The goal of this paper is to present and discuss the difficulties in defining and measuring innovation. The large number of existing definitions is yet failing to make the necessary distinction between innovation and other related concepts. There is no agreement about the most relevant dimensions of innovation and, without a proper definition of innovation, measurement is more difficult. Several methods and attempts of measurement– Awards and Surveys – are identifying different meanings and characteristics of innovation. A more in-depth analysis of a pilot exercise in measuring innovation, namely the European Public Sector Innovation Scoreboard 2013, is done in order to examine its methodology and the validity of its findings for the specific case of Romania. The need for an innovative public sector is generally recognized, and present measurement attempts are actually overestimating the level of innovation. In order to assess this correctly a clearer and narrower definition is needed, the framework of the innovative process needs to be further investigated and research designs have to be improved

中文翻译：

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衡量公共部门创新

本文的目的是介绍和讨论定义和衡量创新的困难。现有的大量定义仍未能在创新和其他相关概念之间做出必要的区分。对于最相关的创新维度没有达成共识，并且如果没有适当地定义创新，衡量将更加困难。几种衡量方法和尝试（奖项和调查）正在确定创新的不同含义和特征。为了评估罗马尼亚的特定案例的方法论和发现的有效性，对衡量创新的试点活动（即2013年欧洲公共部门创新记分牌）进行了更深入的分析。人们普遍认识到需要创新的公共部门，当前的测量尝试实际上高估了创新水平。为了正确评估这一点，需要更清晰，更狭窄的定义，创新过程的框架需要进一步研究，研究设计必须得到改进