Toward an Understanding of Public Health Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship

Public health and social entrepreneurs as activators of equitable health ecosystems

OBJECTIVES

To describe approaches that public health and social entrepreneurs take to address health equity, and identify strategies for equitable collaborations with these entrepreneurs.

METHODS

We leveraged data from semi-structured interviews, conducted August to October 2022, with 20 public health and social entrepreneurs who focus on drivers of health and health equity. Two researchers employed content analysis, guided by a prior framework.

RESULTS

To support health equity, public health and social entrepreneurs: center equity, critique biases, innovate for inclusion, engage translational expertise, catalyze capacity, and activate equitable systems. Equitable collaborations are supported by re-examining roles, de-conflicting organizational barriers, prioritizing representation, mitigating bias in generating evidence, and employing equitable capital.

CONCLUSIONS

Public health and social entrepreneurs can uplift equity across health service design and delivery. More equitable collaborations can advance this work.

Curricula and resources related to social entrepreneurship and public health innovation within schools of public health in the United States

This paper examines the current state of social innovation and entrepreneurship programming, courses, and centers within schools of public health through a survey data analysis. This report presents a cross-sectional survey conducted among faculty members of public health schools in the United States. The survey aims to determine the availability and current state of student-centered programs and courses centered around social innovation and entrepreneurship within schools of public health. Insights were drawn from 19 professionals across 15 schools of public health. Uncertainties surround the sustainability of current programs, with insufficient funding, human resources, and the need to teach more pressing topics identified as the most significant obstacles. Key areas identified as opportunities for growth were faculty engagement, expertise, and funding to expand more structured programming.

Filling the gaps: A community case study in using an interprofessional approach and community-academic partnerships to address COVID-19-related inequities

Public health challenges rapidly escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to a severe lack of resources and support in the near western suburbs of Chicago, the COVID Equity Response Collaborative: Loyola (CERCL) was established by an interprofessional team of Loyola University Chicago students, staff, and faculty. CERCL sought to minimize the negative impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable communities, those that are largely Black, Hispanic, or low-income. From April 2020 to the present, the collaborative utilized community-academic partnerships and interdisciplinary collaborations to conduct programming. CERCL's programming included free community-based testing, screening for and assistance with social determinants of health, dissemination of relevant and reliable COVID-related information, provision of personal protective equipment, and facilitation of access to vaccines. With partners, the collaborative conducted 1,500 COVID-19 tests, trained 80 individuals in contact tracing, provided over 100 individuals with specifically tailored resources to address social and legal needs, distributed 5,000 resource bags, held 20 community conversations, canvassed 3,735 homes, and hosted 19 vaccine clinics. Community-academic partnerships with the health system, community and governmental agencies, and the local public health department have been critical to CERCL efforts. The interdisciplinary and interprofessional successes demonstrated in this case study lends the example of a relevant, sustainable, and practical intervention to address nuanced public health issues.

Cultivation of Intrapreneurship: A Framework and Challenges

Intrapreneurship has drawn research attention over the past decades considering its crucial role in innovation, organizational performance, and employee career planning. Intrapreneurial research based on various concepts also emerges. In spite of the increasing concern in the field, contributions in the field are fragmented. Particularly, intrapreneurship research is still lacking an integrated framework based on which, enablers and important facilitating mechanisms can be identified to enhance intrapreneurship. To close the above research gap, the study develops a holistic intrapreneurial framework. Specifically, the study first examines intrapreneurship in relation to other prominent concepts (i.e., innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability). This study then identifies enablers of intrapreneurship at both individual and organizational level. Notably, extant research largely examines intrapreneurship either at the organizational or individual level, and concentrates in corporate entrepreneurship or individual intrapreneurial employees. Research providing a holistic perspective on enablers for intrapreneurship is rare. The study further integrates these intrapreneurial enablers with facilitating mechanisms and proposes a framework of intrapreneurship. The framework makes it possible to clearly identify pivotal antecedents to intrapreneurship based on various theoretical lenses and analytical levels applied. Finally, the study addresses a list of managerial and technological challenges arising from the above framework and suggests future research agenda.