Civic entrepreneurship in Australia: Opening the “black box” of tacit knowledge in local government top management teams

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to expand on previous research conducted by Hornsby et al. that examined the corporate entrepreneurship internal factor of managerial attitude.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper develops and tests a group level factor of knowledge, the explication of tacit knowledge and a factor of managerial attitude, namely leadership support that is inherently multi‐level in nature.

Findings

Leadership support is significant at both the dyad level and at the group level of analysis. Ordinary least squares regression supported the main hypothesis, that leadership support has a direct positive impact on explication of tacit knowledge.

Research limitations/implications

Successfully testing the group level significance of leadership support has implications for future research because it is considered an individual level variable. Developing and testing the explication of tacit knowledge construct contributes to research on knowing in organisations because it provides a metric that is an indicator of the explication of tacit knowledge.

Practical implications

These research findings have management implications for the way local government creates innovative top management teams to facilitate local economic and community development.

Originality/value

This paper represents an early contribution to the literature.

Citation

Rowe, P.A. and Christie, M.J. (2008), "Civic entrepreneurship in Australia: Opening the “black box” of tacit knowledge in local government top management teams", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 21 No. 5, pp. 509-524. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550810885804