Public sector entrepreneurship, principal investigators, and entrepreneurial effectuation

Scientists in the principal investigator (PI) role shape and influence public sector entrepreneurship (PSE) programs that are designed to advance scientific knowledge and have economic, social, and technological impacts. PIs thereby act as key agents of economic and social change and effectuate their own institutional environment and other entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders to support them in the project conceptualization, delivery stages and beyond the funded PSE program. In effectuating, PIs are responding to value drivers in their own academic environment as well as the value creation expectation that they have to meet for entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders. A fundamental question that has not been addressed to date is how publicly funded PIs use entrepreneurial effectuation to shape, lead, and deliver on PSE programs. The purpose of this chapter is to address this issue by proposing a conceptual model of PI entrepreneurial effectuation that considers all PSE project stages from project conceptualization to project delivery and closure. We conclude by highlighting some policy considerations and suggesting some future avenues of research.