In the fifty year span since Kuznets (1962) complained about the paucity of knowledge about innovation, an explosion of research has responded generating what has now become a well-established field of scholarship. Perhaps the most fundamental question emerging in innovation research is why some organizations innovate while others do not (Dosi, 1988; Nelson and Winter, 1982). However, most of the research on innovations at the organizational level has been restricted to the private sector. As Bugge and Bloch (2016, p. 1467) point out, “Innovation has traditionally been studied in the private sector.” Despite an increased awareness of this gap in the literature (Bernier and Hafsi, 2007; Brown and Osborne, 2012; Damanpour et al., 2009; Hartley, 2005; Osborne, 2013; Osborne and Brown, 2013; Verhoest et al., 2007), research on why the propensity to innovate varies across organizations remains remarkably focused on the private sector, while generally ignoring the public sector context. This paucity of research is unfortunate because considerable anecdotal evidence and examples abound suggesting that innovation in the public sector may play an important role (Geels, 2002; Geels and Schot, 2007; Kuhlmann and Rip, 2014; Turnheim and Geels, 2013). In addition, even a small innovation in the public sector may yield large outcomes or effects beyond the limits of the public sector itself (Aschhoff and Sofka, 2009; Edler and Georghiou, 2007; Edler and Yeow, 2016; Edquist and Hommen, 2000; Edquist and Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, 2012; Rolfstam 2009; Rolfstam et al., 2011).