Subnational policy entrepreneurs in action: a systematic quantitative review

Abstract There is a prominent literature explaining how policy entrepreneurs, as active agents, promote policy changes. However, most existing studies focus on policy entrepreneurship at the national level, with limited attention paid to the vibrant dynamics of numerous local government innovations typically driven by entrepreneurial individuals. This systematic review seeks to take stock of the empirical literature on subnational policy entrepreneurship, in order to consolidate scholarly knowledge, identify generalizable patterns, and inform future research. Following a well-established review protocol, we collected 64 articles through a thorough literature search, with 122 sets of individual entrepreneurs reported in the sample, and coded all cases based on individual-level attributes and processual characteristics. Remarkable diversity is noted in terms of (1) the policy sector; (2) forms of entrepreneurship; (3) policy change outcomes; (4) level of jurisdiction; and (5) key characteristics of the individual entrepreneurs. We find salient patterns in the entrepreneurial motivations and strategies used.