Title: The main obstacles and chances to the introduction of innovative approaches and tools in the public administration of the Western Balkans countries

Authors: Veran Stančetić

Addresses: Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Jove Ilića 165, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to answer the question of whether and to what extent public administrations in Western Balkans is innovative, and what are the main obstacles and opportunities in the way of their innovations. The article explains the terms innovation and innovative approaches in public administration and how they can be measured. The key hypothesis is that in Western Balkans countries, public administrations are weakly innovative and their organisational structure is obsolete. This is proven based on a small number of innovative approaches. The basic methods on which the work is based are literature review, document content analysis, observation, and case studies. Also, the article provides an in-depth analysis of the causes of the recognised problem. The results show that a significant factor in this situation is the dominant (ruling) parties on the political scene since they are not particularly interested in changes and true public administration reform. Another important factor of the stated situation is the absence of a knowledge society, i.e., the lack of networking of various social actors, the partiality of knowledge that societies have, and weak social capital. In the conclusion, guidelines are given to overcome the identified problems.

Keywords: public administration; public sector; IT; Serbia; Western Balkans.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEM.2026.152441

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 2026 Vol.17 No.2, pp.165 - 180

Received: 20 Dec 2022
Accepted: 14 Sep 2023
Published online: 20 Mar 2026 *

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