Abstract Summary
Participants of programs that aim to address wicked, societal problems in urban contexts, such as inequality, malnutrition, and climate change, need to jointly create future value for a diverse set of stakeholders including the natural and urban environment, government institutions, businesses, and citizens. This is challenging as program goals are ambiguous, programs evolve unexpectedly, and participants have diverse backgrounds, organizational interests, and beliefs about what is important for the future. On top of this, participants need to work within the constraints of the physical urban context and existing institutions. Due to the complexity, uncertainty, and messiness involved, the process of joint value creation often remains implicit in program collaborations, resulting in conflicts and uncertainties that can cause delays and suboptimal outcomes in answering pressing societal challenges such as urban inequalities. It is underexplored how joint value creation evolves in programs that aim to address societal challenges in urban contexts, the specific value creation challenges actors are confronted with, how these are dealt with, and the effects this has. This study brings insight into project members' practices to anticipate the creation of future value within the multi-stakeholder collaboration of an urban energy transition project. Drawing on a qualitative, longitudinal case study of a program designed to help transform the local energy system of a neighborhood in Amsterdam, we discuss how actors’ practices of identifying, negotiating, prioritizing, and setting values play a role in defining and progressing the program. We contribute to the existing literature on value creation in projects and programs, by providing detailed insight into how conscious and unconscious value creation can enable or hinder program success, specifically paying attention to the challenge of integrating technological and social innovation. We conclude by proposing a set of guiding principles that can be used by program participants to more consciously manage joint value creation in their programs, and that form the basis for a research agenda on future value creation in project and program management.
