Collaborative Innovation: A Viable Alternative to Market Competition and Organizational Entrepreneurship

Citation:

Hartley, J., Sørensen, E. & Torfing, J. (2013). “Collaborative Innovation: A Viable Alternative to Market Competition and Organizational Entrepreneurship”. In Public Administration Review, 73 (6), 821-830. Indianapolis: Wiley, American Society for Public Administration. Retrieved September 01, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12136

Work data:

ISSN: 1540-6210

Alternate URL:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/puar.12136

Type of work: Article (academic)

Categories:

Government and Public Administration | Innovation | Participation

Tags:

new public management, new public governance

Abstract:

There are growing pressures for the public sector to be more innovative but considerable disagreement about how to achieve it. This article uses institutional and organizational analysis to compare three major public innovation strategies. The article confronts the myth that the market-driven private sector is more innovative than the public sector by showing that both sectors have a number of drivers of as well as barriers to innovation, some of which are similar, while others are sector specific. The article then systematically analyzes three strategies for innovation: New Public Management, which emphasizes market competition; the neo-Weberian state, which emphasizes organizational entrepreneurship; and collaborative governance, which emphasizes multiactor engagement across organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. The authors conclude that the choice of strategies for enhancing public innovation is contingent rather than absolute. Some contingencies for each strategy are outlined.