4 - The Context of Public Sector Innovation

Summary

One vital contribution of public sector innovation scholarship is its attention to context, which could be national, social, economic, technological, organizational, or demographic. Context is a multidimensional phenomenon, spanning multiple organizational, spatial, temporal, cultural, demographic, and institutional aspects. The context is broader than the public versus private sectors, so each public organization operates differently. Context matters significantly for innovation because implementing a policy or management practice could represent an innovation in one context but not another. Furthermore, specific contexts or contextual variables strongly affect public sector innovations, including national, cultural, socio-economic, political, organizational, and demographic contexts. Even within the public sector, innovations are not homogeneous, as some organizations are more innovative than others. This chapter highlights the importance of context and how context shapes innovative activities in the public sector.