Institutional environment and passive co-production: exploring the roles of government deterrence and social norms

Co-production has been widely advocated for integrating democratic values into public service delivery, yet passive co-production – mainly driven by external forces – remains under-explored. This research redefines passive co-production through the lens of policy implementation and compliance, developing a theoretical model grounded in the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. Using a design combining survey with survey experiment, the model was tested in both crisis (pandemic prevention) and routine (garbage classification) scenarios in China. Results reveal that government deterrence and social norms significantly drive passive co-production under crisis scenario, whereas only social norms matter in routine setting. Additionally, the interaction between deterrence and social norms varies across scenarios. By expanding co-production’s boundary to include passive forms across different settings, this study not only highlights the need to examine ethical concerns and long-term implications of passive co-production, but also calls for further testing of findings along the active-passive co-production continuum.