Municipalities’ Willingness to Adopt Process Innovations: Evidence for Higher Cost-Efficiency

Journal Article
Local Government Studies, 43(5), 707-730
Author

Hannes W. Lampe

Published

January 1, 2017

Doi

10.1080/03003930.2017.1324428

Abstract
In the public sector, innovation is understood as a major driver of public service performance improvement and excellence. On the one hand, previous research has proven a positive effect of innovation adoption on performance in the public sector. On the other hand, a broad literature proves positive effects of innovation antecedents on innovation adoption. This study bridges this gap and analyses the effect of an innovation antecedent – willingness to adopt a process innovation (accrual accounting) – on municipalities’ service provision cost-efficiency. Therefore, the author makes use of a panel data set of German municipalities, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Evidence shows that a higher municipal willingness to innovate relates to higher cost-efficiency. A higher innovation willingness might have a maximal effect of 17 percentage points on municipality cost-efficiency.

Research

© Anne Gärtner

  • Journal Article
  • Local Government Studies
  • 2017
  • Vol. 43(5), pp. 707-730
  • DOI

Authors

Hannes W. Lampe

Abstract

In the public sector, innovation is understood as a major driver of public service performance improvement and excellence. On the one hand, previous research has proven a positive effect of innovation adoption on performance in the public sector. On the other hand, a broad literature proves positive effects of innovation antecedents on innovation adoption. This study bridges this gap and analyses the effect of an innovation antecedent – willingness to adopt a process innovation (accrual accounting) – on municipalities’ service provision cost-efficiency. Therefore, the author makes use of a panel data set of German municipalities, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Evidence shows that a higher municipal willingness to innovate relates to higher cost-efficiency. A higher innovation willingness might have a maximal effect of 17 percentage points on municipality cost-efficiency.

Tags

Process Innovation Public Sector Efficiency