Samenvatting

Purpose
More than 25 years after the first introduction of the public value concept by Moore in 1995, the concept is now widely used, but the operationalization of public value accounting is still weak. This paper shows empirical results of a study analyzing the application of the public value concept in Higher Education Institutions, hereby not only focusing on its operationalization, but also its use for management control purposes.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes how Dutch universities of applied sciences operationalize the concept ‘public value’ and how they report on the outcome achievements. The strategy plans and annual reports for FY2016 through FY2018 of the ten largest institutions (in term of student numbers) were used.

Findings
All selected institutions still use performance indicators that focus on processes, outputs and service delivery quality. This review offers an insight into how narratives are used to show public value created and institutions still hang on to efficiency and quality indicators that seem to be based on new public management thinking.

Originality/Value
There are very few empirical studies on public value accounting. This paper aims to contribute to this literature by showing how public value can be operationalized for Higher Education Institutions in the Netherlands. As long as there is no clear diagnostic tool for measurement can narratives be a substitute?