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Mission-oriented innovation policy and dynamic capabilities in the public sector

Cover of the working paper, Mission-oriented innovation policy and dynamic capabilities in the public sector

20 July 2018

Download working paper

UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) Working Paper Series: IIPP WP 2018-05

This working paper was also published as a journal article in Industrial and Corporate Change.

Journal article reference

Kattel, R. and Mazzucato, M. (2018) 'Mission-oriented innovation policy and dynamic capabilities in the public sector', Industrial and Corporate Change, 27 (5), pp. 787-801.

Authors

  • Rainer Kattel | Deputy Director, Professor of Innovation and Public Governance, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
  • Mariana Mazzucato | Director, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Reference

Kattel, R., Mazzucato, M. (2018). Mission-oriented innovation policy and dynamic capabilities in the public sector. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2018-5). http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/wp2018-05

Abstract

This article contextualises the re-emergence of mission-oriented innovation policies in the broader search for a new type of innovation policies—and the appropriate organisational forms—that can tackle ‘grand societal challenges,' and focuses on our knowledge gaps in designing and implementing such innovation policies. We identify the concept and practice of dynamic capabilities in the public sector as perhaps the key missing element in the search for the new generation of innovation policies. We offer a brief conceptual and historical overview of what constitutes mission-oriented policies, focusing on two key elements of missions: coordinated public investments and market shaping policies to ‘crowd in’ private and third sector experimentation and innovation. The article concludes by briefly discussing the central public sector dynamic capabilities for 21st-century missions.