Innovation Labs and digital transformation initiatives: a comparison between the public and private sectors

With the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the need for using digital solutions as a source of competitive advantage for organizations becomes evident. The encouragement of creativity and experimentation, characteristics of work carried out in innovation laboratories (i-Labs), seems to indicate great potential for the support of these units in the digital transformation (DT) process. The overall objective of this study is to analyze the performance of i-Labs present in both the public and private sectors and identify their main DT practices, establishing a comparison between the two sectors. The research is a case study. The data were generated from semi-structured interviews conducted in two organizations, one public and one private. The collected data were analyzed using Bardin's Content Analysis technique (2011), where each interview was transcribed, analyzed, and categorized to understand the research problem. The results revealed that in both organizations, the DT actions developed by the i-Labs were based on the use of "Mobile" and "Cloud Computing" technologies, with greater emphasis in the private sector due to the structuring and consolidation of programs and projects aimed at fostering an innovation-oriented culture.