From Fragmented Criteria to a Structured Decision Support Mode: Designing a DEX-Based DSS for Assessing Organizational Readiness for Co-Creation

Co-creation emphasizes the active involvement of stakeholders in the design and delivery of public services. Despite its potential benefits, many public organizations struggle to implement co-creation because they are unclear about their readiness. To address this gap, this study develops a decision support system (DSS) to assess an organization’s readiness for co-creation in public administration. This study applies a design science research methodology to develop a structured assessment model. Through an in-depth content analysis of academic papers, 81 criteria were identified that represent drivers and barriers to co-creation. These criteria were hierarchically organized into categories, subcategories and aggregated attributes to create a decision model using the Decision EXpert (DEX) multi-criteria decision method. The resulting DSS allows decision makers to assess readiness based on binary inputs (“No”/“Yes”) at the basic level, which are then aggregated by utility functions to obtain the final readiness score. By providing a transparent, evidence-based and replicable approach, this model contributes to both theory and practice: it consolidates the fragmented readiness factors into a structured framework and supports agile governance by guiding strategic planning and the allocation of organizational resources to co-creation initiatives. This model was validated against synthetic test cases to demonstrate its applicability and potential value for public organizations seeking to better understand and improve their readiness and resilience for effective co-creation.