From Hero-Innovators to Distributed Heroism: An in-depth analysis of the role of individuals in public sector innovation

Building on the literature on collaborative leadership, this paper explores the roles of individual persons in processes of public innovation. On the basis of a literature review, a heuristic model is developed that consists of roles at different levels (entrepreneurial leadership versus innovation realization) and in different phases (idea generation, selection, testing, scaling-up, and diffusion). The value of this model is explored through an in-depth, longitudinal analysis of a police innovation in the Netherlands. The empirical study underlines the value of the model and shows that, although individual hero-innovators may not exist, distributed heroism does.