“Public Institutional Environment and Entrepreneurial Value. Theoretical Issues and Efficiency Tests”

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the notion, measurement and impact of institutional “public value” in an effort to determine its relevance, origin and implementable government focus to create, maintain and stimulate national productivity/wealth. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review is presented along with the conceptualization of the public-value thinking; an empirical analysis (in force of accredited official dataset-information) will test research assumptions. Findings – The paper identifies both the main features of “public value” and the possible impacts of public domain on the quality of private institutions and relating markets functioning (financial, labor, goods, technology), through aggregate statistics. Research limitations/implications – The public value dynamics may be affected variously by the different context factors/cultures characterizing the international economies/years examined. Nonetheless, global statistics/indicators appear as interesting as significant. Practical implications – The effort of this paper is to invite scholars, administrators and practitioners to take into consideration the findings and stimulate the government/management of public value (which is more and more entrepreneurial) also for facilitating doing business. Social Implications – This study contributes to shed light on the complex mechanisms of accumulation and diffusion of public value addressing future research on the role of property rights, ethicality, undue influence, institutional efficiency and security. Originality/value – The hendiadys “Value” and “Public” has been for several years examined mostly from the normative viewpoint. This paper moves on to the field of practical assessment of public institutions by adopting an econometric model which points to identify concrete drivers and relating effects on productivity.