Environmental Determinants of Public Sector Innovation: A study of innovation awards in Canada

In this article, we conduct an empirical study of administrative innovation in the Canadian public sector by examining applications to the Innovative Management Award of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC). After a review of the literature on innovation in the public sector and of the history of this award, we come to the conclusion that the relationship between innovation and environment has been studied only sparingly, which explains the focus of our research and our hypotheses. Through an analysis of award applications over 21 years, and of award finalists and winners, we demonstrate that such environmental variables as strength of the economy, size of the civil service, deficits, unemployment rate, investment in R&D, and type of government have important consequences for administrative innovation in the public sector. We also suggest some implications of our findings for future research on this subject.