Creating public value: A case study of Greek local government bureaucratic entrepreneurs in times of fiscal austerity

Melissanidou, Eleni (2017) Creating public value: A case study of Greek local government bureaucratic entrepreneurs in times of fiscal austerity. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University.

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Abstract

This thesis explores bureaucratic entrepreneurs’ challenges in creating public value in Greek local government, having been subject to a radical fiscal austerity policy reform agenda in 2010-2014. Public administrators from top, middle and front-line levels of management share their perceptions and interpretations of enterprise for creatively coping with financial and societal challenges within a complex and dynamic fiscal austerity context that demands more should be achieved with less.

This thesis takes the discussion of public entrepreneurship in local government further. It focuses on aspects of public value creation and collaborative innovation related to the organisational processes and constraints on bureaucratic entrepreneurs seeking to create public value. The theoretical framework that is developed in this thesis conceptualises bureaucratic entrepreneurs within public value, public entrepreneurship and collaborative innovation theories in the process of Greek local government transformation in current times of fiscal austerity. This builds on the importance of a public value perspective in an attempt to bridge boundaries between fiscal austerity politics and requirements for democratic governance.

This is explored through a case study research of Greek local government that enables in-depth understanding of bureaucratic entrepreneurs’ use of their innovativeness, risk-taking and pro-activity in the process of identifying and pursuing new opportunities for public value creation. The research findings indicate that the specific fiscal austerity and organisational dynamics prevent collaborative innovation from flourishing; however, these dynamics enable bureaucratic entrepreneurship to emerge as a strategic phenomenon in local government in pursuit of public value. Bureaucratic entrepreneurs are systemically enacted to identify and implement policy, administrative and technological innovations, often unforeseen from the local authorising environment. The findings extend the application of the interactive entrepreneurship-innovation process and contribute to a formal model of public entrepreneurship in local government.

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