Case Set

Innovation Case Set

Authors Rawi Abdelal, Jorrit de Jong, Warren Dent, Fernando Fernandez-Monge, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Carlos Paiva, Eric Weinberger

Last Updated
Mar 13, 2025
Topic
Innovation
Locations
Africa, Asia, South America

Overview

How do you improve government even amid scarcity, resistance, or uncertainty? This free set of teaching cases explores real-world examples of city leaders who have redefined what’s possible—driving bold systems change and transforming government performance through innovation.

Introduction

This set of teaching cases explores different facets of innovation in government and public entrepreneurship in a global context, highlighting examples from cities in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. The learning objectives for which these cases were developed include:

Developing strategies for mobilizing and managing limited or non-financial resources to address public priorities effectively
Creating compelling public value propositions to sustain support for projects, even if outcomes are uncertain or incomplete
Naming and examining stakeholder interests to assess support or resistance and determine the appropriate pace of implementation
Cultivating adaptive management through learning by doing, reflecting on sustainable success, and creating conditions for effective consolidation and institutionalization
Diagnosing performance gaps and evaluating potential solutions while balancing improvement and innovation approaches
Exploring the roles and responsibilities of leaders in promoting innovation and continuous improvement, including the use of methods like Government Accelerators and 100-day challenges

Cases come with educator guides (suggested session plans for use in academic courses) and practitioner guides (suggested session plans for standalone workshops) as they become available. As a set of curricular materials, this collection of cases lends itself well for courses and training on: