Explaining the Adoption of Innovation: An Empirical Analysis of Public Management Reform

Abstract

Innovation has become a cornerstone of many government programmes of public management reform. In this study we provide the first empirical analysis of innovation adoption in a programme of public management reform that involves an external authority decision. Studies of this nature have not formed a central element of innovation-adoption research, which typically focuses upon the voluntary adoption of innovations by public organisations. Over a two-year period seventy-nine services adopting a programme of innovative management in local government were studied. The empirical results indicate that innovation adoption in local authorities is likely to be achieved where there are dispersed populations, where adoption is concentrated upon a limited number of services, and where there is prior experience of facets of the programme of innovative management reform. Explanations of these results are identified and the implications of researching innovation in public organisations are considered.

Innovation in public services: The case of Spanish local government

“…This research confirms that the Miles and Snow model is valid to define the strategic profile of public administrations as regards the innovation degree, due to the fact that those more innovative organizations are at the same time those more clearly belonging to the prospective profile. Barlett and Dibben (2002) Studying the nature of public sector innovation and entrepreneurship 12 case studies at English local government Ihrke, Proctor & Gabris (2003) Studying the relationship between the credibility of administrative leaders, the level of conflict at city councils and the relationships between city councils and administrative staff with the perception of success of innovations at local government 179 surveys at Wisconsin municipalities (USA) Boyne et al (2005) Examining the impact of internal and external constraints on the utilization of an innovative management reform scheme. …”

“…Ultimately, the successful implementation of innovations depends not only on internal factors but also on external ones (Boyne, Gould-Williams, Law, and Walker, 2005). Among the internal factors most commonly considered are the size of the organization (measured by number of workers, for instance), its resources (its budget or capital), and characteristics of the workers (e.g., their level of union membership) that would account for the organizational complexity level.…”

Social Return on Investment (SROI) and Performance Measurement

“…As with other public management research (e.g. Boyne et al, 2005;Kitchener et al, 2000), the use of multiple measures allowed us to uncover some unique variance which otherwise may have been neglected by single methods.…”

Governance Structures and Mechanisms in Public Service Organizations Theories, Evidence and Future Directions

“…The study of innovation in SOCs hardly needs justification as scholars, policy makers, business executives, and public administrators maintain that innovation is a primary source of economic growth, industrial change, competitive advantage, and public service (Borins, 1998;Boyne et al, 2005;). …”