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Understanding Political Entrepreneurship in Local Government Administration: a Contextual Framework
Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Political Science. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6723-8388
Linköping University, Department for Studies of Social Change and Culture, Centre for Municipality Studies – CKS. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
2019 (English)In: Lex Localis, ISSN 1581-5374, E-ISSN 1855-363X, Vol. 17, no 3, p. 643-658Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

It has been argued that political entrepreneurship is playing an increased role for public organizations and play a vital role in local government organizations. Political entrepreneurship has previously been studied from the motivations and actions of the individual entrepreneur. We argue that in order to understand why political entrepreneurship occurs in local public administration, these aspects are not enough. Instead, we need to consider entrepreneurship as situated, and analyse contextual conditions which form institutional demands for political entrepreneurship. A tentative framework is presented, which distinguish conditions coming from reformed organizational setting and conditions coming from new policy challenges. Finally, we conclude that the character of the conditions and thus the institutional demands directs political entrepreneurship towards either value-generative or collaborative entrepreneurship.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Maribor: Institute for Local Self-Government Maribor , 2019. Vol. 17, no 3, p. 643-658
Keywords [en]
political entrepreneurship, local government, public administrators, institutional demands, situated agency
National Category
Public Administration Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-159526DOI: 10.4335/17.3.643-658(2019)ISI: 000477968600012OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-159526DiVA, id: diva2:1341819
Available from: 2019-08-12 Created: 2019-08-12 Last updated: 2025-02-21
In thesis
1. Entreprenöriell förvaltning: Om den lokala utvecklingspolitikens förvaltningslogik
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Entreprenöriell förvaltning: Om den lokala utvecklingspolitikens förvaltningslogik
2022 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Alternative title[en]
Entrepreneurial Administration : The Administrative Logic of Local Development Politics
Abstract [en]

This thesis aims to deepen the understanding of entrepreneurship as an ideal and practice in local government administration. Organization, practices and the roles of civil servants in public administration are all grounded in certain ideals of what a modern public administration should look like. In order to capture the relationship between ideals and practices in local government administration, this introductory essay takes its point of departure in an institutional logic perspective.

Entrepreneurial practices are well documented in a public administration context. Both civil servants and organizations can be more or less creative, alert and energetic, in other words more or less entrepreneurial. However, practices such as these are often understood to derive from the motives, driving forces and extraordinary characteristics of the specific actor. By contrast, this thesis aims to contribute to the literature on public administrative trends and reforms, by discussing entrepreneurship in terms of institutionalized ideals and patterns of action, i.e., institutional logics.

The analysis is based on empirical studies of local development work in ten Swedish municipalities. The research design is grounded in an interpretative ethnographic approach and the development projects in each of the municipalities were closely followed for three years. Local development work is studied as a policy field where entrepreneurial ideals and practices are likely to arise, making it a suitable subject for studies that aim to deepen the theoretical understanding of entrepreneurship in a public administration context.

The thesis demonstrates how an entrepreneurial logic is institutionalized in local government development work and embedded in governance and administrative practices as a natural consequence of certain contemporary reforms and trends in local policy and administration.Through ethnographic studies of local development work, the ideals and practices of the entrepreneurial logic are made visible. The entrepreneurial logic is contrasted to the still prevalent and institutionalized bureaucratic- rational administrative logic. These two logics are in many respects the logical opposite of one another and provide different answers to the question of which administrative practices are appropriate.

The thesis makes three contributions to different theoretical discussions. First, the clarification of the entrepreneurial logic helps both researchers and practitioners make sense of and bring conceptual order to the messy practices of local development work.

Second, the entrepreneurial logic expands the concept of entrepreneurship in a public sector context by viewing entrepreneurship as an institutional phenomenon rather than a phenomenon that represents a break from traditional institutions.

Third, the entrepreneurial logic sheds light on institutionalized administrative ideals and practices that potentially imply major changes in public administration legitimacy, values and norms.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press, 2022. p. 82
Series
Linköping Studies in Arts and Sciences, ISSN 0282-9800 ; 828
Keywords
Political/public entrepreneurship, Local government, Public administration, Local development politics, Politiskt/offentligt entreprenörskap, Kommunal styrning, Offentlig förvaltning, Lokal utvecklingspolitik
National Category
Public Administration Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-181894 (URN)10.3384/9789179291532 (DOI)9789179291525 (ISBN)9789179291532 (ISBN)
Public defence
2022-01-28, ACAS, Hus A, Campus Valla, Linköping, 13:15 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2021-12-20 Created: 2021-12-20 Last updated: 2025-02-21Bibliographically approved

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Olausson, AlbinSvensson, Petra

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