Public Value through Innovation: Danish Public Managers’ Views on Barriers and Boosters

ABSTRACT

This paper adds to current conversations on public value and public sector innovation by offering a quantitative analysis of the multiple types of public value that Danish public sector managers perceive to have created by innovating. Previous studies have primarily investigated public innovation on a case-by-case basis – and few with a focus on the outcomes of innovation. Access to a unique dataset permits a comprehensive study across the entire Danish public sector, centered on public managers’ perceptions of value created by public innovation. Using logistic regression analysis, a number of variables are tested to explore which antecedents will affect managers’ reported value creation.

KEYWORDS:

• Public sector innovation
• public value
• public management

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Carsten Greve for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper as well as Majken Præstbro and Ole Bech Lykkebo for stimulating discussions of the findings during the processes.