Measurement of organisational innovativeness of public agencies in Asean

Abstract

As public sector organisations strive to balance priorities to meet increasing public demands, they need to be more innovative and changes bureaucratic behaviors, administrative methods, and implementing new way of conducting routine work processes. This study combines both qualitative and quantitative empirical research methods with the objectives to 1) review how organisational innovativeness (OI) has been measured and identify the important factors affecting OI of public agencies, 2) develop and validate a suitable measurement framework model and indicators for measuring OI in ASEAN public agencies, 3) to create an online web-based application (POINTinno.com) to adequately measure OI, and 4) test how POINTinno.com was perceived by the potential users and assess its commercialisation potential. In order to be more innovative and competitive, public organisations require 1) innovative culture, 2) strong transformation leadership, 3) innovative strategy with effective followed-through mechanism to mitigate changes, 4) motivated and capable workforce, 5) sufficient resources and funds, 6) innovative management capability and practices, 7) effective performance monitoring and evaluation system, and 8) outreach collaborative networks and supportive external contexts and regulations to foster innovation. POINTinno.com was developed to assess OI across ASEAN and the results showed that the scales have high internal consistency and reliability with Cronbach’s Alpha values of 0.896 – 0.955 (n = 290). First order confirmatory factor analysis results revealed that the latent variables and indicators in POINT fitted the empirical data with indices of comparative fit index (CFI) of 0.997, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) of 0.995, chi-square χ2 (14, N = 290) = 20.024, p =.129, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) of 0.039, and standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) of 0.011. Moreover, the observed factor loadings of the eight factors of POINT ranged from 0.662 - 0.902 and were significant at p <.01 indicating that the eight factors are the important indicators of public OI. User technology acceptance test of POINTinno.com revealed that the users were satisfied in using the application as a multi criteria decision analysis and decision support program with high mean average score of 4.12 (SD 0.771). The commercialisation analysis revealed that the NPV of the POINTinn.com was estimated at 1.60 million Baht, IRR=170%, and the estimated payback period of initial total investment at approximately 12 months. This research study contributes to a much needed empirically validated OI framework model as well as the development of a reliable tool to adequately measure, benchmark, and assess public OI in ASEAN developing countries.