Using digital platforms to promote value co-creation: A case study of a public sector organization

Abstract

This thesis explores how digital platforms can improve value co-creation in large public sector organizations characterized by large, interconnected information systems. This research is based on a two-year longitudinal case study of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). This thesis is especially focused on the way in which digital platforms enable collaboration and co-creation across time and space. This thesis has three goals. First, it investigates the role of agile development in the context of value co-creation in public sector organizations. Second, it explores how the inertia of existing systems and practices affect an organization’s ability to co-create value. Third, it analyses the way in which digital platforms can be used to overcome the challenges of existing systems and practices, enabling co-creation at scope and scale. Theoretically, this thesis aims to contribute primarily to the field of information systems and secondarily to the field of software engineering. By developing a framework based on service-dominant logic, these two fields are connected, and insight is provided into the relationships between agile development practices, digital platforms, and the organizational context in which development practices and platforms exist. This thesis contributes in at least three distinct ways. First, this thesis contributes to the software engineering literature by conceptualizing agile development as the activities and processes that underlie resource integration. Second, this thesis contributes theoretically to the information systems literature by proposing platformization as a strategy for reintroducing and maintaining flexibility in existing infrastructures. Third, this thesis contributes empirically to the information systems literature by proposing digital platforms as a means for scaling value co-creation across time and space in public sector organizations.