A Negotiated Public Value for Digital Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of Bahrain

Abstract

AbstractThis paper explores the emergent public value that is negotiated by members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that include the public sector, private sector and digital entrepreneurs as they work to set up a community for start-ups. The paper employs the theoretical lens of ‘public value’ [34] to explore the various forms of public value for different stakeholders involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem certain notions of public value are negotiated. The paper focuses on the case study of Bahrain’s national digital entrepreneurship initiative and particularly on how the Startup Bahrain platform was developed. The analysis focuses on the nature of public and private sector collaboration and how this involves an emergent set of public value within national ICT initiatives. The paper highlights the nature of stakeholder’s environment and perspectives of public value, the digital platform as contributing to public value, and the entrepreneurial community’s negotiated public value.KeywordsPublic valueDigital entrepreneurshipDigital business ecosystemsPublic-private sector collaboration