Kattel, Rainer; Takala, Ville; (2021) Dynamic capabilities in the public sector: The case of the UK’s Government Digital Service. (Working Paper Series: IIPP WP 2021/01). UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose: London, UK.

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Abstract

This study explores the concept of dynamic capabilities in the public sector. Using the UK’s Government Digital Service (GDS) as a case study, we demonstrate how such capabilities form and how they evolve over time. Drawing on expert interviews with former and current employees, we argue that GDS’s success was based on introducing new ways of working and providing value in government. Through successfully professionalising such new skills and notions of value across government, GDS eventually undermined its own dynamic capabilities. Drawing on our findings, we show that dynamic capabilities are systemic resources and abilities to question existing routines and capacities. We conclude by arguing that dynamic capabilities need periodic renewal and nurturing as they are constantly being absorbed into existing routines.

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