Title: Toward a theory of public sector entrepreneurship

Authors: Gordon E. Shockley, Roger R. Stough, Kingsley E. Haynes, Peter M. Frank

Addresses: Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Florida International University, FL, USA. ' George Mason University, School of Public Policy, Fairfax, VA, USA. ' George Mason University, School of Public Policy, Fairfax, VA, USA. ' Assistant Professor of Economics, Wingate University, Wingate, NC, USA

Abstract: Existing theories of public sector entrepreneurship lack a sense of entrepreneurial discovery ubiquitous in human action. Instead, existing theories emphasise rational calculation in a public sector setting. Existing theories of public sector entrepreneurship, therefore, are inadequate to account for the observed entrepreneurial behaviour in political and bureaucratic settings. The purpose of this paper is to redress the limited theories of public sector entrepreneurship by integrating Kirznerian and Schumpeterian theories of entrepreneurship with Buchanan and Tullock|s constitutional political economy to move toward a theory of public sector entrepreneurship. The following analytic definition is offered: public sector entrepreneurship occurs whenever a political or governmental actor is alert to, and acts on, potential political profit opportunities, thus equilibrating the policy subsystem in which the actor is embedded and moving it toward a new equilibrium.

Keywords: public sector entrepreneurship; Israel Kirzner; Joseph Schumpeter; public administration; public policy; entrepreneurial behaviour; constitutional political economy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2006.009875

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2006 Vol.6 No.3, pp.205 - 223

Published online: 21 May 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article