A novel value-alignment model for IT-enabled public innovation is proposed, drawing upon Moore’s public value framework and integrating Venkatraman’s strategic orientation construct, to help understand how strategic alignment and political legitimacy interact to foster governance innovation in inter-organizational networks.
Abstract
While digital transformation is a primary catalyst for change in the public sector, achieving positive outcomes requires continuous governance innovation and strategic alignment between public managers and their authorizing environments. However, current models of IT-enabled value creation generally fail to account for the deeply political mandates, inter-organizational coordination challenges, and legitimacy requirements inherent to digital government, and do not sufficiently theorize the strategic proactivity of managers navigating complex authorizing environments. To address this theoretical gap, this paper proposes a novel value-alignment model for IT-enabled public innovation, drawing upon Moore’s public value framework and integrating Venkatraman’s strategic orientation construct. The model is developed through an abductive theory-building design combining a literature review, exploratory interviews with e-government professionals, and secondary survey data on digital readiness across public sector organizations. The resulting framework posits three core relationships: public value alignment drives operational capacity, political legitimacy ensures resource sustainability, and strategic proactivity directly generates public value creation. By providing a robust theoretical architecture grounded in rigorous construct development, this paper contributes a new conceptual lens for understanding how strategic alignment and political legitimacy interact to foster governance innovation in inter-organizational networks. The proposed model establishes the necessary theoretical foundation for future empirical validation, with subsequent research aiming to test these constructs and their relationships through formal exploratory factor analysis and a comprehensive, pan-European, large-n survey study.
This study critically examined the role of innovative capacity in facilitating transformational change within the public sector. It argued that innovation is often overemphasised as a universal solution to governance challenges, yet its effectiveness is contingent upon deeper institutional, organisational and political conditions. Drawing on a qualitative scoping review of literature on public sector innovation, governance and institutional capability, the study synthesised key debates on the drivers, constraints and outcomes of innovation in contemporary public administration. The analysis was grounded in Public Value Theory, the Resource-Based View and New Public Governance, which collectively highlight the interplay between internal organisational capabilities and external governance environments. The findings indicate that innovative capacity is best understood as an embedded and dynamic institutional capability rather than a discrete reform instrument. Whilst leadership, digital transformation, organisational learning and collaborative governance are widely identified as enabling factors, their effectiveness is mediated by bureaucratic structures, regulatory frameworks, political continuity and institutional co-ordination capacity. In many contexts, particularly within developing country public sectors, these constraints limit innovation to incremental adjustments rather than systemic transformation. Digitalisation, whilst an important enabler, often results in “digitised bureaucracy” when not accompanied by organisational reform. The study proposes an Institutional Innovative Capacity Framework (IICF), conceptualising innovation as a multi-level governance system linking enabling capabilities, institutional mediators and public value outcomes. It concludes that sustainable innovation requires integrated institutional reform rather than isolated technological or managerial interventions. The study contributes a more critical and context-sensitive understanding of public sector innovation, emphasising that transformational change depends on the alignment between capability, governance structures and institutional conditions. It also highlights the importance of strengthening state capacity; improving co-ordination mechanisms; and fostering long-term organisational learning to ensure that innovation translates into sustained and meaningful public value outcomes.
Sbongile Nhlapho, Ndwakhulu. Stephen Tshishonga· European Conference on Knowl...· 0 citations
A Systematic Literature Review that analyzed 61 primary studies selected from 126 initial records reveals a clear association between cost reduction and increased productivity within the economic dimension; waste reduction reflects progress in the environmental dimension; and the improvement of quality and value delivered to stakeholders aligns with the social dimension.
Digital transformation is no longer optional for firms seeking sustained competitiveness; it is a strategic vehicle for reconciling economic performance with social and environmental responsibilities. Grounded in stakeholder theory, this paper develops a conceptual framework that illuminates how digital strategies can be intentionally aligned with the interests of shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and communities to deliver durable value. The true value of digital adoption lies not merely in efficiency gains, but in its capacity to foster innovation, enrich customer relationships, and strengthen supply chain resilience. Crucially, these benefits materialize only when digital initiatives are guided by a coherent organizational vision and grounded in a value proposition that meaningfully addresses the needs of diverse stakeholders. Effective two-way communication and stakeholder participation are shown to be critical enablers of adoption and legitimacy. The framework also foregrounds environmental sustainability by linking digital levers (clean production technologies, circular product design, and digital monitoring) to measurable reductions in ecological footprint and to new streams of economic value. Finally, we identify workforce capability-building as a linchpin: targeted training and human-capital investments elevate digital literacy, spur innovation, and secure equitable benefits for employees. The paper concludes with managerial implications and research avenues for operationalising a holistic digital-transformation strategy that balances economic, social, and environmental imperatives.
Ning-Li Zuo, K. Goh, Jia-Wen Kong et al.· PaperASIA· 0 citations
The findings show that digital technologies contribute to transparency and information integration, but their capacity to generate public value—such as policy coherence, effectiveness, and sustainability—is fundamentally mediated by organizational capacity, coordination mechanisms, and institutional stability.
Júlio Cezar Costa Ramos, Eduardo Augusto Terra Rossi DE Barros, Luiz Henrique Melo Pires· Observatorio de la Economía...· 0 citations
Digital transformation initiatives in large organisations fail at rates between 70% and 84% despite substantial technological investment, a pattern that points to organisational rather than technological causes. This conceptual paper argues that the missing variable is governance, understood not as board oversight or regulatory compliance, but as an active organisational capability with design implications. Drawing on dynamic capabilities’ theory (Teece, 2007), digital leadership research (Albannai et al., 2024), and recent empirical work on supply chain digitalisation (Al Mashalah et al., 2022) and board governance of digital transformation (Andersson et al., 2025), we develop a framework that positions digital transformation governance as an organisational meta-capability. This higher-order capability does not sense, seize or transform directly. Rather, it creates the organisational conditions under which these dynamic capabilities can be coordinated and strategically aligned. We articulate a three-way distinction between corporate governance, digital transformation governance, and digital transformation management, three constructs the literature frequently conflates. We then identify five governance dimensions, each derived systematically from the processual characteristics of digital transformation and from a corresponding dynamic capability: strategic alignment, decision-making architecture, strategic resource allocation, organisational reconfiguration, and organisational learning. The Romanian institutional context, where Government Emergency Ordinance 109/2011 (amended by Law 187/2023) established a corporate governance framework for public enterprises aligned with OECD principles, offers a contemporary setting in which these analytical distinctions carry direct policy weight. The contribution is twofold: a sharper conceptual vocabulary for distinguishing governance from management in digital contexts, and a framework that bridges dynamic capabilities theory with organisational design research.
Elena Căprar, E. Crișan· The Annals of the University...· 0 citations
The study advances an integrative framework bridging three governance theories within public sector digital transformation discourse that provides emerging economy governments, particularly Kenya a contextually grounded framework for designing national digital governance policies under institutional complexity.
Doreen Muriu· American Journal Of Strategi...· 0 citations
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