Innovations In The Public Sector: Strengthening The Resilience Of Local And Regional Units In Croatia To The Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic turbulences and initiated discussions on how to improve the resilience of local and regional units to crises. Innovations in public sector present a challenge, but they bring benefits, especially during socio-economic crises. In this paper implementation of innovations in the public sector on the local and regional levesl is explored. While most of the previous research works endeavours to explore the role of the private sector in implementation of innovations in the public sector, this paper aims to explore the capabilities of local and regional units to implement innovations and obstacles during implementation of innovative actions from the local stakeholders’ perspective. The research goal is to determine whether there is heterogeneity between the local and regional units and local development agencies and local action groups at the innovation levels and, if there is, which obstacles does the local stakeholder face when introducing or implementing the innovations. Furthermore, the effects of identified obstacles onto the process of introducing innovations are explored as well. Research results indicate there are three main factors disrupting the process of introducing innovations in the public sector. These are the obstacles related to competences, bureaucratic obstacles and financial obstacles. Financial obstacles and competences related obstacles have been identified as the most significant obstacles within the process of innovation introduction in the Croatian public sector.