Burdens Are Everybody’s Business: Examining the Intersection of Administrative Burdens, Motivation, and Entrepreneurial Culture

• Author: Donavon Johnson
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953997221100373
• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997221100373

Administration & Society

2022, Vol. 54(10) 1965 –1992

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997221100373

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Article

Burdens Are Everybody’s

Business: Examining

the Intersection of

Administrative Burdens,

Motivation, and

Entrepreneurial Culture

Donavon Johnson1

Abstract

Administrative burdens have consequences for entrepreneurial outcomes,

and entrepreneurial outcomes have consequences for people’s quality

of life. Public administrators should be concerned since they are the

gatekeepers of democracy. Using data from 40 countries, this paper

investigates the intersection between burdens and entrepreneurship by

examining the relationship between burdens and entrepreneurial activity and

entrepreneurial culture. The extent to which this relationship is conditioned

by entrepreneurial motivation is also explored. The findings indicate that

burdens suppress entrepreneurial culture by reducing entrepreneurial

activity. Further, entrepreneurial motivation can enable entrepreneurs to be

more resilient against burdens.

Keywords

administrative burden, entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurial motivation,

entrepreneurial culture, administrative action

1Florida International University, Miami, USA

Corresponding Author:

Donavon Johnson, Department of Public Policy and Administration, Florida International

University, Miami, FL 33199-2156, USA.

Email: djohn252@fiu.edu

1100373AAS0010.1177/00953997221100373Administration & SocietyJohnson

research-article2022

1966 Administration & Society 54(10)

Introduction

Administrative processes have real consequences for the operational capacity

of public administration specifically. Herd and Moynihan (2018) refer to

some of these processes as administrative burdens; onerous costs that citizens

or institutions are forced to endure if they wish to have successful interac-

tions with state agencies (Burden et al., 2012). Herd and Moynihan’s (2019)

typology of administrative burdens is premised on a three-pillared frame-

work; learning costs, psychological costs, and compliance costs. These costs

have been proven to make citizens’ interaction with their governments tedious

and unwelcoming thereby encumbering their access to state resources to

which they are entitled.

While the extant scholarship has examined administrative burdens faced

by individual citizens (Christensen et al., 2020; Herd & Moynihan, 2019; D.

Johnson & Kroll, 2020), the burdens faced by organizations and businesses

has been understudied. Burdens are sometimes levied with noble intentions

and with an interest to produce democratic outcomes (Hodgson, 2009;

Kitching et al., 2015; Kotnik et al., 2020). For example, the government can

place more burdens on businesses to prevent/reduce corporate abuse or tax

evasion, or even fraudulent abuse of public programs (Moynihan et al., 2015).

Burdens, therefore, can produce positive results within the contexts that are

deployed. Notwithstanding this, regardless of the underlying motivations—

good or bad—burdens produce effects and consequences.

Additionally, placing burdens on businesses can reduce economic pros-

perity by affecting economic growth (Poel et al., 2014), capital productivity

in the economy (Dawson, 2007), and GDP (Haidar, 2012). What remains

unclear is how can businesses and public administrators deal with burdens.

Additionally, while scholars have examined the effect that burdens have on

existing businesses, The spillover effects have not yet been fully explored,

that is, what are the feedback effects when burdens are placed on businesses?

Finally, the burdens scholarship has not fully examined what characteristics

of burden-bearers enable them to tolerate burdens and empower them to be

more resilient against burdens.

Placing burdens on businesses can have deleterious consequences for the

economy. Furthermore, people rely on an optimally functioning economy in

order to improve their quality of life which is a fundamental element of dem-

ocratic societies (Hacker & Pierson, 2016). Burdens placed on business

therefore have consequences for democracy and should be of concern to pub-

lic administration, especially amidst the current view that the link between

democracy and entrepreneurship has received relatively little attention in the

extant literature (Audretsch & Moog, 2022). This study is also relevant to the