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Inger Boyett: University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Introduction
The economics literature suggests, that for markets to operate at their maximum level of efficiency, there is an overwhelming need for entrepreneurial activity. There is no suggestion that the new quasi markets of today's public sector should be any different. This paper attempts through a synthesis of the published literature, surveys of educational and health managers and case examples, to determine whether a new strain of leadership - the public sector entrepreneur - is emerging, to display many of the characteristics of their business counterparts. The economics purists would discount the possibility of entrepreneurial activity without the incentive of individual entrepreneurial profit, and many academics would also suggest the inheritance of "going concerns" indicates an intrapreneurial[1] as opposed to an entrepreneurial process. However, the author argues that other forms of entrepreneurial profits are gained by the successful public sector entrepreneur and that the changes in market structure and resource ownership provide justification for the differentiating of the public sector entrepreneur from the "intrapreneurial" manager.
It is suggested that in such an accelerating period of change in the public sector, a new-style entrepreneurial leader has begun to emerge to accommodate the needs of the new business context. These new "entrepreneurs" seem to demonstrate the personal characteristics and abilities found in much of the entrepreneurial literature. While through organizational change and manipulation, they are exercising the role of Casson's[2] "optimizing agent" and hence derive "entrepreneurial profits" from their exploits. An initial definition for the public sector entrepreneur is developed, which, while highlighting the similarities they share with their business counterparts, also differentiates them from non-public sector entrepreneurs.
What is an entrepreneur?
When Richard Cantillon defined the "entrepreneur" in 1734, he was concentrating on the role of the individual within business markets driven by a desire for profit and possessing the ability to risk buying cheap and selling dear. A century later, Jean Baptiste Say[3] was to include those individuals who utilized periods of change and uncertainty to reallocate resources to maximize their entrepreneurial profit levels within a given market.
These early writings shaped the interpretation of the entrepreneur as an individual owner of a private firm expecting to benefit directly from the entrepreneurial profits of their labours. Their relevance...