This article analyses an overlooked element of public service marketisation, examining overseas export activity within healthcare and criminal justice. It explores the drivers, strategies, opportunities and risks of such activities, and the differences across policy sector. Focussing on contrasting experiences is an opportunity to understand the complex and differentiated operational and structural environments within which this form of “public entrepreneurialism” is expressed. There is a gap in our understanding of such developments and their promotion within the context of austerity. The paper discusses the implications of the entrepreneurial state for public sector reputation.