Changing the Story: An Alternative Approach to System Change in Public Service Innovation

Storytelling is a powerful instrument for system change. Telling stories of lived experience, listening to them, and sharing them contributes to a culture of trust based on dignity, mutual respect and shared values. In this paper we draw attention to public service innovation and co-creation with the people the service is meant for. In the past years, public service innovation was result-and output driven, targeting technological and managerial innovation. Stories of service users revealed the unintended negative consequences of such innovation policies and opened new perspectives for conversations of change based on shared values leading to innovations based on human development and dignity.

Can relational governance improve sustainability in public-private partnership infrastructure projects? An empirical study based on structural equation modeling

PurposeAccording to relational contract theory, relational governance has potential to improve public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure project sustainability. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the association between relational governance and the sustainability of PPP infrastructure projects. Further, this study examines the mediating effect of managerial innovation and the moderating role of public involvement.Design/methodology/approachResearch data were collected from 158 valid questionnaires completed by Chinese PPP professionals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was then employed to test five hypotheses.FindingsResults indicate a positive correlation between relational governance and PPP infrastructure project sustainability. This linkage is regulated by public involvement. In addition, managerial innovation plays a mediating role between relational governance and the sustainability of PPP infrastructure projects.Originality/valueThis study verifies the relationship between relational governance and PPP infrastructure project sustainability, as well as intermediary and regulatory factors, providing a new approach to achieving sustainability in PPP infrastructure projects.

Three paths to e-service availability: a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis among the EU member states

PurposeThis study aims to explore under which institutional and organizational conditions the national e-government reform efforts of EU member states lead to very high availability of e-services.Design/methodology/approachFollowing e-government literature of information systems and public administration research, this study applies an analytical framework encompassing characteristics of the national politico-administrative system (state structure, government capacity, managerial innovation orientation and civil service system) to understand why a common policy framework does not lead to convergence but great variety in the degree of e-service availability. A comparative case study approach using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is applied to systematically compare e-service availability in the former 28 EU member states.FindingsThree configurations of sufficient conditions are identified: government capacity in conjunction with either bureaucratic human resource practices, centralized state structure or managerial innovation orientation. Three country clusters are derived: effective bureaucrats, effective centralists and effective managers.Originality/valueThe results demonstrate the importance of administrative effectiveness for the digital transformation. Rather than mimicking best practices, countries are advised to learn from better performing countries that are most similar in terms of institutional and organizational characteristics of the politico-administrative system.

The Effects of Openness on Managerial Innovation in Cameroonian Companies

The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of openness on the adoption of managerial innovation by Cameroonian companies, as well as comparing the share of managerial innovation resulting from inter-organizational networks of the same group and of different groups. Noting a lack of such a study on Cameroon, this study used data from the Centre de Recherche en Economie et Gestion (CEREG) to achieve the objective. Using a binary probit model and a recursive bivariate probit model, the authors found that, first, a company that collaborates with other companies has an increased probability of 0.37 of adopting new managerial practices, compared to another company that does not collaborate. Second, a company belonging to a group that collaborates with companies of a different group has an increased probability of 0.30 of adopting new managerial practices, compared to a company that only collaborates with companies of the group to which she belongs. Business leaders should cooperate with all market players.

The Effect of Enterprise on Managerial Innovation Capacity

Business can offer an upper hand to a venture through hazardous choices that pay off improve creative items, administrations and markets in a troublesome managerial condition and by moving proactively to command a serious market. This investigation means to inspect the connection among business enterprise and managerial innovation capacity by considering subfactors, for example, creativity, proactiveness and chance taking, just as to investigate the connection between managerial innovation capacity and management performance. The examination decides the degree to which policy account and management support for little and medium-sized ventures (SMEs) assume the job of directing factors. Structure/technique/approach: Data assortment was done in 820 SMEs. To check the speculations, Covariance Structure Analysis was led utilizing EQS6b. Discoveries/results: The discoveries demonstrate that enterprise affects key arranging, innovative work, and innovation commercialisation. This examination found that managerial innovation limits effectsly affect management performance. Furthermore, this examination affirmed that when business enterprise influences managerial innovation exercises, policy financial support and management support fill in as arbitrators. Useful ramifications: Small and medium-sized undertakings should upgrade their innovation capacity and extend inventive business enterprise and policy account to carry out seriousness, endure and show constant turn of events and development in an evolving situation. Inventiveness/esteem: The investigation furnishes SME with data they can use to build their attention to interior managerial innovation exercises, which are the first wellsprings of upper hand, and help advance innovative work (RD) and authoritative management for nonstop fortification of innovation capacity. The examination gives SME data they can use to expand their familiarity with inside managerial innovation exercises, which are the first wellsprings of upper hand, and help advance RD and authoritative management for consistent support of innovation capacity.

A Study of the Impact of Managerial Innovation on SME Performance in Africa

Purpose. Managerial innovation, if it constitutes a real lever for transformation and performance of companies in developed countries, in Africa, only a tiny part of SME managers make it a priority. At the same time, most African economies continue to be at the forefront of the adoption of global technological innovations. Given the fact that managerial innovation has proven itself in the Western context, and that the context of Sub-Saharan Africa is still unclear, it is important to develop management methods in this context by adapting them to new ones economic models, new objectives, new processes in order to see its impact on improving the productivity and performance of SMEs. Design/Methodology/Approach. A survey instrument based on the questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data to explain the performance of SMEs through the adoption of managerial innovation. For data analysis, multiple linear regression analysis was used. Findings and implications. The findings indicate that, managerial innovation, through its two main components, "change in management practices" and "change in organizational structure", make it possible to increase market share, production efficiency, the bottom line and, in turn, improve the overall performance of the business. Overall, the results of the study show that the fit model is of good quality and can be used to explain the theory. Limitations. The results of this study may not be generalisable to all African SMEs because they are based only on a sub-Saharan African country and the sample size therefore remains small. Originality. The contribution of this article is manifold: it supports the theories of contingency and resource dependence that organizations are adaptive systems that introduce changes to function effectively and improve their performance. Second, it allows SME managers to optimize the chances of sustainability for their businesses, because managerial innovation allows them to: differentiate themselves from their competitors by inventing new offers. Finally, it allows SME managers to no longer confine themselves to the technological aspect of innovation (products, processes) whose lifespan is constantly shortened. Studies of this nature can lead to stimulating managerial innovation in emerging and developing countries, by developing horizontal or networked organizational structures and no longer vertical and pyramidal structures which no longer meet current requirements.