Studying Policy Entrepreneurs: How Phenomenology can Help Researchers

The idea of policy entrepreneurs continues to gain traction in public policy studies. Yet, scholarly attention seems to ignore the “why” PEs adopt certain strategies over others. This is due to the prevailing use of quantitative method, which does not help in answering the question. In this paper, we examine why and how scholars interested in studying PEs can, and should, use phenomenology. We argue that phenomenology can help researchers to better understand who PEs are, the context they operate, and the strategies and processes they adopt to achieve their goals, why and when do use them, and to what effect?