Public value is a nascent concept that is both fashionable and vague. Greater clarity and further empirical examinations are needed to increase our understanding of public value and our ability to apply it practically and evaluate its performance. To this end, this paper begins by using a pragmatic problem-solving approach to investigate how public value is generated in two stages of problem-solving process: 1) problem/solution nomination stage; 2) solution implementation stage. Then a structuration approach is applied to analyze the system of interaction between agents – value producers/reproducers and the structure. Five key findings derived from the duality of structure analysis are discussed: 1) contribution of middle managers; 2) public value as by-product; 3) redefine scope of value producers and introduce reproducers; 4) an awareness of the question of who is responsible for creating public value; and 5) the measurement of public value as a process rather than an outcome.
