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AbstractThe existing studies on co-production display two research gaps. First, most studies focus on non-digital/offline co-production and value creation; little attention has been paid to value creation of digital/online co-production cases. Second, traditional co-production studies examine political, organizational, administrative, and personal factors that influence co-production. However, few studies investigate how technological factors will affect co-production in terms of value creation. To bridge the gaps, this article conducts a systematic literature review of 52 articles. The review results distill seven technological factors and five value categories from digital co-production cases. It further examines how these technological factors affect the creation of various value categories. Based on the review results, this article proposes a future research agenda on digital co-production.

In the literature on relational governance, it is often assumed that relational governance emerges primarily after formal contracting and acts as a functional supplement to a formal contract. In this article, we show that especially facing deep uncertainties, relational governance can emerge before the start of formal partnerships, in the form of trust-building, exchanging resources, and fostering flexibility. Based on a case study of a smart city outsourcing project, this article introduces a forward-extended framework of relational governance that captures the pre-contractual dimensions of relationship cultivation and their role in facilitating formal contracting. The study finds that pre-contractual relational governance facilitates formal contracting by reducing substantive, evaluative, technological, and procedural uncertainties in the project and helps the partners to design an elaborative contract, undergo an easy negotiation, adopt short-term contracts, and use simple monitoring and evaluation methods. The article thus argues that only understanding post-contractual relational governance is insufficient for exploring the relation between formal contracting and relational governance; facing deep uncertainties, it is necessary to understand how public and private parties develop their pre-contractual relationship and reduce the uncertainties before a formal contract can be signed. Points for practitioners Practitioners should realize that there is much room for relational governance in the pre-contractual phase of PPP projects when the projects are rife with various uncertainties. Public and private parties can take measures to build trust, foster flexibility, and create interdependence before a formal contract is signed. These ex-ante relational governance measures can facilitate formal contracting by reducing the various uncertainties, making a formal contract designable, making negotiation smooth and easy, and reducing the need for contract supervision.

Nowadays, policy narratives as a communication strategy are frequently used by governments to persuade target populations and obtain policy support. However, few studies have empirically examined whether and through what mechanisms policy narratives can enhance policy support intention. To fill this gap, this study uses the case of energy conservation policy to conduct a survey experiment among 300 industrial enterprises in Liaoning, China. The findings indicate that policy narratives are effective in strengthening policy support intention; this effectiveness is achieved through a mediating variable of subjective policy understanding. In other words, only when policy narratives make target populations think they understand the policy can they show strong policy support intention. Additionally, we examine how policy narratives should be designed to enhance subjective policy understanding. The study finds that a simple narrative form (i.e. reducing policy details and using images and symbols) and a narrative content with positive incentives (i.e. showing material and reputational incentives) are two measures to enhance subjective policy understanding, which then leads to strong policy support intention. The implications of these findings for the policy narrative theory and policy implementation practice are discussed at the end of the article.

Nowadays, policy narratives as a communication strategy are frequently used by governments to persuade target populations and obtain policy support. However, few studies have empirically examined whether and through what mechanisms policy narratives can enhance policy support intention. To fill this gap, this study uses the case of energy conservation policy to conduct a survey experiment among 300 industrial enterprises in Liaoning, China. The findings indicate that policy narratives are effective in strengthening policy support intention; this effectiveness is achieved through a mediating variable of subjective policy understanding. In other words, only when policy narratives make target populations think they understand the policy can they show strong policy support intention. Additionally, we examine how policy narratives should be designed to enhance subjective policy understanding. The study finds that a simple narrative form (i.e. reducing policy details and using images and symbols) and a narrative content with positive incentives (i.e. showing material and reputational incentives) are two measures to enhance subjective policy understanding, which then leads to strong policy support intention. The implications of these findings for the policy narrative theory and policy implementation practice are discussed at the end of the article.

This article investigates the relationship between privatisation and equity, and considers the extent to which measures to reverse privatisation have improved citizens' access to public services. The Coefficient of Variation (CV) method is used to measure equity, and the multiple regression method is adopted to test the relationship between privatisation and equity. The findings confirm that there is a negative relationship between market access and equity, an inverted U-shape relationship between competition and equity, and a positive relationship between ownership and equity. In addition, the findings demonstrate that privatisation reversal does not have a clear impact on equity.

Co-production is a solution by which the government provides public services. Coproduction theory is built upon Western experience and currently focuses on the types of coproduction in different policy stages, the barriers and governance strategies for co-production. However, little attention is paid to how political background will influence the co-production process. To fill the gap, we analyzed a case of co-production that occurred in China, and we characterized the political background as consisting of three main political features: political mobility, central–local relations, and performance measurement. Based on an in-depth case study of a government project in a medium-sized Chinese city, the impact and the changes of political features affecting governmental projects in different co-production stages are analyzed and assessed. We find that political features play a critical role in the co-production of China's large government projects and may separately and jointly affect co-production. Government performance measurement affects the co-design and co-implementation of projects. Political mobility and changes in local government and performance measurement also affect the co-implementation continuity of the project. Political focus affects the co-design of projects. Central-local relations influence the support from higher government and the actual practices of lower government in the co-implementation stage.