Editorial: insights on value co-creation, living labs and innovation in the public sector

Citizen participation in the planning, design, and delivery of public services has been of central interest for public administration and management scholars since the 1970s at least (Osborne and Strokosch 2021, 2022). Strengthening citizen participation is often viewed as pivotal in order to meet citizens’ changing expectations and to handle increasingly difficult societal problems (Bason 2017, 2018; Torfing et al. 2016). This is reflected in a shift towards more demand-based approaches to innovation in the public sector, in which efforts of renewal are responding to citizens’ demands and needs (Torfing et al. 2021). Concepts such as co-production and co-creation have become central in studies and analyses of these developments (Voorberg et al. 2015). Understanding of the mechanisms of co-production and co-creation operating at different levels and during different phases of public service processes has been of particular interest in the public administration and management literature. For instance, Nabatchi et al. (2017) suggest that co-production may take place at an individual, group, and collective level during the phase of commissioning, design, delivery, or assessment. In parallel, there is growing scholarly interest in the theorization of value and the dynamics of value creation in public service contexts (Hodgkinson et al. 2017; Strokosch and Osborne 2019; Strokosch et al. 2021). This Special Issue is situated at the crossroads of these research dialogues on citizen participation and value creation. The collection of articles address, in different ways, the links between citizen participation, service user involvement and value, and value creation in public service settings.