Purpose - The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of co-governance and its implications on public value, with particular reference to local authorities in the Italian context. Design/methodology/approach - The research aim is pursued by means of a literature review and an empirical research. The empirical research is developed through a questionnaire, sent to the 119 municipalities of the Italian provincial capitals. The overall response rate was 41.18% (49 responses). Findings - In Italian local authorities the process of increasing citizens’ participation and citizens’ involvement as co-producers of public value by means of co-governance and participatory governance tools is still ongoing. More than 50% of the loca...