A presentation by Jessica Breaugh (Centre for Digital Governance). This event is part of the Digital Governance Research Colloquium hosted by the Centre for Digital Governance.
Abstract: The process of public sector digital transformation is well underway. For the most part, this process has been linked to the development and embracement of innovative solutions, developed in of the eponymous innovation labs and hubs, or collaboration and co-creation approaches. However, many of the innovative solutions developed in these contexts fail to make an impact. One hypothesis is their inability to scale from an initial pilot phase, an observation also reflected by the academic literature on innovation. In fact, of this literature focuses on the origin of innovative solutions yet stops at the point of scaling. The literature on innovation scaling that does is exist is largely piecemeal and fragmented across a variety of different disciplines and developed outside the public sector, and digital perspective. The goal of this paper is therefore twofold. The first is to develop a clear conceptualisation of the concepts of digital versus non digital innovation as well as innovation scaling. The second is to identify barriers and drivers of scaling identified in the empirical literature on the topic. In doing so, we build a working model for understanding public scaling playing close attention digital versus non digital components. This is accomplished through an in depth assessment of theories of innovation and digitisation, as well as a multidisciplinary systematic literature review on scaling using the PRISMA approach.
Jessica Breaugh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School´s Centre for Digital Governance, where she is working on the EU funded H2020 research project TROPICO (Transforming into Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments) and well as a the Scaling-up Digital Innovations for the Public Sector project, a joint knowledge initiative of the Hertie School Centre for Digital Governance and the McKinsey Centre for Government. Her current research focuses on leadership and public management interventions within the context of collaborative digitalisation projects, as well as analysing the characteristics and dynamics of the emerging GovTech industry and what this means for public value creation. Other research areas of interest include comparative public sector HRM including studying employee attitudes and outcomes, work motivation, public service motivation and survey methods. Prior to her PhD, she worked in the public service with the Department of Foreign Affairs Canada in Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, with a short placement in Hungary. Her latest research has been published in Public Management Review, International Public Management Journal and Public Personnel Management.
