A resourcing perspective on public-private-sector collaborations for digital innovation

The public sector faces increasing pressure to drive digital innovation to meet modern societies' demands. Existing literature calls for systematic approaches to digital innovation in the public sector and a better understanding thereof. However, the public sector still struggles to foster digital innovation and often fails to promote explorative initiatives as a basis for innovation. In this paper, using a case study of a German consortium project, we investigate how public-private partnerships can promote digital innovation in the public sector. We do so by adopting the resourcing perspective and building on recent conceptual work on network resourcing. Our findings reveal that the unique characteristics of digital innovation, as opposed to traditional forms of innovation, influence how public-private partnerships can effectively drive digital innovation. We identify decentralized, cross-sector digital innovation clusters as a critical factor for the emergence of digital innovation in public-private partnerships and theorize dissemination practices as an extension to network resourcing in cases of distributed innovation agency within networks of public-private partnerships. • Resourcing theory is applied to analyze digital innovation in public-private partnerships. • The case study investigates a consortium project using network-resourcing theory. • Communities are identified as a key organizational structure. • Essential resourcing and dissemination practices for innovation are identified.