scholarly journals Innovation in the public sector: Towards an open and collaborative approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Bekkers ◽  
Lars Tummers
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Network Governance ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Collaborative Approach ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Innovation ◽  
Open Process

Innovation in the public sector is high on the agenda of politicians, civil servants and societal organizations. This attention in practice is mirrored in an increasing number of scholarly articles. In this introduction to the special issue on public sector innovation, we discuss how the scholarly perspectives on innovation have changed. Previously, it was assumed that innovation could be organized within organizations: if your organization had the necessary resources, innovation could happen. Nowadays, innovation in the public sector is seen as an open process of collaboration between stakeholders across various organizations. This change towards open and collaborative approaches has consequences for studies on innovation, for instance, it becomes important to analyse how to activate stakeholders to join the innovation process. Next to this, scholars interested in innovation should connect their research with other literature streams, such as those focused on network governance, leadership and design thinking. In such ways, innovation scholars can develop research that is relevant to society.

scholarly journals Illuminating the Gender Divide in Public Sector Innovation: Evidence From the Australian Public Service

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter van Acker ◽  
Jan Wynen ◽  
Sophie Op de Beeck
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Length Of Service ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Innovation ◽  
Public Sector Employees ◽  
Red Tape ◽  
Innovation Climate

Like many other aspects of the work environment, “innovation” is a gendered term that creates a barrier to women taking part in innovation processes and, in particular, in male-dominated and “masculine” industries. This article looks into the role of gender, as well as other potential determinants, in explaining differences in the perceived innovation climate for public sector employees. This innovation climate depicts the opportunities and support employees receive with creating, promoting, and implementing innovative ideas in the workplace. Even though the public sector is often regarded as a more “feminine” work environment, our results show that women feel less encouraged in the innovation process when compared with men. Moreover, length of service and red tape appear to have a detrimental effect on individuals’ experiences of the innovation climate.

scholarly journals relationship between research and innovation in the public sector – an analysis of five cases from labour and welfare services

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (Special issue) ◽  
pp. 46-69
Author(s):  
Magnus Gulbrandsen ◽  
Gry Cecilie Høiland
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Public Sector Innovation ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Knowledge Codification ◽  
Set Up

Many public agencies promote renewal in the public sector through projects that require a productive combination of research and innovation activities. However, the role of research in innovation processes is a neglected theme in the public sector innovation literature. We address this gap through an analysis of five cases from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration. We find few examples of innovations based directly on research, but several examples of research on innovations and on more complex co-evolutionary processes of the two activities. Research seems to be particularly important for the diffusion and scaling up of innovations. We find that research has an impact on innovation in later phases of the innovation process through the formalisation of practice-based and unsystematic knowledge, codification of experiences, and legitimation to ensure political support and funding. This new conceptualisation contributes to the public sector innovation literature and may help improve policies that set up a rather limited role for research.

scholarly journals Living Labs for Public Sector Innovation: An Integrative Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Lars Fuglsang ◽  
Anne Vorre Hansen ◽  
Ines Mergel ◽  
Maria Taivalsaari Røhnebæk
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Innovation ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Elusive Concept

The public administration literature and adjacent fields have devoted increasing attention to living labs as environments and structures enabling the co-creation of public sector innovation. However, living labs remain a somewhat elusive concept and phenomenon, and there is a lack of understanding of its versatile nature. To gain a deeper understanding of the multiple dimensions of living labs, this article provides a review assessing how the environments, methods and outcomes of living labs are addressed in the extant research literature. The findings are drawn together in a model synthesizing how living labs link to public sector innovation, followed by an outline of knowledge gaps and future research avenues.

The challenges of public sector communication in the face of the pandemic crisis: professional roles, competencies and platformization1

2021 ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Gea Ducci ◽  
Alessandro Lovari
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Professional Roles ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Regulatory Processes ◽  
The Face

The pandemic crisis has led to a renew centrality of public sector communica-tion in a hybrid and convergent media ecosystems aiming at (re)building relation-ships based on trust between institutions and citizens. This contribution reflects on the strengths and fragility of the Italian public communication in the face of the pandemic, considering regulatory processes and paths of professionalization. It focuses also on the challenges of social media use in public sector, suggesting a critical approach towards the platformization of the public sector communication activities. The last part of this manuscript presents the different articles that com-pose the special issue.

New frontiers in the use of intellectual capital in the public sector

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Guthrie ◽  
John Dumay
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Research ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Document Review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the articles presented in this special issue. The Special Issue is inspired by our recent review of the intellectual capital (IC) literature in Guthrie et al. (2012, p. 74), in which the authors found that the public sector is one of the least addressed areas of IC research. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a literature and published document review, experiential reflections and argument. Findings – The paper reveals that interest in public sector and IC is alive and well and the major difference between public sector and mainstream IC research is a complete lack of normative research. The papers in this Journal of Intellectual Capital (JIC) Special Issue continue that tradition. Research limitations/implications – The authors call on public sector IC researchers to continue the third stage and fourth stage IC research tradition encouraging them to explore emerging issues alongside the changes in the social, political and economic realities impacting public sector IC in the future. Doing so will ensure that public sector IC research is timely, relevant, impactful and contributes to future practice, research, policy and above all, benefits the citizens who need and consume public services. Originality/value – The paper presents a précise of current public sector research and encourages public sector researchers to continue developing research into how IC works.

scholarly journals Optimal Innovation Strategies in the Public Sector

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ani Matei ◽  
Carmen Săvulescu ◽  
Corina-Georgiana Antonovici ◽  
Reli Ceche
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Social Utility ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Innovation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Innovation Strategies ◽  
Socio Economic Impact ◽  
Complex Forms

For the time being, public sector innovation gains new and complex forms of expression: managerial, institutional, technological or communication. This fact is also due to national and international important bodies’ interest for using innovation as resource and tool for public sector development. Characterised by complexity and adaptation, the innovative processes in the public sector embrace the form of medium and long term innovation strategies, holding high key socio-economic impact on the social utility of public sector innovation. The optimality of innovation strategies becomes a tool for improved decisions in public sector management, providing the methodology for their evaluation related to the objectives of development in the public sector.

scholarly journals Public Sector’s Innovativeness: Theoretical and Methodological Perplexities

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Ljubinka Joksimovic ◽  
Slavica Manic ◽  
Danica Jovic
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Innovation ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
Very High

Research question: This article considers the problems of measuring public sector innovation by asking the question whether and why interpretation of the achievements regarding the public sector innovativeness might be questionable. Motivation: The most recent literature on public sector innovation reveals two perspectives. One of them is assertion that the public sector suffers an innovation deficit, while the other claims that it is actually more innovative than a common credit. Insights in the results from recent large studies of measuring public sector innovation have shown very high rates of innovations, higher than in private sector (between 50 % and 80 % of respondents have recorded at least one type innovation during the period of two years). The lack of a uniquely, or at least dominant, attitude regarding the above-mentioned standpoints represents the basic inspiration for the actualization of this problem. Idea: The aim of the paper is twofold: 1) to offer an overview of three established theoretical attempts (assimilation, demarcation and integrative) dealing with public sector innovation, in order to present the evolution of the issue; 2) to prove that the inclination to more general over contextually specific understanding of innovation (and vice versa) has an impact both on its operationalization and on the interpretation of the achievements. Findings: In spite of the fact that theoretical considerations show noticeable detachment from assimilation perspective, empirical studies still copy this approach and the associated methodology. Surveys introduced subjectivity through arbitrary interpretation of the innovation concept, choice of research techniques and respondents and using of non-measurable goals as indicators of innovation outputs. Since this has affected and overrated their outcomes, we have found that empirical studies have not provided reliable depiction of the state of affairs regarding the PSI. Contribution: Having presented theoretical and methodological arguments why relying on the assimilation approach is neither the only nor even the most adequate way to answer the question whether the  public sector is more innovative than the private one, we point to the necessity of using the other two approaches, particularly integrative one in order to find a coherent method of PSI measurement.

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