Policy Entrepreneurs Research Articles

The rise and fall of water policy entrepreneurs in an unequal world

Highlights Policy entrepreneurs from the ‘North’ had undue influence over water policy in the ‘South’ in previous decades. Policy entrepreneurship in water must be centered in, rather than targeted at, the societies concerned. ‘Southern’ countries have gained greater autonomy over their water policies in a multi‐polar world and continue to offer opportunities for the international water industry. Political leaders, administrators, and civil society in the South must now take responsibility and accountability for the outcomes. It is now widely recognized that new infrastructure is essential to help mitigate and adapt to climate change and that hydropower is an energy transition ally not a climate change enemy.

Advocacy Coalitions, Policy Entrepreneurs, and Windows of Opportunity: Tobacco Control in South Africa, 1948-2018.

This article examines the political history of tobacco control policy in South Africa from 1948 to 2018 by drawing on available historical documents, media reports, published books and articles, the grey literature, and face-to-face interviews with key policy actors. Tracing the historical evolution of tobacco control policies in South Africa reveals how embedded opposition from vested interest groups at every stage of the policy process complicates responses to the tobacco issue. This case study demonstrates how, despite such embedded difficulties, a confluence of regime change, evidence-based messaging, political will, policy entrepreneurs, and advocacy coalitions have led to the gradual transformation of tobacco control policy in South Africa over time. Understanding the historical evolution of tobacco control policy in South Africa opens up space for an in-depth inquiry that allows researchers to trace the policy-making process over the last seven decades, and to understand how those processes have facilitated a shift in the orientation of policy makers over time.

The Deaths of Ideas in Congress

Research on lawmaking generally examines why lawmakers enact certain policy ideas. However, most ideas in the United States Congress never become law. Eventually, members stop introducing them altogether. This process, where policies are proposed, not acted on, and no longer advocated for is, by far, the most common legislative outcome. The literature pays it little attention. Yet, how ideas die is important in understanding why some measures stop being realistic alternatives, the importance of policy entrepreneurship, and how policy windows affect the supply of ideas. This paper analyzes why congressional ideas die. I argue and find that the proposals designed to be enacted, especially by legislators with more issue expertise and agenda-setting powers, are less likely to persist across terms. I also show that ideas disappear more often when their sponsors leave Congress, but do not find a similar pattern for when policy windows close and lawmaking conditions worsen.

Identifying proactive and reactive policy entrepreneurs in collaborative networks in flood risk management

A policy entrepreneur is a distinct political actor aiming to affect change. The theoretical narrative regarding policy entrepreneurs is underpinned by their commitment to a policy solution, the multi-dimensional strategies they use to promote that solution, and a suite of attributes and skills facilitating their actions. Policy entrepreneurs reveal themselves through their attempts to transform policy ideas into policy innovations and, hence, disrupt status quo policy arrangements. Indeed, policy entrepreneurs share sensibilities with entrepreneurs in the market, whose conceptualisation serves as a heuristic for their counterparts in policy and politics. The emphasis on change borne out of innovative solutions distinguishes policy entrepreneurs from many other actors who aim to maintain current institutional settings and power relations. The growing scholarship on policy entrepreneurship assumes intentionality as inherent to the policy entrepreneur and their actions, foregrounding the image of the tenacious political actor set on steering their a priori pet policy to a suitable problem. This article draws from the market theory on entrepreneurship, contrasting proactive policy entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship by opportunity) and reactive policy entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship by necessity). We conduct a comparative social network analysis of three municipalities in southern Sweden focused on flood risk mitigation. We demonstrate two different logics of policy entrepreneurship (as a result of seizing opportunities versus as a reaction to vertical pressure), and we explore the consequences for enhancing our understanding of policy entrepreneurship.

What kind of political agency can foster radical transformation towards ecological sustainability?

What kind of political agency is necessary to foster radical political-economic transformations towards ecological sustainability? Focusing on the radical ecopolitical project of degrowth, this article starts from the observation that a prerequisite for degrowth policies to materialise is political agency that is bold and visionary yet pragmatic; agency that seeks radical change yet does so based on what is already in existence. To capture the nature of the ideal-typical political agent that could exercise this sort of agency, this article builds on scholarship on policy entrepreneurship to develop the concept of the radical bricoleur. It proposes that an important key to ‘radicalising’ the bricoleur lies in putting greater emphasis on Levi-Strauss’ (1966) pre-modern, holistic understanding of what kind of order it is that the bricoleur is seeking to rebuild. Doing so opens the way for redefining the goal of the bricoleur from being the reinstatement of the current capitalist and non-sustainable societal order, to being the reinstatement of an order defined by a logic of balance and harmony between and within humans, as well as humans and nature.

Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial Intention Among Tourism and Hotel Management Students: The Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and the Moderating Role of Grit

The present study aims to examine effective measures to enhance the effects of entrepreneurship education (EE) on university students’ entrepreneurial intention (EI) through entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and grit. The survey used a convenient sample of 758 tourism and hotel management students in China. SPSS macro program PROCESS (Model 4) was used to test the mediating effect, and PROCESS (Model 7) was further used to verify the moderated mediation model. The results indicated that: (1) there was statistically significant and positive relationship among EE, ESE, grit, and EI among tourism and hotel management students; (2) EE significantly and positively predicted EI; (3) ESE played a partial mediating role in the link between EE and EI; (4) grit moderated the indirect effect of EE on students’ EI via their ESE. EE is a significant predictor of EI of tourism and hotel management students. Particularly, to improve the influence of EE, entrepreneurial policy makers should design incentive policies that ensure that universities provide EE across various majors. Also, educators should create a supportive and effective education environment so as to improve students’ ESE and grit.

An environmental and sustainability education center in Israel as a “street-level policy entrepreneur” for promoting teachers as change agents for sustainability

Contemporary society needs teachers who are motivated and equipped to function as social change-agents and policy entrepreneurs for sustainability, including education for sustainable consumption, which is targeted as one of the 2030 SD goals to transform consumption patterns and cultural attitudes and norms regarding consumerism. This case study explored: how an environmental and sustainability education center in the largest waste treatment facility in Israel manifests its role as a social change-agent and street-level-policy-entrepreneur (SLPE) for sustainability in its teacher professional development (TPD) programs and their impact on developing these attributes in K-9 teachers. Semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups were conducted with the educational center’s senior staff and with 19 K-9 teachers who participated in PD programs. Policy documents and PD curricula supplemented information on the center’s educational vision and how it translates into content and pedagogies. Findings indicate that the center’s educators function as SLPEs. The TPD impact on teachers is partial but notable, with greater effect in cultivating change-agency competencies among kindergarten and elementary-school teachers compared to middle school teachers. Findings highlight the necessity of PD programs to address the different needs and challenges confronting teachers of different age-level students.

A Clustering Study on the Entrepreneurial Policy Texts of Wenzhou University Students

With the success of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese path to modernization, the construction of Zhejiang Demonstration Area for Common Prosperity, rural revitalization, and the new situation of epidemic prevention and control, Wenzhou's economy will usher in a new round of growth. As the birthplace of China's private economy, entrepreneurial consciousness is deeply rooted in this land, and college students, as the new generation of entrepreneurial forces, their entrepreneurial activities will be an important force for Wenzhou's private economy to shine again. The entrepreneurship policy for college students, as an important influencing factor driving entrepreneurial activities, is worth exploring whether it can adapt to the current environment and whether there are areas for optimization. This study collected entrepreneurship policies in Wenzhou over the past 8 years and used the research method of co word clustering analysis to quantitatively study the policies. The results show that Wenzhou is currently committed to establishing and improving a high-quality service system for relevant college student entrepreneurship groups. At the same time, the Wenzhou government has fully realized the predicament of the development of local key industries in Wenzhou and has provided targeted assistance for different entrepreneurial problems.

Navigating the Wicked Policy Problem: An In-Depth Analysis of Policy Dilemmas and Innovative Approaches for Effective Problem Solving

The UN established the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address a variety of social, economic, and environmental issues in order to ensure a more equitable future for all. These issues are to be addressed through policy and various relevant programs. However, some policy problems are hardly fixed despite the fact that many public policies are ostensibly being developed to address them. Wicked problems keep on piling up. Policy issues such as road safety, corruption, poverty and inequality, unemployment, land disputes, environmental degradation, gender equality, and so on have drawn a growing number of policies in an effort to address them, but these issues are recognized as being essentially amorphous and stubborn, hence creating policy dilemmas. This article offers a greater grasp of the alternatives for fixing wicked problems. It considers policy networks, policy entrepreneurship, collaborative governance, data-driven decision-making, policy diffusion, decentralization, and strategic placement of street-level bureaucrats as key strategies for tackling complex policy issues. This article makes the case that an integrated policy package is best suited to address wicked policy issues. This implies that addressing wicked problems requires a multifaceted and adaptive approach, as no single problem-solving technique can consistently and reliably provide a wide-ranging result.

At the controls: Politics and policy entrepreneurs in EU policy to decarbonize maritime transport

AbstractThe recent adoption of the FuelEU Maritime regulation, aiming to decarbonize maritime shipping, is part of the EU clean energy transition to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Based on autoethnographic method and qualitative text analysis, applying the multiple streams framework as a theoretical lens, this article explores and explains the politics and the policy process of FuelEU Maritime. A policy window opened with adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015, the slow progress on climate policies in the International Maritime Organization, and the subsequent adoption of the European Green Deal in 2019 and the new EU climate law in 2021. Diverging beliefs and narratives of policy entrepreneurs, policy makers, and stakeholders on problems to be addressed and different policy options to be implemented are analyzed. There were mainly two policy entrepreneurs, advocating different problem descriptions and policy options. The European Commission proposed a technology‐neutral, goal‐based approach to reach moderate emission reductions by 2050, while a coalition led by green mobility NGO Transport & Environment advocated a technology‐specific multiplier and subquota for zero‐carbon fuels to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The article explains the agency of Transport & Environment and allies in influencing the European Parliament and several member states in the Council of the EU to stand the grounds against incumbent shipping and fossil fuel industry that influenced the Commission to present a down‐watered policy proposal. Finally, the article exemplifies the complexity of the second‐generation energy transition required for decarbonization compared to the first‐generation transformation focusing on renewable electricity.

Decabinetisation as a presidentialisation strategy: a process-tracing analysis of the executive state law in Greece

ABSTRACT This paper develops and empirically tests the novel concept of ‘decabinetisation’, a type of depoliticisation reform that affects the advisory and support offices of executive politicians. Reforms that restrict and constrain the work of ministerial advisers and reduce the political resources of ministers are puzzling, even more so when pressure to reform ministerial offices is absent. To understand why governments undermine a system that has been put in place to serve them, this paper investigates the provisions of Law 4622/2019 on the Executive State in Greece, using ‘theory-building process-tracing’ based on data collected from government documents and 23 elite interviews. Initially selected as an extreme case of second-order decabinetisation in the absence of pressure to reform, the study morphed into a more typical case that exemplifies how ministerial office reforms can be the result of strategic forms of presidentialisation. Decabinetisation can be triggered by the Prime Minister’s intention to ‘presidentialise’ the core executive in face of centre-of-government dysfunctionalities; policy entrepreneurs couple the problem and politics stream with the decabinetisation policy; but the reform becomes possible only in the presence of a critical juncture during which the power asymmetry between the head of government and other members of government is big.

Religion and public administration at the micro level: The lens of street‐level bureaucracy theory in democracies

AbstractThe dynamics between religion and state in public administration implementation theories has garnered scholarly interest over the past decade. However, these two realms of study are rarely combined. In this research note, I explore religion and, more specifically, the implementation of religion‐based policies by street‐level bureaucrats, as a public service like any other. I point to the more commonly studied aspect of this realm, namely the influence of personal religious tendencies on the exercise of discretion by the individual street‐level bureaucrat. Further, I discuss the supply of religion‐based services by street‐level bureaucrats in democracies, and the actions they are willing to take (such as promote co‐production or policy entrepreneurship) when religion constraints them from supplying certain public services.Points for practitioners Street‐level bureaucrats are influenced by their religious perceptions during policy implementation. These workers may also be constrained by religion‐based policies during implementation, hence provide inadequate public services or not supplying them at all. Citizens may be dissatisfied with the inadequate services and the burdens it imposes on their lives. Street‐level bureaucrats who cannot supply certain services due to religion‐based constraints may take on co‐production or policy entrepreneurship strategies outside the standard scope of their job description in order to supply them.

Policy entrepreneurs are integral in efforts to curb antimicrobial resistance in low and middle income countries.

Policy entrepreneurs are integral in efforts to curb antimicrobial resistance in low and middle income countries.

Exploring policy entrepreneurs' modes of action: Positioning, networking, outmaneuvering, and worldmaking

AbstractPolicy entrepreneurs interact with their wider social environment to create social and policy change. To understand entrepreneurial behavior in this context, adopting multi‐level approaches becomes increasingly important. They are crucial to explaining the interdependencies of individual entrepreneurs, immediate stakeholders (such as team members), and their wider context. Scholars focus on specific links, such as those between entrepreneurs and their local community. Very few papers have to date take a holistic approach, even though studying how entrepreneurs interact with multiple levels of stakeholders over time has the potential to better explain entrepreneurial processes. By following a qualitative research approach using two case studies of policy entrepreneurs in Bolivia and Germany, we show that policy entrepreneurs employ different modes of action over time when interacting with their immediate and wider contexts in attempting to foster policy change. Our results suggest that they co‐create with policymakers in order to shape their ecosystems and society at large.

Conceptual Framework of B40 Women’s Entrepreneurial Intention in Malaysia using Theory of Planned Behavior

Despite Malaysia's rapid economic growth, a substantial income gap persists, and women-owned businesses remain a minority. The study employs the Theory of Planned Behavior to create a conceptual framework for understanding the factors that influence B40 women's entrepreneurial intentions. It examines the effect of attitude towards entrepreneurship, family support, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy as crucial drivers of women's decisions to engage in entrepreneurship. The research methodology will involve using questionnaires that will be distributed to a diverse sample of B40 women in Malaysia. The implications of the study include contributing to Malaysia's National Entrepreneurship Policy, enhancing support for women entrepreneurs, and motivating more women, particularly those with unstable incomes, to pursue entrepreneurship, thereby fostering greater gender equality and economic development.

Diffusion of global health norms through a national medical professional movement in the universal healthcare of Thailand.

Commonly, research investigations on social policy reform primarily examine the national processes at the core of policy formation rather than considering their global context. Concerns are raised regarding the diffusion and influence of global health norms on Thai universal health coverage policymaking. The findings demonstrate that global health ideas and actors have an impact on national policymaking and that they can share ideas in a variety of ways, including glocalization, vernacularization, policy learning, and policy entrepreneur intervention, in setting the agenda for national universal health coverage. Global and universal health coverage (UHC) concepts have existed for decades; success would not be possible without the efforts of policy entrepreneurs such as the Rural Doctor Movement, who localize and vernacularize global concepts for implementation. These concepts must be compatible with the national and local sociopolitical contexts in which they exist. The Thai case contributed to a better understanding of the influences of global ideas and actors on transnational health policy transfer, as well as the intervention of the national medical professional movement as policy entrepreneurs in healthcare policymaking and policy change for equity in health.

Unveiling the impact of policy entrepreneurs on South Korea’s social economy: a media analysis

Unveiling the impact of policy entrepreneurs on South Korea’s social economy: a media analysis

Factors Leading Marginalized Transgenders Towards Digital Entrepreneurship in Pakistan

The transgenders in Pakistan are facing challenges in jobs quota and starting their businesses in Pakistan. Transgenders are a marginalized community in Pakistan facing challenges in establishing their businesses. There are fewer opportunities for lesbians and guys in Pakistan to start their physical business due to bullying and harassment. The objective of the current research was to measure the impact of entrepreneurial support and entrepreneurial opportunities on the digital entrepreneurship of transgender people in the presence of microfinance loans and government policies in developing economies like Pakistan. A sample of 56 marginalized transgender people from the Punjab province of Pakistan was collected for the findings. The statistical analysis is performed by using SPSS 24 and Smart PLS 4. The partial least square–structural equation modelling (PLS–SEM) approach was used to measure the findings of measurement model assessment and structural model assessment. It is empirically concluded that the effect of entrepreneurial support and entrepreneurial opportunities on digital entrepreneurship for transgender people is large. Therefore, microfinance loans and government policies for supporting transgenders in digital entrepreneurship are critically required when there is appropriate support for transgenders for the accomplishment of entrepreneurial opportunities. Furthermore, the government of Pakistan is needed to plan and execute reasonable policies for sustainable entrepreneurship to motivate transgenders to the digital entrepreneurial environment. The execution of entrepreneurial policies by the Pakistani government and support of microfinance loans can increase digital entrepreneurship by transgenders in Pakistan, and this marginalized community can achieve success and standard life. This study also provides some recommendations for future studies.

The Role of the Local Government in Fostering Entrepreneurship – Evidence from Municipalities in the Kraków Metropolitan Area

Abstract Subject and purpose of work The study was conducted in the municipalities of the Kraków Metropolitan Area. It aims to identify models for supporting local entrepreneurship and assess their effectiveness. The effectiveness of the models was evaluated by measuring the diversity and changes in the number of enterprises in the area. We also presented entrepreneurs’ opinions on their satisfaction with specific policies. Materials and methods: Secondary ( literature and statistical data) and primary data sources were used in the paper. The primary source was a survey among entrepreneurs. The survey research to assess the performance of entrepreneurship policy involved 21 municipalities. We apply a mixed-method approach here (comparative indicator analysis, cluster analysis and Kruskal-Wallis tests). Results: The research demonstrated that the policy involving entrepreneurship support through tax instruments (reduced local tax rates) does not contribute significantly to providing entrepreneurship-fostering conditions. The study revealed that the level of entrepreneurship may be affected more by the expenditure policy, such as the municipality’s efforts to establish special economic zones, organise training, establish business information points, etc. Conclusions: Local governments (LG) that are attractive to investors (such as easily available infrastructure and proximity to markets) should adopt high property-tax rates. The tax is undervalued in peri-urban municipalities (compared to property value) and does not burden the business. Second, LG should focus on hard projects. They should intensify spatial planning and land management to ensure space for business to grow. It will entail conflicts and balancing the needs of diverse social groups, but it must be done to stimulate local socioeconomic development.

Empowering youth leaders in B40 marginalized communities: An innovative approach to social entrepreneurship in alignment with national entrepreneurship policy 2030

A robust and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem that promotes economic growth and job creation is what Malaysia’s national entrepreneurship policy 2030 seeks to achieve. But in Malaysia, the B40 income group has a difficult time getting access to resources and possibilities for economic mobility (The World Bank, 2020). These disadvantaged groups frequently do not have access to the education, training, finance, and mentoring necessary to gain the knowledge and abilities necessary to succeed as entrepreneurs (Cheng & Mahmood, 2017). A paradigm that combines social responsibility, entrepreneurship, leadership, and education is needed to address this problem and build social entrepreneurs among marginalized youth leaders. This strategy should equip young people in B40 areas with the abilities, information, and resources necessary to establish long-lasting nonprofit organizations that meet the needs of their neighborhood while also generating cash. This concept could aid in developing a more inclusive and equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem in Malaysia, where everyone has the chance to thrive regardless of their background or socioeconomic level by encouraging a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among marginalized youth leaders.