Innovative outcomes in public-private innovation partnerships: a systematic review of empirical evidence and current challenges

ABSTRACT

Governments and businesses increasingly collaborate to innovate public services through public-private innovation partnerships (PPI), yet little is known about whether and how innovation is achieved. Based on a systematic review of thirty-three international studies, published between 2004 and 2018, this article shows that half of the PPIs examined resulted in innovation. The results from the review are integrated into an analytical framework that posits how nine structural, collaborative process and participant factors influence innovation in PPIs. Finally, the article calls for further research to develop consistent criteria for measuring innovation and more empirical studies to document innovative outcomes in PPIs.

KEYWORDS:

• Systematic review
• public-private innovation partnerships
• innovation

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Veiko Lember, Jacob Torfing, Majbritt Rostgaard Evald and Ann Højbjerg Clarke who served as experts in the systematic literature review by providing valuable suggestions for additional publications.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Notes

1. The definition excludes, for instance, studies on R&D focusing solely on the business perspective, traditional procurement or university-industry collaboration. Likewise, studies examining PPPs as an innovative organizational form rather than innovation as an outcome are not included.

2. Full search string: ((Public OR government OR authorit* OR agenc*) AND (privat* OR business OR company* OR firm) AND (partnership OR collaborat* OR network) AND (innovat*)).

3. The high number of studies in the Netherlands is explained by the same group of network researchers authoring a large proportion of the included studies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lena Brogaard

Lena Brogaard is an assistant professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde University, Denmark. She is interested in the organization, production, and delivery of public services in collaboration with private actors. Her current research focuses on innovation and value creation in public-private partnerships.