Good practice in best practice: The use of best practice case studies in service innovation by local public administrations

Standards and best practice play a profound role in innovation processes. Whilst all best practices are contextually defined, they must also reference external standards and change processes. Thus, the relationship between an innovation and accepted standards is an important feature of innovation processes. This paper focuses on the neglected area of innovation in public administration services. It surveys the tendency of public administrations to adopt extended enterprise organisational forms and to use dynamic and informal standards such as best practice case studies. This point is demonstrated by referring to recent case-based research in public administrations. The paper examines the changing form and content of standards for innovation processes and reviews the theoretical and practical problems in their use by innovators. It suggests a typology of case studies and practical guidelines for their use in innovation. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.