# A Negotiated Public Value for Digital Entrepreneurship:
A Case Study of Bahrain

Noora H. Alghatam

► To cite this version:

Noora H. Alghatam. A Negotiated Public Value for Digital Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of Bahrain. International Working Conference on Transfer and Diffusion of IT (TDIT), Jun 2022, Maynooth, Ireland. pp.188-203, 10.1007/978-3-031-17968-6_15. hal-04666762

HAL Id: hal-04666762

https://inria.hal.science/hal-04666762v1

Submitted on 2 Aug 2024

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

ifip

International Federation for Information Processing

This document is the original author manuscript of a paper submitted to an IFIP
conference proceedings or other IFIP publication by Springer Nature. As such, there
may be some differences in the official published version of the paper. Such
differences, if any, are usually due to reformatting during preparation for publication or
minor corrections made by the author(s) during final proofreading of the publication
manuscript.
# A Negotiated Public Value for Digital Entrepreneurship:
a case study of Bahrain

Noora H. Alghatam¹

¹ University of Bahrain, Sakheer, Bahrain

nhalghatam@uob.edu.bh

**Abstract.** This paper explores the emergent public value that is negotiated by members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that include the public sector, private sector and digital entrepreneurs as they work to set up a community for start-ups. The paper employs the theoretical lens of ‘public value’ [34] to explore the various forms of public value for different stakeholders involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem certain notions of public value are negotiated. The paper focuses on the case study of Bahrain’s national digital entrepreneurship initiative and particularly on how the Startup Bahrain platform was developed. The analysis focuses on the nature of public and private sector collaboration and how this involves an emergent set of public value within national ICT initiatives. The paper highlights the nature of stakeholder’s environment and perspectives of public value, the digital platform as contributing to public value, and the entrepreneurial community’s negotiated public value.

**Keywords:** Public Value, Digital Entrepreneurship, Digital Business Ecosystems, Public-Private Sector Collaboration.

## 1 Introduction

Many governments across the globe are investing in information and communication technologies to reach socioeconomic goals. One area that has sparked interest in recent years is the role of the state in facilitating digital entrepreneurship by bringing together various stakeholders and offering support to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Digital entrepreneurship refers to ICTs being employed by businesses to offer digital products and services, or the introduction of an online channel for delivery of products and services by existing businesses. Discourses on digital entrepreneurship often present digital technologies as carrying the potential to improve the performance of businesses and enables them to scale in size and enter new markets. This has led to the formation of policies, institutional structures and technology initiatives to support digital entrepreneurship in various countries. This often entails public and private sector partnerships that offer joint funding schemes, mentoring and government services. The private sector also has introduced various accelerators, co-working space providers and IT and management services to support this field.
This paper explores the negotiated public value that emerges as interactions take place between the public sector, private sector and digital entrepreneurs during their collaboration to set up a community and platform for digital entrepreneurs. We employ [34]'s concept of 'public value' to explore the different public value perspectives from the vantage point of various stakeholders and the emergence of a negotiated public value for the community of digital entrepreneurs. The paper is based on the case study of the national digital entrepreneurship initiative in Bahrain, and specifically the set up and management of the Startup Bahrain platform, over the period of 2006-2018. In this paper, we unpack the role of public and private sector collaboration and explore how public values are played out in such national ICT initiatives. The paper highlights the stakeholder's environment and perspectives of public value, the digital platform as contributing to public value, and the negotiated public value as negotiated by the entrepreneurial community.

This paper begins with a literature review on national ICT initiatives and socioeconomic development as well as public and private sector collaboration in ICT initiatives. The paper then presents the theoretical concept of public value. The third section is an overview of the research methodology using a qualitative research approach. The paper then presents the case study of Start-up Bahrain in terms of the broader sociocultural context that includes the institutional structures, policies and significant milestones to develop the community and platform of digital start-ups. The analysis presents the various public value perspectives by various stakeholders over the course of the initiative from planning to implementation, followed by the negotiated public value for digital entrepreneurship by the community of entrepreneurs themselves. The final sections are a discussion and conclusion about the case and the role of public value negotiation in such national ICT initiatives.

# 2 Literature Review

## 2.1 National ICT Initiatives for Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Many national ICT policies and strategies are centred on the notion of ICTs as a means for administrative reform, efficiency and socioeconomic development. This has led to numerous ICT initiatives run by the public sector such as e-government, e-healthcare programs and smart city projects, to name a few. In recent years, many nations have focussed their attention on the potential that entrepreneurial ecosystems can potentially have on socioeconomic growth and have developed policies and institutional structures to support this. The interest of countries in supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses in the adoption of ICTs is driven by a conceptualization that they carry potential to improve business's performance and contribute to the overall economic activity and growth of nations [10; 11]. Other wider goals that drive such national initiatives associated with ICTs and entrepreneurship is that ICT adoption by the business sector is
seen to help businesses grow and create job opportunities as well as enhance innova-
tions and skills in nations [35]. Academic studies have shown diverse results and out-
comes that have emerged from such national ICT initiatives that focus on entrepreneur-
ship, even though there are so many positive aspirations linked to them [36, 27]. For
this reason, there have been calls to explore such national ICT initiatives as socially
embedded and to focus on how these processes of implementation and outcomes are
shaped by various factors in the social context [26]. For instance, the influence of the
social context and particularly the role of social networks was emphasized in [5]'s study
of digital entrepreneurs in China. Similarly, [26]'s work on digital entrepreneurs in
Latin America highlights the significance of hybrid networks in shaping their activities.

## 2.2 Public and Private Sector Collaboration and ICT initiatives

Such large-scale national ICT initiatives often entail the enrollment of the private sec-
tor. This theme has been addressed extensively in many studies that explore the nature
and processes of public and private sector collaboration as part of national ICT initia-
tives such as e-government [24, 21, 22, 23, 19]. One specific theme that these studies
focus on is the role of new public management and best practice approaches in how
these national ICT projects are implemented [13, 12, 15]. The collaboration between
the public and private sector has also been conceptualized from a post-NPM perspective
that focuses on centralization and a holistic approach, more than decentralization in past
project [17, 30].

The national ICT initiatives and projects that are planned and implemented by such
intersectoral partnerships come in different formats such as projects for national infra-
structure development for smart cities [28] and national platforms for the development
of digital entrepreneurial ecosystems as presented in the case study of China [16]. One
way, these intersectoral collaborations are played out, is the involvement of accelerators
from the private sector that operate alongside public sectors agencies and incubators
[20]. Such public and private sector collaboration to support digital entrepreneurship is
evident in case studies in Africa [18]. The processes involved in such initiatives are
illustrated in [16]'s work on the digital entrepreneurial ecosystems in Zhongguancun in
China employs the meta-organization lens to explore the interaction of various actors
in terms of the division of labor and integration of efforts. Given that public and private
sector actors come with different practices and values this research paper addresses the
following research question:

*What is the negotiated public value that emerges from intersectoral collaboration during the implementation of a community and platform for Startups?*
# 3 Theoretical Framework: Public Value

Many academics have focussed on studies that explore the processes of public value negotiation and its outcomes in ICT initiatives and projects in the public sector [12, 15]. The concept of public value is defined in different ways such as a performance measure, narrative, a theory for networked community governance and paradigm for the public sector [2, 6]. Public value refers to the value associated with public services and initiatives that take into account the citizen's medium and long-term goals that are beyond notions of efficiency and effectiveness as articulated in new public management [12]. The public value concept often entails many different aims as diverse actors are involved and these need to be balanced out [25].

One way that public value can be explored and understood is a framework presented by [7] which is the strategic triangle of public value which includes the three elements of: authorizing environment, operational capacity and public value outcomes. The concept of public value involves an authorizing environment (or a stakeholder environment) that includes different perspectives and interests of various stakeholders that are part of these project or initiatives. There is also the aspect of operational capacity which enables public sector organizations to reach better performance measures and enhance public value for society. For example, ICTs and digitization of public sector processes can be conceptualized as a means to support public sector organizations and fulfil public value aspirations [15].

Even though the public sector places effort in planning and implementing projects and services, it is the citizens who frame public value as they consume services and engage with the public sector [1]. At one level, citizens place value on aspects the fulfil personal aspirations and benefits. On another level, citizens value aspects of the public sector that generate value for society at large for the medium and long term. This encompasses visions for society as a whole such as care for the environment and social development [1].

There have been many dimensions of public value that have been explored in studies of the public sector [34]. Yet there are relatively few studies that have explored the role of ICTs in processes and outcomes of public value [8,12]. For example, [15] explore how the social context can shape the role of ICTs in supporting operational capacity to fulfil enhanced public value. One way is through the provision of open data by the public sector and open source to enable innovations. This is often supported by public sector digital platforms that enable citizens and application developers to contribute solutions and resources on the platform [22, 9].
# 4 Methodology

This paper is based on a qualitative approach and focuses on the case study of the national ICT initiative in Bahrain to develop digital entrepreneurship and particularly the community and digital platform for Startups. The aim was to explore a case study with actors that have different roles and experiences [38]. The data collection included a combination of reviewing secondary data, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The adoption of a semi-structured interview approach was useful to explore multi-actors case studies that are complex and entail many details [37]. The processes began with a pilot that included the collection of secondary data from new articles, websites and reports. The pilot also included interviews with a manager from a public sector incubator and a researcher from a think tank. The interviews at that stage focussed on understanding important milestones of the initiative and some sociocultural issues faced by digital entrepreneurs.

This was subsequently followed by interviews with public and private sector managers and employees of organizations that were involved in supporting the initiative. These semi-structured interviewed were conducted in the public sector and private sector organizations' site. There were 17 interviews conducted that were one hour to one and half hour long in duration. The data collection process was iterative as there were periods were secondary data and the literature were reviewed to guide further cycles of interviews. The main objective of the interview was to highlight planning, collaboration, implementation and objectives of the initiative. The criteria for selecting participants in the interview process was mainly if they had a managerial role or advisory position in an organization that played an active role developing digital entrepreneurship in the country. For example, some of these organizations included semi-government funding agencies, accelerators, incubators and public sector organizations. At a later stage, the data collection process focused on the community of digital entrepreneurs. There were four focus group events organized to collect data, which were held in the national university campus. The focus groups involved 5-8 digital entrepreneurs. The criteria for selecting focus group members were mainly if they were founders of digital start-ups that offered services and products online through a website or application.

The data analysis phase was an iterative process between reviewing primary and secondary data such as official documents, website, reports and news articles and literature on digital entrepreneurship. One of the main goals was identifying important milestones in the trajectory of the national initiatives in terms of significant policies and regulations and institutional structures created. There was also an interest in identifying the role of key actors and various periods of collaboration between them to setup the community and platform.
The process of data analysis involved three stages for coding of data. First, there were descriptive codes developed which simplify semi-structured interviews into general themes [32]. The focus was on key activities and milestones such as collaboration projects and regulatory changes. At the second stage, the data was analysed based on theoretical constructs such as institutional theory and public value outcomes. The third stage involved emergent pattern codes that builds on earlier coding to highlight themes and patterns. For example, there were themes related to socioeconomic development and scalability as outcomes for the community.

# 5 Case study: Digital Entrepreneurship in Bahrain

This section presents the case study of the national ICT initiative for digital entrepreneurship in Bahrain. The section presents three main themes: an overview the Economic Vision 2030 and becoming an ICT innovation hub, relevant institutional structures and the Startup Bahrain's community and digital platform.

## 5.1 Economic Vision 2030 and becoming an ICT Innovation Hub

An important dimension of digital entrepreneurship in Bahrain is the Economic Vision 2030 that underpins the initiative. The Economic Vision was announced in 2008 and articulates the most important aims to reach enhanced economic development levels. The policy includes numerous areas of focus by the government and the most relevant to our case of digital entrepreneurship is the theme of high-quality policies which include public and private sector partnerships and outsourcing. This reinforced the drive for sectors to partner in various national projects such as education and healthcare and most recently in creating an environment that support digital entrepreneurship development and growth. Another important aspect of the Economic Vision was the economic theme of diversification of income. This meant an emphasis on high potential markets and opportunities such as the ICT industry. One of the associated aims with this vision is becoming an ICT and innovation hub in the GCC region that can offer facilities, infrastructure and an overall conducive environment for businesses to set up branches in Bahrain [29] and especially in the fintech sector [34, 31]. There are currently numerous IT companies being hosted in the country, many of which are founded by digital entrepreneurs. By creating such a conducive environment for ICT related businesses, Bahrain aims to capitalize on its skilled ICT workforce, which is relatively high in comparison to the region. Supporting the initiation and growth of start-up's also has the potential to create job opportunities and improve investment levels.
## Institutional Structures supporting Digital Entrepreneurship

Bahrain has invested efforts and financial capital to set up various institutional structures, infrastructure developments and regulatory changes to support digital entrepreneurship. One important overarching concept is Team Bahrain which represents a governance model that is based on concepts of agile government that is based on public and private sector partnerships to reach developmental goals.

As such, we find various government agencies such as the Economic Development Board, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, the funding and education agency Tamkeen working together with other private sector accelerators, financial institutions, and IT service providers to support digital entrepreneurship. The aim is to create an environment that encourages international startups to be based in the country and to assist local startups to develop their initiatives and scale. Many of these start-ups have benefited from training, access to capital and the opportunity to use co-working spaces [4; 3]. There have also been many regulatory developments over the past 4 years to support digital entrepreneurship such as bankruptcy laws and the virtual commercial registration service (Sijili) where start-ups can begin their activities without the need for a physical location and address.

## 5.2 Start-up Bahrain as a Community and Digital Platform

All these efforts to support digital entrepreneurs culminated to the set up of a formal community and digital platform entitled Startup Bahrain, which focussed on providing entrepreneurs a network and means to gain resources to build capacities and grow. A major actor in this initiative was the Economic Development Board (EDB), which developed the concept and platform and rolled it out in 2017. The EDB realized that there was a gap to be filled in the business environment after a study conducted about high potential startups, which were businesses that are often ICT-based and could scale into other regions and offer their products and services online. These businesses needed information, networking and other resources that were focused on their sector and that was how the idea of the Startup Community and platform came about.

The community and platform involved enrolling different public and private sector teams to organize events, hackathons and to support entrepreneurs. The initiative was set up with the goal of having the EDB as the initiator of the community and then over time as the startups gain momentum and scale, they would take over the managerial aspects of the community and platform.

The set up of Startup Bahrain involved the creation of a leadership that included representatives of the public and private sector and digital entrepreneurs who were active early on in supporting the entrepreneurial community. The goal of this team would be to identify needs of the digital entrepreneurs, collect feedback and communicate it to the public sector.
The EDB also played an important role in developing the digital platform Startup Bahrain that was planned and implemented in consultation with the private sector as well. The platform consisted of a web presence that included information, a database about startups and resources from the private sector that entrepreneurs could benefit from, as well as a social media account. The website included information about the key stakeholders in the ecosystem that offer various services and facilities for investors and entrepreneurs. The website also included regulations, a database of startups, a blog and upcoming events for the community. Moreover, the website included complementary resources from private sector organizations such as cloud service providers and marketing firms that offer free credit, mentoring and other resources. The platform also includes a social media account that posts announcements about events and opportunities, enables engagement with the community and hosts live interviews with founders and other key players.

# 6 Analysis

Bahrain's initiative to set up digital entrepreneurship involved actors from both the public and private sector to collaborate in planning and managing the Startup Bahrain community and digital platform. In this section, we present the public value perspectives of different groups in the stakeholder environment and the negotiated public value from the community perspective. We then present the role of the digital platform itself in supporting the community and the emergent public value.

## 6.1 Perspectives on the Community and Platform from the Stakeholder Environment

### Public Value from a Policy Perspective

One prominent public value associated with digital entrepreneurship and the community is digital entrepreneurship as a means for economic growth and this links to the Economic Vision policy. Setting up a community involves offering them with an opportunity to network, build capacity and improve their business performance. The idea is also to encourage more individuals to set up businesses in a more convenient way with a supportive environment to contribute to economic growth. This public value is associated with the policy aim of economic diversification away from oil. The concept of digital entrepreneurship links to the aim of developing Bahrain as an ICT hub in the region. The country has one of the largest skilled ICT workforce in the region which can be leveraged by attracting businesses in the ICT sector as well as developing local digital entrepreneurial ventures to hire graduates. Another factor is the legacy of Bahrain as being a pioneer in the banking sector in the region for the past decades. There is a potential for Bahrain's digital entrepreneurial community to set up fintech applications, tools and services that can contribute to the existing banking sector or be the basis
for new fintech ventures. In line with this, there have been significant steps taken to set up a fintech sandbox, mentoring activities, hackathons to support the area. There have also been regulatory changes that enables crowdfunding for internet-based platforms. As noted by one the managers in the public sector:

Mainly activities in this area are through Startup Bahrain, which is a multi-stakeholder initiative... also working on regulatory reforms and regulatory initiatives in various areas so this helped push through some of these changes through corporate registration, eliminating minimum capital requirements... they had been working on the new bankruptcy law etc. So, there are broader efforts to try to create a more conducive ecosystem.

<table><caption>**Table 1.** Policy Sector's Public Value Perspective</caption><thead><tr><td>Policy Sector</td><td>Factors</td><td>Public Value Perspective</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">Policymakers<br/>The Economic Vision<br/>2030</td><td>Economic diversification policy</td><td>Supporting new economic activities that contribute to socioeconomic development.</td></tr><tr><td>ICT for development discourse<br/>Highly Skilled ICT workforce in the region.</td><td>Innovation hub in the region to attract FDI and support local developments on ICT.</td></tr><tr><td>Historical role of banking</td><td>Financial Center in the Region</td></tr></tbody></table>

**Public Sector Actors' Conception of Public Value**

The public sector actors were driven by a conception of partnerships, private sector growth and empowerment as a public value associated with the Startup Bahrain. First, the community was initially set up and formalized by the EDB which partnered with private sector entities in the process. Setting up this community and platform was an enactment of public-private sector partnerships that is articulated in the Economic Vision 2030. This also links to the Team Bahrain structure which focuses on an agile government model for intersectoral collaboration. As such, the initiative entailed communicating and teaming up with various private sector companies to formulate the aims of the community and platform and plan events and share resources with the community of entrepreneurs. Second, the EDB aimed to play a transitionary role in the management of the community and would hand over the management process once the community
gains momentum. The community was set up with the intention of offering the digital entrepreneurs a network of similar businesses that include high-potential start-ups that could leverage ICTs to scale into the region and beyond. They were aware that there were existing business communities for established businesses that often were large and based on conventional modes of operation and needed a similar one for digital entrepreneurs. This gap in the environment drove the formalization of the community and platform of Startup Bahrain. As such, they were involved in forming a leadership team that consisted of representatives from the public and private sector, such as founders of ICT-based businesses and accelerators who were prominent in the field. The public value of partnerships and private sector empowerment were reflected in actions of developing a formal community, digital platform and leadership team. As noted by a senior executive from the private sector:

*From the early days they always had conversations with us, but then their conversations became... we need the community to own this, they created it and let it go and said you companies shape it, [...] so finally last year, I said we will take it... the community will take it. Then another company jumped in and said we will take it too, so we said we will figure it out. So, what we did was we created the startup leadership team, some will come for the affiliates some will come to do the work.*

<table><caption>**Table 2.** Public Sector Public Value Perspective</caption><thead><tr><td>Public Sector</td><td>Factors</td><td>Public Value Perspective</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Public Sector Managers associated with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.</td><td>Economic vision 2030</td><td rowspan="2">Public-Private Partnerships.</td></tr><tr><td>Team Bahrain's agile government model.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Mediated by the startup Bahrain Platform</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Existing business community networks and a gap for tech startups.</td><td rowspan="2">Private Sector Empowerment.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>EDB support of the startup field with a transitionary approach.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Mediated by the startup Bahrain Platform.</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>
Private Sector Actors' Conception of Public Value

There were many private sector companies involved in the setup of Startup Bahrain and the platform from financial institutions to accelerators. One prominent public value associated with this initiative from their perspective was to create links with international entrepreneurship experts and enrolling the community into a global network. This was deemed as important in order for the digital entrepreneurs to learn from these experts through mentoring, success stories and this creates the potential to form partnerships. For example, the private sector accelerators were involved in introducing international experts as mentors in various programs they offered. Also, they were involved in taking part and organizing community events such as conferences, hackathons and workshops. In some cases, these experts that were invited came from other international branches of their businesses. The private sector actors involved in the leadership team explained that they found themselves in a situation where they needed to collaborate more than compete to form an environment where businesses could flourish and economic activities between digital entrepreneurs could be enhanced. As noted by one executive from an accelerator during an interview, there was no time to compete and they needed to collaborate with other founders to set up the aims for the digital community and platform and organize events to build capacities. As noted by a manager in one of the accelerators (former employee in the public sector):

> And that's when we started to identify 'what are the key pillars of what a startup ecosystem should look like.' So, there were at least 16 pillars that were identified: including government policy, the workforce, costing and, also things like what the ecosystem looked like in community events and all of that. So, each one of those, were different focuses that needed to be put in place. If you want to have a vibrant, startup ecosystem you need to have for instance, community events... we need to put a schedule of community events.

<table><caption>**Table 3.** Private Sector Public Value Perspective</caption><thead><tr><td>Private Sector</td><td>Factors</td><td>Public Value Perspective</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Private Sector Managers in Organizations such as accelerators, funding agencies, etc.</td><td>International experts</td><td rowspan="2">Global Networks for Entrepreneurship.</td></tr><tr><td>International branches for businesses.</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Best practices.</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Existing gaps in the marketplace with a need to identify needs from all parties involved.</td><td>Collaborative Ecosystem Development by members.</td></tr></tbody></table>
## 6.2 Negotiated Public Value by the Community

The digital entrepreneurs' ongoing involvement in Startup Bahrain was shaped by the public values of digital entrepreneurship as a means for scaling to other contexts and contributing to socioeconomic development. This public value is different from traditional businesses in that they saw the potential of using ICTs to scale their businesses into other contexts through the set-up of applications in area such as education-tech and healthcare. As noted by the participants during the focus groups, many founders were driven by a motivation to support the creation of jobs and addressing the employment gap and contributing to socioeconomic growth. These two strands of public value by the community were negotiated and emergent and were shaped through the interaction with other founders and public and private sector organizations involved in the initiative. These community members were interacting with the public and private sector and some of their concepts have been influential such as development aims and scalability. There was often a consultative model approach adopted in townhall like meetings to include entrepreneurs, where the leadership team could collect feedback about needs of the community and this would be communicated to the public sector. As noted by one of the managers in the public sector commented:

> Town hall meetings at quite a few locations, we also have the leadership team we try to gather feedback as well. We will formalise the feedback, we need to have surveys to everyone to capture opinions, sometimes. The way we capture opinion has been a little bit one to one, a little bit people in the community that haven't had their views shared.

Other forms of engagement were through the social media account and the organizing of live interviews of founders and other ecosystem members to discuss success stories, advice and emergent opportunities. There was also an influential role for a new narrative of entrepreneurs as successful agents in economic development in the media that came to frame the community's public value as associated with growth, scale and socioeconomic growth.

## 6.3 Operational Capacity through the Startup Bahrain Platform

The digital platform, Startup Bahrain, played an important role in supporting the operational capacity of the public sector and partnering firms in supporting public value associated with the initiative. First, the platform formalized the community by identifying the main actors involved. The platform included a database of digital start-ups as well as information about ecosystem members involved that includes background information about them and contact details. Second, the platform supported links to global experts and networks by posting information about upcoming conferences, workshops and events that support the entrepreneurs. Third the platform supported public and private sector partnerships further by offering complementary resources by companies on the platform. For example, Amazon Web Services offered free credits and other services on the platform that start-ups could register for. Finally, the platform's
blog and social media engagement such as live interviews presented success stories that linked the community's operations to socioeconomic growth and development. As noted by one of the managers from the accelerator:

> I think we are still in the early stages where we are kind of still drawing how this eco-system will look in the future. Currently if you look at the different industries that we have, they can all benefit from vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems. So, whether it is for the financial sector with FinTech, or the manufacturing sector with industry 4.0 or everything that's being done from the industrial side and even tourism also gets effected by technology. So...it has an effect on to the economy, so this is a really important part.

<table><caption>**Table 4.** Digital Entrepreneurs' Negotiated Public Value</caption><thead><tr><td>Digital Entrepreneurs</td><td>Factors</td><td>Negotiated Public Value</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Startups that are affiliated with the startup Bahrain initiative and platform.</td><td>Economic vision 2030 discourse on role of ICT and entrepreneurship.</td><td>Entrepreneurs as actors that support socioeconomic development.</td></tr><tr><td>Role of the Platform as mediating networking between startups and promoting ideas through events.</td><td>Scalability with ICT based business.</td></tr></tbody></table>
# 7 Discussion and Conclusion

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 1. Stakeholder Environment and Public Value</figcaption></figure>

First, the study shows the role of the stakeholder environment as each stakeholder had a perspective on public value (Fig1). The national initiative in Bahrain to set up the Start-up Bahrain community and platform involved several public and private sector actors as well as digital entrepreneurs. Even though the idea was to create a community
that offers support and resources to digital entrepreneurs there were broader goals of socio-economic development for citizens at large. The link of national ICT initiatives with a broader goal or public value has been discussed extensively in research [25, 8]. The study also shows that the project was embedded in a multi-stakeholder context and each group associated the initiative with a different public value. For example, policy associated it economic goals of diversification, the public sector with partnership and private sector empowerment, the private sector linked it to enrolling into global networks. This contributes to existing studies on multiple public value perspectives in the authoritative environment [15].

Second, the study also showed how the digital platform was an artefact that enacted and reproduced these public values (operational capacity) (Fig 1). The Startup Bahrain's digital platform offered complementary resources to reinforce partnerships and the blog and social media live interviews to support a narrative for socioeconomic development. This links with work that discusses the potential role of ICTs and digitalization to support operational capacity of the public sector to improve public sector performance and attain better levels of public value [15].

Finally, the study also presented how the stakeholder environment and operational capacity of the digital platform came to shape the community's public value (Fig1). The emergent and negotiated public value emphasized digital entrepreneurship as a means for socioeconomic development and scalability of high potential start-ups. This comes in contrast with more common views that businesses focus on economic gains. Our study highlighted that there were efforts to focus on collaboration more than competition between businesses to support the community for an improved environment for economic activity for digital businesses. The case also illustrates a consultative approach to inform the development of the community and platform. There was an adoption of a consultative model where feedback was collected from the digital entrepreneurs and communicated to the public sector to identify needs and aims of the community and inform future decisions. There was also a better understanding gained through engagement as businesses communicated through the social media account.

Many national ICT initiatives carry with them aspirations for change and support in reaching broader socioeconomic aims. The public value of digital entrepreneurship initiatives that often entail support and facilitation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is conceptualized in different ways by various stakeholders. The case study of Bahrain highlights the collaboration process between the public and private sector which was unique in that it was inclusive of the digital entrepreneurs as well and included a consultative model. We argue that the involvement of the digital entrepreneurs in the shaping of the national ICT project of setting up a community and platform led to an emergent and negotiated public value through interactions. Our study shows that the community of digital start-ups engagement with various sectors came to shape their emergent public value concepts that emphasizes concepts of digital entrepreneurship community and platform for networking, scalability and socioeconomic growth.
This study makes contributions to research in the fields of information systems and digital entrepreneurship. The study emphasizes the social embeddedness of digital entrepreneurship and how the collaborators in such national ICT initiatives have different perspectives on the value of the initiative for society. Our study shows that the community of entrepreneurs enacted a particular set of public values from the environment as they engaged in activities and used the platform. This reinforces existing studies of digital entrepreneurship that focus on the social context and social networks that affect the activities of participants such as the study of digital entrepreneurs that are shaped by social networks in a case study of China [5]. This also links to [26]'s work on digital entrepreneurs in Latin America who are shaped by hybrid networks they are embedded in.

Another contribution to research is that the paper reinforces existing studies that focus on the role of ICTs in reinforcing public values. In this study, we presented the digital platform of Startup Bahrain as supporting public values of partnerships, scaling and development and being part of a global network. Such operational capacity of technology to support public value is explored in [15]'s work.

This paper also has wider implications for practice. The study illustrates the complexity of working on setting up a national ICT project such as digital entrepreneurship initiatives and platforms. The study highlights the importance of identifying various perspectives of stakeholders on the value of these initiatives. Aligning the perspectives of different groups can help in small collaborative ICT projects between them. The study also reframes ICTs, in this case the digital platform, as a tool that can enact certain public values that exist in the environment amongst stakeholders. Thus, practitioners can identify these values when introducing such platforms that support entrepreneurship to get buy in of various parties to use the platform and that ensures its sustainability in such national ICT initiatives.

## References

1. Alford, J., Hughes, O.: Public value pragmatism as the next phase of public management. American Review of Public Administration 38 (2), 130–148 (2008).

2. Alford, J., & O'Flynn, J.: Making sense of public value: Concepts, critics and emergent meanings. International Journal of Public Administration, 32, 171–191(2009).

3. Al Sahaf, M. and Al Yahoo, L. “Examining the Key Success Factors for Startups in the Kingdom of Bahrain”, *International Journal of Business Ethics and Governance*, 4(2), pp. 9-49 (2021).

4. Alsamman, A. & Ragab, E.: Supporting the Growth and Development of SMEs in Bahrain. In: International Conference on Innovation, Technology, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Manama, Bahrain, pp.195-207 (2019).
5. Avgerou, C., and Li, B.: Relational and institutional embeddedness of web-enabled entrepreneurial networks: Case studies of netentrepreneurs in China, Information Systems Journal, 23(4), pp. 329-350 (2013).

6. Benington, J.: From private choice to public value? In J. Benington, & M. H. Moore (Eds.), Public value: Theory and practice (pp. 31–51). Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (2011).

7. Benington, J., Moore, M.: Public Value: Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, London (2010).

8. Bonina, C., & Cordella, A.: Public sector reforms and the notion of ‘public value’: implications for egovernment deployment. 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems, San Francisco, California. (2009).

9. Bonina, C., & Eaton, B.: Cultivating open government data platform ecosystems through governance: Lessons from Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Montevideo. Government Information Quarterly, 37(3), (2020).

10. Boateng, R., Heeks, R., Molla, A., & Hinson, R.: E-commerce and socio-economic development: conceptualizing the link. Internet Research, 18(5), 562–594 (2020).

11. Chipidza, W., & Leidner, D.: A review of the ICT-enabled development literature: towards a power parity theory of ICT4D. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(2), 145–174 (2019).

12. Cordella, A., Bonina, C.: A public value perspective for ICT enabled public sector reforms: a theoretical reflection. Government Information Quarterly 29 (4), 512–520 (2012).

13. Cordella, A., Iannacci, F.: Information systems in the public sector: the e-Government enactment framework. The Journal of Strategic Information, Systems 19 (1), 52–66 (2012).

14. Cordella, A., Paletti, A., & Shaikh, M.: Renegotiating public value with co-production. In: Tucci, C., Afuah, A., Vescusi, G. (Eds.), Creating and capturing value through crowdsourcing. Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2012).

15. Cordella, A. & Willcocks, L. Government Policy, Public Value and IT Outsourcing: The Strategic Case of ASPIRE. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 21 (4):295-307 (2012).

16. Du, W., Pan, S. L., Zhou, N., & Ouyang, T.: From a marketplace of electronics to a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem (DEE): The emergence of a meta-organization in Zhongguancun, China, Information Systems Journal, 28(6), pp. 1158–1175 (2018).

17. Dunleavy, P., Margetts, H., Bastou, S., & Tinkler, J.: Digital era governance. Oxford University Press, Oxford. (2006)

18. Friederici, N.: Innovation hubs in Africa: What do they really do for digital entrepreneurs? In Taura, N., Bolat, E. & Madichie, O. eds. Digital entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland: pp 9-28 (2019).

19. Gascó, M.: Living labs: Implementing open innovation in the public sector. Government Information Quarterly, 34(1), 90-98 (2017).

20. Goswami, K., Mitchell, J. R., & Bhagavatula, S.: "Accelerator expertise: Understanding the intermediary role of accelerators in the development of the Bangalore entrepreneurial ecosystem", Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 12(1), pp. 117–150 (2018)
21. Hui, G. & Hayllar, M.R.: Creating public value in E-government: A public-private-citizen collaboration framework in Web 2.0, *Australian Journal of Public Administration*, 69, 120–131 (2017).

22. Janssen, M. & Estevez, E.: Lean government and platform-based governance: doing more with less. *Government Information Quarterly*, 30, pp. 1–8. (2013).

23. Klievink, B., Bharosa, N., & Tan, Y.-H.: The collaborative realization of public values and business goals: governance and infra- structure of public–private information plat- forms. *Government Information Quarterly*, 33(1), 67–79. (2016).

24. Klievink, B., & Janssen, M. Realizing joined-up government - dynamic capabilities and stage models for transformation. *Government Information Quarterly*, 26(2), 275–284. (2009).

25. O'Flynn, J. From new public management to public value: Paradigmatic change and managerial implications. *Australian Journal of Public Administration*, 66(3), (2007).

26. Quinones, G., Heeks, R. & Nicholson, G. (2020). "Embeddedness of digital start-ups in development contexts: field experience from Latin America", *Information Technology for Development*, 27(2), pp. 171-190 (2020)

27. Quinones G., Nicholson B., Heeks R. A Literature Review of E-Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Positioning Research on Latin American Digital Startups. In: Ozório, L & de Jesus Melo, L (Eds), Entrepreneurship in BRICS Policy and Research to Support Entrepreneurs. Springer Nature, Switzerland, pp. 179-209 (2015).

28. Lombardi P, Giordano S, Farouh H., & Yousef W.: Modelling the smart city performance. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research 25(2): 137–149. (2012).

29. Lopez, C., Bendix, J, & Servin, C.: *Bahrain and the Fourth Industrial Revolution* (Millken Institute Report). Retrieved from https://milkeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/reports-pdf/Bahrain-Fourth-Industrial-Revolution-FINAL.pdf (2020).

30. Margetts, H., & Dunleavy, P.: The Second Wave of Digital-Era Governance: A Quasi-Paradigm for Government on the Web. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society. (2013).

31. Meero, A. & Rahman, H. & Abdul Rahman, A.: The prospects of Bahrain's entrepreneurial ecosystem: an exploratory approach. Problems and Perspectives in Management. 18. 402-413 (2020).

32. Miles, M.B. and Huberman, A.M.: Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1994).

33. Modara, M.: The influence of government-private sector collaboration on innovation in a developing knowledge economy: The case of Bahrain (Doctoral dissertation, Bangkok University). Retrieved: http://dspace.bu.ac.th/bit-stream/123456789/4122/1/marjan_moda.pdf (2007).

34. Moore, M.: Creating public value. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. (1995).

35. Ramdani, B., Raja, S. & Kayumova, M.: Digital innovation in SMEs: a systematic review, synthesis and research agenda, Information Technology for Development (2020).

36. Rangaswamy, N. & Nair, S.: The PC in an Indian urban slum: enterprise an entrepreneurship in ICT4D 2.0. *Information Technology for Development*, 18, 163-180 (2012)
37. Schmidt, C.: The analysis of semi-structured interviews. In Uwe Flick, Ernst von Kardorff, and Ines Steinke. eds. A companion to qualitative research. Sage, Thousand Oaks (2004).

38. Yin, R.K.: Case study research: design and methods, Applied social research methods series, Sage, Thousand Oaks (1994).