## 1 Introduction  
The early view of innovation was dominated by the perception that innovation can assist businesses and entrepreneurs in prospering and gaining a competitive differentiation and market advantage through innovative services or products created to align with customer expectations. Innovation, recognized as a driving force for competitive advantage, enables organizations to deliver valuable, practical, and engaging solutions to their customers [1, 2, 3]. Service innovation primarily involves developing business models, enhancing processes and service offerings, and creating value for stakeholders, employees, and societies [4]. Its significance extends across private and public sectors, contributing to technological advancements and societal welfare. It is a crucial differentiator, positioning organizations for competitive growth and strategic advantages [5, 6]. Moreover, service innovation is vital for organizational survival as it cuts operational expenses, enhances productivity, and drives transformative change [7, 8, 9]. Therefore, public service innovation research has recently drawn the attention of scholars and professionals, indicating the importance of this field and its significant impact on outcomes [10]. Moreover, regarding value creation, public sector core values are distinct and more intricate [11]. These values include enhancing service quality, improving societal welfare, and building trust in government to deliver effective policies and services. The complexity of public service innovation requires managers to comprehend the external environment and internal organizational context to understand the catalysts of various types of innovation [12]. Fostering innovation in this complex context often spawns several challenges organizations encounter, hindering innovation initiatives. These challenges can significantly impede the progress toward strategic innovation goals and may arise at any stage of the innovation process. Commonly referred to as constraints, barriers, problems, or inhibitors [13], understanding these challenges requires more than identification and ranking; it necessitates a deeper exploration of their interrelationship and dependency. However, as highlighted in Section 3.3, most studies that have explored public sector organizations' challenges have overlooked how these challenges influence one another, both directly and indirectly. Recognizing these interrelations is essential, as any effort to facilitate innovation without addressing them may ultimately lead to the failure of innovation [13]. To bridge the identified gap, this study presents findings from empirical research focused explicitly on UAE government entities providing direct public services. Expanding on the investigation of [PERSON] and [PERSON] [14], this research explores the interrelationships between challenges encountered by the public sector and is designed to achieve the following key objectives:  
* To analyze and visualize the interrelationships between challenges impacting innovation in public services by UAE government entities to understand better how these challenges influence each other. * To provide decision-makers with a tool to swiftly distinguish the most critical challenges and the root causes of innovation ineffectiveness. * To recommend actionable strategies for tackling the most critical challenges identified through the analysis. This study's findings are expected to be of significant value for UAE government entities and other nations with comparable socioeconomic and cultural settings. The valuable insights from this research can enlighten decision-makers and enhance resource allocation and strategic planning, which will result in fostering innovation and driving transformative progress in services. This article is structured as follows: Section 2 explores key theories that underpin the study, Section 3 reviews the relevant literature, Section 4 details the methodology and describes the approach adopted, and Section 5 provides a thorough discussion of findings.