Innovation in National Libraries – Enablers and ObstaclesPresentation Master Thesis Executive MPM Hildelies Balk, 14 november 2013

In this presentation• Background and challenges• Research Question • What is innovation?• Two perspectives• Model • Field research• Definite model• Conclusion and recommendations

•

Innovation in National Libraries

National Libraries

• Unique responsibility in the conservation and presentation of a country’s cultural heritage.

Tasks: • collect and preserve the national documentary heritage

• ensure permanent access to the knowledge and culture of the past and present.

• develop central services and take a leading role in the library and information sector in their country(Poll 2008).

Innovation in National Libraries

Recent Developments: 1990-2010

New tasks include:

• preservation of digital heritage • archiving of new media such as web sites • conversion of (historical) printed material into digital full text • range of web services

And current users expect no less:

that which is not digital, is virtually invisible

Innovation in National Libraries

2013: A few of the current challenges

• Big data• Disruptive technologies• Changes in users and expectations• Digital scholarship• Unpredictable government and funding bodies• Changing market → private parties challenge

monopoly of libraries • new forms of online education

→ libraries innovate in response→ successful innovation seems rare. What works, what

are barriers?

Innovation in National Libraries

Research Question

What factors determine the organizational capacity for successful innovation in a national library?

Objectives

1.Build a (skeleton) model to assess the innovation capacity of a national library, illustrated with real life examples2.Secondary: stimulate the (continued) sharing of good practice in innovation among national libraries

Innovation in National Libraries

What is innovation? (1)

• Classic definition originates in private sector (Schumpeter, 1947):

• ‘a process of creative destruction in which new combinations of existing resources are achieved’’

• Purpose : to ensure competetive advantage

• Innovation in the context of the organization (Lam, 2006): • ‘the creation or adoption of an idea or behaviour new to

the organization’• Character of innovation is radical, step-change as opposed

to improvement or incremental change

• Innovation in the context of a national library: public sector

Innovation in National Libraries

What is innovation? (2) Public sector context

• Public Value (Moore 1995): • What the public values • What adds value to the public sphere

• Delivery of public value is dependent on legitimacy: users, stakeholders, public at large (authorizing environment)

• Changes in environment → need for innovation (Hartley,2011)

• Purpose of innovation: continued legitimacy and public value

→ Definition in this thesis:Successful innovation in a public institution is: the creation or

adoption of an idea or behaviour new to the organization with continued and/or added public value as outcome

Innovation in National Libraries

Two perspectives • Purpose of the thesis is to study organizational innovation in a

public sector setting• Most of the (empirical) research into innovation and how

organizations manage this process has been done in the context of the private sector

Innovation in National Libraries

Why, when, what constraints Supporting concepts from private sector

Public Value concepts InnovationTheory

1.Need to manage both continued delivery of public value and (radical) change; processes for Quality,continious improvement and innovation simultaneously

• Dynamic Capabilities: Combining the fostering of core competencies and implementation of radically new ideas; processes for handling both continuous improvement and innovation (Teece, 2007, 2012)

• Hybrid Structure ‘Skunkworks’: Combining stable organization with units for radical innovation (Tushman & O’Reilly, 1999)

• The Ambidextrous Organization: managing the opposing forces of continuity and change (Tushman & O Reilly, 1996)

Innovation in National Libraries

(Rashman, Withers, & Hartley, 2009 Benington & Moore, 2011, Hartley,2011)

Public Value concepts Innovation Theory

2. Adapt to (authorizing) environment: pressure for learning in organizations

3. Share risk and add value: Co-production with partners 4.Legitimacy, sharing knowledge and cost efficiency: longer term partnerships, networks and alliances

5.Public value created through use, legitimacy: co-creation with users

Supporting concepts from private sectorWhy, when, what constraints

• The Knowledge Creating Company (Nonaka and

Takeuchi,1995): enabling innovation through knowledge creation and sharing within the organization and in communities of practice

• The Open Innovation Paradigm (Chesbrough, 2003):‘Not all the smart people work for us’ → emphasis on use of external knowledge to innovateDevelop innovation in networks, spin out what you do not use

• Democratizing Innovation (Von

Hippel, 2005) with users and user communities → e.g. open source communities, digital scholarship

Innovation in National Libraries

Model

Innovation in National Libraries

5 Propositions on innovation in Public Value perspective

42 Factors that determine the operational capacity for the delivery of public value through innovation:

Organizational learning and knowledge creation

Organizational design

Processes

Leadership and culture

Collaboration Capacity

Knowledge and organizational learning

Internal•Intention•Autonomy of professionals•Active role for middle management•Fluctuation and creative chaos•Redundancy •Requisite variety •Sharing tacit knowledge •Communities of practice •Learning from failure

External•Innovation budget, •‘Slack’ resources•Absorptive capacity•Incentives for innovation•centres for innovation•High performance in the past (barrier) •‘Not invented here’ as a barrier

Innovation in National Libraries

Organizational design

• Hierarchical ‘machine’ bureaucracy (barrier)• Pure adhocracy • Mix of adhocracy and bureaucracy , ‘Hybrid’

organization e.g. ‘skunkworks’: seperate units that innovate outside regular (IT) infrastructure and workflow but foster strong (informal) ties

Innovation in National Libraries

Processes

• Best practice project management • portfolio management; making clear choices, • change routines • continuous asset orchestration and renewal, use of

analytical methodologies (e.g. investment choices)• continuous redesign of routines

Innovation in National Libraries

Leadership and cultureLeadership•can steer both stability and radical change; •calibrate sensing and seizing of opportunities• tolerance to ambiguity and uncertainty•independency •supportive of innovation•Leaders ‘inventors’ themselves•diversity of top management team

Culture•Inventiveness, openness, curiosity •Trust, collaboration •Encouragement of risk-taking•tolerance to failure•novel and adaptive thinking

Innovation in National Libraries

Collaboration Capacity

• Partnership capacity• Networking capacities• Understanding user communities• Virtual collaboration skills• Boundary spanners

Innovation in National Libraries

Empirical research: Testing the Model in the field of National Libraries

1. Model discussed in Focusgroup of 15 library managers/professionals across EU

2. → Model adapted3. Structured Interviews with 6 managers in 4 national

libraries: a. Propositions: relevanceb. Factors: relevancec. Factors: sharing practice d. Ranking factors both at cluster and at factor level

→ Definite Model

Innovation in National Libraries

Results

•Propositions all accepted as relevant to national libraries, with some moderations•Clusters ranked •Factors ranked:

• Must • Nice to have• Can do without

•Practice shared

Innovation in National Libraries

Definite Model: factors only ‘must have’ .

1.Leadership and Culture

Leadership

can steer both stability and radical change

tolerance to ambiguity and uncertainty

diversity of top management team

Culture

Inventiveness, openness, curiosity

2.Processes

portfolio management; making clear choices, ‘not doing everything’

3. Knowledge and organizational learning

Intention: strategy communicated and embraced by all

Requisite variety: diversity of teams

Innovation budget, transaction budget

Learning from failure (e.g. post-project reviews)

Absorptive capacity for external knowledge

4.Collaboration Capacity

Partnership capacity

Understanding user communities (e.g. open source, digital humanities)

Networking capacities

5. Organizational Design

Mix of adhocracy and bureaucracy , ‘Hybrid’ organization

Innovation in National Libraries

Practice shared: examples

• ‘ There is an active role for middle management [in innovation] but it is to not get in the way.’

• ‘One of the new vice directors in our library came from the private sector. He brought a lot of important things, especially for the future of the library, because he is much more market-orientated, much orientated on the users of the library’

• ‘I think the interesting difference with before is that there have always been technical people in libraries, but they've been sort of tucked away in the IT function, and now you need them everywhere’

Innovation in National Libraries

Conclusions and recommendations• Model confirmed as relevant and useful for assessing

the innovation capacity in their library• discussion of the factors led to the expected sharing of

practice around these factors• Model not mature enough for comparative research

Recommendations:• Use model for self evaluation • Use model for sharing innovation practice among peer

organizations

Innovation in National Libraries

RQ: What factors determine the capacity for innovation of a national library?

and forget about design

Innovation in National Libraries

The Library Innovation Engine

Sharing to be continued in an Open manner through other channels www.libraryinnofactors.wordpress.com

Innovation in National Libraries