How policy entrepreneurship training affects policy entrepreneurship behavior among street-level bureaucrats – a randomized field experiment

Abstract

ABSTRACT Can policy entrepreneurship training affect policy entrepreneurship behavior among street-level bureaucrats? The current research aims to expand our understanding of how and when street-level bureaucrats might use entrepreneurial strategies to directly influence policy design. We suggest that managers and decision makers can increase street-level bureaucrats’ willingness and ability to act as policy entrepreneurs through specific training. To test this argument, we conducted a randomized field experiment with 158 nurses in a community-based network of maternal and child healthcare clinics in Israel. Our findings suggest that policy entrepreneurship training has a significant positive effect on street-level policy entrepreneurship behavior. We also find that it reduces the need of street level bureaucrats to have policy entrepreneurship self-efficacy in order to engage in policy entrepreneurship behavior. We discuss our findings in detail, proposing new avenues in theory and practice.