New development: Social innovation and public value in the governance of wicked problems

IMPACTPublic sector organizations (PSOs) increasingly face complex societal challenges that cannot be addressed through traditional policy instruments alone. While social innovation is often presented as a pathway to public value, its outcomes are neither automatic nor uniformly positive. This article shows that different combinations of institutional and collective responses generate distinct governance configurations, creating both opportunities and tensions for public value co-creation. The findings suggest that the relationship between social innovation and public value is contingent upon the ways public sector organizations engage with, support, and govern these processes. The authors call for greater attention to the governance conditions that enable locally generated value to contribute to durable and system-wide public outcomes, particularly in contexts characterized by institutional voids and uncertainty.