Competition and coordination in state intrapreneurialism: The case of South Korea's export of urban expertise

Abstract

State entrepreneurialism in response to external market stimuli has a state intrapreneurialism counterpart – the entrepreneurialism found within public institutions. In moving beyond the case of Singapore from which the idea was proposed, this paper develops the concept of state intrapreneurialism by injecting a greater sense of the political and territorial heterogeneity of, and competition within, national states that fracture the identification of needs, the crafting of policy narratives, and the forging of domestic and international networks. With reference to the case of South Korea, this paper illustrates how state intrapreneurialism has generated domestic and international markets and reputation in the ICT-assisted city management domain despite elements of competition among public agencies. The case raises broader questions for future research on the relational geographies of politics and bureaucracy in stimulating or stifling state intrapreneurialism.