Public service innovation: a typology

Existing classifications of public service innovation are largely derived from a private sector perspective and an internal orientation, overlooking their public value and collaborative nature. In this article, we present a typology for defining and classifying innovation in public service organizations that comprises two dimensions: ‘innovation focus’ (three public value creation processes of strategy, capacity and operations), and ‘innovation locus’ (internal and external). Together, these result in six types of innovation: mission, policy, management, partner, service, and citizen. A preliminary assessment is presented. The implications of the typology for understanding public service innovation are discussed.