Abstract
Business advisors working in publicly funded enterprise agencies encounter a range of tensions as part of their everyday work. These tensions subtly shape how they provide advice and can lead to variability in how enterprise policy is delivered on the ground. We explore the competing demands facing advisors by inductively analysing advice-giving practices in public sector enterprise agencies. We find three overarching drivers of advisor role tension, including institutional demands, client demands and intrinsic demands; additionally, a further seven discrete work tactics advisors deploy to navigate these tensions are analysed. From our findings, we develop a theoretical model that advances a dynamic understanding of public sector business advice. We conclude by reflecting on the structural issues with public sector advising that might constrain the efficacy of advisors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 289-311 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | International Small Business Journal |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 29 Aug 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2021 |
Keywords
- advice-giving
- business advisors
- business support
- enterprise policy
- micro level
- process
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business and International Management
Access to Document
- Final published version
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).