Learning from public sector innovation pilots: the case of autonomous bus pilots

The current paper provides novel and detailed insights into how the design of experimental innovation pilots impacts the potential for learning about specific technologies by public sector organizations. We consider technology pilots to be crucial for cumulative learning in public sector innovation processes, but the aspect of learning has been largely neglected in the literature on technology piloting, living labs and public sector innovation in general. We develop a holistic framework that distinguishes between different types of learning and describes how organizational learning and routinization of knowledge cumulatively take place across technology pilots, how this is impacted by the set-up and design of the pilots, and how this in turn influences the eventual technology adoption and scaling. We apply the framework to study learning in the context of cumulative technology pilots with autonomous electric mini-buses in the cities of Helsinki, Tallinn and Kongsberg.