Policy Innovation for Public Value Creation: Insights from Dynamic Performance Governance in Addressing Rural Depopulation

Abstract

Counteracting rural depopulation requires that public sector organizations address wicked problems by adopting innovative policies to create public value. Traditional and linear performance management methods may not be able to solve local problems because they fail to represent the socio-economic, cultural, and ecological subsystems’ dynamic complexity. This contribution examines the Sambuca di Sicilia (Italy) local administration’s One-Euro House Project to counteract rural depopulation by enhancing quality of life and economic dynamism through the Dynamic Performance Governance framework. Such an approach enables the support of innovative policy solutions to tackle wicked problems and pursue sustainable community outcomes, thereby creating public value.