<![CDATA[This study examines how and why gaps emerge between nationally mandated public service standards and their operational implementation at the Kendari City Public Service Mall (PSM), Indonesia. Employing a qualitative evaluative design, the study used seven regulatory service-standard dimensions as diagnostic benchmarks to identify discrepancies between formal requirements and practice and to examine the mechanisms underlying them. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participatory observations, and document analysis involving 18 purposively selected structural officials, frontline personnel, and service users. The findings reveal uneven rather than uniformly weak implementation: formal standards are generally established, but their operational realization varies across service processes. Persistent gaps include service delays, incomplete digital integration, inconsistent information, limitations in accessibility for vulnerable users, and weak complaint follow-up. These discrepancies are shaped by interacting mechanisms involving administrative capacity, inter-agency coordination, operational integration, and frontline adaptation. Physical centralization improves perceived convenience, but does not necessarily produce organizational or operational integration. Frontline adaptation can mitigate immediate service disruptions while also sustaining incomplete implementation arrangements. Theoretically, the study shows that policy–practice gaps in integrated public services emerge through interactions among administrative capacity, bureaucratic connectivity, operational integration, and frontline adaptation, distinguishing formal integration from substantive operational realization. Practically, the findings suggest that strengthening PSM implementation requires greater cross-agency connectivity, synchronized procedures, digital and administrative capacity, and mechanisms that translate frontline adaptations into organizational learning.]]>
