Conditions for complex innovations: evidence from public organizations

Abstract

Despite the growing interest in understanding innovative activities, an important limitation of the current literature on innovation—both public and private—is an assumption that innovative activity is a homogeneous phenomenon. However, most innovative activities are heterogeneous in nature. One way of characterizing innovation heterogeneity is the complexity of innovations. Using data from public organizations, this paper is one of the first studies to develop a framework for and provide an empirical test of the main influences on innovation complexity within the public sector context. The empirical evidence suggests that employees’ innovative behavior and cooperation, along with collaborating with important external sources and the ability to work in a complex environment, are positively associated with complex innovations in the public sector, suggesting that the influences on complex innovations span the individual, work group, and external environment levels. However, an organization’s leadership quality and innovation climate do not have any statistical effect on complex innovations.