Combining KIBS and Co-Creation Methods for Public Innovation

The goal of this paper is twofold: i) it provides a framework for the relationship between KIBS and public services, putting the role of service users at the center, and ii) new empirical evidence from a survey for which we test the impact that business services consultancies (KIBS) associated with the co-creation processes have upon the innovation of public services with methodologies such as co-creation (users’ participation) and co-design (design laboratories) processes. The empirical evidence focuses upon the two aforementioned core business service methodologies to improve the quality of the public services provision. In this context, we test three main hypotheses regarding whether KIBS have a positive impact upon the innovation of public services and to what extent user-based methodologies are important. Data comes from the 2020 Co-VAL survey on public service innovation for Spain. The main conclusion is that KIBS have a higher impact upon public service innovation when users are taken into account through co-creation and co-design methods, acting as facilitators for co-innovation and network processes, than when KIBS is just acting on their own in bilateral relationships with the public sector. The overall positive effects do not mean that all uses of KIBS are always positive, for example, some KIBS consultancies subcontracting may have mixed results, but user-focused multiagent frameworks help promote positive impacts.