How Common Is Public Sector Innovation and How Similar Is It to Private Sector Innovation?

This is a first attempt to compare innovation in public institutions with innovation in private firms in Denmark. Public institutions are often believed to be less innovative than private firms. However, innovations may, in fact, have always existed within the public sector – in forms similar to those found in the private sector. Innovations performed by employees in their daily work may even be critical to the reliability and overall stability of these institutions. This chapter argues that it is important to examine how innovation takes place in public sector institutions. While most of the discussions around New Public Management (NPM) and other government reforms have centred on their economic effects, much more attention could be devoted to innovation as a critical aspect of public sector change. Based on a comparison of two surveys to Danish public institutions and private firms, this chapter examines how frequently innovation does occur in public institutions, and compares similarities and differences between public and private sector innovation.