Innovative aspects of public services in Albania

Public services take up an important place in the economic activities of a country, which makes it crucial to deliver high-quality and efficient services to the public, cut down unemployment, and improve social welfare. Recent years have seen an increase in the use of innovative practices in the public sector to facilitate service delivery and increase efficiency in the Albanian public sector. The organizations of the public sector seek new ways to carry out their mission. The desire of providing better quality, faster, and lower-cost public services has prompted central and local governments to be oriented toward Internet usage, turning innovation into one of the greatest goals of recent times (Costake, 2008). The public sector aims to produce new innovative ideas in the field of goods and services, human resources, and economic development, as well as to implement them to create solutions and social value. Organizations offering public services need to be innovative to meet the constantly changing needs of their customers and build trust. There is no better option than concentrating on service innovation if the public administration wants to effectively deliver public services to citizens (Karagoz, 2013). Innovation is considered an essential condition for development processes at a time when public organizations face competitive and progress-related challenges (KoC' & Gunal, 2021). Objective: The objective of this study is to emphasize the importance of innovation in public service delivery. Within the scope of this study, it is first defined the concept of public innovation, then its positive impact on public services is examined. It is also important to understand the innovation policies of public services in Albania. The literature will be supported by examples of innovative public services in Albania. This study is focused on offering a theoretical contribution by reviewing available literature. Innovation in public services is a topic with increasing interest in recent years that directly affects the quality of the delivered service, therefore the literature related to the topic is extensive. Results: The literature shows that the phases of the innovation cycle should be strengthened through collaboration with public and private stakeholders, through the empowerment of human resources, and by accepting feedback from the community/customers. The main factors that impact the success of innovation in public services are related to the integration of services, benefiting from partnerships, and increased citizen participation. In recent years the digitalization of public services has helped to reduce the time of delivering a public service, to reduce unnecessary bureaucratic actions, to increase transparency, and facilitate access to information. Originality: Innovation in public services is a topic of interest for many governments, thus this study will offer a point of view related to the importance of innovative public services together with some suggestions to overcome burdens during the delivery of innovative public services in Albania. Innovation in the private sector has a wide place in the literature, but more research is needed in terms of public administration. This paper focuses on innovation in the public sector, offering a contribution to the literature related to this sector that offers its services to the public.