Entrepreneurship a Managerial Tool for Renewal – The Case of the Swedish Public Employment Service

The purpose of this paper is to study how strategic and entrepreneurial processes develop in a public-sector organization. We do this through the theoretical lens of Strategic Entrepreneurship (SE). Previous literature on SE... [ view full abstract ]

The purpose of this paper is to study how strategic and entrepreneurial processes develop in a public-sector organization. We do this through the theoretical lens of Strategic Entrepreneurship (SE). Previous literature on SE practices have identified a number of organizational aspects – such as culture, structure, and 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 its possible consequences. There are also few qualitative studies within SE. When more qualitative features of SE are attained, it can provide a better understanding of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship in established organizations and SE. In line with this, our study is based on a longitudinal and qualitative process approach focusing on the work of the Swedish Public Employment Services (SPES) efforts to realize its new strategy through entrepreneurial processes. The results showed that there are several tensions between previous culture, leadership and structure in relation to entrepreneurial processes. We have contributed to previous literature by focusing on the organizational aspects of these tensions and the SE practices of balancing strategic management and entrepreneurship. Our results also show how entrepreneurial processes become the solution to strategic management problems in the public sector and a managerial tool for renewal.