Increased participation and collaboration, for example with citizens and voluntary organisations, is considered to be an important factor in the development of innovation in public services.
In order to succeed with co-creation, it is particularly important to investigate when and how the involvement of users contributes to the success of innovation in the public sector. However, there are few result-oriented empirical studies on co-creation in the context of public service innovations.
Stefanie Gesierich has used, among other things, a large, quantitative European survey on this topic.
"Through the application of mainly quantitative data the thesis supplements empirical research in the field, which has been dominated by case studies. The findings of the thesis enhance our understanding of the conditions under which co-creation occurs and leads to successful public service innovation," writes Gesierich to inn.no.
The thesis thereby contributes to a better, empirically founded understanding of co-creation in the context of public service innovation. Such an empirical knowledge base is important for being able to carry out co-creation in a successful way, and can be useful for both politicians and the public sector in general.
"The knowledge of the suitability of different user involvement methods in different contexts created by this project can be used by policymakers and public sector managers to choose appropriate co-creation strategies for their service innovation contexts," she further writes.
The achieved insight into the conditions under which co-creation positively affects the service innovation result also contributes to further developing theory on co-creation and service innovation.
Stefanie has carried out her doctoral research as part of the PhD programme Innovation in Services in the Public and Private Sectors (INSEPP).
- You can read the thesis here: "Investigating co-creation in public service innovation contexts – a configurational approach".
The main findings of the PhD:
- The use of co-creation methods has moved beyond the initial stage of an experimental, pioneering initiative and is relatively widespread applicated. However, it is not yet applied as the modus operandi in public service innovation. The most common method to obtain input from service users is still the less challenging non-participatory collection and analysis of data on user experience.
- The involvement of service users is an important antecedent for successful service innovation development. However, the thesis does not find support for a direct positive relationship between co-creation and successful public service innovation across cases. None of the single input factors included in the analysis had a significant effect on the outcomes of service innovation by themselves. Only several input factors in conjunction lead to a high level of positive outcome effects, as demonstrated in the qualitative comparative analysis. This illustrates the complexity of succeeding with public service innovation.
- The findings in this thesis confirm and extend prior research indicating that the existing system of governance and dominating administrative tradition is likely to have an impact on how co-creation is implemented.
- This implies that approaches to user involvement in public innovation are more likely to succeed when they are adapted to the context of governance tradition. There is no “one size fits all” approach to co-creation. Hence, co-creation experience and knowledge may not be automatically transferred from one country to another.
Here you'll find more information about Stefanie Gesierich's public defence on 1 December 2023.
Contact information:
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