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Bureaucratic Job Mobility and The Diffusion of Innovations

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  • Manuel P. Teodoro

Abstract

In studies of innovation, policy entrepreneurs recognize latent demand for new policies and then expend resources to promote them. But studies of policy entrepreneurs have generally focused on the demand for innovation, while neglecting the supply side of policy entrepreneurship. This article argues that bureaucratic labor markets affect the emergence of policy entrepreneurs, and so affect the diffusion of policy innovations across local governments in the United States. Analysis of a survey of municipal police chiefs and water utility managers relates governments' hiring and promotion policies to their adoption of professionally fashionable innovations. Agency heads who advanced to their current positions diagonally (arriving from another organization) are more likely to initiate these innovations than are agency heads who were promoted from within. Bureaucratic policy entrepreneurs emerge where government demand for innovation meets a supply of mobile administrators, who carry the priorities of their professions into the agencies that they serve.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuel P. Teodoro, 2009. "Bureaucratic Job Mobility and The Diffusion of Innovations," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 175-189, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:53:y:2009:i:1:p:175-189
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00364.x
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    Cited by:

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    2. Biao Huang & Jiebing Wu & Li Ye, 2023. "Fiscal decentralization, intergovernmental mobility, and the innovativeness of local governments' policy response in COVID‐19: Evidence from China," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(2), pages 196-206, May.
    3. Richard Johnson, 2015. "Examining the Effects of Agency Accreditation on Police Officer Behavior," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 139-155, March.
    4. Tim Jaekel, 2017. "Innovative Behavior and Prosocial Motivation of Russian Civil Servants," HSE Working papers WP BRP 09/PSP/2017, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    5. Jessica Sherrod Hale & Joanna Woronkowicz, 2021. "Artists as public sector intrapreneurs: an experiment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 653-666, August.
    6. Aaron Deslatte & Serena Kim & Christopher V. Hawkins & Eric Stokan, 2024. "Keeping policy commitments: An organizational capability approach to local green housing equity," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 41(1), pages 135-159, January.
    7. Aman-Rana, Shan, 2025. "Meritocracy in a bureaucracy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    8. Nihit Goyal & Michael Howlett & Namrata Chindarkar, 2020. "Who coupled which stream(s)? Policy entrepreneurship and innovation in the energy–water nexus in Gujarat, India," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(1), pages 49-64, February.
    9. Aisha J Ali & Javier Fuenzalida & Margarita Gómez & Martin J Williams, 2021. "Four lenses on people management in the public sector: an evidence review and synthesis," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 37(2), pages 335-366.
    10. Ding, Pengxiang & Feng, Suwei & Pojani, Dorina, 2025. "Nationwide diffusion of China's Transit Metropolis Pilot Program," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).

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