Rising and changing citizen expectations, dire fiscal constraints, unfulfilled political aspirations, high professional ambitions, and a growing number of stubborn societal problems have generated an increasing demand for innovation of public policies and services. Drawing on the latest research, this book examines how current systems of public governance can be transformed in order to enhance public innovation. It scrutinizes the need for new roles and public sector reforms, and analyzes how the gradual transition towards New Public Governance can stimulate the exploration and exploitation of new and bold ideas in the public sector. It argues that the key to public innovation lies in combining and balancing elements from Classic Public Administration, New Public Management and New Public Governance, and theorizes how it can be enhanced by multi-actor collaboration for the benefit of public officials, private stakeholders, citizens, and society at large.

Jacob Torfing is Professor of Politics and Institutions at Roskilde University. He is also Research Director of the Roskilde School of Governance. His research interests include network governance, public administration reform, public innovation, and public leadership and management. He has published more than 200 articles and book chapters and more than 25 books. He is the author of Collaborative Innovation in the Public Sector (2016). Peter Triantafillou is Professor of Public Policy and Performance Management at Roskilde University. His research interests are governance and power relations in public policy and performance management in the public sector. His research has been published in numerous academic articles and edited volumes, and in the monograph New Forms of Governing: A Foucauldian Inspired Analysis (2012).