Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa
Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa
Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa
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50 O P E N I N N O V A T I O N 2 0 1 3<br />
measures for the concept must be defined separately<br />
in each innovation case. In addition to efficiency<br />
enhancement, Kivleniece and Quelin [6] have listed<br />
public value objectives as addressing pending social<br />
concerns by accessing and leveraging private sector<br />
resources, managerial skills and know-how for public<br />
resource creation. In this approach, the public sector<br />
functions as a platform for private actor innovation<br />
and, thereby, increases the cost efficiency and innovativeness<br />
of services, while improving private sector<br />
competitiveness.<br />
Viewing public sector innovation from an institutional<br />
approach can help to better appreciate<br />
how the public sector can support innovation, and<br />
act as a platform for experimentation. Historical<br />
institutionalism approaches highlight that institutions<br />
and policies are legacies inherited from the<br />
past that can only be disrupted by critical events,<br />
such as innovation. Sociological institutionalism<br />
approaches organisations through the (public) value<br />
and meaning they bring to individuals, which is also<br />
an increasingly important consideration in public<br />
service provisioning. Traditional choice institutionalism,<br />
in its turn, explains the creation of institutions<br />
as an attempt to reduce the transaction costs<br />
of collective activity which would be significantly<br />
higher without such institutions. The rational choice<br />
approach is increasingly applied to public innovation<br />
projects due to the gradual, but noticeable, shift in<br />
institutional logic in public sector service delivery.<br />
Whereas institutional logic in the public sector has<br />
traditionally been strongly reliant on position, mandate<br />
and professionalism, with service outsourcing<br />
and competitive pressures the norm, so institutional<br />
logic is, consequently, challenged.<br />
Table 1: The characteristics of public and private sector innovation<br />
Corporate innovation Public sector innovation<br />
Shareholder value Public value<br />
Customer value Social value<br />
Incremental and radical innovations Transformative innovations<br />
Practical consequences<br />
If we look for analogies between factors of systemic<br />
innovation in the public sector and private sectors,<br />
similarities can be found from the attempts to build<br />
de facto standards through transformative innovations.<br />
However, we also identify numerous differences<br />
that have to be factored into the planning of the projects.<br />
In order to establish this connection, we summarise<br />
the profound differences in public and private<br />
sector innovation focusing on outputs. This categorisation<br />
and isolation of these elements of innovation<br />
projects supports the conceptualising phase of<br />
public sector initiatives, and provides a backdrop for<br />
the consequent discussion on different institutional<br />
objectives.<br />
We argue that the studies on technical, commercial<br />
and organisational aspects of the services or service<br />
delivery system are not sufficient in the creation<br />
and renewal of public service. Besides, one has to<br />
understand the institutional dimensions of dominant<br />
institutional logics and their components, and their<br />
interaction towards the new service creation and<br />
implementation. The competing objectives must be<br />
factored in throughout the innovation life cycle —<br />
from the initial needs assessment through planning<br />
and deployment to the ex post impact assessment.<br />
Numerous studies have been devoted to the subject<br />
through a corporate lens, focusing on value creation<br />
and capture logics, but more research is still needed<br />
on the realisation and value of innovation from the<br />
public sector point of view.<br />
The following case studies highlight the importance<br />
of appreciating the competing objectives and institutional<br />
logics of various parties in public sector innovation<br />
projects. The first case presents a completed<br />
service redesign from the healthcare sector, and the<br />
second, a large-scale regional transformation project<br />
in its initial phases.<br />
Competitive advantage through proprietary innovations Societal transformation through the diffusion of innovations<br />
Business models Service delivery strategy<br />
Business logic Logic based on knowledge and mandate<br />
Dissemination Diffusion<br />
Exploitative Explorative<br />
Product and service tests with consumers Service development with citizen
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