Collaborative innovation in the public sector

Drivers, barriers and the need for innovation management

Abstract

Collaborative innovation is a new method for creating public innovation that both takes issue with the traditional appraisal of innovation heroes and with the idea that public innovation is primarily a result of stable bureaucratic procedures or market-based competition. The strength of collaborative innovation is that the interaction between public and private actors sharpens the problem definition, generate more and better ideas and build ownership to new and bold solutions. However, there are many barriers to collaborative innovation in the public sector and there is, therefore, a great need for innovation management in order to remove or at least reduce the barriers. The article delineates three new roles for innovation managers that will help to support processes of collaborative innovation. The argument is illustrated by an empirical case study of the formulation of an exit strategy for gang members in Copenhagen, who want to leave a criminal environment and establish a new and safer life. The conclusion evaluates the collaboration innovation method in the light of the transition from New Public Management to New Public Governance.