Creating value for citizens in public service ecosystems

Éditeurs invités

• Paula Rossi, University of Vaasa
• Jim Broch Skarli, University of Inland Norway
• Maria Petrescu, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Edwina Zhu, University of Edinburgh Business School

Synthèse

This special issue examines how public services can create value for citizens within public service ecosystems (PSEs), moving beyond traditional service-user and organization-centric perspectives to encompass the complex interplay of multiple actors, political contexts, and non-living elements. The PSE framework emphasizes systemic, relational, and context-dependent nature of value creation, recognizing how administrative and political governance shapes what is possible in public service environments.

The call seeks contributions that explore both societal value for communities and individual value for service users, addressing the dynamics and conditions that enable or hinder value creation across individual, organizational, and institutional levels. Submissions should advance understanding of public administration and management theory and practice, with both theoretical and empirical approaches welcome, including research articles, debate pieces, and new development articles.

Thèmes proposés

• Examining the implications of the roles and individual characteristics of service users in value co-creation, for example from the perspective of vulnerable service users and family carers
• Addressing the implementation and utilization of technologies from a PSE and value creation perspective
• Widening the empirical focus from private-benefit services to include more public-benefit services such as utility services, transportation, housing, prison management or urban development, emphasizing 'value for citizens' as an outcome
• Exploring the implications of understanding place-based public services from a PSE and value creation perspective
• Addressing the hindering or enabling dynamics and conditions of value creation in and between the individual, organizational and institutional levels of PSEs in particular contexts, for example by utilizing 'conflict' as an analytical tool
• Interrogating and developing Public Service Logic (PSL) as a framework for investigating and evaluating value creation within PSEs