Unleashing Innovation beyond Organizational Boundaries: Exploring Citizensourcing Projects

ABSTRACT

By using information and communications technologies, public administration encourages external actors to get involved in governmental activities once performed by civil servants. This article seeks to investigate the open innovation phenomenon beyond the entrepreneurial domain in the context of open government. For this purpose, a multiple case study was conducted to explore the current state of open government in Austria. The study first reveals the role of citizens as an active part of the system, then discusses the impact of citizensourcing projects, and finally concludes with giving implications for research and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizensourcing
• collaborative administration
• open government
• public participation
• public sector innovation

Notes

¹ Torres (2007) was the first to write about citizensourcing in Knowledge Management for Development Journal. In Table 1, his work with Lukensmeyer in 2008 is outlined, as this work puts increasing emphasis on defining the term and is thus assumed to arouse more attention among scientists.

² All cases had to be relevant to the quintain, be diverse across context, and provide enough opportunity to draw conclusions about complexity and contexts (Stake, 2006, p. 23).

³ The Digital Agenda is moving to the next phase. The website is now used to collaboratively find ways to implement ideas.

⁴ The Digital Agenda Vienna can be downloaded from https://www.digitaleagenda.wien/sites/default/files/digitale_agenda_wien_12_06_15final.pdf (dl. 03/11/16)

⁵ Numbers from February 2016