P15 SIG Strategizing and Entrepreneurship for the Common Good

Panel chairs

Corresponding chair:

• Alessandro Sancino, Università di Milano Bicocca & Open University, UK: alessandro.sancino@unimib.it

Review group chair:

• Magali Fia, Università di Bologna, Italy

Co-Chairs:

• John M Bryson, University of Minnesota, USA; Barbara Crosby, University of Minnesota, USA; Bert George, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.

Description:

Scholarship on strategy, strategizing, strategic planning and strategic management is on the rise in the public management community. Scholars from the more generic strategy field as well as leadership and entrepreneurship scholars are increasingly focusing on strategizing for the common good, including topics such as sustainability and ESG. Moreover, scholars from the policy field are increasingly using strategy concepts and applying these to policymaking.

The panel aims to attract scholarship on strategizing - which encompasses all stages of strategy, including the role of leadership– and to connect strategizing with entrepreneurship as the two are clearly related from a strategizing perspective.

Regarding the specific IRSPM 2025 interest themes, our panel will contribute to enhance our knowledge by exploring – among others and for example - how strategy practices and processes, strategic initiatives and entrepreneurial approaches can enhance civic engagement and build social capital, thereby improving governance and public management; by investigating how ethical reflection in terms of social equity and sustainability may be put at the centre of strategizing efforts of organizations across sectors and through multi-sector collaborations; by investigating the influence of digital technologies on strategizing and entrepreneurship, examining how these tools can support and change public management and governance.

Abstracts

We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions, with a range of well-articulated methodologies. In addition, the panel will be open to contributions from policy makers and professionals discussing practical implications of strategizing and entrepreneurial endeavors to enhance our efforts to translate scientific and academic insights into actionable plans that address pressing societal challenges.

Some of the topics that are particularly welcome are the following, but we are open to any relevant work which studies Strategizing and Entrepreneurship for the Common Good:

• Strategic planning and management in public and non-profit organizations, collaborations, networks and complex systems;
• Open strategy, namely how and why strategy processes are “opened-up” to involve a range of stakeholders;
• Behavioural public strategy, including the role of individuals (e.g. heuristics and psychological characteristics), teams (e.g. group dynamics and team composition) and tools (e.g. tangible and intangible strategy tools) in strategy processes;
• The strategic arrangements between public organizations and forms of community and social entrepreneurship;
• Strategizing and entrepreneurship within collaborative governance regimes;
• The role of leadership in strategy implementation;
• Open social innovation and co-creation as strategic decisions of public organizations and the role of these initiatives in pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities for the common good.

Format of panel

The panel will feature traditional paper presentation sessions as well as one open and brainstorming session on future directions for the newly established SIG on “Strategizing & Entrepreneurship for the Common Good”