Public Sector Entrepreneurship: Present State and Research Avenues for the Future

Public sector entrepreneurship (PSE) is a growing area of knowledge that studies the application of innovative activities and processes to enhance public service quality. This can ultimately affect the public organization’s performance and the country’s economic success and growth. Even though PSE has been studied through the lenses of several academic disciplines, its assumptions are often based on the insights derived from research on entrepreneurship in the private sector. The theories of public entrepreneurship are scattered throughout the literature, while empirical research is still scarce. There exists a need to build a conceptual characterization that distinguishes its unique indicative dimensions. This paper aims to collect and summarize some of the definitions, theories, dimensions, and determinants of public sector entrepreneurship and propose avenues for future empirical research. It is a literature review using the PRISMA methodology to examine public sector entrepreneurship, systematically collecting and synthesizing previous research. This approach yielded 55 publications, which were used as sources for developing a comprehensive conceptualization of PSE. The paper’s contribution is reflected in this review and analysis, as well as its suggestions for future research topics and empirical methods in this developing area of knowledge.