Public sector innovation teams: Experience from field‐level bureaucracies

How public sector innovation teams take on innovation assignments has attracted insufficient attention from researchers. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the experiences of innovation teams in field‐level bureaucracies in a non‐Western context. In‐depth interviews with 62 public bureaucrats involved in 31 district and subdistrict innovation teams in Bangladesh reveal that the team members lack innovation orientation and team ‐ building activities, both constraining their innovation performance. It contributes to the innovation literature by explicating that several hostile organi z ational practices constrain team members' innovation orientation and team ‐ building activities, which preclude them from being proper innovation teams, affecting their innovation performance.