A Measurement Framework for Public Sector Innovation: Advancing the Oslo Manual for Public Sector

Abstract

Public sector innovation has become a ubiquitous theme in legislature plans and political debates. Subsequently, academia has become increasingly interested in the topic, and research on public sector innovation has grown in recent decades. Yet, research lacks a clearly conceptualised definition of public sector innovation, and a measurement framework that allows for more representative research and a comparison of results both within the public sector and with other sectors. Based on semi-structured interviews and workshops with public sector practitioners complemented by existing literature on public sector innovation, we have refined the Oslo Manual’s measurement framework that originally addresses innovation in the business sector to capture public-sector-specific requirements. The refined measurement framework gives a comprehensive and comparable set of data that researchers might collect and analyse to understand public sector innovation, and to develop and test theories. Thus, it provides a common base for future representative research.