Public sector innovation labs as an approach to data-driven innovation

The chapter explores the connection between public sector innovation labs (PSI labs) and data-driven innovation. PSI Labs have emerged as a global public administration trend in the last few decades. Despite the continuous opening and closing of labs at different levels of government, “labification” remains a relevant phenomenon to probe for understanding how public bodies frame contemporary innovation challenges and translate them into policy practices. The chapter offers an original perspective to lab scholarship, by considering labs not only as new organizational actors (such as adhocracies) but as an approach of the public sector toward data-driven innovation. The proposal is supported by a literature review that retraces the evolution of the lab paradigm through its main ideal types (living labs, innovation labs, public sector innovation labs). The review is the basis for an in-depth discussion about “labs-as-an-approach” for data-driven innovation in the public sector articulated into three areas of implications for practice, substantiated by real-life examples.