Erik Eriksson

Contemporary Western societies are confronted by an array of intricate challenges, arguably more complex than ever before (Mintzberg 2015). These challenges – stemming from forced migration, escala...

Att få en cancerdiagnos kan leda till en djup känsla av ensamhet och isolering, trots stöd från nära och kära. Många känner att deras upplevelser inte fullt ut förstås av andra. Artikeln fokuserar på berättandets roll för cancerberörda på Kraftens Hus - en social innovation skapad av och för cancerpatienter - där ett centralt mål har varit att skapa en plats där cancerberörda kan möta andra i liknande situationer. Genom att dela berättelser och erfarenheter formas en gemenskap som bryter tystnaden och minskar känslor av ensamhet. Berättelserna på Kraftens Hus fungerar som en läkande kraft, inte genom att bota sjukdomen, men genom att lindra känslomässig smärta och rädsla. Dessa delade berättelser ger styrka och hopp för att möta framtiden.

Purpose: This article aims to examine how users' involvement in value co-creation influences the development and orchestration of well-being ecosystems to help tackle complex societal challenges. This research contributes to the public management literature and answers recent calls to investigate novel public service governances by discussing users' involvement and value co-creation for novel well-being solutions.Design/methodology/approach: The authors empirically explore this phenomenon through a case study of a complex ecosystem addressing increased well-being, focussing on the formative evaluation stage of a longitudinal evaluation of Sweden's first support centre for people affected by cancer. Following an abductive reasoning and action research approach, the authors critically discuss the potential of user involvement for the development of well-being ecosystems and outline preconditions for the success of such approaches.Findings: The empirical results indicate that resource reconfiguration of multi-actor collaborations provides a platform for value co-creation, innovative health services and availability of resources. Common themes include the need for multi-actor collaborations to reconfigure heterogeneous resources; actors' adaptive change capabilities; the role of governance mechanisms to align the diverse well-being ecosystem components, and the engagement of essential actors.Research limitations/implications: Although using a longitudinal case study approach has revealed stimulating insights, additional data collection, multiple cases and quantitative studies are prompted. Also, the authors focus on one country but the characteristics of users' involvement for value co-creation in innovative well-being ecosystems might vary between countries.Practical implications: The findings of this study demonstrate the value of cancer-affected individuals, with “lived experiences”, acting as sources for social innovation, and drivers of well-being ecosystem development. The findings also suggest that participating actors in the ecosystem should utilise wider knowledge and experience to tackle complex societal challenges associated with well-being.Social implications: Policymakers should encourage the formation of well-being ecosystems with diverse actors and resources that can help patients navigate health challenges. The findings especially show the potential of starting from the user's needs and life situation when the ambition is to integrate and innovate in fragmented systems.Originality/value: The proposed model proposes that having a user-led focus on innovating new solutions can play an important role in the development of well-being ecosystems.

Using six focus groups with frontline employees within the Swedish sick-leave service, this article explores the co-creation/destruction of value. The article both adheres to and questions the public service logic by utilizing an empirical case in which frontline staff represents not one, but multiple, public service organizations. Moreover, as value creation/destruction is not restricted to one beneficiary, and several beneficiaries can be tied to one single service, the research builds upon this notion and distinguishes between four levels of value creation/destruction.

IMPACT The traditional public service ethos needs to be challenged by including citizens/users in developing and improving public services. However, the often one-sided positive accounts of co-production, co-design and co-innovation risk public managers and policy-makers involving citizens/users when it may be inappropriate and/or cause more harm than good. This article explains these ‘co-concepts’ and suggests how managers and policy-makers should balance the positive with potential negative (disvalue) aspects to enable a more useful practice of citizen/user involvement.

Coordination across healthcare system levels is a global imperative in order to assure efficient resource utilization and provide high-quality care. Whereas coordination in healthcare is a prominen...

Customers are vital to any organization and system, and must therefore be considered when seeking to improve. However, how to improve with regard to the customer, is not clear, and the knowledge is spread over several research fields, making it difficult for researchers and practitioners to comprehend. The purpose of this literature review is to show how customer-related improvements are described in the literature and how the research is performed. 666 articles were screened, resulting in 99 coded and analysed articles. The study concludes that there is a lack of understanding when it comes to the process of how to improve and that both practitioners and academics should focus more on the system level. It is also seen that by involving the customer in the improvement process, the improvement is more likely to succeed. The article concludes that there is a need for future research which are conceptual, longitudinal, and are addressing actual improvements, not just potential. From the practitioners’ point of view, the article is proposing an increased focus on customer-related improvements which address aspects concerning people, such as employee competence and work environment, and reward systems, rather than strategy and processes to improve the potential benefits.

There is consensus that complex problems of contemporary society call for public service collaborations. So‐called public service logic (PSL) focuses on joint value creation among a multiplicity of actors in service ecosystems. Despite recognizing various actors, this logic is essentially user‐centric, with the service user being the one realizing the value. Consequently, single and collaborating organizations cannot deliver value, only potential value, or so‐called value propositions. The elusive public service logic takes a network value configuration for granted and as a starting point. Drawing from two cases in Swedish healthcare, this paper argues that two other value configurations (chain and shop) are also relevant for understanding the development of value propositions – and that these may be related to both intra‐ and inter‐organizational processes. Theoretically, we conclude that just like public service logic, other collaborative public management theories need to recognize the importance of a multiplicity of value configurations and that these are often related to both intra‐ and inter‐organizational processes. We conclude that managers should not adopt the latest network trends without first reflecting on the relevance of existing internal processes.

The decentralisation of Swedish healthcare closer to citizens has been slow. Drawing from empirical material of the reform prior and amidst the COVID‐19 pandemic, this paper argues that the pandemic has disrupted the healthcare ecosystem. Consequently, citizen‐centred collaborations have accelerated integration of resources (such as knowledge and skills) across organisational, hierarchical and professional borders. However, collaborations have been delimited to traditional healthcare providers, neglecting the resources of citizens and other actors to be used to improve service delivery. The pandemic has revealed strengths and weaknesses with the prevailing healthcare ecosystem that post‐COVID‐19 public management must address, both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the development of a public service logic, addressing both strengths and difficulties with the logic in turbulent times. Practically, the empirical descriptions contribute to improved understanding of public service delivery reform and how it is impacted during the pandemic.