Aug 2026· Public Administration Quarterly· 0 citations· 77 references
Abstract
The acceleration of transformations in governance systems, organizational designs, and state-market relations in the 2020s has placed organizational intrapreneurship at the heart of adaptive capacities. Despite the rapid growth of research on intrapreneurship, public entrepreneurship, and organizational entrepreneurship, the literature remains fragmented across sectors, levels of analysis, and theoretical traditions. This scoping review synthesizes 61 empirical, conceptual or theoretical studies from 2020s and repositions intrapreneurship as a multilevel governance capacity embedded in evolving institutional dynamics. The synthesis articulates an integrated framework encompassing macro (institutions and governance architectures), meso (leadership and hybrid structures), and micro (professional identity and sensemaking) levels in the public sector. It also formulates a forward-looking agenda that aims to strengthen theoretical cumulativeness, methodological robustness, and the translatability of results into actionable policies and initiatives.
The study identifies key drivers of digital transformation, including leadership commitment, customer-centric innovation, and technological readiness, and proposes a conceptual framework to guide digital transformation in emerging markets.
Samukeliso Musendame, Patson Chawuruka, Oliver Kapepa· African Journal of Managemen...· 0 citations
This study critically examined the role of innovative capacity in facilitating transformational change within the public sector. It argued that innovation is often overemphasised as a universal solution to governance challenges, yet its effectiveness is contingent upon deeper institutional, organisational and political conditions. Drawing on a qualitative scoping review of literature on public sector innovation, governance and institutional capability, the study synthesised key debates on the drivers, constraints and outcomes of innovation in contemporary public administration. The analysis was grounded in Public Value Theory, the Resource-Based View and New Public Governance, which collectively highlight the interplay between internal organisational capabilities and external governance environments. The findings indicate that innovative capacity is best understood as an embedded and dynamic institutional capability rather than a discrete reform instrument. Whilst leadership, digital transformation, organisational learning and collaborative governance are widely identified as enabling factors, their effectiveness is mediated by bureaucratic structures, regulatory frameworks, political continuity and institutional co-ordination capacity. In many contexts, particularly within developing country public sectors, these constraints limit innovation to incremental adjustments rather than systemic transformation. Digitalisation, whilst an important enabler, often results in “digitised bureaucracy” when not accompanied by organisational reform. The study proposes an Institutional Innovative Capacity Framework (IICF), conceptualising innovation as a multi-level governance system linking enabling capabilities, institutional mediators and public value outcomes. It concludes that sustainable innovation requires integrated institutional reform rather than isolated technological or managerial interventions. The study contributes a more critical and context-sensitive understanding of public sector innovation, emphasising that transformational change depends on the alignment between capability, governance structures and institutional conditions. It also highlights the importance of strengthening state capacity; improving co-ordination mechanisms; and fostering long-term organisational learning to ensure that innovation translates into sustained and meaningful public value outcomes.
Sbongile Nhlapho, Ndwakhulu. Stephen Tshishonga· European Conference on Knowl...· 0 citations
Digital innovation has become a key enabler of the circular economy, yet existing research on SMEs remains fragmented across technological, organizational, and institutional perspectives. This study addresses this gap through a bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review of 87 peer-reviewed articles published between 2017 and 2025. The review synthesizes the evolution of digital research, identifies its theoretical foundations, key barriers, enabling factors, and performance outcomes, and develops a multi-level conceptual framework linking micro-, meso-, macro-, and ecosystem-level perspectives. The findings suggest that successful digital innovation-enabled circular transformation depends on the interaction of digital capabilities, organizational resources, institutional support, and stakeholder collaboration. The study further reveals that financial constraints, limited digital capabilities, and weak institutional support remain major barriers, whereas Industry 4.0 technologies, leadership commitment, and ecosystem collaboration serve as critical enablers. By integrating fragmented theoretical perspectives into a coherent framework, this review advances the understanding of digital adoption in SMEs and provides a structured research agenda together with practical implications for managers and policymakers seeking to accelerate sustainable digital transformation.
Yi-Jun Cheng, Umar H. A. Kohar· Sustainability· 0 citations
This study aims to examine how organizational constraints and systemic contradictions shape the enactment of leadership competencies in public sector organizations. Drawing primarily on contradiction theory and complemented by systems theory and competency-based leadership perspectives, it reconceptualizes leadership development as a dynamic, context-embedded and tension-driven process in which competencies are selectively activated, reshaped and reconfigured rather than linearly applied.
This study adopts a qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) of 208 secondary sources (2000–2025), using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-adapted selection procedures. Data were analyzed through interpretive thematic synthesis guided by contradiction theory and an E1–E6 framework. Open, axial and selective coding were applied. Quantitative findings were used only descriptively, without statistical re-analysis.
The synthesis indicates that while leadership development programs emphasize competencies such as innovation, strategic thinking and problem-solving, their enactment is systematically conditioned by bureaucratic, hierarchical and regulatory constraints. Rather than merely restricting leadership behavior, these constraints structure how competencies are interpreted and enacted in practice. Leaders respond through adaptive strategies, including incremental innovation and coalition-building, which enable performance stabilization within persistent systemic contradictions. Apparent weak quantitative relationships are interpreted as evidence of contextual and relational leadership dynamics rather than methodological failure.
Leadership development should extend beyond competency acquisition to strengthen leaders’ capacity to interpret and navigate systemic contradictions through adaptive judgment in constrained governance environments
This study advances leadership theory by demonstrating that contradictions function as both structural and interpretive mechanisms shaping leadership enactment, reframing effectiveness as an emergent, context-conditioned outcome rather than a direct output of competencies.
Raed Atef· International Journal of Pub...· 1 citation
This study explores the relationship between corporate governance and organisational performance within state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the Zimbabwean transport sector, with the objective of developing an integrated and contextually relevant governance-performance model. Despite their critical role in facilitating mobility and supporting trade, SOEs such as Air Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) continue to experience persistent challenges, including financial deficits, operational inefficiencies, and declining service delivery standards. Existing scholarship tends to examine corporate governance in isolation, often overlooking the broader organisational and institutional contexts within which these enterprises operate. Adopting a mixed-methods research design, this study integrates quantitative analyses, comprising descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, and moderation techniques, with qualitative insights derived from interviews. The research is underpinned by a multi-theoretical framework that incorporates the resource-based view (RBV), institutional theory, systems theory, and contingency theory. The findings reveal that corporate governance plays a pivotal role in influencing organisational performance, alongside key internal factors such as human capital, technological capability, organisational culture, leadership, and the external operating environment. These elements collectively affirm the multidimensional nature of organisational performance. However, the study also finds that political interference significantly undermines the positive impact of governance structures and organisational capabilities. The study makes a theoretical contribution by advancing an integrated governance-performance model, while empirically highlighting the moderating effect of political interference. From a practical standpoint, the findings underscore the importance of comprehensive reforms in SOEs that prioritise strengthened governance frameworks, reduced political intrusion, and enhanced organisational capacity.
Samukeliso Musendame· Corporate Governance and Org...· 0 citations
The findings show that digital technologies contribute to transparency and information integration, but their capacity to generate public value—such as policy coherence, effectiveness, and sustainability—is fundamentally mediated by organizational capacity, coordination mechanisms, and institutional stability.
Júlio Cezar Costa Ramos, Eduardo Augusto Terra Rossi DE Barros, Luiz Henrique Melo Pires· Observatorio de la Economía...· 0 citations
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