Public Value Creation in State-Owned Enterprises and Economic Recovery Post Covid-19: The Case of Bank Rakyat Indonesia

State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have played a critical role in social and economic development in Indonesia (Mardjana, 1992). In addition to their profit motive, SOEs have delivered social benefits for public service, and their performance creates “business value” and “public value”. One of the instrumental roles of SOEs is supporting the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Furthermore, MSMEs have proven to be a resilient sector during various crises, including the 1997 Asian financial crisis, as a pillar of economic recovery and growth, with almost 80 million people working as micro-entrepreneurs and contributing to more than 60% of GDP (Seibel and Ozaki, 1999). However, the Covid-19 pandemic has created a different crisis where MSMEs are one of the most affected. With more than 60 million MSMEs affected, their performance has significantly deteriorated by 30-90% due to social distancing policies. MSMEs’ dependency on direct “face-to-face” transactions in traditional markets has further affected their performance, as less than 15% have exposure to digitalization. Due to this crisis, Indonesian MSMEs are forecasted to face a recession and significant challenges. To address this, the government is starting to reform significantly, including SOEs. The prioritization will be to balance business and public value creation in a more structured way, such as creating a hybrid between balance and public value scorecards for business strategy and performance measurement (Harvard Business Review, 2020). This research examines the role and challenge of SOEs in supporting economic recovery in Indonesia, specifically the empowerment of MSMEs. It is conducted through the utilization of the public value concept from the perspective of Strategic Management (Moore; 1995, 2013) as well as client, community, and society within the public value landscape (Meynhardt; 2012, 2019) using a Mix-Method research approach in Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI). The results showed that enterprise is increasingly valued by public contribution beyond economic performance or good governance. Furthermore, this research highlighted the significance of public value contribution during the post-pandemic situation. It also contributed to the novelty of Public Value research as the first Public Value Scorecard Assessment for SOEs in Indonesia.