Risky business—reconceptualizing risk and innovation in public services

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between risk and innovation in public services, presenting the state of the literature across different disciplines and the academic and policy literature. It suggests a novel framework to approach risk, emphasising the importance of differentiating between different types of risk and risk management. The paper offers a typology of risk types and management approaches that indicates different effects on the type of public service innovation. It concludes by considering the implications for theory and practice.

The Governance of Risks in Ridesharing: A Revelatory Case from Singapore

“…A few studies have been conducted to explore how decision-makers govern innovative technologies [1,6]. This study is revelatory and provides insights for decision-makers in other countries on how to proactively address the risks of ridesharing.…”

“…The issue of the governance of technological risks has received scholarly attention from different perspectives, such as the field of governance and public policy [1,6,[43][44][45][46][47], planning [48], risk management and governance [49][50][51], science and technological policy [52,53], complexity science [54][55][56], and organisational sociology [42,57]. They provide different answers to the question of how technological risks associated with the adoption of innovative technologies are governed, and identify some governance strategies, such as resistance, prevention, resilience, robustness, antifragility, adaptation, risk assessment, deliberation and negotiation, public participation, and learning by doing [53,54,56].…”

“…In the transportation domain, the uncertainty of energy cost, together with the pressure to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emission, has fuelled interest in seeking alternatives to private vehicle use [6,7]. Ridesharing is such an alternative [8], and in North America, it can be traced back to "car clubs" or "carsharing clubs" during World War II [9].…”

Les freins culturels à l’innovation dans l’administration publique : spécificités helvétiques

“…les réseaux d'acteurs (Lewis et Ricard, 2014), la réglementation, ou la rigidité hiérarchique) et ceux qui sont liés à leur culture (Büschgens, Bausch, et Balkin, 2013). C'est le cas par exemple du rapport à la prise de risque ou de l'ouverture d'esprit envers la nouveauté et l'incertitude (Flemig, Osborne, et Kinder, 2016 ;Osborne et Brown, 2011b).…”

“…Les similitudes avec la littérature sont claires, notamment en ce qui concerne l'aversion au risque (Brown et Osborne, 2013 ;Flemig et al, 2016 ;Osborne et Brown, 2011b ;Townsend, 2013 ;Wynen et al, 2014). Notre analyse montre par ailleurs que ce frein est fortement associé à la peur du risque et la sanction de l'échec.…”