Innovation and the public service: facilitating inclusive industrial and social development

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the latter role and the associated routines, capacities and legitimacies that are needed to effectively support external innovation activity - while also recognising that there are significant dependencies between the two perspectives and associated capabilities. With renewed interest in the role of a developmental and now 'entrepreneurial' state in supporting innovation, there is a growing demand for public officials to adopt new ways of working in realising innovation goals: from defining and coordinating multi-sector innovation 'missions' to implementing open and experimental policy practices and creating digital platforms to facilitate knowledge exchange (Daniels et al. 2020; Kankanhalli, Zuiderwijk & Tayi 2017;Mazzucato 2013; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] 2019; the Presidency 2019).