Non-voluntary service interaction from a service logic perspective: children and value co-creation

ABSTRACT

Public sector services are complex in relation to many private sector services. For example, public sector services contain non-voluntary service interaction. This area of practice has not been extensively researched to date. In this article, we explore and discuss service interaction in public non-voluntary services targeting children, in order to understand what elements go into value co-creation. We use a conceptual model of value co-creation in service developed by Christian Grönroos, and propose elaborations of the model to better reflect the complexities of public sector services.

KEYWORDS:

• Service logic
• co-creation
• public services
• non-voluntary services
• service interaction

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on our text, thereby helping us to make our arguments more distinct.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by research grants from the City of Helsingborg and VINNOVA [2016-03196].

Notes on contributors

Katja Lindqvist

Katja Lindqvist, PhD, is associate professor in Business Administration. Her research interests are management and governance of the public and non-profit sectors, in particular relating to arts and culture. Her recent research focuses on innovation in welfare services and competence management in the museum sector.

Ulrika Westrup

Ulrika Westrup is PhD of Business Administration and an associate professor of Service Studies. Her research interests are service management and public management, specifically in human service organizations.