Does User Involvement in Developing Public Sector Innovations Improve Outcomes? A Set-Theoretic Analysis of European Data

• Published date: 01 January 2025
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241287780
• Author: Anne Jørgensen Nordli,Anthony Arundel,Márton Katona,Miklós Rosta
• Date: 01 January 2025

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241287780

Administration & Society

2025, Vol. 57(1) 34 –69

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997241287780

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Article

Does User Involvement

in Developing Public

Sector Innovations

Improve Outcomes?

A Set-Theoretic Analysis

of European Data

Anne Jørgensen Nordli1, Anthony Arundel2,

Márton Katona3, and Miklós Rosta3

Abstract

Theories of a service or public sector logic stress that involving users in

developing public sector innovations will produce better outcomes, but

outcomes also could be influenced by the type of user involvement. We

evaluate the relationship between interactive and non-interactive methods

of involving users in innovation activities, along with six other factors, on

a sample of management reported post-implementation outcomes from

public sector innovations. A set-theoretic analysis is applied separately

for service and process innovations to identify combinations (recipes)

of eight factors associated with positive outcomes. Both interactive and

non-interactive user involvement is associated with positive outcomes,

but such involveme is always combined with other innovation capabilities

or senior management support for innovation. The results have practical

implications for managers for how to assemble resources to improve

innovation outcomes.

1Inland Norway University, Lillehammer, Norway

2UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, Netherlands

3Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary

Corresponding Author:

Anne Jørgensen Nordli, Inland Norway University, Vormstuguvegen 2, 2624 L, Lillehammer

2624, Norway.

Email: anne.nordli@inn.no

1287780AAS0010.1177/00953997241287780Administration & SocietyNordli et al.

research-article2024

Nordli et al. 35

Keywords

user co-creation, interactive and non-interactive user involvement, public

sector innovation, set-theoretic methods, innovation surveys

Introduction

Policy interest in public sector innovation in the last decades has increased

due to budgetary requirements to improve efficiency, political pressure to

provide new or improved services, and the important role of the public sector

in addressing many difficult social challenges (Arundel et al., 2019; Borins,

2001; Kuhlmann & Rip, 2018; Osborne & Brown, 2013). This policy interest

is consistent with research on factors that support (Clausen et al., 2020) or

hinder (Cinar et al., 2019) the ability of public sector organizations to

innovate.

New theories of public sector innovation such as networked governance

(Peralta & Rubalcaba, 2021), collaborative innovation (Sørensen & Torfing,

2011) and Public Service Logic (PSL) (Osborne et al., 2021) stress the advan-

tages of involving users in developing service innovations. This reflects the

insights and experiences individuals gained during their use of a public ser-

vice (Torfing, 2013; Voorberg et al., 2015). Similarly, public sector employ-

ees, as the users of processes, can have valuable knowledge relevant to

process innovation (Bason, 2018).

Survey research on product innovation in the private sector finds a positive

effect of customer participation in the ideation or implementation phases of

innovation development on outcomes such as customer satisfaction and finan-

cial performance (Chang & Taylor, 2016; Edvardsson et al., 2013). Similar

positive effects of user involvement also should occur in the public sector,

with 25% to 40% of public sector organizations in Europe obtaining relevant

information from users for their innovations (Bugge et al., 2011; European

Commission, 2011). Yet empirical research on the relationship between user

involvement in the design of public sector innovations and post implementa-

tion innovation outcomes such as customer satisfaction is surprisingly sparse.

Survey, experimental, and case study research on this relationship often

focuses on intermediate, pre-implementation outcomes such as the effect of

co-design with users on the novelty of an idea for innovation, its feasibility, or

its expected benefits (Goh et al., 2022; Jukić et al., 2019; Magnusson et al.,

2003; Trischler et al., 2018, 2019). Research on post-implementation out-

comes in the public sector is largely limited to case studies (Bason, 2018).

With one exception (Burgers et al., 2024), studies that used survey data to

evaluate the relationship between activities to support public sector innovation

36 Administration & Society 57(1)

and innovation outcomes have not examined the effect of user involvement in

developing innovations (Arundel et al., 2015; Damanpour et al., 2009;

Demircioglu & Audretsch, 2017, 2019; Torugsa & Arundel, 2016; Walker &

Boyne, 2006).

The limited research on the effect of user involvement on post-implemen-

tation innovation outcomes is of concern because many things can go wrong

between user involvement in the ideation phase and the implementation of an

innovation. Public sector managers can reject user ideas due to infeasibility

(Trischler et al., 2018), or positive outcomes could require other capabilities

or strategies to support innovation (Edvardsson et al., 2013; Torugsa &

Arundel, 2017). In addition, there are several methods for involving users in

innovation activities. Some include more intense interactive involvement

where users can actively discuss innovation characteristics with innovation

designers, while others are largely or entirely non-interactive (Bentzen,

2022). Examples of non-interactive methods are surveys or observational

studies of how individuals use innovation prototypes. Interactive methods

might be less likely to be used because they require more resources, in time

and cost, and greater expertise to manage user inputs (Hurley et al., 2018).

Consequently, the relationship between user involvement in innovation and

post-implementation outcomes might be influenced by the amount and type

of resources available and the type of user involvement.

These considerations result in three research questions that are the focus

of this study:

1. How prevalent is user involvement in the development of public sec-

tor innovations?

2. Which methods for obtaining user involvement are associated with

positive outcomes?

3. What other factors need to be combined with user involvement to

produce positive outcomes?

The article uses data from a survey of European public sector managers in six

European countries to assess these three questions. The answer to the first

question is obtained directly from the survey results, while the second and

third questions are addressed through set-theoretic analysis, an exploratory

method that assumes that public sector organizations can combine resources

in multiple ways to produce positive outcomes from their innovations

(Torugsa & Arundel, 2017). The set-theoretic approach was chosen because

it can identify configurations of factors that, when combined, lead to an out-

come of interest (Ragin, 2006), in this case successful innovation outcomes.