Productive resistance in public sector innovation - introducing social impact bonds in Swedish local government

This article contributes to debates on public sector innovation by empirically analysing and conceptually unpacking organizational resistance. It is based on research following the attempts to launch a particular public sector innovation, Social Impact Bonds (SIB), in Swedish local government. Drawing on the literature on productive resistance, the analysis shows how a range of different actors, from consultants and investors to local civil servants, are entangled in interactions, negotiations and new organizational settings. The study concludes that SIB, beyond dichotomies, such as resistance/compliance, is continuously circumscribed, widened, reformulated and reassembled to grow the potential market and increase the local applicability.