Leveraging Collaborative Governance: How Co-production Contributes to Outcomes and Public Value in a Small Town

Collaborative governance is increasingly considered an effective approach to improve outcomes and public value. This chapter focuses on co-production as an instrument to implement collaborative governance at local level. It is not uncommon that small towns develop co-production processes to deliver cultural and touristic services. Out of a literature review, the study develops a Dynamic Multidimensional Performance Management framework to explore the impact of co-production on community outcomes. To this end, this chapter discusses the case “Museo Civico di Castelbuono (MCC)”,which concerns the co-production process of the guided tour of the museum’s venue. The resulting model provides insights into how co-production improves management outcomes, organizational, and community-level performance, finding that the motivation of co-producers drives service capacity. Lastly, the analysis of performance drivers and associated measures offers several implications for policy design and implementation and suggests strategic levers to make collaborative governance work.