How can governance support collaborative innovation in the public sector? A systematic review of the literature

2020 ◽  
pp. 002085231989344 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Vaz Lopes ◽  
Josivania Silva Farias
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Collaborative Processes ◽  
Collaborative Innovation ◽  
Innovation Processes

Collaborative innovation has been increasingly adopted by the public sector to address complex issues and improve its efficiency. Despite the developments in the literature on this subject, recent studies still indicate the need to investigate how public governance could be organized to support collaborative processes of innovation. Through a systematic review of 36 empirical studies, this article aims to contribute to bridging this gap by identifying the characteristics that should form governance in order to support the collaborative innovation process in the public sector. The results show that the establishment of relationships of trust, supported by technology tools and promoted by leaders committed to well-established goals, is a characteristic of governance that has a positive influence on collaborative innovation processes. However, there is still a need to develop more studies that indicate the characteristics of governance that may contribute to the implementation of innovation and not just to its creation processes. Points for practitioners Collaboration has been shown to be a more positive strategy for innovation in the public sector in comparison with strategies that seek isolation or competition. However, it is necessary to establish governance mechanisms that contribute to the involvement of stakeholders and to the achievement of the intended results so that this strategy becomes successful. By reviewing the results of prior empirical experiences, this article identifies that in order for collaborative innovation processes in the public sector to be successful, governance must predict: the participation of top management and managers with decision-making power; the setting of clear goals and needs; the generation of useful innovation that benefits stakeholders; and the establishment of tools that facilitate communication, interaction, and the sharing of information and knowledge. This information provides managers and public policymakers with key indicators, learned from prior mistakes and accomplishments, for the implementation of this innovation strategy in their organizations.

User involvement in social work innovation: A systematic and narrative review

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 730-750
Author(s):  
Maja Müller ◽  
Signe Pihl-Thingvad
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Frontline Workers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Innovation Processes

Summary This article focuses on user involvement in social work innovations in the public sector and provides an overview of how public innovation via user involvement in social work has been studied to date. Through analyses based on a systematic review combined with a narrative review of the identified literature, we offer a typology of social work innovations. The article concludes by discussing possibilities and barriers inherent in user involvement in social work and suggesting topics for future research. Findings Through a systematic review we identify the relevant literature describing different kinds of user involvement in social work innovation. In the narrative review, we analyze the literature and identify three types of innovation: user-centered innovation, co-produced innovation, and citizen-driven innovation. With empirical examples we illustrate the different types of innovation and the citizen’s role in the different innovation processes. Application The typology provides an analytic tool to differentiate types of innovation and user involvement, but it may also function as inspiration to practitioners to reflect more about the roles of users and frontline workers and to be more aware of existing barriers when designing new social initiatives in the public sector.

scholarly journals Challenges of Creation and Implementation of Collaborative Innovations in Public Sector Organisations

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Paulina Budryte ◽  
Adomas Vincas Rakšnys ◽  
Andrius Valickas ◽  
Ramūnas Vanagas
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Informal Leadership ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Innovation Development ◽  
The Public ◽  
Collaborative Innovation ◽  
Public Sector Employees ◽  
Organisational Trust ◽  
Traditional Roles

Innovation in the public sector is inseparable from the political, administrative and technological components and stages of public administration systems development. Purpose of the article is to analyse and define the emerging concept of collaborative innovation in the public sector and indicate the major challenges relating to their generation and implementation. Benchmarking, generalisation and synthesis will be used as the methods in order to achieve the purpose of the article. Contemporary challenges of public governance lead to the change of the concept and operational principles of public sector organisations and encourage the need for innovation. The traditional, hierarchical innovation development conception is changed by collaborative innovation, which is characterised by networking, promotion of creativity and unification of resources. Significant principles for effective collaborative innovation become inter-organisational trust, knowledge sharing, informal leadership, ensuring the necessary resources and conditions for experimentation. Application of collaborative innovations requires adaptation to the changing positions of power and transformation of traditional roles of public sector employees.

scholarly journals Innovation and value in pre-commercial procurement

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Brogaard
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
The Other ◽  
Successful Development ◽  
Collaborative Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Management Commitment

Governments increasingly use novel forms of public procurement to stimulate innovation in public service delivery. A notable example is pre-commercial procurement. Launched by the European Commission a decade ago, pre-commercial procurement encourages research and development of new solutions for the public sector. However, limited theoretical and empirical studies have made it difficult to assess and improve use of the model to foster public innovation. Based on two pre-commercial procurement projects in Denmark, the article aims to complete the first systematic and theory-based evaluation of national experiences. The evaluation shows that sufficient resources, participant and management commitment, and focused management of the collaborative process contributed to successful development and testing of a new solution in one of the projects. Meanwhile, technical obstacles in developing a prototype resulted in termination of the other project. In this case, the pre-commercial procurement model cannot accommodate significant changes to the agreed solution during the innovation process.

scholarly journals Employee-driven Innovation in Welfare Services

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Wihlman ◽  
Magnus Hoppe ◽  
Ulla Wihlman ◽  
Hélène Sandmark
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Organizational Slack ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Management Support ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Public ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
Qualitative Thematic Analysis ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Innovation Processes

There is a growing interest in both employee-driven innovation (EDI) and innovation in welfare services, but a lack of empirical studies addressing innovation from the employee perspective. Accordingly, this study was designed to contribute with well-grounded empirical knowledge, aiming to explore the barriers to and opportunities for participation in innovation experienced by employees of the Swedish welfare services. In order to reach the aim, a qualitative thematic analysis of 27 semi-structured interviews with employees in four municipalities was performed. The study identified three main themes, with a great impact on the innovative performance of the studied organizations: support, including leadership and innovation processes; development, including creativity and learning; and organizational culture, which includes attitudes and communication, all essential ingredients in EDI. Experienced barriers for innovation were unclear or non-existing innovation processes with ambiguous goals, insufficient learning, and deficient organizational slack, thus creating a tension between day-to-day work and innovation and hindering reflection and exploration. Attitudes of colleagues and lack of communication were also barriers to implementing innovation, suggesting the need for better management support for a communicative and open culture. Opportunities were found, including commitment to innovation and willingness to try new ideas, but the employees must be given the mandate and sufficient time to develop the potential that emerges from continuous learning, time for reflection, and user dialogue. The conclusion was that incremental innovations existed, but the full potential of these did not benefit the entire organization due to inadequate communication and lack of innovation processes. The study improves our understanding of how employees regard their involvement in innovation. It also discusses how to make better use of employees’ resources in innovation processes and contributes to important knowledge about EDI in the public sector. On the basis of our results, we suggest a model of EDI for use in practice.

scholarly journals Socially Responsible Organizational Governance in the Public Sector

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Gita Lasytė
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Organizational Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
New Public Governance ◽  
Corporate Social

The present paper aims to examine the theoretical assumptions of socially responsible organizational governance in the public sector. In public authorities, corporate social responsibility is a relatively new phenomenon. Therefore, the paper focuses on the interaction between social responsibility and the New Public Governance. The article puts forward the assumption that the principles of governance of public goods and public services provided by the public sector are very close in content to the concept of social responsibility. The goal of the public governance process is efficiency and effectiveness not only in public administration institutions, but also in building a welfare society. In this context, the New public governance is in line with the principles of social responsibility. The similarities between the new public governance and social responsibility can be recognized in an understanding the values, processes and elements the primary standards of which are accountability, openness, efficiency, responsibility, compliance with procedural norms, division of power (involvement of stakeholders). The article also discusses the concept and characteristics of corporate social responsibility and provides criticism on the CSR phenomenon.

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 A Systematic Review of Indicators for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Digital Public Services

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glauco Vitor Pedrosa ◽  
Ricardo A. D. Kosloski ◽  
Vitor G. de Menezes ◽  
Gabriela Y. Iwama ◽  
Wander C. M. P. da Silva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Digital Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Technical Factors

Effectiveness is a key feature of good governance, as the public sector must make the best use of resources to comply with the needs of the population. Several indicators can be analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of a service. This study analyzes theoretical references and presents a systematic research of indicators to assess the effectiveness of digital public services in the perspective of the user. First, a literature review was carried out to identify the most common indicators employed to evaluate effectiveness in the public sector; then, the perception of academics and professionals regarding digital government was assessed to analyze the relevance of these indicators. As a result, two groups of indicators were found: technical factors based on service quality and usefulness of the service. This work contributes to enrich the discussion on how to create an effective model to evaluate the effectiveness of public services to guarantee quality standards and comply with the expectations of users.

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