The changing nature of public entrepreneurship

Abstract

This article proposes a cyclical theory of public entrepreneurship that is rooted in contextual conditions. The authors use material presented to the Institute of Public Administration of Canada for the annual innovation award, as well as an extensive literature review, to illustrate a new model for public entrepreneurship, arguing that today's public entrepreneurs are teams and their actions are systemic. Public entrepreneurs do not create new artifacts, nor do they design grandiose projects, but they slowly reinvent their organizations and, in so doing, transform the systems that control government effectiveness and efficiency. The authors generalize and contextualize the idea of public entrepreneurship and structure the emergence of entrepreneurs into a cycle theory. The individual entrepreneur dominates when the organization is new or there is a need for novel activities. As the organization matures and the need for efficiency takes over, dominant individual entrepreneurship disappears, and with time, a new systemic entrepreneurship arises to tackle them. © 2007 The American Society for Public Administration.