Political Leadership the Role of Political Entrepreneurship of Mayors
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
POLITICAL LEADERSHIP THE ROLE OF POLITICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP OF MAYORS Karen Lea Jakobs, B.A. Matrikelnummer: 01610839 Strategic Management MASTER THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE In Strategic Management At the Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck A.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Kurt Promberger Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism Innsbruck, 29.05.19 ABSTRACT The concept of entrepreneurship increasingly plays an important role for the public and more specifically the political sector. As macroeconomic changes influence the economic development of cities, entrepreneurial behaviour of political leaders proves to be crucial for successful adaption. Prevailing literature on local political leadership emphasises the role of mayors concerning that topic. It suggests that due to their strong and decisive position within the institutional framework as well as their task prioritisation of economic development, mayors increasingly correspond to the role conception of an entrepreneur. The literature within entrepreneurial theory and public management examines the phenomenon under the term political entrepreneurship. As research on the topic is still rather fragmented, this thesis aims to understand how mayors in Germany apply political entrepreneurship and investigates into the different characteristics of it upon the influence of dynamic demographic developments. To do so a cluster analysis and in depth interviews with mayors in the state of Brandenburg were conducted. The results suggest that mayors apply entrepreneurial behaviour during their decision-making process along six courses of action. Furthermore, the data indicates, that macroeconomic impacts do influence the characteristic of it based on two factors, the initial position of the municipality and the activities of higher institutions. II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my thesis supervisor A.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Kurt Promberger for his guidance through each stage of the process. I would also like to thank all mayors participating in the interviews for the great collaboration during my research. Furthermore, a big thank you goes to my father who arranged these conversations and therefore enabled this study. Additionally, I would like to thank my friends who spent endless hours proofreading this thesis. Finally, I must express my gratitude to my family for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my studies. Without them, this thesis would never have been possible. III TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ III LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... VI LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. VII 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................... 4 2.1 The Term Political Entrepreneurship ............................................................................... 4 2.1.1 Theoretical Approaches ............................................................................................. 6 2.1.2 The Paradigm of Entrepreneurship ............................................................................ 8 2.1.3 Empirical Approaches .............................................................................................. 11 2.2 Relevant Factors for Political Entrepreneurship in the Context of Mayors ................... 14 2.2.1 Powerful Position ..................................................................................................... 14 2.2.2 Task Perception ........................................................................................................ 16 2.3 Entrepreneurial Role Perception of Mayors in Germany ............................................... 17 2.4 Macroeconomic Changes as Influence Factors for Political Entrepreneurship .............. 18 2.4.1 The Example of Demographic Change .................................................................... 19 2.5 The Mayoral Task of Economic Promotion ................................................................... 22 2.6 Theoretical Summary and Research Questions .............................................................. 23 3. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 24 3.1 Research Method ............................................................................................................ 25 3.2 Research Setting ............................................................................................................. 26 3.3 Research Procedure ........................................................................................................ 26 3.4 Sampling Procedure and Sample Description ................................................................ 28 3.5 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................. 29 4. FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................ 31 4.1 Strategic Orientation ....................................................................................................... 31 4.2 Commitment to Opportunity .......................................................................................... 46 4.3 Commitment of Resources ............................................................................................. 50 4.4 Control of Resources ...................................................................................................... 50 4.5 Management Structure .................................................................................................... 54 4.6 Demographic Situation and Political Entrepreneurship ................................................. 59 4.6.1 Demographic Weak Municipalities ......................................................................... 61 4.6.2 Demographic Strong Municipalities ........................................................................ 62 IV 5. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................................... 63 5.1 Political Entrepreneurship of Mayors in Germany ......................................................... 63 5.2 Demographic Change and Political Entrepreneurship .................................................... 66 5.3 Theoretical Implications ................................................................................................. 69 5.3.1 Political Entrepreneurship ........................................................................................ 69 5.3.2 Political Leadership ................................................................................................. 70 5.4 Managerial Implications ................................................................................................. 70 5.5 Limitations ...................................................................................................................... 72 5.6 Further Research ............................................................................................................. 73 6. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 74 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 76 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................... VIII A – Overview Brandenburg ............................................................................................... VIII B – Process and Result of the Cluster Analysis .................................................................... IX C – Mailtext Prior to the Interviews .................................................................................. XIII D – Interview Guideline .................................................................................................... XIV E – Coding Categories ...................................................................................................... XVII AFFIDAVIT ........................................................................................................................... XX V LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Overview of prevailing definitions of the term political entrepreneurship. ................. 5 Table 2: Specification of the clusters. ...................................................................................... 27 Table 3: Criteria for the process of Clustering (Bertelsmann, 2008). ...................................... 27 Table 4: Details regarding the participants. ............................................................................. 29 Table 5: The categories of the demographic clusters. .............................................................. 60 Table 6: Summary