Entrepreneurial spirit in government managed enterprises: evidence from the U.S. general aviation airports

While a number of studies introduce entrepreneurship in the public sector, there is still a need for empirical research in this field. We use a survey of U.S. general aviation airport managers to investigate the benefits of entrepreneurial spirit in public sector management. The results of logistic regressions suggest that the airport managers’ beliefs in importance of selfsustainability significantly improve the likelihood of general aviation airports to be self-sustaining. On the other hand, the airport specific characteristics, such as a favorable location, county population, and others are not statistically significant in achieving self-sustainability. Our findings support the literature that argue that entrepreneurship can be a mean of achieving more efficient, flexible and adaptive management in the public sector.