Agency and collaboration: an analysis of the relationship between government-certified social enterprises and the public sector in South Korea
International Journal of Public Sector Management
ISSN: 0951-3558
Article publication date: 8 November 2023
Issue publication date: 25 April 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Public sector institutional entrepreneurship efforts may contribute to addressing social challenges by creating an enabling regulatory environment that promotes social enterprise formation and fosters complementarity between the public sector and social enterprises. The outcomes of such public sector institutional entrepreneurship are explored in this study. To assess the outcomes of such public sector initiatives in South Korea, the perspectives of executives (n = 40) of government-certified social enterprises are assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
Several research methodologies were combined, including purposive sampling with an 11-point Likert scale, hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis. The literature on government–nonprofit relations as well as public sector institutional entrepreneurship was leveraged.
Findings
This research results indicate that the enabling regulatory environment with entrenched funding and incubation mechanisms produces mixed-to-positive outcomes if framed with reference to public sector–social enterprise complementarity. The authors identified three perspective-based ideal types that have differential views of isomorphic regulatory pressures, the efficacy of incubation and scaling programs, participation in policymaking and other aspects of public sector patronage.
Originality/value
This study contributes to relating the literature on public sector institutional entrepreneurship and government–third sector relations by empirically assessing how social enterprises attracted by government demand-side signaling to become certified as social enterprises encounter and perceive an ostensibly enabling regulatory ecosystem, with its derivative policies and mechanisms, crafted by the public sector.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was principally funded by the 2019 Korea Foundation Field Research Fellowship awarded to Casper Hendrik Claassen. The authors would like to express their deepest appreciation to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and constructive critiques.
Citation
Claassen, C.H., Bidet, E., Kim, J. and Choi, Y. (2024), "Agency and collaboration: an analysis of the relationship between government-certified social enterprises and the public sector in South Korea", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 317-350. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-03-2023-0081
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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