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INNOVATION AND ADOPTION OF INNOVATION IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS

The International Conference of Organizational InnovationSiam University, Bangkok, Thailand

August 4-6 2010

Mehmet Akif Demircioglumdemirci@indiana.eduhttp://mypage.iu.edu/~mdemirci/

Overview

• Introduction•Theoretical Framework-Literature Review▫Public-Private Distinction▫Antecedent of Innovation

•Methods- Findings▫Journals▫Keywords

•Analyze the Trend and Discussion

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Introduction-GoalThe aim of this article is to develop a strategic research

agenda for innovation studies particularly for public organizations.

What research questions and classifications are important in terms of innovation research? What journals and disciplines study innovation and what journals not? What is the trend and popularity of innovation studies in the several disciplines and journals?

This presentation examines data concerning trends in innovation research since 1960 and summarize results from recent meta-analyses of the literature, in order to draw conclusions about where future research is likely to lead.

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Theoretical FrameworkChange, innovation, invention, creative behavior, and adaptation are somewhat

vague by many scholars, have been defined and interchangeably used by others (Pierce and Delbecq, 1997, 28).

Walker defines innovation as a process through which new ideas, objects, and practices are created, developed or reinvented, and which are new for the unit of adoption (Walker, 2008, p. 2).

Organizational leaders, both in public and business, view innovation as a source of organizational change, growth, and effectiveness (Damanpour and Schneider, 2009, p. 495).

Many scholars has studied the background and results of the adoption of innovation in organizations (see Boyne et al. 2003; Damanpour and Schneider 2009, Osborne and Gaebler 1992; Tidd, Besant, and Pavitt 1997; Walker 2004).

Innovation is a process which results in a new thing to an organizational population (Daft 1978; Damanpour and Wischnevsky 2006)

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Public-Private DistinctionThe nature and extend of differences between public and private

sectors has long been a topic of debate (Lyons et al, 2006).“If there is no real difference between public and private

organizations, can we nationalize all industrial firms, or privatize all government agencies (Rainey, 2010, 66)?

Environmental factors (such as degree of market exposure, legal and formal constraints, and political influence), organization-environment transactions (such as public scrutiny), and internal structures and processes (such as organizational performance, personal characteristic of employees, and complexity of objectives) are different (Rainey, Backoff, & Levine, 1976).

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Public-Private Distinction (Cont.) The early scholars of organization theory (i.e. M. Weber, F. Taylor, and H. Simon argue

that their theories are applicable to all organizations (Rainey, 2010). Public and private organizations have more similarities than differences (Thompson,

1967). The New Public Management (NPM) movement has de-emphasized sectoral distinctions

and suggests that “management is management,” regardless of the sector. Recent administrative reforms in several governments reflect the new public

management’s focus on efficiency and market-based reforms after 1980s (see Song 2008, Yamamoto 2003, Wise, 2002) were highly influenced by private sector management.

Some scholars argue that “rather than asking “what makes an organization public”, an alternative question asks, “what makes an organization more likely to provide for public outcomes (or publicness) (Moulton, 2009)? Dimensional publicness recognizes varying degree of public influence and political authority over all forms of organizations regardless of public or private (see Moulton, 2009).

Many scholars argue that private organizations increasingly carry out public purposes. Both public and private sector initiate and adopt innovations. Thus, innovation studies are important not only for private sector, but also public sector.

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Potential Antecedents Definition Association with Organizational Innovativeness

Administrative intensity Indicator of administrative overhead Positive, significant

Centralization Extent to which decision-making autonomy is dispersed or concentrated in an organization

Negative, significant

Complexity “Specialization”, “functional differentiation”, and “professionalism”

Positive, significant

External communication Degree of organization members’ involvement and participation in extraorganizational professional activities.

Positive, significant

Formalization Reflects emphasis on following rules and procedures in conducting organizational activities.

No significant association

Functional differentiation Extent to which divided into different units.

Positive, significant

Internal communication Extent of communication among organizational units.

Positive, significant

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Managerial attitude toward change

Extent to which managers or members of the dominant coalition favor change.

Positive, significant

Managerial tenure Length of managers’ service and experience within an organization.

No significant association

Professionalism Professional knowledge of an organization’s members.

Positive, significant

Slack resources Reflects an organization’s resources beyond minimal requirement to maintain operations.

Positive, significant

Specialization Number of an organization’s specialties.

Positive, significant

Technical capacity Reflects an organization’s technical resources and technical potential.

Positive, significant

Vertical differentiation Number of levels in an organization’s hierarchy.

No significant association

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Methods

•A search on "innovation" in JSTOR using the categories of journals (public policy/administration, political science, business, sociology, education, economics, and psychology) (between 1960 and today) and saved the journal abstracts.

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Results

2170 Results 192 Results 190 Results 360 Results

Search Methods

Innovation (abstract only). "innovation" (abstract

only) AND "organization" (abstract only).

innovation" (abstract only) AND "adoption"

(abstract only)

Consolitated A) "innovation" (abstract only) AND

"organization" (abstract only), B) "innovation" (abstract only) AND

"adoption" (abstract only)

Innovation OnlySearch: Innovation Disciplines Results %

1 Business 1397 42.73

2 Economics 712 21.78

3 Education 237 7.25

4 Political Science 335 10.24

5 Psychology 8 0.24

6 Public Policy & Administration 231 7.06

7 Sociology 349 10.68

Total 3269 100

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“Innovation” AND “Adoption” July 22, 2011BERTINORO

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Categories 1960-1969 % 1970-1979 % 1980-1989 % 1990-1999 % 2000-today % TOTAL %1 Business 0 7 27 37 44 115

% 0.0 0.0 21.2 2.6 46.6 10.0 48.7 13.7 47.3 16.2 42.4 42.42 Economics 1 1 10 12 17 41

% 9.1 0.4 3.0 0.4 17.2 3.7 15.8 4.4 18.3 6.3 15.1 15.13 Education 0 3 2 4 4 13

% 0.0 0.0 9.1 1.1 3.4 0.7 5.3 1.5 4.3 1.5 4.8 4.84 Political Science 1 6 6 6 8 27

% 9.1 0.4 18.2 2.2 10.3 2.2 7.9 2.2 8.6 3.0 10.0 10.05 Psychology 1 0 0 1 0 2

% 9.1 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.3 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.7 0.76 Public Policy and Administration 0 4 9 7 8 28

% 0.0 0.0 12.1 1.5 15.5 3.3 9.2 2.6 8.6 3.0 10.3 10.37 Sociology 8 12 4 9 12 45

% 72.7 3.0 36.4 4.4 6.9 1.5 11.8 3.3 12.9 4.4 16.6 16.68 TOTAL 11 33 58 76 93 271

4.1 12.2 21.4 28.0 34.3 100.0

“Innovation” AND “Keywords”

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Categories 1960-1969 % 1970-1979 % 1980-1989 % 1990-1999 % 2000-2009 % TOTAL %1 Bottom-Up 0 1 0 3 3 7

% 0.0 0.0 3.3 0.5 0.0 0.0 6.0 1.6 5.7 1.6 3.7 3.72 Centralization 1 3 8 5 1 18

% 9.1 0.5 10.0 1.6 5.1 4.2 10.0 2.6 1.9 0.5 9.4 9.43 Complexity 4 5 7 14 16 46

% 36.4 2.1 16.7 2.6 14.9 3.7 28.0 7.3 30.2 8.4 24.1 24.14 Formalization 1 2 3 1 2 9

% 9.1 0.5 6.7 1.0 6.4 1.6 2.0 0.5 3.8 1.0 4.7 4.75 Organizational Size 2 8 7 9 6 32

% 18.2 1.0 26.7 4.2 14.9 3.7 18.0 4.7 11.3 3.1 16.8 16.86 Professionalism 0 1 0 2 4 7

% 0.0 0.0 3.3 0.5 0.0 0.0 4.0 1.0 7.5 2.1 3.7 3.77 Specialization 0 2 2 6 3 13

% 0.0 0.0 6.7 1.0 1.3 1.0 12.0 3.1 5.7 1.6 6.8 6.88 Tenure 0 1 4 4 3 12

% 0.0 0.0 3.3 0.5 2.6 2.1 8.0 2.1 5.7 1.6 6.3 6.39 Technical Capacity 1 2 3 1 1 8

% 9.1 0.5 6.7 1.0 1.9 1.6 2.0 0.5 1.9 1.0 4.2 4.210 Top Down 2 5 13 5 14 39

% 18.2 1.0 16.7 2.6 8.3 6.8 10.0 2.6 26.4 7.3 20.4 20.411 TOTAL 11 30 47 50 53 191

Total % 100.0 5.8 100.0 15.7 100.0 24.6 100.0 26.2 100.0 27.7 100.0 100.0

DiscussionIt is clear from these findings that innovation continues to be an

important topic of study. It is because innovation has strong and important effects on

organizational performance. Organization theorists have argued for many years that organizations

need to be innovative in order to survive and flourish (e.g., Burns and Stalker, Lawrence and Lorsch, Thompson).

It can be said that the rate of research on innovation will continue to increase in future.

I expect that more public administration & management scholars will study innovation as the interaction between private and public sector are increasing (see the NPM, post-NPM, networks (collaboration), publicness).

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• Innovation research is and will not important topic except business, public management and sociology disciplines.

•We are starting to develop a sense of those conditions that lead to innovation in organizations, but more research will be necessary to test and replicate the preliminary findings to date.

•The relationship between innovation and “complexity”, “organizational size” and “top down” are/will be hot topic.

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Roger’s S Shape

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Thank youMehmet Akif Demircioglu

mdemirci@indiana.eduhttp://mypage.iu.edu/~mdemirci/

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