Beyond outsourcing: Re-embedding the state in public value production
指出公共价值理论未能解释外包对公共价值生产的影响，认为国家与生产脱钩会削弱其学习和适应能力，主张将国家重新嵌入公共价值生产，超越核心服务的外包模式。
Public Value Theory (PVT) emerged within a broader public administration paradigm that called for the recentering of the state in the identification and management of public activities in response to the attempts of neoliberal politicians to marginalize it. PVT’s advocates remained nonetheless ambivalent about the role of the state in the production of goods and services necessary to create public value. In the decades since, public sector outsourcing has grown in scale and scope, particularly in Anglo-Saxon economies. PVT is unable to account for the implications of this mode of public value production, and why it may undermine the state’s ability to create public value over time. In this article, we argue that the disembedding of the state from the production of public value undermines its capacity for learning and adapting organizations, which are critical if the state is to respond to changing needs and demands. Because what constitutes public value evolves, so too must the resources and capabilities for producing public value be reconfigured. In other words, public value creation is contingent on innovating the means of public value production. We make the case for re-embedding the state in public value production and for public sectors to move beyond outsourcing the delivery of core services and functions.