serves to blur the distinctions between public and private organizations and to foster innovation. An entrepreneurial orientation is a predecessor of acting entrepreneurially. Lumpkin and Dess (1996, 2001) conceptualize entrepreneurial orientation as the processes, practices, and decision-making activities employed by entrepreneurs that lead to new entry and support entrepreneurial opportunities. Although entrepreneurial orientation has been conceptualized as having from three to five dimensions, the three most common components are pro-activeness, risk-taking, and innovation ( Kropp et al. , 2006 ). Entrepreneurial start-up is positively related to the pro-activeness and risk-taking components of an entrepreneurial orientation ( Kropp et al. , 2008 ). Entrepreneurs generally accept that entrepreneurship involves risk-taking and are willing to take calculated risks in return for potential rewards ( Kropp and Zolin, 2005 ). Research in the private sector has shown that environmental factors and organizational structures influence the extent to which entrepreneurial orientation affects performance ( Lumpkin and Dess, 1996 ). Enterprise development, the birth of new ventures, occurs in both governmental and non governmental agencies ( Lewis and Zolin, 2004 ). The birth of new public enterprises in governmental entities leads to a series of interesting questions. Should the new enterprise be public or private? Should the publicness or privateness of a new enterprise be based on the publicness of the parent organization or should it be a different structural design? What criteria can be used to guide this decision? This paper asks the research question: RQ. When an opportunity is identified for a government