Towards a Model for Engaging Citizens via Gov2.0 to Meet Evolving Public Value

The adoption of Gov2.0 is intended to be an efficient and effective way of reaching digital citizens where they are, thereby facilitating the dissemination of information and enabling citizen participation. Since citizens are actively using Web2.0 tools and applications in their social lives, it is assumed that Gov2.0 would provide a means to lend their voices to the decision-making process. However, Gov2.0 has not been successful in engaging citizens and has not lived up to expectations. Governments need to reassess their engagement models via Gov2.0 to achieve a desired level of public value. To engage effectively in the process of public value co-creation, a synergistic integration of citizens and governments must occur. The authors use the co-creation lenses to suggest that citizen participation and satisfaction can help to enhance public value. A validated research model and measures are proposed that link citizen-government synergistic integration to participation and satisfaction in order to achieve public value. The paper concludes with suggestions for future avenues of research.