Governance paradigms and public sector innovation: a comparative study

Much has been written about governance as well as public sector innovation, yet there remains a lack of research on how governance paradigms shape public sector innovation outcomes. Extant research, often within a single national context, has focused on innovation processes, strategies, organizational capacity and leadership with some research suggesting superior governance paradigms such as New Public Governance is better at facilitating the emergence of public sector innovation outcomes. We move beyond this literature by comparatively exploring how governance paradigms as institutional logics for public sector reforms shape public sector innovation. First, we review governance paradigms of Traditional Public Administration, New Public Management, Neo Weberian State and New Public Governance in relation to innovation outcomes. Second, we analyze 108 applications for the United Nations Public Service Awards Scheme from Italy, Japan and Turkey between 2009 and 2017. The contribution of the study is that research shows no single governance paradigm is superior for public sector innovation outcomes, rather governance paradigms co-exist as institutional logics, layering and shaping innovations outcomes according to a country’s public sector reform agenda.