Exploring value co-creation practices in public service conception: a project management approach

Purpose This article aims to improve understanding of value co-creation practices (VCPs) in public services by introducing a practical project management-based framework. Adopting a Public Administration and Management (PAM) perspective, public services can be viewed as evolving sets of value co-creation activities involving various stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach This action research study of two school catering projects in Quebec involved collecting qualitative data through 29 semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders (public, nonprofit and project team members), 16 sessions of participant observation, 25 group interviews with the participation of the research team and analysis of 121 documents. Findings The results demonstrate how VCPs influence public and private value throughout the project design life cycle. Our findings contribute to advances in discussions on the field of PAM knowledge of public services by identifying project management practices that either promote or hinder value creation. Research limitations/implications The research undertaken followed only two projects as cases with a qualitative approach. Furthermore, the present research focused mainly on the project team, owner organizations and funders during the project. The perspectives of other stakeholders and their project management needs could have improved the suggested practices. What else, the practices outlined contributed to a mixed performance in terms of value created for non-profit stakeholders, and the suggestions made are therefore considered as lessons learned. Practical implications This study offers novel and original insights by conceptualizing public service delivery explicitly as a project-based process through which public value is co-created, negotiated, and, in some cases, constrained across the project life cycle. By integrating VCPs (Skålén and Trischler, 2024) with project management phases, the research moves beyond outcome, or a public managerial efficiency-focused view, and demonstrates how value emerges from the interaction of procedures, materials, competencies, and stakeholder relationships. Social implications Theoretically, the study advances the literature by integrating VCPs with project management phases, demonstrating how public and private value are jointly produced, negotiated, and sometimes constrained throughout the project life cycle. By framing public services as projects, the research clarifies the processual, relational, and non-deterministic nature of public value, thereby extending existing debates in PAM and Project Management on value creation beyond output-oriented or efficiency-driven perspectives. Originality/value This article advances the concept of public service delivery explicitly as a project-based process through which public value is co-created, negotiated, and, at times, constrained across the project life cycle. By systematically integrating VCPs with project management phases, the research provides a processual explanation of how value emerges from the interaction of procedures, materials, competencies, and stakeholder relationships.