Many local governments have embraced the concept of innovation to optimize and renew their local service delivery systems. Innovation can be defined as “a dynamic process through which problems and challenges are defined, new ideas are developed, and solutions are attempted to be implemented by people whom over time engage in transactions, networks, and collaborations with each other in an institutional context where the lead actor is embedded in the public sector.” (Larsen,2014). Innovation in this definition places a strong emphasis on collaboration to enable innovative processes. Public sector innovation literature increasingly asserts that innovative enabler’s capacity is determined by the organizations’ ability to engage and set-up collaborative interactions through transversal coordination with other types of government and coproduction with societal actors: like citizens, firms and organized interests (Bommert, 2010; Eggers and Singh, 2009).
Still, little is known about how collaborative governance arrangements result in meaningful innovations in local government services and policies and how different arrangements of collaborative governance interact and reinforce each other. It is also unclear which organizational and individual conditions foster collaborative innovation, or how to design and sustain innovation-enhancing arrangements (the so-called metagovernance). This paper will develop an analytical framework and consequential hypotheses by using a literature review on innovation and collaboration to determine under which conditions transversal coordination and coproduction lead to collaborative innovation on different governmental levels including the local level.
Innovation can be enhanced with collaborative arrangements when a process of transformative and mutual learning, joint ownership, and empowered participation occurs (Sørensen and Torfing, 2012). There are various antecedents that either drive or hinder the occurrence of these innovative processes, for example the strength of ties in the network or the level of red tape in organizations (Provan et al.,2007; Klijn and Koppenjan,2010; Brewer and Walker,2010) . Antecedents of innovation can be found on both the individual civil servant level, the organizational level and the network level. However, no published paper has coherently included drivers and barriers at all these levels included in collaborative innovation arrangements. Thus, this paper provides a literature review on the antecedents that explain the fostering or deterioration of collaborative innovation processes.
Literature
Bommert, B. (2010). Collaborative innovation in the public sector. International public management review, 11(1), 15-33.
Brewer, G.A., & R.M. Walker (2010). The Impact of Red Tape on Governmental Performance: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20(1), 233-257.
Eggers, B., & Singh, S. (2009). The public innovators playbook. Washington, DC: Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Larsen, H., & Bogers, M. (2014). Innovation as Improvisation ‘In The Shadow. Creativity and Innovation Management, 23(4), 386-399.
Provan, K. G., Fish, A., & Sydow, J. (2007). Interorganizational networks at the network level: A review of the empirical literature on whole networks. Journal of management, 33(3), 479-516.
Koppenjan, J. F. M., & Klijn, E. H. (2010). Managing uncertainties in networks: a network approach to problem solving and decision making. Psychology Press.
Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2011). Enhancing collaborative innovation in the public sector. Administration & Society
