Entrepreneurship as a Strategic Management Tool for Renewal—The Case of the Swedish Public Employment Service
1
School of Business, Society and Engineering (EST), Mälardalen University, Högskoleplan 1, 722 20 Västerås, Sweden
2
Academy of Management Accounting and Control in Central Government, School of Business, Stockholm University, Frescativägen, 114 19 Stockholm, Sweden
3
School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, P G Vejdes väg, 351 95 Växjö, Sweden
4
Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (SCORE), Stockholm University, Frescativägen, 114 19 Stockholm, Sweden
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Adm. Sci. 2019, 9(4), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci9040076
Received: 30 June 2019
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Revised: 2 September 2019
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Accepted: 20 September 2019
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Published: 27 September 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strategic Management in Public Sector: Reforms, Contexts, Traditions)
In this paper, we study how entrepreneurial and strategic processes develop in a public-sector organisation through a theoretical lens of Strategic Entrepreneurship (SE). Previous literature on SE practices identified a number of organisational aspects—such as organisational culture, structure, and entrepreneurial leadership—that are important to manage in order to benefit from new opportunities and strategic actions. So far, there is little knowledge about SE practices in the public sector and their possible consequences. There are also few qualitative studies in the field of SE, though arguments have been made for it. Our study is based on a longitudinal and qualitative process approach focusing on the work of the Swedish Public Employment Service’s (SPES) efforts to realise its new strategy through entrepreneurial and strategic processes. The results showed that there are several organisational tensions in relation to the processes of entrepreneurship. We have empirically contributed to previous literature by studying the SE practices of simultaneously balancing the processes of entrepreneurship and strategy. We have also contributed to a more nuanced discussion of the complexity of implementing SE practices and their relationship to organisational culture, structure and entrepreneurial leadership.
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Keywords:
strategic management; strategic entrepreneurship; strategy implementation; public sector; case study
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MDPI and ACS Style
Höglund, L.; Mårtensson, M. Entrepreneurship as a Strategic Management Tool for Renewal—The Case of the Swedish Public Employment Service. Adm. Sci. 2019, 9, 76. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci9040076
AMA Style
Höglund L, Mårtensson M. Entrepreneurship as a Strategic Management Tool for Renewal—The Case of the Swedish Public Employment Service. Administrative Sciences. 2019; 9(4):76. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci9040076
Chicago/Turabian StyleHöglund, Linda, and Maria Mårtensson. 2019. "Entrepreneurship as a Strategic Management Tool for Renewal—The Case of the Swedish Public Employment Service" Administrative Sciences 9, no. 4: 76. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci9040076
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