Public Sector Innovation Research Articles

Citizen engagement in public sector innovation: exploring the transition between paradigms

ABSTRACT This paper explores how the public sector engages citizens for innovation purposes. It connects the related but currently separate debates concerning the transition from the ‘new public management’ to the ‘new public governance’ paradigm and the application of different helix models to public sector innovation. Through a case study of a Danish municipality, the process for changing normativity and the perception of citizens’ roles is illustrated. This includes the application of both new structures and instruments for engaging citizens in collaboration and a pragmatic approach to quadruple helix collaboration, which is context-driven rather than strictly compliant with theoretical models.

Leading innovation in public sector: Exploring the mediating role of motivation to learn and the moderating role of power distance

Innovation is crucial for the performance, success, and long-term survival of organizations. Despite its importance, studies on factors influencing the emergence of innovative work behavior remain inconsistent. This study, grounded in the interactionist perspective of creativity theory, explores the role of motivation to learn as a mediator and Hofstede's national culture dimension of power distance as a moderator in the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative work behavior. The study sampled 210 public sector employees in Indonesia using convenience sampling. Data were collected through an online self-report survey, employing the multifactor leadership questionnaire, the innovative work behavior scale, the motivation to learn scale, and the power distance scale. Analysis conducted using the PROCESS macro for SPSS version 26 revealed that motivation to learn fully mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative work behavior. However, power distance does not moderate this relationship, either directly or through the motivation to learn. This is due to the fact that the desire to learn and innovate remains effective regardless of hierarchical differences. Thus, no matter how authority is structured within the organization, the crucial factor for fostering innovation is the motivation to learn.

Exploring systemic design practices in public sector innovation

Many societal challenges need to be resolved through innovative solutions at system level. Previous scholars have argued that it may be wise to combine design practice and system theory to form a management method for public sector innovation. However, it appears that few scholars have developed innovation management methods based on that combination. The aim of this article is therefore to contribute with new knowledge about how design practice and system theory can be combined in order to drive public sector innovation. The article proposes the development of a previously proposed systemic design management model and presents a toolbox with twelve innovation management tools. Although there is a logic in using the tools in a certain order, this article emphasizes the need for a flexible use of the tools and to be open to moving back and forth between different tools. The results also indicate that an initial key tool is to ensure that the right people become involved in the different phases of the innovation process. It is more important to involve the right people in different phases than to follow a specific pre-designed process model. In order to successfully create and implement innovative solutions at system level, the innovation processes need to engage different human resources for different tools. Different resources that understand the needs can contribute with new perspectives and also possess the mandate to make systemic changes.

Major Trends in Public Sector Innovation: A Bibliometric Analysis

It is well known that innovation plays a substantial role in the public sector. However, there are concerns about how far public sector innovation (PSI) research has contributed in providing ideas to the government in formulating and implementing public policy. This study intends to investigate how PSI research has progressed and been disseminated, explore major topics mentioned in PSI studies and determine the primary players in PSI studies. This research analysed the bibliometrics of scholarly publications on public sector innovation as of August 2021, as documented in the Scopus database. We analysed the evolution of PSI research in 53 years by assessing published studies, source titles, types of sources and documents, as well as the languages in which the papers have been published. We additionally analysed PSI's main research topics by examining popular subject categories, the most often used keywords and title analysis. Finally, we investigated the key actors in PSI research by focusing at the biggest contributions nations to PSI studies, the major establishments involved, as well as authorship and citation analysis. The conclusions suggested that during the initial stages of PSI development half a century ago, public sector innovation attracted the interest of Eastern and Western scholars, as well as the number of books and articles published each year which have increased dramatically. Although there has good inter-country cooperation exists, a deficit in PSI research also exists from specific nations compared to the rest of the globe. Our results contribute significantly to public sector innovation inclusiveness.

Transformational Leadership in Public Sector Innovation: A Bibliometric Analysis

People and organizations need to adapt to rapidly evolving technology and information trends, but are often faced with limited resources. Therefore, innovation is important to be applied to various sectors, including the public sector which is known for the many regulations that surround it. Innovation is seen as a source of change, growth, and organizational effectiveness, but leadership factors have a dominant impact and are fundamentally critical to success in achieving it. This study aims to see trends in scientific publications (journals) regarding transformational leadership in public sector innovation; the most influential journals and authors; as well as potential research topics in the future. This study uses bibliometric analysis taken from the database of highly reputable journals Scopus by looking at the analysis results from the Scopus web on data that has been filtered according to criteria; visualization and analysis of data using VOS viewer application as well as biblioshin application. Based on the results of the study, the research topic of Transformational Leadership in Public Sector Innovation is still little discussed in Scopus indexed journal publications. The data obtained also shows that in the middle of the last 5 years, the topic shows the significance of increasing the quantity of publications which increasingly shows the interest of the theme of transformational leadership in public sector innovation with the times.

Designing an instrument for scaling public sector innovations

Abstract Governments worldwide invest in developing and diffusing innovations to deal with wicked problems. While experiments and pilots flourish, governments struggle to successfully scale innovations. Public sector scaling remains understudied, and scholarly suggestions for scaling trajectories are lacking. Following a design approach, this research develops an academically grounded, practice-oriented scaling instrument for planning and reflecting on the scaling of public sector innovations. We design this instrument based on the academic literature, an empirical analysis of three scaling projects at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, and six focus groups with practitioners. This research proposes a context-specific and iterative understanding of scaling processes and contributes a typology of scaling barriers and an additional scaling strategy to the literature. The presented instrument increases our academic understanding of scaling and enables teams of policymakers, in cooperation with stakeholders, to plan and reflect on a context-specific scaling pathway for public sector innovations.

Strategy for Increasing the Creative Performance of Civil Servants in Public Services: Effectiveness of Education and Training through Teamwork

This research investigates the influence of education and training as well as teamwork on the creative performance of civil servants in Indonesia, with a focus on understanding that education and training simultaneously contribute to increasing innovation in public services. The findings show that education and training play a significant role in improving creative performance directly as well as indirectly through increased teamwork. This research brings a new perspective to the literature on human resource management and public sector innovation by emphasizing the synergistic role of individual skill development and team dynamics in creating a work environment conducive to creativity. Based on the findings, it is recommended to develop integrated education and training programs, increase focus on teamwork, evaluate the impact of education and training on teamwork, and facilitate a work environment that supports collaboration. This initiative is expected to optimize the innovative potential of civil servants in providing creative solutions to public service challenges.

The Innovation of Gender Mainstreaming Implementation: A Study on Gender Festival at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry

Government agencies need to carry out public policy innovations to deal with changes that occur quickly and dynamically. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) developed an innovation called the Gender Festival as an effort to transform a "Gender Neutral" work environment into a "Nature Gender." This study, therefore, aims to evaluate the fulfillment of innovation aspects and the obstacles encountered in the Gender Festival by using the Australian Public Sector Innovation Indicators (APSII) theory. This qualitative-descriptive research collected data through interviews and documentation data. Data were then analyzed using Miles and Huberman's interactive analysis. The study findings demonstrated that the Gender Festival fulfilled 12 of the 15 aspects of innovation based on the APSII criteria. They comprise investment in innovation, human resources and skills innovation, staff attitudes and attributes for innovation, sources of innovation, technological infrastructure for innovation, diffusion of innovation, innovation culture and leadership, innovation strategy, activities and implementation, types of innovation, innovation novelty, and intangible outputs. On the other hand, the obstacle to implementing a Gender Festival was the limited number of human resources with sufficient capacity to understand gender in managing the workload, which is quite heavy; as a result, innovation collaboration, innovation management practices, and innovation intensity could not be implemented.

Agile development for urban digitalisation: insights from the creation of Dresden’s smart city strategy

PurposeDigitalising cities requires new urban governance processes that account for rapidly changing environments and technological advances. In this context, agile development methods have become valuable, if not necessary. However, agile development contradicts public administration practices of risk aversion and long-term planning. The purpose of this study is to discuss practical avenues for navigating these two contradictions by adapting agile development to the needs of public sector organisations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors review the collaborative elaboration of Dresden’s smart city strategy as a critical case study. Dresden’s smart city strategy was developed using agile development and quadruple-helix innovation. The year-long co-creation process involved stakeholders from various groups to conceive an integrated and sustainable vision for digitalisation-based urban development.FindingsDespite the apparent contradictions, this study finds that key aspects of agile development are feasible for public sector innovation. Firstly, risks can be strategically managed and distributed among administration and non-administration stakeholders. Secondly, while delivering value through short iterative loops, adherence to formal processes remains possible. Informal feedback cycles can be harmoniously combined with official statements, allowing iterative progress.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical material is based on a single case study and thus risks overemphasising the general applicability of the proposed methods.Practical implicationsThis paper outlines practical steps to greater agility for public administration engaged in digitalising cities. The paper conceptualises a forward and lateral momentum for the agile development of a smart city strategy that aims to reconcile formal policymaking processes with short-term loops and risk aversion with experimental value creation. This approach balanced risks, created value and enhanced the strategy‘s alignment with strategic frameworks, ultimately promoting innovation in the public sector.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a novel, empirically grounded conceptualisation of implementing agile methods that explicitly recognises the peculiarities of public administrations. It conceptualises the orchestrated and pragmatic use of specific agile development methods to advance the digitalisation of cities.

Public Sector Innovation – An Analysis of Privacy Disasters

Europe has multiple hubs for innovation. Some of them namely being Munich, Berlin, Paris, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Dublin and many more. Innovations have been the prime driver of economic progress. Most often innovations have brought a country ahead of others in economic prosperity. Innovations like steam engine, electricity, nuclear energy, internet, 5G and many more like these have changed the course of history of mankind by bringing a change in how people live their life from one generation to another. This paper highlights the challenges presented by privacy protection laws in nurturing innovation, if any. These challenges are faced by Educational Institutions as well as public sector organizations across Europe while promoting and nurturing innovation. The old way of collecting information, running surveys, collecting personal or sensitive information about people are no more acceptable due to digitisation, where hacks and security breaches are becoming commonplace. The restriction of knowledge sharing and knowledge gathering due to lack of technology to preserve privacy is also highlighted in the paper with analysis of the current situation on breaches in public sector organizations. This is an exploratory paper which analysis the GDPR fines with focus on public sector organisations and highlights the need of comprehensive action along with impact on innovation in this context.

Transformational Leadership In Public Sector Innovation; Toward An Elderly-Friendly City

The article examines the role of transformational leadership in public sector innovation, specifically in addressing the challenges of managing older people to build an elderly-friendly community. The research focuses on the leadership of Jambi Mayor in employing innovation to realize Jambi as an Elderly-Friendly City. This is a descriptive qualitative study that aims to identify new information related to the transformational leadership of Jambi Mayor in innovating an Elderly-Friendly City. The authors identified transformational leadership as a major style in carrying out innovation. The study found that Jambi City is continuously promoting the importance of creating elderly-friendly cities and communities through the leadership of its Mayor. The study found that transformational leadership practices played a significant role in the process of making Jambi City an Elderly-Friendly City. The mayor motivated civil servants to improve their attitudes and assumptions towards public health services. The research concludes that leadership styles have a direct impact on the level of innovation adopted and the success or failure of strategic responses.

Coproduction, public sector innovation and governance: a systematic literature review

Purpose The purpose of this study is examined whether coproduction appears spontaneously in the literature on public sector innovation and governance, the citizens’ role in coproduction and the implication of citizens’ participation in the governance of innovation networks. Design/methodology/approach The review complied with preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) protocol. The search was performed in the Ebsco, Scopus and WOS databases. The authors analyzed 47 papers published from 2017 to 2022. Thematic and content analysis were adopted, supported by MAXQDA. Findings The papers recognize the importance of the citizens in public innovation. However, only 20% discuss coproduction, evidencing the predominance of governance concepts related to interorganizational collaborations – but not necessarily to citizen engagement. The authors also verified the existence of polysemy regarding the concept of governance associated with public innovation, predominating the term “collaborative governance.” Research limitations/implications The small emphasis on “co-production” may result from the search strategy, which deliberately did not include it as a descriptor, considering the research purpose. One can consider this choice a limitation. Practical implications Considering collaborative governance as a governing arrangement where public agencies directly engage nonstate stakeholders in a collective decision-making process that is formal, consensus-oriented and deliberative (Ansell and Gash, 2007), the forum where the citizen is supposed to be engaged should be initiated by public agencies or institutions and formally organized, as suggested by Österberg and Qvist (2020) and Campomori and Casula (2022). These notions can be useful for public managers concerning their role and how the forums structure should be to promote collaboration and the presence of innovation assets needed to make the process fruitful (Crosby et al., 2017). Originality/value Despite the collaborative nature of public innovation, the need for adequate governance characteristics, and the importance of citizens in the innovative process, most studies generically address collaborative relationships, focusing on interorganizational collaboration, with little focus on specific actors such as citizens in the governance of public innovation. Thus, it is assumed that the literature that discusses public innovation and governance includes the discussion of coproduction. The originality and contribution of this study is to verify this assumption.

Merit System Innovation through the SIPINTER Application (Information System for Self-Assessment of Merit System Implementation) in Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the implementation and impact of the State Civil Apparatus (ASN) management innovation carried out by the State Civil Apparatus Commission (KASN) through the SIPINTER application (Information System for Self-Assessment of the Implementation of the Merit System) and its relevance in achieving good governance in Indonesia. This study used a descriptive research method with a qualitative approach, and data were obtained from official sources such as the KASN website and online news. The theory used in this study is the Public Sector Innovation Typology theory from Halvorse et al. (2005), covering (1) Creation of new services, (2) Process innovation, (3) Administrative innovation that focuses on policy change, (4) System innovation, (5) Conceptual innovation, and (6) Radical change in rationality. The results of the study show that the application of information technology in ASN management through the SIPINTER application has increased transparency, accountability, and effectiveness of ASN management at various levels of local government. Future research can carry out the development of a sustainable strategy as an important step to realize the potential of this application in the implementation of a meritocratic system in all regional and central government in Indonesia.

Transformational Leadership and Dynamic Managerial Capabilities in Public Sector Innovation

The study examines the role of transformational leadership and Dynamic Managerial Capabilities in public sector innovation, specifically in addressing the challenges of managing the livelihood eligibility of the community, including older people, in order to build an elderly-friendly community. The study focuses on the leadership of Jambi Mayor and Vice Major in employing innovation to realize Jambi as a Smart Living. This descriptive qualitative study aims to identify new information related to the transformational leadership and Dynamic Managerial Capabilities of the Jambi Government in innovating feasible urban living. The authors identified transformational leadership as a major style in carrying out innovation and dynamic managerial capabilities. The study found that Jambi City is continuously promoting the importance of creating smart living as one of the smart city indicators, especially in elderly-friendly cities, through the leadership of its mayor and vice mayor. Both initiated change by identifying challenges and opportunities, finding good examples of smart living, inspiring and implementing innovations, encouraging changes in how the bureaucracy works, and motivating civil servants to improve their attitudes and assumptions, especially toward health services for the elderly. The study concludes that leadership style and dynamic managerial ability to adapt to change contribute to the success of smart living innovation.

Rethinking the Role of Local Government in Service Delivery in South Africa: Towards Digital Transformation

The article provided insights into why local government and service delivery must be rethought in light of digital transformation. It exposed the significance of digital transformation in solving local government and service delivery challenges. The article followed a qualitative research approach. It employed document analysis and literature review as data collection instruments. It argued that digital transformation can help local governments in South Africa fulfil constitutional obligations and meet policy goals. It demonstrated how digitally transformed local government can solve service delivery problems through the deployment of digital technologies that improve decision-making, cut costs, streamline operations, and offer efficient services. The article revealed that the digital divide, lack of technical expertise, data security concerns and resource constraints are some of the challenges that can affect the digital transformation of local government and service delivery in South Africa. These challenges must be resolved for digital transformation to play a significant role in improving the effectiveness of local government in service delivery. The article recommended that local governments in South Africa digitally transform in ways that foster equality and deliver local government services to all citizens. The article contributes to scholarship advocating for public sector innovation broadly, and specifically, illustrates the criticality of embracing digital transformation of local government and service delivery. Keywords: Digital Transformation, Digital Technologies, Local Government, South Africa, Service Delivery

Public sector innovation: Sources, benefits, and leadership

Despite increasing research into public sector innovation, there remains a need for more theory and evidence about the sources (actors) and outcomes (benefits) of innovation. Thus, this study examines the effects of four important sources of innovation (government, organizational leaders, employee workgroup, and members of the public) on the perceived organizational benefits of innovation in the public sector. Using survey data from the Australian Public Service (n = 3,775), the findings suggest that bottom-up innovations, particularly ideas emanating from the employee workgroup, are crucial for bringing about positive effects (as measured by decreasing costs, improving processes, and increasing service quality). In contrast, ideas emanating from organizational leaders are negatively associated with organizational benefits. Nevertheless, high-quality leadership moderates the adverse effects of top-down innovations. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings, as well as future research directions for the study of public sector innovation, are discussed.

Editorial Presentation - Perspectives on innovation governance: challenges and dilemmas

Editorial Presentation - Perspectives on innovation governance: challenges and dilemmas

Public sector innovation for sustainable development goals: A comparative study of innovation types in Thailand and Korea

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to compare the focus (strategy, capacity, and operation) and locus (internal and external) of innovation types of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)‐oriented public sector innovation (PSI) in Thailand and Korea and to contribute to the limited understanding of the role of national context in PSI. Our study analysed 263 SDGs‐oriented innovations based on the new typology proposed by Chen et al. The findings identified that the orientation of SDGs‐oriented PSI is more external and policy innovation is the most common type in both countries. These distributions, however, vary depending on the contextual differences in administrative and technological contexts, resulting in SDGs‐oriented PSI in Korea emphasised on strategy focus, whereas Thailand emphasised capacity focus. This also demonstrates a temporality between strategy, capacity, and operations foci in Korea, but Thailand attempted to fill the capacity gap through SDGs‐oriented innovation. Insights from this empirical study can assist public managers in selecting innovation portfolio configurations applicable to their national context.Points for practitioners In executing public sector innovation, public sector organisations (PSOs) should consider the innovation focus (strategy, capacity, and operation) and the innovation locus (internal and external). For SDGs‐oriented innovation, mission and policy innovation should introduce the necessary strategies in the public services before capacity and operation focus. Public managers and practitioners should adopt an innovation portfolio approach to develop and introduce a variety of innovation types. Public managers should consider their national context to select the configuration of their innovation portfolios.

Learning from public sector innovation pilots: the case of autonomous bus pilots

The current paper provides novel and detailed insights into how the design of experimental innovation pilots impacts the potential for learning about specific technologies by public sector organizations. We consider technology pilots to be crucial for cumulative learning in public sector innovation processes, but the aspect of learning has been largely neglected in the literature on technology piloting, living labs and public sector innovation in general. We develop a holistic framework that distinguishes between different types of learning and describes how organizational learning and routinization of knowledge cumulatively take place across technology pilots, how this is impacted by the set-up and design of the pilots, and how this in turn influences the eventual technology adoption and scaling. We apply the framework to study learning in the context of cumulative technology pilots with autonomous electric mini-buses in the cities of Helsinki, Tallinn and Kongsberg.

Public sector innovation in local government and its impact on development outcomes: Empirical evidence in Indonesia

This study investigates a scarce case of the effect of innovation by local government on development performance using district level data in Indonesia. We use the accumulation number of innovations (the quantity side) produced by each district during 2015–2022 period according to the top 99 nominations listed by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureacratic Reform, the Republic of Indonesia. We, alternatively, also use measure of innovation based on “the quality side” by applying regional innovation index. The descriptive results, not surprisingly, show that districts situated in Java and Sumatra Islands have had greater productivity in either collected innovations nomination number or index of regional innovation compared to those situated in Kalimantan and East Region in Indonesia. In this paper, we employ cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-stage least squares (2 S LS) approaches and find positive and significant impact of innovation on each development proxy used (growth in real per capita local GDP and the average of Inclusive Development Economic Index (IDEI)). Implementing the proportion of locals attaining higher education and geographical distance as instruments, our 2SLS estimator also confirms that public-sector innovations play as a positive driving factor on development outcomes. This study offers its novelty by providing empirical evidence of the effect of innovation within government organization on development for Indonesia's case where none has been found before.