Public administration, context and innovation: A framework of analysis
| Published date | 01 February 2021 |
| Author | Edoardo Ongaro,Ting Gong,Yijia Jing |
| Date | 01 February 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1902 |
Received: 24 February 2021
-
Accepted: 24 February 2021
DOI: 10.1002/pad.1902
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Public administration, context and innovation: A framework
of analysis
Edoardo Ongaro
1
|Ting Gong
2,3
|Yijia Jing
3
1
Department of Public Leadership and Social
Enterprise, The Open University, Milton
Keynes, UK
2
Department of Public Policy, City University
of Hong Kong, China
3
Institute for Global Public Policy & School of
International Relations and Public Affairs,
Fudan University, China
Correspondence
Yijia Jing, Fudan University, 200433, China.
Email: jingyj@fudan.edu.cn
Funding information
Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region, China, Project
No. CityU 11605917
Abstract
Innovation in public administration (PA) has played a pivotal role in building good
governance and has attracted significant attention in the academia. The literature
on PA innovation is burgeoning; however, this article argues that there is ‘a missing
link’ in the extant literature in that the impacts of variation in context on PA
innovation have not been sufficiently investigated. This article elaborates the
analytical perspectives on the influences of various contexts over PA innovation and
the mechanisms through which impacts may take place. Both theoretical and
methodological complexities and challenges are apparent in disentangling contex-
tual influences from other factors. The article proposes a research agenda for a
context‐orientated comparative analysis of PA innovation and offers a brief illus-
tration regarding contextual differences between China and the European Union in
existing studies. The article calls for further studies in this direction.
KEYWORDS
China, comparative analysis, context, European Union, innovation, public administration
1
|
INTRODUCTION
Innovation is a theme of central significance for public administration
(PA) all over the world, as political, economic, social, environmental,
legal and cultural factors constantly reshape the circumstances in
which PA operates. PA is confronted with many new and complex
challenges, which require creative thinking and innovative responses.
The degree of change in the conditions of PA is, thus, often radical as
is the pace of change, probably more rapid nowadays than it has been
in most of the history of humankind. To adapt to a changing envi-
ronment, and equally important to anticipate and pre‐empt poten-
tially impactful changes, public sector organisations are required to
innovate. ‘Embracing innovation’ may sound a bit like a consultancy
firm's slogan, but there are profound reasons why innovating, or
building the capacities to innovate, is of central significance for the
public sector to be up to its role and function in society and to the
expectations of multiple publics. Understanding the mutual relations
between innovation and PA, namely innovation in PA and the role of
PA in economic and social innovation can therefore be claimed to be
an area of central significance for scholarly research and inquiry, and
it is, or it should be, a priority for policymakers.
The innovation challenge is global: facing increasingly intricate
social and economic problems, public sector organisations all over
the world cannot just continue ‘business as usual’ but have to engage
in forms of innovation. This, however, should not lead to embracing
‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approaches that overlook local differences. PA is
embedded in distinctive and diverse ‘contexts’: the cultural, political,
and administrative contexts shape PA, the ways in which it works and
the ways in which it may be changed (Pollitt, 2013). This article thus
argues for the significance of setting up a research agenda aimed at
deepening our understanding of how contextual influences affect the
dynamics of innovation within PA as well as for PA to be an enabler
of economic and social innovation. The focus of this research agenda
is therefore the triangular relationships among three elements:
context, innovation and PA.
In this paper, we outline—or at least sketch—the contours of this
research agenda. We commence by providing definitions of PA,
innovation and context and proceed with elaborating on how
4
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Public Admin Dev. 2021;41:4–11. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pad © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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