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Marketization reforms and co‐production: Does ownership of service delivery structures and customer language matter?
Author(s) -
James Oliver,
Jilke Sebastian
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/padm.12670
Subject(s) - marketization , business , service (business) , private good , marketing , incentive , public relations , public good , economics , market economy , microeconomics , political science , law , china
In public services that are tax funded, public goods are sometimes marketized by being delivered using private companies instead of public organizations. In addition, marketization reforms can entail service users being described as customers for the service rather than as citizens. We assess the effects of these aspects of marketization reforms on users' willingness to co‐produce public services. First, service delivery using private companies risks reducing users' willingness to co‐produce because firms cannot commit ex ante to not appropriate donated labour for private gain. Second, using customer‐oriented language risks reductions by priming individualistic market norms that lower prosocial motivation compared to citizen‐oriented language priming citizenship duty. Using three survey experiments in the United States, we find that delivery structures are not neutral. Private firms delivering local public services reduce users' willingness to co‐produce, although similar effects are not evident from primimg customer rather than citizenship thinking.