Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:14:47.484Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Policy entrepreneurship across boundaries: a systematic literature review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2018

Marijn Faling Open the ORCID record for Marijn Faling [Opens in a new window] ,
Robbert Biesbroek ,
Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen  and
Katrien Termeer
Marijn Faling
Affiliation:
Public Administration and Policy Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands E-mail: marijn.faling@wur.nl
Robbert Biesbroek
Affiliation:
Public Administration and Policy Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands E-mail: robbert.biesbroek@wur.nl
Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen
Affiliation:
Public Administration and Policy Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands E-mail: sylvia.karlsson-vinkhuyzen@wur.nl
Katrien Termeer
Affiliation:
Public Administration and Policy Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands E-mail: katrien.termeer@wur.nl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although policy entrepreneurs are assigned an important role in crossing policy boundaries and addressing complex problems, our understanding of the process is limited. This article systematically reviews 51 studies on conditions, strategies and implications of crossboundary entrepreneurship. Findings show that (1) the literature predominantly mentions issue promotion and coalition-building as crossboundary strategies; (2) vertical boundary-crossing is discussed more frequently than horizontal boundary-crossing; (3) the most reported boundary-crossing function is to expand issue arenas; (4) conditions that enable crossboundary strategies include institutional overlap, issue interpretation, power vacuum, overruling policies and lacking resources; and (5) implications of entrepreneurship include raised opposition, increased competition over leadership, augmented complexity hindering collective action, raised costs and resources, and issues regarding trust, legitimacy and authority. Policy entrepreneurship allows for micro-level insights in the emergence of crossboundary processes. We suggest future research to focus on causal processes between conditions, strategies and implications to better understand their interplay.

Keywords

boundary-spanningcomplex problemscontextual conditionspolicy entrepreneurshipstrategysystematic literature review
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 393 - 422
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

A previous version of this article was presented at the 9th General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) in Montréal, 26–29 August 2015.

References

Abbott, A. (1995) Things of Boundaries. Social Research 62(4): 857–882.Google Scholar
Ackrill, R. and Kay, A. (2011) Multiple Streams in EU Policy-Making: The Case of the 2005 Sugar Reform. Journal of European Public Policy 18(1): 72–89.Google Scholar
Ackrill, R., Kay, A. and Zahariadis, N. (2013) Ambiguity, Multiple Streams, and EU Policy. Journal of European Public Policy 20(6): 871–887.Google Scholar
Alimi, D. (2015) ‘Going Global’: Policy Entrepreneurship of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Public Administration 93(4): 874–889.Google Scholar
Arieli, T. and Cohen, N. (2013) Policy Entrepreneurs and Post-Conflict Cross-Border Cooperation: A Conceptual Framework and the Israeli–Jordanian Case. Policy Sciences 46(3): 237–256.Google Scholar
Bäckstrand, K. (2006) Multi‐Stakeholder Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Rethinking Legitimacy, Accountability and Effectiveness. Environmental Policy and Governance 16(5): 290–306.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F. R. and Jones, B. D. (2010) Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Berkes, F. (2002) Cross-Scale Institutional Linkages: Perspectives From the Bottom Up. In Ostrom E., Dietz T., Dol-ak N., Stern P.C. and Ston S. (eds.), The Drama of the Commons, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 293–321.Google Scholar
Biermann, F., Davies, O. and van der Grijp, N. (2009) Environmental Policy Integration and the Architecture of Global Environmental Governance. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 9(4): 351.Google Scholar
Bjorkdahl, A. (2013) Ideas and Norms in Swedish Peace Policy. Swiss Political Science Review 19(3): 322–337.Google Scholar
Black, L. and Hwang, Y.-J. (2012) China and Japan’s Quest for Great Power Status: Norm Entrepreneurship in Anti-Piracy Responses. International Relations 26(4): 431–451.Google Scholar
Blavoukos, S. and Bourantonis, D. (2011) Chairs as Policy Entrepreneurs in Multilateral Negotiations. Review of International Studies 37(2): 653–672.Google Scholar
Boasson, E. L. and Wettestad, J. (2014) Policy Invention and Entrepreneurship: Bankrolling the Burying of Carbon in the EU. Global Environmental Change – Human and Policy Dimensions 29: 404–412.Google Scholar
Boekhorst, D., Smits, T. J. M., Yu, X. B., Li, L. F., Lei, G. and Zhang, C. (2010) Implementing Integrated River Basin Management in China. Ecology and Society 15(2): 23.Google Scholar
Boin, A. and Lodge, M. (2016) Designing Resilient Institutions for Transboundary Crisis Management: A Time for Public Administration. Public Administration 94(2): 289–298.Google Scholar
Briassoulis, H. (2011) Governing Desertification in Mediterranean Europe: The Challenge of Environmental Policy Integration in Multi‐Level Governance Contexts. Land Degradation & Development 22(3): 313–325.Google Scholar
Brinkerhoff, J. M. (2015) Agency in Institutional Reform: Creating the Ethiopia Commodities Exchange. Public Administration and Development 35(4): 301–314.Google Scholar
Brouwer, S. (2015) Policy Entrepreneurs in Water Governance. Nieuwegein: Springer.Google Scholar
Brouwer, S. and Biermann, F. (2011) Towards Adaptive Management: Examining the Strategies of Policy Entrepreneurs in Dutch Water Management. Ecology and Society 16(4): 5.Google Scholar
Budabin, A. C. (2015) Celebrities as Norm Entrepreneurs in International Politics: Mia Farrow and the “Genocide Olympics” Campaign. Celebrity Studies 6(4): 399–413.Google Scholar
Cairney, P. and Jones, M. D. (2016) Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Approach: What is the Empirical Impact of This Universal Theory?. Policy Studies Journal 44(1): 37–58.Google Scholar
Candel, J. J. L. and Biesbroek, R. (2016) Toward a Processual Understanding of Policy Integration. Policy Sciences 49(3): 211–231.Google Scholar
Carter, N. and Jacobs, M. (2014) Explaining Radical Policy Change: The Case of Climate Change and Energy Policy Under the British Labour Government 2006–10. Public Administration 92(1): 125–141.Google Scholar
Crosby, B. C. and Bryson, J. M. (2010) Integrative Leadership and the Creation and Maintenance of Cross-Sector Collaborations. The Leadership Quarterly 21(2): 211–230.Google Scholar
De Franco, C., Meyer, C. O. and Smith, K. E. (2015) Living by Example? The European Union and the Implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 53(5): 994–1009.Google Scholar
Dewulf, A., Craps, M., Bouwen, R., Taillieu, T. and Pahl-Wostl, C. (2005) Integrated Management of Natural Resources: Dealing With Ambiguous Issues, Multiple Actors and Diverging Frames. Water Science and Technology 52(6): 115–124.Google Scholar
Diez, J. (2010) The Importance of Policy Frames in Contentious Politics. Latin American Research Review 45(1): 7–32.Google Scholar
Dixon-Woods, M., Agarwal, S., Jones, D., Young, B. and Sutton, A. (2005) Synthesising Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence: A Review of Possible Methods. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy 10(1): 45–53.Google Scholar
Douglas, J. W., Raudla, R. and Hartley, R. E. (2015) Shifting Constellations of Actors and Their Influence on Policy Diffusion: A Study of the Diffusion of Drug Courts. Policy Studies Journal 43(4): 484–511.Google Scholar
Falagas, M. E., Pitsouni, E. I., Malietzis, G. A. and Pappas, G. (2008) Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar: Strengths and Weaknesses. The FASEB Journal 22(2): 338–342.Google Scholar
Field, A. (2009) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Font, N. and Subirats, J. (2010) Water Management in Spain: The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs in Shaping Change. Ecology and Society 15(2): 25.Google Scholar
Forbes, T. (2012) Institutional Entrepreneurship in Hostile Settings: Health and Social Care Partnerships in Scotland, 2002–05. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 30(6): 1100–1115.Google Scholar
Garud, R., Hardy, C. and Maguire, S. (2007) Institutional Entrepreneurship as Embedded Agency: An Introduction to the Special Issue. Organization Studies 28(7): 957–969.Google Scholar
Goggin, M. L. (1986) The “Too Few Cases/Too Many Variables” Problem in Implementation Research. Western Political Quarterly 39(2): 328–347.Google Scholar
Gorton, M., Lowe, P. and Zellei, A. (2005) Pre‐Accession Europeanisation: The Strategic Realignment of the Environmental Policy Systems of Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia Towards Agricultural Pollution in Preparation for EU Membership. Sociologia Ruralis 45(3): 202–223.Google Scholar
Gough, D., Oliver, S. and Thomas, J. (2012) An Introduction to Systematic Reviews. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Hajer, M., Nilsson, M., Raworth, K., Bakker, P., Berkhout, F., de Boer, Y., Rockström, J., Ludwig, K. and Kok, M. (2015) Beyond Cockpitism: Four Insights to Enhance the Transformative Potential of the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability 7(2): 1651–1660.Google Scholar
Head, B. W. (2008) Wicked problems in public policy. Public Policy 3(2): 101.Google Scholar
Head, B. W. and Alford, J. (2015) Wicked Problems: Implications for Public Policy and Management. Administration & Society 47(6): 711–739.Google Scholar
Heinze, K. L., Banaszak‐Holl, J. and Babiak, K. (2016) Social Entrepreneurship in Communities. Nonprofit Management and Leadership 26(3): 313–330.Google Scholar
Hermansen, E. A. T. (2015) Policy Window Entrepreneurship: The Backstage of the World’s Largest REDD+ Initiative. Environmental Politics 24(6): 932–950.Google Scholar
Huitema, D. and Meijerink, S. (2009) Water Policy Entrepreneurs: A Research Companion to Water Transitions Around the Globe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Intindola, M., Weisinger, J. and Gomez, C. (2016) With a Little Help From my Friends: Multi-Sector Collaboration and Strategic Decision-Making. Management Decision 54(10): 2562–2586.Google Scholar
Jochim, A. E. and May, P. J. (2010) Beyond Subsystems: Policy Regimes and Governance. Policy Studies Journal 38(2): 303–327.Google Scholar
Jones, M. D. and Jenkins‐Smith, H. C. (2009) Trans‐Subsystem Dynamics: Policy Topography, Mass Opinion, and Policy Change. Policy Studies Journal 37(1): 37–58.Google Scholar
Kettl, D. F. (2006) Managing Boundaries in American Administration: The Collaborative Imperative. Public Administration Review 66(s1): 10–19.Google Scholar
Khan, F. R., Munir, K. A. and Willmott, H. (2007) A Dark Side of Institutional Entrepreneurship: Soccer Balls, Child Labour and Postcolonial Impoverishment. Organization Studies 28(7): 1055–1077.Google Scholar
King, G., Keohane, R. O. and Verba, S. (1994) Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kingdon, J. W. (2003) Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers.Google Scholar
Koppenjan, J. F. M. and Klijn, E.-H. (2004) Managing Uncertainties in Networks: a Network Approach to Problem Solving and Decision Making. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kugelberg, S., Jönsson, K. and Yngve, A. (2012) Understanding the Process of Establishing a Food and Nutrition Policy: The Case of Slovenia. Health Policy 107(1): 91–97.Google Scholar
Lounsbury, M. and Glynn, M. A. (2001) Cultural Entrepreneurship: Stories, Legitimacy, and the Acquisition of Resources. Strategic Management Journal 22(6–7): 545–564.Google Scholar
Maltby, T. (2013) European Union Energy Policy Integration: A Case of European Commission Policy Entrepreneurship and Increasing Supranationalism. Energy Policy 55: 435–444.Google Scholar
May, P. J., Jochim, A. E. and Pump, B. (2013) Political Limits to the Processing of Policy Problems. Politics and Governance 1(2): 104–116.Google Scholar
May, P. J. and Winter, S. C. (2009) Politicians, Managers, and Street-Level Bureaucrats: Influences on Policy Implementation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 19(3): 453–476.Google Scholar
Meijerink, S. and Huitema, D. (2010) Policy Entrepreneurs and Change Strategies: Lessons from Sixteen Case Studies of Water Transitions Around the Globe. Ecology and Society 15(2): 21.Google Scholar
Meijerink, S. and Wiering, M. (2009) River Basin Management in Europe: The “Up-and Downloading” of a New Policy Discourse. In Arts B., Lagendijk A. and Houtum H. (eds.), The Disoriented State: Shifts in Governmentality, Territoriality and Governance. Heidelberg: Springer, 181–200.Google Scholar
Mintrom, M. and Norman, P. (2009) Policy Entrepreneurship and Policy Change. Policy Studies Journal 37(4): 649–667.Google Scholar
Mintrom, M. and Vergari, S. (1996) Advocacy Coalitions, Policy Entrepreneurs, and Policy Change. Policy Studies Journal 24(3): 420–434.Google Scholar
Miskel, C. and Song, M. (2004) Passing Reading First: Prominence and Processes in an Elite Policy Network. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 26(2): 89–109.Google Scholar
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G. and Group, P. (2009) Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. PLoS Medicine 6(7): e1000097.Google Scholar
Mukhtarov, F., Brock, A., Janssen, S. and Guignier, A. (2013) Actors and Strategies in Translating Global Conservation Narratives to Vietnam: An Agency Perspective. Policy and Society 32(2): 113–124.Google Scholar
Newman, A. L. (2008) Building Transnational Civil Liberties: Transgovernmental Entrepreneurs and the European Data Privacy Directive. International Organization 62(1): 103–130.Google Scholar
Noble, G. and Jones, R. (2006) The Role of Boundary‐Spanning Managers in the Establishment of Public‐Private Partnerships. Public Administration 84(4): 891–917.Google Scholar
Nohrstedt, D. and Weible, C. M. (2010) The Logic of Policy Change After Crisis: Proximity and Subsystem Interaction. Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy 1(2): 1–32.Google Scholar
O’Flynn, J., Blackman, D. and Halligan, J. (2013) Crossing Boundaries in Public Management and Policy: The International Experience. Volume 15. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Oborn, E., Barrett, M. and Exworthy, M. (2011) Policy Entrepreneurship in the Development of Public Sector Strategy: The Case of London Health Reform. Public Administration 89(2): 325–344.Google Scholar
Orchard, P. and Gillies, J. (2015) Atypical Leadership: The Role of the Presidency and Refugee Protection, 1932–1952. Presidential Studies Quarterly 45(3): 490–513.Google Scholar
Palich, L. E. and Bagby, D. R. (1995) Using Cognitive Theory to Explain Entrepreneurial Risk-Taking: Challenging Conventional Wisdom. Journal of Business Venturing 10(6): 425–438.Google Scholar
Palmer, J. (2010) Stopping the Unstoppable? A Discursive-Institutionalist Analysis of Renewable Transport Fuel Policy. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 28(6): 992–1010.Google Scholar
Paterson, B. L. and Canam, C. (2001) Meta-Study of Qualitative Health Research: A Practical Guide to Meta-Analysis and Meta-Synthesis. Volume 3. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Perkmann, M. and Spicer, A. (2007) Healing the Scars of History’: Projects, Skills and Field Strategies in Institutional Entrepreneurship. Organization Studies 28(7): 1101–1122.Google Scholar
Peters, B. G. (2015) Pursuing Horizontal Management: The Politics of Public Sector Coordination. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Petridou, E. (2014) Theories of the Policy Process: Contemporary Scholarship and Future Directions. Policy Studies Journal 42(S1): S12–S32.Google Scholar
Petridou, E., Narbutaité Aflaki, I. and Miles, L. (2015) Unpacking the Theoretical Boxes of Political Entrepreneurship. In Aflaki I. N., Petridou E. and Miles L. (eds.), Entrepreneurship in the Polis: Understanding Political Entrepreneurship. Farnham: Ashgate, 1–16.Google Scholar
Petticrew, M. and Roberts, H. (2006) Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, A. M. (1997) What is a Processual Analysis?. Scandinavian Journal of Management 13(4): 337–348.Google Scholar
Pralle, S. (2006) The “Mouse That Roared”: Agenda Setting in Canadian Pesticides Politics. Policy Studies Journal 34(2): 171–194.Google Scholar
Pralle, S. B. (2003) Venue Shopping, Political Strategy, and Policy Change: The Internationalization of Canadian Forest Advocacy. Journal of Public Policy 23(3): 233–260.Google Scholar
Pump, B. (2011) Beyond Metaphors: New Research on Agendas in the Policy Process. Policy Studies Journal 39(s1): 1–12.Google Scholar
Reus-Smit, C. and Snidal, D. (2010) The Oxford Handbook of International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rihoux, B. and Ragin, C. C. (2009) Configurational Comparative Methods: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Related Techniques. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Rittel, H. W. J. and Webber, M. M. (1973) Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning. Policy Sciences 4(2): 155–169.Google Scholar
Rosen, F. and Olsson, P. (2013) Institutional Entrepreneurs, Global Networks, and the Emergence of International Institutions for Ecosystem-Based Management: The Coral Triangle Initiative. Marine Policy 38: 195–204.Google Scholar
Scharpf, F. W. (1991) Games Real Actors Could Play: The Challenge of Complexity. Journal of Theoretical Politics 3(3): 277–304.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. (1960) Semisovereign People. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Shane, S., Locke, E. A. and Collins, C. J. (2003) Entrepreneurial Motivation. Human Resource Management Review 13(2): 257–279.Google Scholar
Stone, D. A. (2002) Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Tomlins, R. (1997) Officer Discretion and Minority Ethnic Housing Provision. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 12(2): 179–197.Google Scholar
Uittenbroek, C. J., Janssen-Jansen, L. B. and Runhaar, H. A. C. (2016) Stimuli For Climate Adaptation in Cities: Insights From Philadelphia – An Early Adapter. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management 8(1): 38–56.Google Scholar
Verger, A. (2012) Framing and Selling Global Education Policy: The Promotion of Public–Private Partnerships for Education in Low-Income Contexts. Journal of Education Policy 27(1): 109–130.Google Scholar
Wernham, R. (1985) Obstacles to Strategy Implementation in a Nationalized Industry. Journal of Management Studies 22(6): 632–648.Google Scholar
Williams, P. (2002) The Competent Boundary-Spanner. Public Administration 80(1): 103–124.Google Scholar
Zahariadis, N. and Exadaktylos, T. (2016) Policies that Succeed and Programs that Fail: Ambiguity, Conflict, and Crisis in Greek Higher Education. Policy Studies Journal 44(1): 59–82.Google Scholar
Zito, A. R. (2001) Epistemic Communities, Collective Entrepreneurship and European Integration. Journal of European Public Policy 8(4): 585–603.Google Scholar
Zito, A. R. (2013) Learning and Governance in the EU Policy Making Process. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Faling et al. Dataset

Dataset

http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/M8NGVF
Link
Supplementary material: File

Faling et al. supplementary material 1

Faling et al. supplementary material

Download Faling et al. supplementary material 1(File)
File 124.7 KB