Stakeholder Engagement as a Tool to Support Sustainability-Oriented Innovation in the Public Sector

The adoption of a stakeholder engagement perspective when studying sustainability-oriented innovations in the public sector allows to appreciate how different groups of stakeholders may contribute to the creation of these innovations, and what are the channels and instruments through which it occurs. This study relies on the case of one such innovation implemented in the Northern Italian city of Milan—the Congestion Charge Zone (Area C)—to provide a better understanding of the dynamics which allow the innovative process to benefit from stakeholders’ contribution. The analysis suggests that Area C may in fact be seen as the result of a stakeholder co-creation process involving the main innovation promoter, Milan’s Municipality, and its internal and external stakeholders. Both types of stakeholders are found to be involved in a collaboration process that fosters knowledge mobilization and, in turn, is reinforced and fuelled by it.