11 - Outcomes of Public Sector Innovation

Summary

This chapter analyzes the influences of the disparate impact of public sector innovation. It is one thing for a public sector organization to innovate but quite another for that innovation to have an unequivocally positive impact. If we consider innovation as an ecosystem, there are inputs, actors, and processes, and there should also be outputs and outcomes. Innovation for the sake of innovation will not work, so we need to consider and analyze particular effects, such as benefits, outputs, and outcomes, both in the short and long term. We can also connect the outputs and outcomes of innovations and features such as the context, sources, conditions, and barriers to innovation. For example, an innovation may have different outputs and outcomes in different contexts, and one source of innovation (e.g., bottom-up innovations) may bring about more positive benefits to organizations under certain conditions (e.g., more resources). This chapter defines outputs and outcomes and discusses how they can be associated with innovation. Then, it explores and discusses how outputs and outcomes can be linked with sectoral differences, different levels of analysis, and negative outcomes of innovation.