LIST OF WORKSHOPS

Rationale

Innovation policy research has recently highlighted the importance of public sector dynamic capabilities for the effective design and implementation of net zero transformative and mission-oriented innovation policies (Kattel 2022; Kattel and Mazzucato, 2018; Borras and Edler, 2020). Dynamic capabilities are the capabilities that allow organizations to integrate, build, and reconfigure their resources to adapt in rapidly changing environments and ensure sustained performance in the long term (Teece, 2007). These capabilities are particularly important in the current context, where the ability to learn and adapt are pivotal as the transformative and mission-oriented policies and the environments within which they are designed and implemented change.  Dynamic capabilities, where the public sector officials and organizations are continually learning, are important so that governments can escape path dependence and break their ’old ways’ and structures that are not fit for new transformative policies. An emerging body of work has thus started to analyze public sector dynamic capabilities and the ways in which these can be created in public organizations (Karo, 2018; Kattel and Mazzucato, 2018; Kattel, 2022; Gullmark, 2021; Spanó et al., 2024; McLaren and Kattel, 2025). Despite these recent advances, our understanding of this emerging topic is still limited and in need of further theoretical elaboration.

Objectives and Research Questions

 First, existing conceptualizations of dynamic capabilities generally focus on the organizational level, usually overlooking the role of public sector dynamic managerial capabilities, i.e. capabilities at the team and individual levels (Teece, 2007; Teece et al., 2016; Wilden et al., 2017). The dynamic managerial capabilities concept (Helfat and Martin, 2015; Helfat and Peteraf, 2015) extends the dynamic capabilities perspective by directing attention to managers, individually and in teams (Helfat and Martin, 2015), highlighting the role of entrepreneurial and leadership capabilities (Augier and Teece, 2009; Teece et al., 2016) possessed by a few individuals within an organization (Teece, 2014, 2021). Although there is research on dynamic managerial capabilities in firms, this conceptual development has not been carried out for public sector dynamic capabilities.

 In addition, current work on public sector capabilities tends to not explicitly differentiate between operational capabilities, i.e., those allowing organizations to perform their operations in an effective manner (short term efficiency), and dynamic capabilities, i.e., those allowing them to change and learn (long-term adaptability) (Teece, 2018; Teece et al., 2016). This distinction is not only important from a theoretical viewpoint, for conceptual rigor, but also at a practical level. Dynamic capabilities are particularly important given the ever-changing environments in which transformative policies are being developed and implemented.  

Finally, while innovation and strategy research has responded to calls for a greater focus on the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities (Helfat and Martin, 2015; Wilden et al., 2017; Schilke et al., 2018) and analyzed a plethora of them (Teece, 2012; Helfat and Peteraf, 2015; Enkel and Sagmeister, 2020), a similar effort has not yet been undertaken for public organizations. The microfoundations of dynamic capabilities are the organizational and individual abilities, as well as the organizational structures, tools and mechanisms that support their creation and development in organizations (Teece, 2007; Felin et al., 2012). While the innovation and public policy literatures discuss a variety of factors that can be conceived as microfoundations of public sector dynamic capabilities (e.g., Karo, 2018; Gullmark, 2021; Spanó et al., 2024; McLaren and Kattel, 2025), existing work is fragmented and overlooks key microfoundations, such as those underpinning team and individual dynamic managerial capabilities that have been deemed to be pivotal in innovation and management settings outside of the public sector.

Therefore, the purpose of this workshop is to better understand how dynamic capabilities and their microfoundations function with further granularity within the public sector.  To what extent do dynamic managerial and/or operational capabilities exist in the public sector? How do they differ from the private sector? For instance, are there attributes found in the public sector that make them more or less likely to be found there versus in the private sector? To what extent does the type of challenge faced by the public sector, such as climate change and net zero policies, influence dynamic managerial and/or organizational capabilities? In addition to comparing country contexts (such as countries in various parts of the global North), other important research aspects to consider are differences between levels of governments (e.g. municipalities, regional, national), kinds of government systems (e.g. a federation versus a more unitary system of government), etc.

In this workshop proposal we welcome research within public and innovation policy for climate, and particularly net zero, and/or links to these topics, and the dynamic capabilities perspective to conceptually elaborate existing definitions of public sector dynamic capabilities, and to identify the microfoundations that support their creation and development in public organizations.

Drawing on public and innovation policy research within the context of sustainability, the idea of the workshop would be to identify and categorize the organizational and individual abilities, structures, and mechanisms, as well as how to foster them, i.e., the microfoundations, that support the creation of sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities in public organizations.

Expected Impact on Public Policy Research and/or Practice

The complexity and dynamism of transformative policy requires that all stakeholders involved are able to learn and adapt, including the public sector, so insights on how to build dynamic capabilities in the public sector will help the development of this policy.

Publication Outlet possibilities – Research Policy or Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Innovation policy research has recently highlighted the importance of public sector dynamic capabilities for the effective design and implementation of net zero transformative and mission-oriented innovation policies (Kattel 2022; Kattel and Mazzucato, 2018; Borras and Edler, 2020). Dynamic capabilities are the capabilities that allow organizations to integrate, build, and reconfigure their resources to adapt in rapidly changing environments and ensure sustained performance in the long term (Teece, 2007). These capabilities are particularly important in the current context, where the ability to learn and adapt are pivotal as the transformative and mission-oriented policies and the environments within which they are designed and implemented change.  Dynamic capabilities, where the public sector officials and organizations are continually learning, are important so that governments can escape path dependence and break their ’old ways’ and structures that are not fit for new transformative policies. An emerging body of work has thus started to analyze public sector dynamic capabilities and the ways in which these can be created in public organizations (microfoundations) (Karo, 2018; Kattel and Mazzucato, 2018; Kattel, 2022; Gullmark, 2021; Spanó et al., 2024; McLaren and Kattel, 2025). Despite these recent advances, our understanding of this emerging topic is still limited and in need of further theoretical elaboration.

the purpose of this workshop is to better understand how dynamic capabilities and their microfoundations function with further granularity within the public sector.  To what extent do dynamic managerial and/or operational capabilities exist in the public sector? How do they differ from the private sector? For instance, are there attributes found in the public sector that make them more or less likely to be found there versus in the private sector? To what extent does the type of challenge faced by the public sector, such as climate change and net zero policies, influence dynamic managerial and/or organizational capabilities? In addition to comparing country contexts (such as countries in various parts of the global North), other important research aspects to consider are differences between levels of governments (e.g. municipalities, regional, national), kinds of government systems (e.g. a federation versus a more unitary system of government), etc.

In this workshop proposal we welcome research within public and innovation policy for climate, and particularly net zero, and/or links to these topics, and the dynamic capabilities perspective to conceptually elaborate existing definitions of public sector dynamic capabilities, and to identify the microfoundations that support their creation and development in public organizations.

Drawing on public and innovation policy research within the context of sustainability, the idea of the workshop would be to identify and categorize the organizational and individual abilities, structures, and mechanisms, as well as how to foster them, i.e., the microfoundations, that support the creation of sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities in public organizations.

References

Augier, M. and Teece, D.J., (2009). ‘Dynamic capabilities and the role of managers in business strategy and economic performance’. Organization Science, 20, 410-421.

Borras, S. and Edler, J. (2020). The roles of the state in the governance of socio-technical systems’ transformation’, Research Policy, 49(5).

Felin, T., Foss, N. J., Heimeriks, K. H. and Madsen, T. L. (2012). Microfoundations of routines and capabilities: Individuals, processes, and structure. Journal of Management Studies, 49(8), 1351-1374.

Gullmark, P. (2021). Do all roads lead to innovativeness? A study of public sector organizations’ innovation capabilities. The American Review of Public Administration, 51(7), 509-525.

Helfat, C. E. and Martin, J. A. (2015). ‘Dynamic managerial capabilities: Review and assessment of managerial impact on strategic change’. Journal of Management, 41, 1281-1312.

Helfat, C. E. and Peteraf, M. A. (2015). ‘Managerial cognitive capabilities and the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities’. Strategic Management Journal, 36(6), 831-850.

Karo, E. (2018). ‘Mission-oriented innovation policies and bureaucracies in East Asia’. Industrial and Corporate Change, 27(5), 867-881.

Kattel, R. (2022). Dynamic capabilities of the public sector: Towards a new synthesis. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

Kattel, R. and Mazzucato, M. (2018). ‘Mission-oriented innovation policy and dynamic capabilities in the public sector’. Industrial and Corporate Change, 27(5), 787–801.

McLaren, J., and Kattel, R. (2025). ‘Policy capacities for mission-oriented innovation policy: A case study of UKRI and the industrial strategy challenge fund’. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 214, 124049.

Spanó, E., Monnerat, R., Pacheco, C. A., & Bonacelli, M. B. M. (2024). Legal–institutional design and dynamic capabilities for mission-oriented innovation agencies: a new framework. Science and Public Policy, 51(2), 192-206.

Teece, D. J. (2007). ‘Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance’. Strategic Management Journal, 28(13), 1319-1350.

Teece, D. J. (2012). ‘Dynamic capabilities: Routines versus entrepreneurial action’. Journal of Management Studies, 49(8), 1395-1401.

Teece, D.J. (2014). ‘The foundations of enterprise performance: dynamic and ordinary capabilities in an (economic) theory of firms’. Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(4), 328-352.

Teece, D. J. (2016). ‘Dynamic capabilities and entrepreneurial management in large organizations: Toward a theory of the (entrepreneurial) firm’. European Economic Review, 86, 202-216.

Teece, D. J. (2018). ‘Business models and dynamic capabilities.’ Long range planning, 40-49.

Teece, D.  J. (2021). Evolutionary economics, routines, and dynamic capabilities. In, Nelson, R., Dopfer, K., Potts, J. and Pyka, A. (Ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economics. Routledge: London, 197-214.

Teece, D. J., Peteraf, M. and Leih, S. (2016). ‘Dynamic capabilities and organizational agility: Risk, uncertainty, and strategy in the innovation economy’. California Management Review, 58, 13-35.

Wilden, R., Devinney, T.M. and Dowling, G.R. (2016). ‘The architecture of dynamic capability research: Identifying the building blocks of a configurational approach’. Academy of Management Annals, 10(1), 997-1076. 

Innovation policy research has recently highlighted the importance of public sector dynamic capabilities for the effective design and implementation of net zero transformative and mission-oriented innovation policies. Dynamic capabilities are the capabilities that allow organizations to integrate, build, and reconfigure their resources to adapt in rapidly changing environments and ensure sustained performance in the long term . These capabilities are particularly important in the current context, where the ability to learn and adapt are pivotal as the transformative and mission-oriented policies and the environments within which they are designed and implemented change. An emerging body of work has thus started to analyze public sector dynamic capabilities and the ways in which these can be created in public organizations. Despite these recent advances, our understanding of this emerging topic is still limited and in need of further theoretical elaboration. The purpose of this workshop is to better understand how dynamic capabilities and their microfoundations function with further granularity within the public sector.  To what extent do dynamic managerial and/or operational capabilities exist in the public sector? How do they differ from the private sector? For instance, are there attributes found in the public sector that make them more or less likely to be found there versus in the private sector? To what extent does the type of challenge faced by the public sector, such as climate change and net zero policies, influence dynamic managerial and/or organizational capabilities? In addition to comparing country contexts (such as countries in various parts of the global North), other important research aspects to consider are differences between levels of governments (e.g. municipalities, regional, national), kinds of government systems (e.g. a federation versus a more unitary system of government), etc.

Alexandra Mallett (Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University) - Dr. Mallett’s experience spans academia and the public sectors for over 25 years, working on the design, implementation and evaluation of sustainability policies. She completed her doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) examining the uptake of renewable energy innovations in Mexico City, Mexico and Sao Paulo, Brazil. She also completed the Canadian Science Policy Fellowship in 2016/17 where she worked at the Clean Tech Task Team in NRCan’s Office of Energy Research and Development Branch. She was selected (2022) as a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) member, currently serving as Chair (2024) for the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI). She is also on the Gender, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) subcommittee of the IAI, where she was involved in the creation of the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Committee (IPAC) for the IAI. Her research focuses on operationalizing energy transitions with a focus on public policy, environmental issues, and people. In particular, her focus has been on innovation and technology development and adoption.  She has also been involved in Carleton’s interdisciplinary program at the master’s level on Sustainable Energy Engineering and Policy since its inception in 2010 and where she served as the Graduate Supervisor for the policy part of the program from January 2018-June 2024.  She has also taught Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, a graduate level seminar.  Furthermore, she has taught policy analysis at the graduate (seminar) and undergraduate (lecture) level and has co written a textbook examining policy analysis (with a focus on Canada) with Les Pal and Graeme Auld.