‘What the public values...’ The stakeholder-oriented business model approach as a tool for planning and managing innovation in public and nonprofit management – A qualitative inquiry into public value creation in German healthcare

In democratic environments, the integration of the public perspective is vital to the continuous legitimization and acceptance of publicly managed systems, as it justifies the organizations’ existence for the stakeholders who provide the financial support. An integration of the public perspective in the design of innovative business models requires an identification of citizens’ values to enable public managers and entrepreneurs to ascertain if their decisions have the potential to create value according to the public will. As healthcare in Germany is largely funded by the public, we asked the German public about crucial values in healthcare. Three value dimensions, ‘proper organization’, ‘skilled treatment’ and ‘social principles’, consisting of nine value categories, could be identified as potential guidelines.