘fit for purpose’. This requires that they adopt such an orientation to steer their strategic direction their role within public service reform trajectories. With such an orientation, citizen participation hence becomes recast not as an end in itself but rather as an intrinsic process at the heart of effective public service delivery to create value for both the individual and society (Grönroos Reference Grönroos2019).

To fully realize the strategic orientation to participation articulated here, it is necessary to address three key challenges. First, the intrinsic and extrinsic processes of value-creation imply the skills and capacity of public service staff to understand and facilitate them. It is not so much a question of ‘how to enable participation’, but rather ‘how to maximize the positive effects of the naturally occurring participation’. Such an approach is at odds with the product-dominant one that characterizes the prevailing NPM narrative and that posits participation as an add-on and constrained outcome rather than an intrinsic element of public service delivery (Loeffler and Bovaird Reference Loeffler and Bovaird2016). This requires an orientation that understands external value creation as its end and participation as a means by which to achieve it.

Second, a value-creation approach to participation does not deny the challenges of enabling the extrinsic participative processes of public service delivery. The tensions of extrinsic participation common to the five discourses of public service reform discussed previously remain, particularly in terms of professional opposition to user-led services and partial or cosmetic forms of participation, the impact of professional power, and the skewing effect of elite capture of public services. Iterative waves of structural reforms have not been sufficient in overcoming these obstacles for public services, suggesting that enabling extrinsic forms of participation is dependent rather upon deeper cultural and strategic orientation changes for PSOs that seek to shift rather than ameliorate these structural and power imbalances. This is a challenging task but not impossible (Grönroos Reference Grönroos2019).

Third, a value-creation strategic orientation to participation privileges working at the PSE level rather than focusing either upon the individual service user or citizen or the PSO alone. The dynamic interaction of the actors, structures, and processes within such ecosystems is central both to the effective governance of participation in public service delivery and to its contribution to the creation rather than destruction of individual and societal value (Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Powell, Cui and Strokosch2022).

1.9 Conclusions: Implications for Practice

The alternate approach to participation presented here has five important implications for public service management. First, effective public service management requires an appreciation of the intrinsic processes of participation within the delivery of these services and the fundamental role of public service users and citizens during these processes. It requires to be consciously engaged with rather than allowing it to impact upon public service outcomes and value creation by default. Second, a pragmatic and sensitive approach to extrinsic forms of participation is necessary, that links the application of co-production and co-design in public service delivery to the individual and societal context of the needs that these services address. This is a task for both politicians and public service officials.

Third, value-creation through services can often require public service practitioners to balance value creation across different service users and stakeholders and/or between individual and societal value. This has significant implications for the role of participation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, in public service delivery. Fourth, embedding a value creation strategic orientation and its associated participative processes within public policy and public service management through cultural change is necessary to support the creation of value. As noted, such cultural change is a difficult but not impossible process to achieve and needs clear and unequivocal senior management leadership and support (Karp and Helg Reference Karp and Helg2008). Further, such cultural change will need to address the endemic power imbalances discussed previously (Farr Reference Farr2018). Finally, an effective strategic orientation requires embedding within a PSE approach to public service delivery. This will draw the essential links between participation in public service delivery by citizens and users and the creation of value for such users and for society. It will also provide a framework with both to mediate between the individual and society when their value agendas clash and to understand and ameliorate value destruction through public service delivery.

2.1 Reasons of Participation

Participation in public service delivery is not under the direct control of PSOs. Thus, they may initiate efforts that increase citizens’ participation. Insights into how public service organizations may stimulate participation require understanding the reasons affecting citizens’ participation. Existing literature offers two leading causes (Alford Reference Alford2002; Jakobsen Reference Jakobsen2013; Porter Reference Porter, Pestoff, Brandsen and Verschuere2012): ability and motivation.

Ability incorporates the theoretical assumption that citizens spend their time, knowledge, and efforts in the co-production of public services (Alford Reference Alford2002; Brudney Reference Brudney and England1983; Percy Reference Percy1984).

Citizens may have valuable knowledge about the service because they are policy experts or govern information about the service process. For example, they may be aware of the demand side of services and may contribute to the community’s needs by articulating individual needs (Voorberg et al. Reference Voorberg, Bekkers and Tummers2015). They may have relevant competencies to deliver the service as skills to manage the co-production process (e.g., project management skills), skills to facilitate collaboration or leadership and ethical capacity (Van Eijk and Steen Reference Van Eijk and Steen2014). They may hold back from participating when they do not have the proper skill set or their time is lacking.

Thus, lifting the constraints on citizens’ ability to co-produce by providing resources in the form of knowledge and materials necessary may enhance their level of co-production (Jakobsen Reference Jakobsen2013; Jakobsen and Andersen Reference Jakobsen and Andersen2013). It may not be enough, as providing a context that supports co-production by enhancing the perception of public performance and how well the government involves citizens may influence their participation and the intensity of the efforts (Bovaird et al. Reference Bovaird, Stoker, Jones, Loeffler and Pinilla Roncancio2016).

Motivation also drives participation in public service delivery. The theoretical discussion follows Alford’s (Reference Alford2002) work that suggests individual self-motivation and prosocial (community) motivation stimulate citizens’ engagement.

Self-motivation comes from the benefits that any individual may achieve in participating. The motivation may be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation has been defined as the desire to expend efforts based on the interest in and enjoyment of an activity in and of itself, as proving to be capable of carrying out a task, or feeling part of a more significant collective (e.g., Amabile et al. Reference Amabile, Hill, Hennessey and Tighe1994; Deci and Ryan Reference Deci and Ryan2010; Gagné and Deci Reference Gagné and Deci2005; Grant Reference Grant2008). Self-motivation includes emotional and psychosocial stimuli, including personal interest, curiosity, and enthusiasm in the co-production initiative, as well as self-prestige and personal growth associated with fostering personal reputation and acquiring new skills (Asingizwe et al. Reference Asingizwe, Poortvliet and Koenraadt2020; Jennett et al. Reference Jennett, Kloetzer and Schneider2016; Kragh Reference Kragh2016; Larson et al. Reference Larson, Cooper and Futch2020; Rotman et al. Reference Rotman, Hammock and Preece2014a); moreover, the sense of fulfilment from feeling like an active member of the society and feeling useful for the scientific community plays a role (Jennett et al. Reference Jennett, Kloetzer and Schneider2016; Kragh Reference Kragh2016; Rotman et al. Reference Rotman, Hammock and Preece2014b).

On the contrary, extrinsic motivation is triggered by forces external to the co-production process and separable from it (e.g., Brief and Aldag Reference Brief and Aldag1977; Amabile Reference Amabile1993), and it refers to the desire to expend efforts to obtain an outside reward, as a private value from the service provided, or to avoid an outside punishment.

Prosocial motivation (or community motivation) moves the focus from one’s self-interest to increased attention in the community. The motivation to engage in co-production for a community interest lies in contributing to a societal achievement or a worthwhile cause, or it must deal with the motivation to give back (Alford Reference Alford2002; Grant 2007).

Self-interest and collective interest are not necessarily in contrast, as citizens may simultaneously be motivated by multiple factors (Brandsen and Helderman Reference Brandsen, Helderman, Pestoff, Brandsen and Verschuere2012). When a service is perceived as salient at the individual level (the citizen’s perception of how a service affects themselves) or the community level (the importance of the services to a community), individuals will more likely consider active engagement by balancing between their ability (time, their investment of effort) and the effects of public service delivery (e.g., increased availability, quality, and efficiency) (Steen Reference Steen2021).

On the contrary, citizens who need to learn how to co-produce are less likely to participate. Demonstrating how their ability and motivation can raise awareness towards citizens’ participation (Thomsen and Jakobsen Reference Thomsen and Jakobsen2015). Thus, actual participation may require proper incentives and instruments.

2.2 Incentives of Participation

Citizens’ participation in public service delivery has gained amplified popularity due to the affirmation of the new and pluralistic governance of service delivery, the scarcity of resources and fiscal constraints, and the evolving role of citizens and their communities (Agranoff and McGuire Reference Agranoff and McGuire2003; Nabatchi et al. Reference Nabatchi, Sancino and Sicilia2017; Osborne Reference Osborne2006; Osborne and Brown Reference Osborne and Brown2011a). Extrinsic co-production processes require deliberate and voluntary actions on the part of the citizens/service users in delivery of services (Osborne and Strokosch Reference Osborne and Strokosch2013). Their ability to contribute, in terms of time, knowledge, and expertise, is considered as relevant inputs for governments to mobilize resources for keeping public service provision maintainable (Bovaird Reference Bovaird2007; Voorberg et al. Reference Voorberg, Jilke, Tummers and Bekkers2018). Two categories of interventions are typically recognized as facilitators of citizens’ ability: making the co-production task easier and enhancing the citizen’s capacities to perform it (Alford Reference Alford2002).

Digital technologies may make co-production tasks easier and stimulate citizens’ participation. The development in information and communication technologies, the diffuse use of apps, social media, and mobile devices, and the new digital routines imposed by the pandemic restrictions offered new channels and modes through which citizens can contribute to data sharing about public services (e.g., providing the exact location of a pothole) and to the actual co-production of services (e.g., applying for education services or paying taxes online). Digital technologies are essential in simplifying co-production tasks (Alford Reference Alford2009). In addition, online communication through social media may foster citizens’ participation by appealing to social norms and nurturing mimicking actions to other persons in the network of the people engaging with the public service organizations. Technologies may be adopted to expand the current initiatives aimed at making participation easier, keeping into account the context of the stakeholders as digital poverty, digital illiteracy, and the digital divide (e.g., lack of the network infrastructure, lack of digital skills) that may increase inequalities among certain groups of citizens (e.g., migrants, the elderly, vulnerable people), as they may have fewer resources or inability to use technologies to get involved.

To enhance the ability to perform a co-production, public service organizations may provide information, advice, or training are typical examples that have a relevant role both at the point of access (Alford Reference Alford2002; Jakobsen Reference Jakobsen2013) and during the interaction process (Prahalad and Ramaswany Reference Prahalad and Ramaswamy2004). These tools may be advantageous for those lacking the knowledge necessary to contribute and benefit from the co-production process (Jakobsen and Andersen Reference Jakobsen and Andersen2013). At the same time, how such knowledge and information is presented may enhance comprehension and steer participation (Porumbescu et al. Reference Porumbescu, Lindeman, Ceka and Cucciniello2017). Table 2 provides an overview of the incentives and tools used to foster co-production.

2.3 Instruments to Stimulate Participation

The incentives may be implemented with a range of instruments to stimulate participation. These instruments’ use and effectiveness vary depending on the stage and the context in which they are utilized. Instruments may foster ability or motivation or both motives of participation.

2.4 Implications for Theory and Practice

This section emphasizes the motives that foster the extrinsic participation of citizens in public service delivery. From a theoretical perspective, individual ability and motivation represent the main reasons to engage in co-production activities, often combined from one to the other (Alford Reference Alford2002, Reference Alford2009). Thus, public service organizations cannot control it. They can use incentives and supporting tools to stimulate citizens’ participation. The practical choice depends on aspects connected to the nature of participation and the service itself. Identifying the proper set of tools depends on the context of co-production, the nature of the public service and the goals to achieve. The literature offers insights about some tools for engagement that appear to be among the most exploited. They are equally distributed among those expected to influence citizens’ ability and motivation at all co-production stages.

Firstly, engagement requires proper modes of involvement. How citizens participate and interact (e.g., online, in person through meetings/workshops, and in person in the field) affects their ability to participate. The accessibility of technological devices to participate online could be a barrier for some categories of actors (e.g., seniors or less-educated individuals), while physical participation could pose similar issues for other segments of the population (e.g., people with physical disabilities). It also affects their motivation. The modes of involvement affect their sense of belonging (e.g., they feel part of a team that steers towards the same goal or rather an ‘add-on’ that provides resources).

Secondly, onboarding is essential. The support of facilitators or facilitating initiatives helps clarify citizens’ doubts about how they can contribute and what is expected from them. Training may also be helpful to contextualize the co-production experience and increase participants’ ability to contribute, particularly concerning the quality of their contributions and continuous engagement. Nevertheless, as for the presence of expert facilitators, this could require additional resources; that not every public service organization may provide.

Thirdly, material incentives, such as certificates or small financial rewards, may influence individual motivation and participation. Thus, empirical evidence shows mixed results (Voorberg et al. Reference Voorberg, Jilke, Tummers and Bekkers2018). Deciding to invest in these tools represents a choice that might vary depending on specific categories of participants.

Thus, this section focuses primarily on the citizens’ perspective. Other actors are crucial in explaining public service provision and its value starting from public service professionals.

The imperative to understand the motivation of public service professionals in the co-creation of services is underscored by a multitude of factors. These elements encompass the following. Firstly, the public service motivation of civil servants. The literature suggests that they may be extrinsically and intrinsically motivated (Ritz et al. Reference Ritz, Brewer and Neumann2016), but of them especially the professionals coming from the private sector usually have a prosocial motivation and want to make a societal impact (Mergel, Bellè, and Nasi Reference Mergel, Bellé and Nasi2021). Secondly, the cultivation of leaders and champions for public service delivery, both within the frontline staff and senior management ranks is important to effectively engage in the service co-production (Brewer and Selden Reference Brewer and Selden2000). Thirdly, the formulation and implementation of institutional plans that explicitly incorporate or acknowledge the role of citizen and public engagement (Burby Reference Burby2003). Each of these components serves to bolster the motivation of public service professionals by offering tangible avenues for meaningful involvement and recognition within the co-creation process. Consequently, a concerted focus on motivation emerges as a fundamental imperative in fostering a conducive environment for effective collaboration and innovation in public service provision (Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Nasi and Powell2021).

This is an area that, along with others, requires further investigation under the PSL approach. From a PSL perspective, studies on participation have focused on stimulating citizens’ participation by looking at the dyadic relationship between PSOs and citizens rather than situating it within complex and interactive service ecosystems, comprising the key actors and processes of value creation as well as societal, institutional values, rules, and social norms (Akaka and Schau Reference Akaka and Schau2019). We argue that the dynamic behaviour of actors within the ecosystem may influence the effects of incentives. It requires investigation under the most appropriate framing of the delivery of public services at the ecosystem level.

In addition, whether participation in public service delivery contributes to value-creation remains rather normative than a positive affirmation (Cui and Osborne Reference Cui and Osborne2023a). We advocate more research in this domain to map and depict if and how participation affects the elements of value creation across in public services.

3.1 The Public Service Ecosystem

The growing consensus that traditional bureaucratic models of public service delivery are no longer adequate to meet the complex and rapidly evolving needs of citizens has led many organizations towards a more holistic, ecosystem-based approach to public service delivery that engages citizens more directly and holistically. This shift is based on the recognition that PSEs are complex. These dynamic systems involve multiple stakeholders, including government agencies, non-profit organizations, private sector actors, and the citizens who use their services.

Public service ecosystem-based approach to service delivery is essential for ensuring that public services are effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of citizens. This is because such an approach recognizes the complex interdependencies between the various actors and stakeholders involved in delivering public services and the importance of engaging citizens more directly and effectively in designing, implementing, and evaluating these services. The concept of the ‘service ecosystem’ was initially developed in the work of Vargo and his colleagues (Reference Vargo, Akaka and Vaughan2017) on the ‘service-dominant logic’ approach to SM&M. It drew upon the analogy to ecosystems within the ecological literature. Service ecosystems have subsequently become the front line of SM&M theory development, integrating institutional and user concerns with the service level (e.g., Mustak and Ple Reference Mustak and Plé2020; Vink et al. Reference Vink, Koskela-Huotari, Tronvoll, Edvardsson and Wetter-Edman2021).

Systemic approaches to public service delivery, such as the ‘Production of Welfare’ model of social care (Knapp Reference Knapp1984), have also long been a preoccupation of the PAM research community, as has a context (Pollitt Reference Pollitt2013). The PSE approach goes further, however. It explores both context and system and the interactions of the institutional, service, and individual levels of public service delivery. Trischler and Charles (Reference Trischler and Charles2019), for example, have described it precisely as a unifying framework through which to understand the complexities of public service delivery and value creation at the societal, service, and individual levels. Value is not something created in isolation by public service users. Rather it is nested within overlapping and interacting relationships within the PSE.

This argument was amplified further by Petrescu (Reference Petrescu2019) and Strokosch and Osborne (Reference Osborne2020), who contribute to the notion of the PSE within PSL as an essential perspective on public service delivery. They argue that the ecosystem introduces a relational model of public service in which value is shaped by the interplay between all of the dimensions of the ecosystem, and not least by the wider societal context and the values that underpin it.

In other words, PSEs are complex networks of interdependent entities and actors that collaborate to provide public services. Kinder et al. (2020, Reference Kinder, Six, Stenvall and Memon2022) have argued that PSEs have now replaced networks as the most persuasive framework for understanding public service delivery, whilst Rossi and Tuurnas (Reference Rossi and Tuurnas2021) have subsequently argued that PSEs reveal the complexity of value creation conflicts. They encompass a wide range of actors, including public service and non-profit organizations, firms, associations of users, community groups, and individuals. They involuntary and actively collaborate to provide public services and are characterized by a foundation of shared values. Studies of PSEs can now be found exploring such diverse issues as digital public services and Big Data (Cordella and Peletti Reference Cordella and Paletti2019), smart cities (Ciasullo et al. Reference Ciasullo, Troisi and Leone2020), value destruction within public services (Engen et al. Reference Engen, Fransson, Quist and Skålén2021; Cui and Osborne Reference Cui and Osborne2023b), and public service responses to the Covid-19 pandemic (Brodie et al. Reference Brodie, Ranjan, Verreynne, Jiang and Previte2021). It has also been integrated into formal PAM theory through the development of PSL (Osborne Reference Osborne2021), focusing on the elements of value in a public service context (Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Nasi and Powell2021).

In turn, the engagement of all actors and stakeholders in the PSE processes are essential for their success. Participation may be shaped in many ways, including consultation, co-creation, and collaboration, and it may occur at different stages of the process, from commission, co-design, co-production, and co-evaluation (Nabatchi et al. Reference Nabatchi, Sancino and Sicilia2017). Through stakeholder engagement, the PSE mobilizes skills, knowledge, and resources of the diverse actors and stakeholders to co-create services that generate value for the needs of the individuals and the community (Osborne Reference Osborne2021; Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Powell, Cui and Strokosch2022).

3.2 Public Service Ecosystems and Stakeholders’ Participation

Public service ecosystems and participation are closely related. The value generated by the PSE processes is dependent upon the involvement of citizens and other stakeholders (Cui and Osborne Reference Cui and Osborne2023a; Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Powell, Cui and Strokosch2022). Participation is important for multiple actors in the PSE, not only the identified service user. Citizens who are not users of public service can also accrue value, perhaps through a role as a volunteer or carer in a public service, but it can also be through the way that participation in public service delivery enables societal value, such as social inclusion or environmental enhancement (Musso et al. Reference Musso, Young and Thom2019). Individual and societal values are not always congruent and can sometimes conflict (Benington Reference Benington, Benington and Moore2011). Further, even individuals who are not citizens can accrue value through participation in public service delivery – such as tourists (Soszyński et al. Reference Soszyński, Sowińska-Świerkosz, Stokowski and Tucki2018) or asylum seekers (Strokosch and Osborne Reference Strokosch and Osborne2016).

Participation may occur in different manners, ranging from engaging in advocacy activities to providing feedback, volunteering, and actively contributing to the service delivery processes. In addition, it may foster transparency, accountability, and responsiveness, which are critical components of effective governance (Porumbescu et al. Reference Porumbescu, Lindeman, Ceka and Cucciniello2017; Tria et al. Reference Tria and Valotti2012). In turn, stakeholder engagement can build trust and legitimacy by contributing to the decision-making and delivery processes and aligning expectations about services with their actual design (OECD 2017).

However, participation requires a commitment to constant communication and continuous collaboration. This includes establishing clear channels for a collaborative effort, tools to facilitate engagement and assessing its impact (Sørensen and Torfing Reference Sørensen and Torfing2011).

Public service ecosystems involve various public and private entities providing services and infrastructure to meet the needs of citizens, businesses, and other organizations. Personal, social, and institutional factors can influence participation in PSEs.

There are several determinants of engagement in PSEs, which include individual factors, social factors, and institutional factors. These determinants can vary depending on the context and the specific PSE (Nabatchi and Leighninger Reference Nabatchi and Leighninger2015).

Individual factors are concerned with the elements that may influence the perception of value creation/destruction for citizens, service users, and all other key stakeholders who are not service users but who accrue value from the public service delivery process in relation to their needs, expectations, and experiences. They include personal characteristics such as social or economic interests. Individual antecedents of participation may also be similar to those discussed in Section 2. Thus, more in general, people with different socioeconomic backgrounds may have different levels of participation in PSEs (Emerson et al. Reference Emerson, Nabatchi and Balogh2012). For instance, individuals with lower income and education levels may be less likely to participate in civic activities, such as voting or volunteering, due to financial constraints, lack of competencies or lack of information. Age, gender, race, and ethnicity can all affect participation in PSEs. For instance, younger people tend to be less involved in traditional civic activities, such as voting, but are more likely to participate in online civic activities, such as signing petitions or joining online groups. People with significant cognitive impairments and/or social vulnerabilities may also be less likely to participate in collaborative initiatives (Skarli Reference Skarli2021).

Social factors that influence stakeholders’ engagement include social norms, ideologies, and trust in institutions. Social norms, such as the expectation to participate in public life, can motivate stakeholders to engage in PSEs. Trust in government and other stakeholders is also critical for engagement, as it can foster a sense of legitimacy and accountability. People who have more trust in government are more likely to participate in civic activities and are more willing to engage with public institutions. Social networks, such as community organizations and civil society groups, can provide citizens with a sense of community and facilitate their engagement in PSEs. In addition, the political culture and social capital of a community may impact participation in PSEs. In some countries, people have a strong tradition of participating in civic activities and engaging with public institutions, while in others, there is a more cynical attitude toward government and public services (Putnam Reference Putnam2000).

Institutional factors may also foster or hinder participation. They include the design of PSEs, the technologies adopted, and the quality of communication and information. Public service ecosystems that are designed to be inclusive and participatory are more likely to engage citizens effectively. The use of technology, such as online platforms, can make it easier to access information about public services, participate in online forums, and engage with government agencies. On the other hand, the digital divide and lack of digital literacy can limit access to these resources, particularly for disadvantaged groups. Moreover, PSEs that prioritize ongoing communication and provide citizens with quality information are more likely to foster engagement.

Finally, engagement may be fostered to promote social cohesion and building resilient communities. When citizens are engaged in PSEs, they can connect with one another and work collaboratively to address shared challenges (Nasi and Choi Reference Nasi and Choi2023). This can help to build social networks and strengthen the fabric of communities, leading to more cohesive and resilient societies.

The active engagement of the actors of PSEs is critical for promoting effective, efficient, and responsive public services, building trust and legitimacy in public institutions, and fostering resilient and cohesive communities. One key element of a PSE-based approach is the need to engage citizens and other stakeholders in co-creation and co-design of public services. This involves working with citizens to identify their needs and preferences, co-designing services that meet these needs, and co-evaluating the effectiveness of these services. By engaging citizens in this way, public service providers can ensure that services are more responsive to the needs of citizens and that services are delivered in a meaningful and relevant way.

Another important aspect of engaging citizens in PSEs is the need to promote transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services. This involves ensuring that citizens have access to information about the services they receive, how they are delivered, and how they are evaluated. It also involves ensuring that citizens have a voice in the design, implementation, and evaluation of these services, and that they are able to hold public service providers accountable for their actions.

3.3 Implications for Theory and Practice

Engaging stakeholders in PSEs is essential for ensuring that public services are effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of citizens. By recognizing the complex interdependencies between the various actors and stakeholders involved in the delivery of public services, and by promoting transparency and accountability in the delivery of these services, we can ensure that public services are delivered in a way that is meaningful and relevant to the lives of citizens. An active engagement of stakeholders in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public services, we can ensure that these services are delivered in a way that is more effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of citizens.

To advance theory and practice, several domains of study and empirical investigations should be considered.

Firstly, moving from the existing knowledge on motives of participation and engagement, researchers and practitioners should aim to understand the factors that influence citizens and other stakeholders’ decisions to participate in PSEs (Jilke and Van Ryzin Reference Jilke and Van Ryzin2020). Stakeholders in PSEs are not just individuals; their motives to participate may differ from those described in Section 3. An in-depth assessment of what motivates stakeholders to get engaged is paramount to advance our understanding of the functioning of PSEs. This could involve examining the dynamic role of individual, social, and institutional factors that drive or impede participation, adopting proper methods of investigation.

Consequently, continuous and active engagement requires a proper governance and the identification of effective strategies for increasing participation (Sørensen and Torfing Reference Sørensen and Torfing2021). Once researchers understand what motivates stakeholders to participate, they can then focus on developing effective strategies for increasing participation.

This might involve testing different types of incentives, improving the stakeholders’ experience of public service platforms, or leveraging mixed strategies to encourage more people to get involved. In addition, the role of emerging technologies in PSEs should also be explored. As new technologies continue to emerge, they are likely to impact how PSEs are designed and operated significantly. Researchers should therefore investigate the potential benefits and challenges associated with integrating emerging technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (Bright and Margetts Reference Bright and Margetts2018; Meijer and Thaens Reference Meijer and Thaens2018).

Lastly, current research on participation and the PSE relies on the normative assumption that the success of PSEs depends on the ability of all its actors to deliver effective and efficient services to the public. However, it remains to be seen how value is created through the participation and dynamic relationship among the PSE’s actors, processes, and structures.

4.1 Actor, Institution, and Technology

This section will describe the process of value creation in public service design, delivery, and consumption phases. As Section 3 elaborated, the pursuit of value creation fundamentally catalyses citizens to participate in a PSE (Section 4), in which citizens and groups interact and further co-create value. To explain this complex citizen participation process, we will first explain the context of public services, and then elucidate the necessary actors, institutions, and technologies within this context.

4.1.1 Setting the Scene for Value Creation in Public Services

Service-dominant logic researchers from SM&M articulate ‘value’ as ‘the positively or negatively valenced change in well-being or viability of a particular system/actor’ (Vargo and Lusch Reference Vargo and Lusch2018: 740). Such value is subjectively determined by users and is always heterogeneous (multiple value pursuits in one public service process), phenomenological (different users create different value), and experiential (different users create value based on their own life experiences) (Akaka and Schau Reference Akaka and Schau2019). Furthermore, SDL researchers maintain that the traditional demarcation between ‘services’ and ‘goods’ is artificial – both are ‘service-delivery vehicles’ and do not have intrinsic value. It is how such services/goods are utilized by a customer that creates value, a process known as ‘value-in-use’ (Vargo and Lusch Reference Vargo and Lusch2008).

Vargo et al. (Reference Vargo, Akaka and Vaughan2017) subsequently added that ‘value-in-use’ alone does not explain the full picture of how value is added to customers’ lives. They argued that consumers are embedded within their own social systems and equipped with their own beliefs and values. They argued that value could not be created independently through service encounters and consumptions, since customers are embedded within their own social systems. It is thus important to explore the context of customers – their needs, expectations, prior experiences, and social milieu. This is captured by the concept of ‘value-in-context’.

The concepts of value-in-use and value-in-context measure the extent to which a service impacts upon the needs of a service user, within the setting of their own life experiences (Grönroos Reference Grönroos2017). Grönroos and Voima (Reference Grönroos and Voima2013) have suggested a process model situate value creation across three interlinked spheres. As shown in Figure 1, there are provider sphere (real value has not been generated, but service providers prepare/produce service offerings, though which delivering the propositions and promises of value), joint sphere (value can be created in direct service encounters and consumption), and user sphere (value can be created by users in the context of their expectations and experiences).

Figure 1 Three spheres of value creation

(Grönroos and Voima Reference Grönroos and Voima2013).

This process model conceptualizes the value creation process in businesses and private sector services. Notably, it is an inherently commercial model: businesses support the value creation of their customers in the hope that customers return to visit their businesses, through which to obtain sustained business growth (Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Powell, Cui and Strokosch2022). However, value creation in public services is significantly different. This shows in the distinctive ownership of public and third sectors. Furthermore, public services normally have multiple users and other stakeholders (such as users’ family and friends, public service staff, and other citizens), who have different subjective perceptions of value (e.g., Powell and Osborne Reference Osborne2020; Hardyman et al. Reference Hardyman, Kitchener and Daunt2019). Besides, public service users are not always willing. They can be required (such as school children), coerced (such as prison inmates), and unconscious (such as adults with dementia) (Alford Reference Alford2016).

The recent study by Osborne, Nasi, and Powell (Reference Osborne, Nasi and Powell2021) offers a holistic model to explain the value creation process in public services. This model has extended the relevant discourse in SM&M in two aspects. First, it has emphasized the need to ‘explore both the production and the use/consumption of public services in order to [fully] understand value creation’ (8). The use/consumption process can enable the realization of value-in-use and/or value-in-context, while in the public service context, service production is another essential process through which value can be created. As shown in Figure 2, this production process is further differentiated into two explicit processes: co-design and co-production. Co-design refers to the involvement of citizens and groups in the design stage of public services. There is increasing evidence from both SM&M and PA demonstrating that co-design is a promising approach to enhancing learning, subsequently leading to service innovation and improved service experiences (e.g., Steen et al. Reference Steen, Manschot and Nicole2011; Trischeler et al. Reference Trischler, Kristensson and Scott2018; Trischeler et al. Reference Trischler and Charles2019). Co-production concerns the conscious engagement of citizens (not only direct users but also can include other citizen groups such as through volunteering) in the delivery of public services. This process can contribute to the enhanced service outcome, as well as the development of co-producers’ capacity for the future (Tuurnas et al. Reference Tuurnas2015).

Figure 2 The processes of value creation for public services

(modified from Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Nasi and Powell2021).

As Osborne et al. (Reference Osborne, Nasi and Powell2021) highlighted, service co-design and co-production are not isolated stages in public service delivery. Rather, they have suggested understanding value creation ‘as an interactive cluster of production and use/consumption processes’ (8).

Second, the process model offered by Osborne et al. (Reference Osborne, Nasi and Powell2021) also suggests that public services do not only add value to individual citizens but also need to add value to the society as a whole.Footnote ¹ This argument is associated with the important debate about PV, evolved from the work of Moore (Reference Moore1995), who underlined public managers’ responsibility for creating something ‘substantively valuable for the society’ (71). Public Value debate has latterly evolved into a cluster of theories regarding its substances and creation (e.g., Stoker Reference Stoker2006; Bozeman Reference Bozeman2007; Bryson et al. Reference Bryson, Sancino, Benington and Sørensen2017). Three conceptualizations have gradually emerged, respectively understanding PV from ‘what the public values’, ‘what adding to the public sphere’, and ‘what satisfying widely-accepted public values criteria’ (Cui and Osborne Reference Cui and Osborne2023a). Despite its conceptual ambiguity and heterogeneity, PV theory was regarded as an important theory that sought to shift the practice and research in PA from the preoccupation with efficiency and markets to the public services’ external impacts on society (O’Flynn Reference O’Flynn2021). The research of PSL has evolved alongside the discourse on PV. However, whilst PV theory solely focuses on value creation at the societal level, PSL researchers explore both public and private value and their interactions.

Integrating the process model with the PSE (Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Powell, Cui and Strokosch2022; Vargo and Lusch Reference Vargo and Lusch2016), Figure 3 demonstrates the context of value creation in public services in a unifying framework. Vertically, it aggregates four overlapping system layers. The macro-level represents the institutional arrangements that legitimate value creation in society. The meso-level and the micro-level respectively refer to the organizational actors and their networks/rules, and the individual actors, including users, individual providers, and other stakeholders. Individual actors’ behaviours are further shaped by their beliefs and values at the sub-micro level.

Figure 3 The context of value creation in public services.

Horizontally, public service delivery takes place between the meso- and micro-levels. This delivery process is where citizen participation takes place. This participation includes the procedures when providers (representing different public service organizations), users, and other key stakeholders interact in a network to co-design and co-produce public services. It also includes service consumption (including co-experience and co-construction) by users independently. The societal values/norms at the Macro-level regulate this delivery process. These macro-level societal values/norms validate ‘what types of value are socially desirable and what public service delivery processes are permissible’ (Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Powell, Cui and Strokosch2022: 5).

4.2 Value Destruction

The Section 4.1 discussed the context and process of value creation, as well as the actors, institutions and technologies within this context. However, citizen participation in public services does not always create value. Rather, it can destroy value and make users’ lives and society worse. This is termed ‘value destruction’ – the dark side of value creation. This section will first conceptualize value destruction with reference to both SM&M and PA literature. Then, it will explain the situations where participation results in value destruction

4.2.1 Unpacking the Concept of Value Destruction

The research on value destruction in SM&M is still embryonic. It emerged from Plé and Chumpitaz Cáceres (Reference Plé and Chumpitaz Cáceres2010), who articulated that prior value co-creation research has a fixation on the service interaction associated with positive processes and outcomes. This ‘optimistic’ view constrains the exploration of the adverse possibility of ‘value co-destruction’. They subsequently defined value co-destruction as:

An interactional process between service systems that results in a decline in at least one of the system’s well-being.

(431)

Plé and Chumpitaz Cáceres (Reference Plé and Chumpitaz Cáceres2010) further articulated that the accidental or intentional ‘misuse’ of resources is the trigger for value co-destruction. As different participants in a service situation have their own value expectations, value co-destruction occurs when there are discrepancies between parties regarding expectations of appropriate resource-usage behaviour. To overcome value co-destruction, they suggested enhancing communication and the training and empowering of frontline service providers. Subsequent empirical research following this line of inquiry has added that the accidental misuse of resources is the most common form of value co-destruction (e.g., Vafeas et al. Reference Vafeas, Hughes and Hilton2016).

In comparison, the research of Echeverri and Skålén (Reference Echeverri and Skålén2011) represents another stream of value co-destruction research in the SM&M. They first argued for a dynamic way to explore value formation – viewing value co-creation and co-destruction in a reciprocal relationship. Consequently, they suggested four types of value formation: reinforcing value co-creation, recovery value co-formation, reductive value co-formation, and reinforcing value co-destruction. This argument is further amplified by the later research of Laamanen and Skålén (Reference Laamanen and Skålén2015). They conceptualized value co-creation as a collective action and maintained that within such action, conflicts and discordance inherently exist and remain inevitable.

Furthermore, Echeverri and Skålén (Reference Echeverri and Skålén2011) advocated exploring value co-destruction in a broader context: not only in the dyadic relationships between service providers and users, but associated with complex and interactive service systems where the uneasy relationships between participants account for the negative value results. Their subsequent empirical analysis has examined the interaction between firms and their brand communities (Skålén et al. Reference Skålén, Pace and Cova2015a). Drawing upon a netnographic study of an online brand community platform, they suggested that value can be co-created when diverse actors’ practices align and co-destructed when their practices misalign. They further proposed three realignment strategies, including compliance (reaffirming the need to comply with established rules), interpretation (enhanced dialogue), and orientation (reorienting the purpose of a practice). Similarly, Skålén’s et al. (Reference Skålén, Aal and Edvardsson2015b) went beyond the traditional private service field to explore how activists using ICT tools to transform service systems during the Arab Spring. They revealed how the latent or overt conflicts between activists and regimes could result in value creation or destruction under different circumstances.

The latest research by Echeverri and Skålén (Reference Echeverri and Skålén2021) provides a critical review of value co-destruction research in SM&M. They argued that resource misuse research fails to reveal the dynamic social mechanisms inherent in the interactive nature of value co-destruction. They also attempted to make a differentiation between value co-destruction and its adjacent concepts, such as consumer exploitation and value failure.

This expanding SM&M discourse on value co-destruction has recently spread into the PA literature. Järvi et al. (Reference Järvi, Kähkönen and Torvinen2018; see also Laud et al. Reference Laud, Bove and Ranaweera2019) developed this discourse by differentiating between value destruction (as a result of poor service delivery and management) and value co-destruction (as a result of the failure of interactions between public service providers, users and other actors). With the introduction of the PSL, emerging studies have started to explore the dynamics of value destruction in public services (e.g., Engen et al. Reference Engen, Fransson, Quist and Skålén2021; Espersson and Westrup Reference Espersson and Westrup2020; Straussman Reference Straussman2022). As Cui and Osborne (Reference Cui and Osborne2023a) summarized, these studies have identified three primary reasons for value destruction: (1) power asymmetries between public service providers and users; (2) different parties in public services cannot effectively use resources in a mutually and socially responsible manner; (3) misaligned behaviours due to opportunism and lack of trust/information.

Additionally, within the PA literature, public value destruction research has been carried out. Bozeman (Reference Bozeman2002) was the first to note, in contrast to Moore’s preoccupation with value creation, that it is possible public services/products fail to meet PV criteria (shown as reinforced inequalities, loss of democracy, etc.). A small number of subsequent studies further investigated the substance of PV destruction (Bozeman and Johnson Reference Bozeman and Johnson2015; Steen et al. Reference Steen, Brandsen and Verschuere2018; Williams et al. Reference Williams, Kang and Johnson2016). Based on these prior studies, Cluley and Radnor (Reference Cluley and Radnor2020) called for more research into the ‘disvalue’ in public services, particularly regarding the situations where some citizen groups are excluded/rejected/sacrificed in some ‘socially valuable’ public projects, public resource are captured by individual groups, and PV is ill-defined.

Taken together, value destruction research offers a revolutionary way to understand the failures and problems in public services. Differentiated from market-failure or government-failure theories, value destruction theory maintains that public services should be judged upon their potential to facilitate value creation (Cui and Osborne Reference Cui and Osborne2023b). As a summary, Figure 4 conceptualizes value destruction in public services into a continuum, depending on different levels of severity. It offers a heuristic classification, while further research on different variations of value destruction is needed.

Figure 4 A spectrum of value destruction according to the severity.

4.2.2 Value Destruction in the Complex Public Service Context

Subsection 4.2 depicted the broader context of public services where citizen participation takes place. Within this context, value destruction can equally happen. Based on studies reviewed, we conducted Figure 5 to explain three types of value destruction in different citizen participation stages, together with the fourth type of value destruction related to the broader conflicts in PSEs.

Figure 5 Value destruction in the PSE.

Value destruction in design/preparation: Citizens can participate in public services as co-designers by which creating value – showing as the development of personal skills and confidence. However, value destruction can occur when (1) citizens refuse to participate in co-design because they undervalue certain public services/projects (Cui and Osborne Reference Cui and Osborne2023a), and (2) some citizens are rejected from or misrepresented in the public service design process by the prevailing professional/political interests. Our vaccination research also revealed that citizen groups and communities were not widely included in the service design when the government needed to make fast decisions to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Value destruction in service encounters: Value destruction can occur when citizens, as public service users, interact with providers. Reasons for this destruction can be mistakes, providers’ incompetence and the interpersonal conflicts between providers and users (Engen et al. Reference Engen, Fransson, Quist and Skålén2021). Power asymmetries can also make citizens dissatisfied, resentful and/or even behave disruptively (Flemig and Osborne Reference Flemig and Osborne2019; Straussman Reference Straussman2022).

Value destruction in service use/consumption: When consuming the public service offerings independently, citizens can destroy value in their own lives, primarily due to the intentional or unintentional misuse of resources (Järvi et al. Reference Järvi, Kähkönen and Torvinen2018). A typical example is the vaccine resistance and hesitancy, as well as the prevalence of anti-vaccine conspiracies during the Covid-19 vaccination project in Scotland. Furthermore, frustrations derived from prior interactions in the public service delivery process can also lead to maladaptive behaviour by public service users. This can ultimately limit or destroy their own value and/or exacerbate pre-existing individual and societal problems.

Value destruction associated with broader conflicts in the PSE: The PSE framework situates value creation in a multi-layer nested structure, comprising different stakeholders, as well as diversified societal institutions and individual values. These stakeholders usually have differentiated, rather than shared value expectations, regarding how a certain public service can help individuals and society. These value expectations may conflict with each other, resulting in one type of value created at the cost of another, or the destruction of both public and private value (Cui and Osborne 2023).

For instance, from our research on the Covid-19 vaccination project in Scotland, we found that the logistical requirement of speedy vaccine deployment has led to a government-centred, top-down service plan. This plan, however, set up obstacles for citizen participation in service design and delivery, which results in problems of inclusivity and justice (e.g., low vaccine coverage in rural Scotland and deprived communities). Another example is that vaccination policies for pregnant women were changed several times according to emerging medical evidence and statistical data. These changes may fulfil PVs like evidence-based and adaptive policy design, but they have exacerbated concerns in the general public and exacerbated vaccine hesitancy.

5.1 Conceptual Clarity

One of the primary challenges in researching citizens’ participation and public services is the need for conceptual clarity. There needs to be a consensus on what constitutes participation, how it should be measured, and what value it produces. This Element starts by framing the concept around the different waves of public management reforms. Evidence from the traditional PA streams of the literature shows that citizen participation has yet to be integrated into decision-making structures and remains peripheral. The achievement of citizen participation is hindered by various factors, including the normative stance of some narratives, the dominance of a linear model of public service delivery, a focus on structural rather than processual change, and a failure to address power imbalances inherent in public services. We situate participation along the alternative model of PSL, which requires the appreciation of the intrinsic participation processes in delivering these services and the fundamental role of public service users and citizens during these processes. Under PSL, participation is a natural element of public service and requires a citizen’s strategic orientation (Osborne et al. Reference Osborne, Nasi and Powell2021). Therefore, it must be consciously engaged rather than allowing it to impact public service outcomes and value creation by default.

Subsequently, a pragmatic and sensitive approach to extrinsic forms of participation is necessary to link the application of co-production and co-design in public service delivery to the individual and societal context of the needs that these services address.

5.2 Framing the Space of Participation

Public Service Logic argues that public services should be explored and researched as services. The service lens provides the opportunity to appreciate the dynamics of public service delivery. This approach is underpinned by the centrality of ‘co-production’ and ‘value’. The former recognizes the intrinsic and active role of the multiple actors, including citizens, that contribute to the public service processes, the latter emphasizes the ‘value-added’ to a service user by experiencing the service. Vargo and Lusch (Reference Vargo and Lusch2016) hence argue that value creation is not solely the purview of individual PSOs but occurs within complex and interactive relationships, comprising the key actors and processes of value creation as well as societal/institutional values and rules. To understand the complexity of participation in public service delivery and its role in value creation at the societal, service, and individual levels we suggest a new framing of the space to explore public service delivery: the PSE (Mustak and Plé Reference Mustak and Plé2020; Payne et al. Reference Payne, Dahl and Peltier2021).

The PSE is a relational model where value originates through its elements’ interconnected dynamics. Participation must be situated within this space to recognize the complex interdependencies between the various actors and stakeholders involved in delivering public services to ensure that public services are delivered in a meaningful and relevant way to the lives of citizens. By engaging the PSE actors more directly and effectively in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public services, services may be delivered in a way that is more effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of citizens.

5.3 New Models of Participation in Public Services

Framing participation under the theory of PSL, adopting a PSE approach requires new models of participation in public services that recognize its intrinsic nature and the explicit contribution of a plurality of actors that move beyond the dyadic relationship PSO-citizen. Consequently, appropriate institutional arrangements must be explored to account for the interconnected relationships among the actors and their influence (Sorensen and Torfig Reference Sørensen and Torfing2021). For example, the literature on collaborative governance offers insights into the structures of decision-making processes. Participation is crucial to collaborative governance structures, enabling stakeholders to contribute their expertise, knowledge, and experiences to decision-making (Bianchi et al. Reference Bianchi, Nasi and Rivenbark2021). New institutional arrangements of public service delivery based on PSL should explore how collaborative governance and participation address the complex dynamics among the elements of the PSE by bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise and reflecting the needs and values of the communities they serve for public service value.

More research is needed to identify adequate institutional arrangements for promoting citizen participation and to understand how these arrangements can be implemented in different contexts. The current literature on the motives of participation and the incentives to foster it must account for the PSE space.

The increasing availability of digital technologies has created new opportunities for participation in public services. However, more research is still needed on the use of technology to facilitate participation. Further research is needed to understand technology’s potential benefits and challenges to enhance citizens’ and other public service actors’ participation in public services. Further research is needed to develop a clear and consistent conceptual framework for the participation of all the actors in the PSEs.

5.4 Participation and Value

Participation and value co-creation are concepts that have gained increasing attention in the public service sector in recent years. Participation refers to the involvement of citizens and other stakeholders in the design, delivery, and evaluation of public services. On the other hand, value co-creation refers to the process by which public services are designed and delivered in a dynamic relationship with citizens and other stakeholders to create value that meets their needs and expectations. In a traditional PAM setting, public service performance is often measured in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness to citizens’ needs. In the traditional model of public service delivery, the government is responsible for designing and delivering services, and citizens are passive recipients of these services. However, this model needs to recognize the intrinsic and active role of citizens and other actors in the service processes and their contribution to value creation.

Under PSL, participation and value co-creation provides an alternative approach to public service delivery that seeks to overcome the limitations of the traditional model. Public service providers can better understand their needs and preferences and tailor services by engaging with citizens and other stakeholders in the design and delivery of services. This may lead to more efficient and effective service delivery and higher citizen satisfaction and engagement levels.

The differences between public service performance in the traditional and participatory models can be seen in various areas. For example, the traditional PAM models focus on delivering services efficiently and effectively, with little consideration given to citizens’ preferences or involvement. In contrast, the PSL model focuses on co-creating value with citizens and other stakeholders, intending to deliver services that meet their needs and expectations. How participation contributes to value creation still needs to be investigated. Although some evidence suggests that citizen participation can improve service quality, rigorous empirical studies in this area still need to be conducted. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which participation can lead to value creation and identify the conditions under which it is most effective.

Regarding accountability, the traditional model places the responsibility for service delivery solely on the government, whereas the participatory model involves citizens and other stakeholders monitoring and evaluating service performance. However, more research still needs to be done on the long-term sustainability of citizen participation initiatives. More research is needed to understand the factors contributing to the sustainability of citizen participation initiatives and identify strategies for promoting their long-term viability. Integrating theory for value creation in public service delivery is critical to the success of PSOs in the future. The research agenda for the future should focus on developing new metrics for measuring the value created in public service delivery, developing new service delivery models that leverage technology and innovation, optimizing existing service delivery models, and exploring the impact of social and economic factors on public service delivery and value creation.

Participation under PSL in a PSE comes at a cost. It is a more challenging and contentious approach, but it is essential to be governed to evolve public service theory and advocate for public service value creation.

Indeed, the evolving context surrounding public service delivery, influenced by various factors such as technological, demographic, geopolitical, and societal changes, may significantly impact the values inherent in co-production under PSL and affect value. Given the evolving landscape shaped by technological advancements, demographic shifts, geopolitical transformations, and changing tastes and behaviours of citizens, the context in which public services are delivered undergoes continuous flux, impacting the values associated with these services. And potentially the value created or destroyed in public service provision. Technological changes, such as advancements in artificial intelligence and digitalization, alter the way services are accessed and experienced, prompting shifts in societal expectations and preferences. Demographic changes, including aging populations and urbanization, influence the demand for specific services and redefine notions of inclusivity and accessibility. Geopolitical changes, such as shifts in governance structures or international relations, can reshape the priorities and funding allocations for public services. Moreover, changes in citizens’ tastes and behaviours, driven by cultural shifts and socio-economic factors, demand responsiveness and adaptability from public service providers. Understanding and navigating these multifaceted changes are essential for public service organizations to effectively address emerging needs within their respective contexts that may shape the value in context.

As these contextual dynamics shift, they may redefine the nature and scope of co-production efforts and subsequently affect value creation at both the individual and societal levels. This nuanced interplay between changing contexts and co-production practices represents a crucial domain for investigation, one that warrants further attention beyond the scope of the current manuscript. Exploring how shifting values in context influence the mechanisms and outcomes of co-production under PSL can offer valuable insights into enhancing the effectiveness and responsiveness of public service delivery. By acknowledging and addressing this gap in research, future studies can contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics shaping contemporary public service provision and value creation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this Element has provided a comprehensive examination of citizens’ participation in public service delivery and its role in value creation. Tracing the evolution of participation across various waves of public management reforms has highlighted the limited integration of participation into decision-making structures despite its noble intentions. Emphasizing participation as a core element of PSL, this Element advocates for a strategic approach to citizens’ engagement, recognizing its intrinsic value in service delivery processes. It has underscored the importance of framing participation within the dynamic context of PSEs, acknowledging the complex interdependencies among actors, institutions, and processes. However, as the context of public service delivery continues to evolve and is influenced by technological, demographic, geopolitical, and societal changes, there remains a need to explore how these shifting values affect co-production efforts and value creation. This represents a critical research gap that warrants further investigation to enhance our understanding of contemporary public service provision and value creation in an ever-changing landscape. By integrating theory and practice, future research endeavours can contribute to the advancement of public service delivery models that are more responsive, efficient, and effective in meeting the evolving needs of citizens and society.