A new perspective on public sector innovation: Identifying significant drivers and barriers for IT innovation

Abstract

There have been a lot of studies focusing on innovation in the public sector but there are few studies that has touched on innovation from a local perspective such as municipalities. Hence, this study aimed to contribute to the innovation literature by focusing on IT innovation in public sector organisations governed by municipalities. The study began by identifying factors regarded as either drivers or barriers that influence IT innovation to analyse whether or not they were applicable on a local level. A comparative study was conducted with qualitative interviews where all interviewees worked at public sector organisations governed by the municipality of Gothenburg. The result of this study indicated that managers, culture and political context are significant factors as either drivers or barriers for IT innovation. Furthermore, the existing literature seems to focus on too many factors which is why this study have developed a new model focusing on three factors regarding drivers and barriers: the political context, managers and culture.