Strategic entrepreneurship as an enabler of organizational ambidexterity: evidence from the public sector

Facing multiple and paradoxical constraints, public managers are expected to both show entrepreneurial orientation and to look for new ways to improve public sector performance, a pressing societal challenge. While prior research shows positive effects of strategic entrepreneurship on balancing exploration and exploitation activities through interlinking opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking activities, more evidence is needed to better apprehend its impact on organizational configurations and advance further the theory as well as supporting public managers in managing scarce resources. Reviewing strategic entrepreneurship practices in public agencies, their effect was explored on organizational ambidexterity. Data was collected from a sampling of agencies of the public sector through in-depth semi-structured interviews and practices of strategic entrepreneurship were found to facilitate organizational ambidexterity. The findings contribute to the public administration literature by highlighting key antecedents necessary for public agencies to balance exploration and exploitation activities.