For the good of the people: establishing public value creation as an objective for sustainable entrepreneurship policy

Currently, entrepreneurship policy equates value and productivity with economic growth and innovation. However, pressing grand sustainability challenges question this notion of productivity and the types and recipients of the value entrepreneurs should create. In this conceptual article, we argue that entrepreneurship policy should be re-oriented toward a public value framework that better reflects societal goals. This article argues that public value is created when the public (i.e., everyone in society or the majority of actors that constitute it) perceives a specific shared need to be met by an entrepreneurial solution. Based on a distinction between micro-level private and macro-level public value creation, this article proposes four pathways that explain how entrepreneurs can address the needs of the public. These public value creation processes help policymakers with designing entrepreneurship policies that address grand sustainability challenges. Furthermore, sustainable entrepreneurs may orient their solutions to societal challenges according to a public value creation perspective.