Innovation Processes in the Public Sector - New Vistas for an Interdisciplinary Perspective on E-Government Research?

Public sector innovations have been comprehensively studied from a managerial (New Public Management, NPM) as well as technological (Electronic Government, eGovernment) perspective. Here, much research work took a single-organisational managerial stance while little was investigated into corresponding public-sectoral innovation and diffusion processes. At this point, a political science view understands the embeddedness of public-sectoral innovation processes in the surrounding politico-administrative system. Therefore, we seek to investigate into public sector innovations in terms of identifying politico-administrative system dynamics which shape the process of their emergence and diffusion. In order provide empirical evidence, we analyse the Japanese case by the means of a series of qualitative-empirical expert interviews. We demonstrate how decentralisation reforms open up innovation potential for local governments, by which means the central government still holds strong influence on innovation and diffusion processes, and which possible paths of eGovernment and NPM innovation manifest as a result.