Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

What lessons can we draw from 40 years of scholarship on Policy Entrepreneurship on the strategies policy entrepreneurs use, and their defining characteristics? While scholars have offered important insights, many questions remain open. This article brings together research on policy entrepreneurship, using a systematic literature review of 230 articles, published between 1984 and 2017. Our findings offer: 1) an analysis of policy entrepreneurship characteristics such as sector, policy domain, individual/group, government layer, geographical spread. 2) an empirically based identification and classification framework of policy entrepreneurship strategies. 3) statistical analysis of the relationship between characteristics of policy entrepreneurs and policy entrepreneurship strategies. We conclude with an agenda for future studies, examining new theoretical opportunities to advance our understanding of the role individuals and small groups play in the policy process.