From fragmented criteria to a structured decision support mode : designing a DEX-based DSS for assessing organizational readiness for co-creation

Hržica, Rok (author)

Co-creation emphasizes the active involvement of stakeholders in the design and delivery of public services. Despite its potential benefits, many public organizations struggle to implement co-creation because they are unclear about their readiness. To address this gap, this study develops a decision support system (DSS) to assess an organization’s readiness for co-creation in public administration. This study applies a design science research methodology to develop a structured assessment model. Through an in-depth content analysis of academic papers, 81 criteria were identified that represent drivers and barriers to co-creation. These criteria were hierarchically organized into categories, subcategories and aggregated attributes to create a decision model using the Decision EXpert (DEX) multicriteria decision method. The resulting DSS allows decision makers to assess readiness based on binary inputs (“No”/“Yes”) at the basic level, which are then aggregated by utility functions to obtain the final readiness score. By providing a transparent, evidence-based and replicable approach, this model contributes to both theory and practice: it consolidates the fragmented readiness factors into a structured framework and supports agile governance by guiding strategic planning and the allocation of organizational resources to co-creation initiatives. This model was validated against synthetic test cases to demonstrate its applicability and potential value for public organizations seeking to better understand and improve their readiness and resilience for effective co-creation.

• Language: English
• Keywords: co-creation, organizational readiness, drivers and barriers, decision support system (DSS), multi-criteria decision method (DEX)
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FU - Faculty of Administration
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 1-78
• Numbering: Vol. 13, no. 9, [article no.] 806
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-173545
• UDC: 35:005.8:519.816:658
• ISSN on article: 2079-8954
• DOI: 10.3390/systems13090806
• COBISS.SI-ID: 249424387
• Publication date in RUL: 18.09.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Systems
• Shortened title: Systems
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2079-8954
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523410713

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: soustvarjanje, organizacijska pripravljenost, spodbujevalci in ovire, sistem za podporo odločanju, večkriterijska metoda odločanja (DEX)