Co-production ‘thinking’ and performance implications in the case of separate waste collection

ABSTRACT

The relevance of co-production paradigm in recent years suggests innovative observation methods in the context of public-service delivery while marking the advent of a new way of ‘thinking’ in public service logic. From this perspective, co-production processes within separate waste collection are investigated. An index, drawn on co-production literature, is built to measure the public officers’ co-production attitude. The association between the attitude in stimulating co-production and separate collection performance is tested controlling for ‘classic’ determinants already found in waste management literature. Results show that a higher attitude towards enhancing users’ co-production facilitates the best achievements in terms of separate collection results.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-production
• waste management
• public-service logic
• separate waste collection
• public services
• public-service organizations

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the municipalities involved in this survey.

We would like to thank also Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1823726.

Notes

1. http://www.catasto-rifiuti.isprambiente.it/index.php?pg=findComune

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stefano Landi

Stefano Landi is a research fellow in the department of Management at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy. He has receive his Ph.D. in “Healthcare management” in 2017 at University of Genoa. His main research interests are on public sector, in particular management accounting, public engagement, social and technological innovation in health and waste collection sectors.

Salvatore Russo

Salvatore Russo is an associate professor in the Department of Management at Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Italy. He has received his Ph.D. in “Business Administration” in  2001 at Ca’ Foscari University Venice and has several years work experience in the areas of teaching and research. His interests include public sector accounting and management, performance management in public sector organisations and in other specific  areas such as healthcare,  welfare and cultural  institutions. He has several research publications in well-known international Journals and conferences.