Innovation in public systems: genesis phase.

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the genesis of innovation, its generation and incubation until it enters the stage of acceptance for implementation. In the innovation literature in public systems, the focus is mainly on innovation implementation and diffusion, rather than on the process of innovation. Farr et al mention two distinct phases of innovation: creativity and innovation implementation, with transition and action phases within each6 . The creative stage of innovation has conceptualisation and action phases, and this is the perspective adopted in this article. An attempt is made in this article to apply an extended framework, adapted from Weick’s sensemaking process. In his schema, the phases are Ecological Change, Enactment, Selection, and Retention and Remembering, and here Enactment is at the beginning of Sensemaking7 . This sensemaking structure has been modified to include Selection, Framing, and Enactment based on the cases under study. Framing, which is based on inferences from cases, is a concept borrowed from March8 . Enactment finally succeeds when it leads to Collective Cognition, when we can say the idea has found acceptance. The extended framework is discussed in the context of four cases from public systems.