Measuring the Effects of Using Digital Innovation Contests as Policy Tools: Towards an Assessment Instrument

Abstract

Contests have emerged as national government policy tools to stimulate digital innovation and drive digital transformation of the public sector. However, few if any studies have delved deeper into measuring the effects of using digital innovation contests as policy tools. This short paper reports intermediate results from a case study of the Swedish Innovation Agency, Vinnova, who has recently organized its first contest to propel digital innovation to alleviate diabetes using sensitive personal data. Case study data was collected from semi-structured interviews, documents and two focus groups and then analyzed thematically. The result consists of seven identified effect categories related to using contests as innovation policy tools at a national level and an assessment instrument consisting of 25 items. The next step of the research project is to validate the assessment tool in use, against a larger sample of respondents from several stakeholders, including other public domains and other types of government agencies.