This study utilizes Q‐methodology to assess the perspectives of 37 executives of government‐certified social enterprises in South Korea on their organization's relationship with the public sector in terms of the complementary‐supplementary‐adversarial conceptual frameworks of Toepler et al. and Young and the literature on co‐production. The perspectives of social enterprise executives that participate in co‐production arrangements represent an underexplored domain. Our findings contribute to the framework of Toepler et al. by empirically gauging the effects of, in particular, an enabling regulatory framework and public funding relative to the tensions represented by potentially excessive regulation. Although the focus on a single context limits the generalizability of the study, it provides insights on the nuances and complexities of public sector patronage while highlighting that such patronage is generally seen as being more complementary than adversarial. Our findings contribute to efforts to empirically gauge perceptions of co‐production arrangements.