L. Α. Zampetakis & V. Moustakis (May, 2006). Public entrepreneurship as innovation diffusion. Presented at Proceedings of the 6th European Academy of Management Annual Conference: Energizing European Management. [Online]. Avalilable: http://www.logistics.tuc.gr/Contents/Publications/18.pdf
Contemporary research on corporate entrepreneurship in the private sector suggeststhat a strong relationship exists, between the internal entrepreneur and the innovationprocess. Yet, although a high percentage of the innovations introduced in the publicsector arise from middle managers and front line staff and suggestions have beenmade on the factors that influence such behavior, there are little empirical evidence onthe ways policy makers should address such factors. Internal Marketing holds thatemployees are viewed as internal customers and that contributes to employeeeffectiveness. Based on the premise that attitudes predict intentions and intentionspredict actual behavior it is the purpose of this article to extend earlier research onempirical assessment of the factors influencing corporate entrepreneurship amongfront line staff in the public sector. The paper presents the results of a survey based ona random sample of 223 public servants working at prefectures, the second level ofGreek local government. Full profile, conjoint analysis and cluster analysis wasapplied, using an appropriate survey instrument. Drawing from earlier research,different attributes that foster corporate entrepreneurship and their correspondinglevels where used to form several scenarios which then were evaluated by publicservants according to their preferences. Results indicate the preferred way corporateentrepreneurship factors should be introduced to the public sector setting. Moreoverfour distinct clusters of respondents were identified. The findings of this paperprovide a well-documented framework in addressing corporate entrepreneurship inthe public sector. Research findings are useful to policy makers interested informulating a strategy that fosters corporate entrepreneurship in the public sectorsetting