## 3 Literature Review
### Challenges in the Public Sector  
Efforts to innovate often encounter challenges that can impede their success; therefore, recognizing these challenges is essential for developing effective strategies to mitigate their impact. In a recent study by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [14], these challenges were highlighted. Building on this earlier work, an updated version of the synthesized list of challenges is presented in Table 1, incorporating new findings from the literature. The original study synthesized findings from 26 studies covering the period from 2013 to 2021, resulting in a comprehensive list of 45 challenges spanning behavioral, cultural, resource-related, structural, external, and systemic dimensions. The updated version includes findings from four additional studies, adding 13 new challenges to the original list. These studies were incorporated between 2023 and 2024 to  
An analysis of these 30 studies reveals that only the studies by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [14], [PERSON] et al. [73], [PERSON] et al. [61], [PERSON] [67], [PERSON] et al. [75],  
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and [PERSON] [69] focus exclusively on government entities. The first three studies focus on the European public sector and provide insights into the distinct innovation challenges and pathways within the region's public sector framework. From a comparative perspective, [PERSON] et al. [75] have shifted the focus toward the Middle Eastern context, particularly exploring Dubai's government, aiming to explore how creativity and innovation are understood and perceived and to identify the key challenges that impede innovation within the government sector. The study utilized a survey-based method to examine employees' perspectives across different entities in the Dubai government; it identified bureaucratic culture as a significant obstacle and found notable communication gaps in how employees understand innovation and creativity. Additionally, it revealed the disconnection between the governmental entities' structural framework and the innovation process's dynamic nature. Regarding top management support, [PERSON] et al. [75] showed that employees' innovative ideas often lacked the necessary support from top management. However, the two main gaps considered in the study by [PERSON] et al. [75] include the exclusion of the comprehensive insights of managers, experts, and policymakers into innovation, and the focus on Dubai only, reducing relevance to the broader UAE context. Also, the findings may not truly represent the present situation, considering that over four years have passed since the data was collected. This time gap suggests that the identified challenges may have been addressed, or new ones may have arisen since then. A recent empirical study by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [14] offers further insights into these challenges by identifying and ranking them and examining how they are influenced by adopting the Government Excellence Model (GEM) and by organization size within the UAE government. Using expert consultations and questionnaires, which yielded 28 valid responses out of 37 UAE government entities that deliver services to customers and the general public, the study identified 22 challenges, categorizing them and highlighting 10 as critical, with half linked to innovation culture. The findings revealed that the organization's size does not significantly affect these challenges, whereas entities adopting GEM perceive six challenges as less critical. By examining Table 1, it is noticeable that the most reported challenges in these studies were risk avoidance/aversion, resistance to change, law and regulation challenges, and inadequate resources. These challenges represent cultural and organizational issues that impede creativity and innovation. They must receive the most attention from decision-makers to mitigate their effect and understand the relationship between them to reduce their cascading effect, ultimately fostering innovation.