The concept of a socially sustainable society is linked to the notion of equal access to high-quality welfare services and an equitable distribution of common resources. The rationale behind the introduction of private actors to provide welfare services is that greater choice will result in higher quality of service for individuals, achieved through a co-creation process. The purpose of this study is to examine the processes through which value is co-created when elderly are admitted to retirement homes. The study answers the following questions: (1) how do individual expectations differ between the applicants? and (2) how do the employees take the applicants’ expectations into account when allocating the resources available? This study, conducted between november and december 2014, combines surveys with elderly who apply for a retirement home and interviews with employees at the municipality. Our study show that co-creation is related to intangible aspects, pragmatic alignment in resource integration, and conflicts between interests.
