Sustainable Co-Creation in the Public Sector: A Case Study in the Lower Austrian Federal Government

Co-creation is a social process, that aims to involve and engage stakeholders in the design or re-design of public services. In the Office of the Lower Austrian Federal Government a first co-creation process was started in order to involve internal stakeholders and external stakeholders in the re-design and digitalization of the Tourism Overnight Stay Tax Service that all tourist accommodations in Lower Austria are required to pay. The case study approach was used to understand how a co-creation process can be sustainable and what the barriers could be. The results are based on interviews conducted with all stakeholder groups involved in this public service. They show that co-creation can be sustainable as a social process if all the internal and external stakeholders are involved, that digitalization can contribute to sustainability but can be expensive and requires additional resources, and that barriers are a lack of digital skills and tools as well as a complex legal framework.