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Motivating Intrapreneurs: The Relevance of Rewards
Abstract
A challenge faced by management graduates in promoting intrapreneurship to achieve competitive advantage is the use of motivational techniques that build commitment to entrepreneurial behaviour. Despite the acknowledged importance of rewards to encourage innovation, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence to provide guidance on which rewards motivate intrapreneurs. This paper investigates the rewards that organizations use to motivate intrapreneurs in both service and information and communication technology firms in South Africa. The results indicate that an intrapreneurial reward system tends to focus on formal acknowledgement, social incentives and the organizational freedom of employees. These, rather than monetary incentives, are valued by intrapreneurs and therefore should be incorporated into the teaching curricula of business schools. It is argued that application of these findings will help managers to promote intrapreneurial behaviour and create engaged employees.
... In this section the key results of the cluster and descriptive analysis conducted for the articles in the SLR are presented. [48], [51], [39], [52], [53], [54], [55] Behavior # 8 Theory [56], [57], [58] Human &Social Capital # 18 Quantitative [59], [60], [61], [62], [57], [63], [40], [64], [65], [66] Personality (traits, demografic factors) # 40 Theory Quantitative [67], [68], [69], [48], [70], [39], [52], [60], [71], [72], [57], [54], [73], [74], [34], [75], [58], [76], [77], [78], [79], [80] Role Model # 14 Theory [60], [81], [82], [83], [84], [74], [ [58], [34], [68], [90], [91], [92], [93], [94], [95], [96], [97], [ [109], [110], [62], [15], [111], [80], [112] Outcome Individual, Unit, Organizational # 16 I Theory [110], [67], [113], [114], [54], [115], [89] Context Industry ,Public Sector, Economic, Education, Social, Small Businesses # 81 I Theory [116], [117], [118], [119], [98], [120], [54], [121], [122], [123], [124] Promoting Factors Antecedents, Obstacles # 16 I Theory [120], [62], [93], [96], [125], [76], [126], [127], [111] Framework Individual, Unit, Organizational # 10 I Theory [128], [129], [130] A. Research Streams One of the RQ of this SLR is "Which research areas discuss entrepreneurial employees?" Therefore, the articles in the SLR are grouped into seven research streams dealing with the different perspectives: Individual, unit, and organizational level, outcome-and context-oriented research, research dealing with frameworks and promoting factors. ...
... In this section the key results of the cluster and descriptive analysis conducted for the articles in the SLR are presented. [48], [51], [39], [52], [53], [54], [55] Behavior # 8 Theory [56], [57], [58] Human &Social Capital # 18 Quantitative [59], [60], [61], [62], [57], [63], [40], [64], [65], [66] Personality (traits, demografic factors) # 40 Theory Quantitative [67], [68], [69], [48], [70], [39], [52], [60], [71], [72], [57], [54], [73], [74], [34], [75], [58], [76], [77], [78], [79], [80] Role Model # 14 Theory [60], [81], [82], [83], [84], [74], [ [58], [34], [68], [90], [91], [92], [93], [94], [95], [96], [97], [ [109], [110], [62], [15], [111], [80], [112] Outcome Individual, Unit, Organizational # 16 I Theory [110], [67], [113], [114], [54], [115], [89] Context Industry ,Public Sector, Economic, Education, Social, Small Businesses # 81 I Theory [116], [117], [118], [119], [98], [120], [54], [121], [122], [123], [124] Promoting Factors Antecedents, Obstacles # 16 I Theory [120], [62], [93], [96], [125], [76], [126], [127], [111] Framework Individual, Unit, Organizational # 10 I Theory [128], [129], [130] A. Research Streams One of the RQ of this SLR is "Which research areas discuss entrepreneurial employees?" Therefore, the articles in the SLR are grouped into seven research streams dealing with the different perspectives: Individual, unit, and organizational level, outcome-and context-oriented research, research dealing with frameworks and promoting factors. ...
... The individual level stream encompasses all issues trying to describe and explain entrepreneurial behavior and activities among employees mainly based on the planned behavior theory [40] and motivation theory [51,96] which describes different motives. It is further divided into six sub-categories: Attitude, Behavior, Human Capital, Social Capital, Personality, and Role Model. ...
... Baruah and Ward (2013) observe that the opportunities to explore new ideas, ventures and projects and new technologies can exist within a flexible organizational environment which intrapreneurship offers along with the resources for innovation practice. Within this culture, communication trust and support which plays a prominent role gives employees the enthusiasm and spirit to function as an organizational team and Scheepers (2011) believes that this helps in achieving organizational objectives. It is one of the reasons why authors such as Silva et al (2006) and Camelo-ordaz et al (2011) have observed a strong relationship between intrapreneurship and technological innovations. ...
... One of the complexities observed in bureaucratic firms are job dissatisfaction leading to high turnovers. Scheepers (2011) believes that employees who find their jobs challenging and rewarding may be motivated by the nature of the work they perform. Antoncic and Antoncic (2011) have identified a critical association among employee satisfaction, intrapreneurship and firm growth. ...
... Lankinen et al (2012) observed that intrapreneurs have the potential to find new combinations of resources that build competitive advantage which can thereby help them thrive in hostile environments. Scheepers (2011) reports that an intrapreneurial climate where formal acknowledgement and encouragement of different skills and talents takes place, financial resources for new initiatives are provided and organizational freedom are supported can increase the route for innovation. Toftoy and Chatterjee (2004) have suggested that corporations, by becoming more intrapreneurial and by initiating a creative working culture, can retain the interest of different intrapreneurs which can address the complexities associated with turnovers. ...
The current economic environment is getting progressively more competitive, demanding and challenging for most organizations. Organizations are currently witnessing a significant rise in globalization trends and revolutionary changes in technologies. This gives rise to several organizational complexities and in order to survive and be successful, organizations need to tackle them by constantly working on their products, services and business models to maintain a competitive advantage. This paper reviews some of the key literature in the intrapreneurial research field and discusses how intrapreneurship can be an effective solution for managing innovation progression in different organizations and thereby resolving a range of such complexities. Intrapreneurship as an organizational concept has evolved substantially over the years and this review highlights how several organizations have now adopted intrapreneurial initiatives to derive distinct benefits. An innovation culture attained through such intrapreneurial initiatives can lead to considerable organizational development in terms of firm performance, innovativeness, profitability and competitiveness. Top management leaders should therefore prioritize intrapreneurship while structuring their management strategies.
... Firms did not usually provide payment in advance for what an intrapreneur might accomplish, yet expected employees to get involved and assume their risk [11]. In cases where motivated employees have success, they are only rewarded a small bonus that could be perceived as less valued in relation to their effort and achievement [40]. The other reason for low innovation performance was that entrepreneurial orientation within an organisation is usually associated with the owner-manager and this did not promote employee intrapreneurial commitment to undertake innovative opportunities outside their prescribed or traditional role in an organisation [41]. ...
... Reward is proven to motivate entrepreneurial behaviour [40]. With appropriate incentives, employees' willingness to assume intrapreneurial risk is likely to be enhanced. ...
The study investigated types of rewards SMEs offered to intrapreneurs and how these (rewards) contribute to innovation performance (IP). A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 300 SME owner-managers from the industrial spatial distribution areas of Kwa-Zulu Natal province in South Africa. Results show that besides a regular salary offered by 99.5% of the SMEs, fewer than 37.1% of them paid other forms of rewards. The empirical findings show that rewards had an influence on innovation performance. From the 17 rewards awarded to intrapreneurs by SMEs, only “promotion within organisation” and “monetary bonus rewards” had a positive and significant influence on innovation performance. Four other rewards had a significant but negative influence on IP. Rewards are an important tool to encourage crowdsourcing intrapreneurial contribution to IP. Rewards should therefore be strategically selected given the limited financial resources in SMEs. The importance of this study is its focus on SMEs, which are characterised by limited information on the effect of rewards on innovation performance, as well as the efficiency driven economic setting, normally not characterised by “innovation performance”. The study also shows how IP can be crowdsourced through appropriate rewards.
... Lessem (1986) points out that in order to survive in today's climate, organizations need to become more flexible and more enterprising as do the people who run them. Organizational freedom of employees has been deemed as an important aspect of an intrapreneurial reward system according to Scheepers (2011). In order to facilitate organizational flexibility, CEOs need an unbiased openminded mind-set. ...
... Charismatic CEOs encourage and motivate employees by giving them opportunities in the organization to develop and grow their skills. As Scheepers (2011) highlights, managers who wants to implement intrapreneurship can motivate employees by providing social incentives and formal acknowledgement. Social incentives include giving recognition for intrapreneurial activities, creating a culture of celebrating employee achievements, helping employees to overcome obstacles, increasing job responsibilities and providing rewards equitably for performance. ...
Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have pivotal roles in guiding the organization forward with their vision and strategies but with the current economic situations, organizations are struggling with innovation management. The economic environment of the 21st century is getting progressively more competitive, demanding and challenging for most organizations. In order to survive and be successful, organizations constantly need to work on their products, services and business models to maintain a competitive advantage. This paper proposes intrapreneurship as an effective solution for managing innovation progression in different organizations. Organizational complexities can be effectively managed if CEOs facilitate an intrapreneurial climate where the skills of intrapreneurs can be nurtured and developed. This paper demonstrates that by establishing an intrapreneurial climate, CEOs can provide development opportunities for prospective intrapreneurs to grow and flourish in any organization. This research uses an audio recorded structured interview methodology with data analysis using NVivo software.
... [37] Career opportunities and rewards. [38] Spiritual leadership (vision, altruism, compassion, social responsibility). [39] Relationships between social procurement field actors which motivate and enable the sharing of information and practices. ...
There has been a recent proliferation of social procurement policies in Australia that target the construction industry. This is mirrored in many other countries, and the nascent research in this area shows that these policies are being implemented by an emerging group of largely undefined professionals who are often forced to create their own roles in institutional vacuums with little organisational legitimacy and support. By mobilising theories of how organisational champions diffuse innovations in other fields of practice, this paper contributes new insights into the evolving nature of these newly emerging roles and the motivations which drive these professionals to overcome the institutional inertia they invariably face. The results of semi-structured interviews, with fifteen social procurement champions working in the Australian construction industry, indicate that social procurement champions come from a wide range of professional backgrounds and bring diverse social capital to their roles. Linked by a shared sense of social consciousness, these champions challenge traditional institutional norms, practices, supply chain relationships, and traditional narratives about the concepts of value in construction. We conclude that, until normative standards develop around social procurement in the construction industry, its successful implementation will depend on external institutional pressures and the practical demonstration of what is possible in practice within the performative constraints of traditional project objectives.
... For instance, an employee might have successfully completed a project or might have given a brilliant cost reduction idea and in return company can offer a bonus, salary increment or even a foreign tour (Block and Macillan, 2003). However, this can also discourage future intrapreneurial behaviors of employees as their valuable effort and outcome is not linked to a specific reward system (Scheepers, 2011). Therefore, Chandler et al. (2000) identified the need for special financial and non-financial recognition programs for intrapreneurial assignments. ...
In the contemporary business world, innovation is more critical than ever. Unlike before, every organization is aware of the significance of innovation in gaining and sustaining competitive advantage over rivals. However, organizations can be more innovative just by triggering and uplifting the intrapreneurial spirit of the employees with the management support. But currently the policies, structures and systems which are developed by the management of the organization tend to isolate innovative and creative employees by demoralizing them from sharing valuable novel insights. There are certain instances where the management agrees with the new idea but later on they encourage employees to continue their work in the traditional way as they are reluctant to move away from their comfort zones. However, there is scant number of evidences from Sri Lankan context. Therefore, the objective of the study is to assess the impact of management support on intrapreneurship with special reference to apparel industry in Sri Lanka. With a standard questionnaire, responses were obtained from 240 non-executive employees from three leading apparel sector organizations in Sri Lanka. Results of regression analysis proved that managerial support significantly impacts on intrapreneurship and as a percentage it is 53.2%. Even in reality, intrapreneurs cannot recognize, nurture or inspire without the support of the management. Hence, management of the organization needs to create a better atmosphere not just to create intrapreneurs but also to recognize and encourage such intrapreneurial employees at workplace.
... For instance, an employee might have successfully completed a project or might have given a brilliant cost reduction idea and in return company can offer a bonus, salary increment or even a foreign tour (Block and Macillan, 2003). However, this can also discourage future intrapreneurial behaviors of employees as their valuable effort and outcome is not linked to a specific reward system (Scheepers, 2011). Therefore, Chandler et al. (2000) identified the need for special financial and non-financial recognition programs for intrapreneurial assignments. ...
... Management plays a key role, facilitating the allocation of resources and championing innovative ideas (Feyzbakhsh et al. 2008;Kuratko et al. 2014), fostering a culture of failure tolerance, (Custódio et al. (2017), ensuring flexibility and freedom to pursue their projects without bureaucratic barriers (Hisrich and Kearney 2012), opportunity (Parker 2011), and time (Kuratko et al. 2014). Moreover, rewards and incentives whether financial (Hellriegel et al. 1999) or non-financial (acknowledgement etc) (Scheepers 2011 andKuratko 2017) are critical. Similarly, organisational design (Boon et al. 2013) favouring a decentralised structure is shown to foster intrapreneurial activity (Delic et al. 2016). ...
Innovation practices within the Hotel sector in Ireland
... Intrapreneurial behavior can generate many different forms of well-defined innovations (result achieved) in the small business context. New products, services, processes, areas, or business developments are some of the outcomes of the intrapreneurial process (Carrier, 1996;De Villiers-Scheepers, 2011). In the case presented here, the results achieved refer to two new ventures (Alpha and Gamma), a new service (Beta), and a new area (Delta). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper insight into the organizational factors and personal motivations of intrapreneurs that may foster intrapreneurial behaviors of employees in a new technology-based firm (NTBF).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes a qualitative approach to explore organizational and individual antecedents of employees’ intrapreneurial behavior. A single case study was conducted on the basis of semi-structured interviews with the founders and top managers of the firm and with intrapreneurial employees.
Findings
Results show that intrapreneurial projects may arise in firms whose top managers support corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in a non-active manner. Intrapreneurial behaviors of employees can emerge despite the lack of time and limited resources available for undertaking projects. Moreover, work discretion and mutual confidence and the quality of the relationship between employees and top managers are the most valued factors for intrapreneurs.
Practical implications
Based on the intrapreneurial projects studied, this paper helps to contextualize intrapreneurs’ perception of organizational support and the personal motivations for leading projects within an NTBF.
Originality/value
Traditionally, the literature has mainly focused on the top-down implementation of entrepreneurial projects within large firms. This paper contributes to the understanding of the combination of firm- and individual-level factors that facilitate intrapreneurial behaviors of employees. It also illustrates the contextual conditions and the firms’ orientation on CE within an NTBF.
... Moreover, several studies highlight that sustainable corporate innovativeness requires an organization-wide entrepreneurial spirit that is essential in order to cope with and benefit from rapidly changing marketplace conditions [66], [67]. Further authors recommend establishing a sustainable environment for intrapreneurship, which is based on certain organizational structures and managerial tools, such as decentralization and decision-making autonomy or allocation of free time for innovation [68], [69], [70]. ...
Many established corporations are currently seeking to adapt their business models and required innovation frameworks in order to compete with digital businesses based on radical innovations and disruptive technologies. This study has the purpose to examine advanced approaches of innovation management that are applicable for a successful transformation of firms' innovation activities. Semi-structured qualitative expert interviews (n=19) have been conducted in Germany and the USA between March and September, 2017. Results include the need to build up technology driven competencies within the corporation instead of mainly relying on external resources. In order to avoid the loss of digital talents, corporations should consider advancing their incentive schemes including a flexible performance measurement. Further detected findings refer to approaches regarding the funding of innovation projects, cooperation with partners, as well as culture and internal structures required for innovation. Presented recommendations will help corporations to fine tune their innovation activities by learning from insights into various multinational firms from the mobility sector. Furthermore, this research serves as a basis for further studies that intend to broaden the understanding of modern innovation management in the era of digital transformation.
... In general, corporate incubators are classified at the intersection between corporate venturing and business incubation (Ford et al., 2010) and therefore refer to the corporate entrepreneurship literature. Hereby, a decentralized innovation approach as well as a high degree of management support are considered essential (e.g., Scheepers, 2011). Thus, the role of middle managers as an interface between employees and top management (Balogun, 2007) should be included in this context. ...
... Lessem (1986) points out that in order to survive in today's climate, organizations need to become more flexible and more enterprising and so do the people who run them. Organizational freedom of employees has been deemed as an important aspect of intrapreneurial reward systems according to Scheepers (2011). In order to facilitate organizational flexibility, CEOs need an unbiased open-minded mindset. ...
The economic environment of the 21st century is getting progressively more competitive, demanding and challenging for most organizations. In order to survive and be successful, organizations constantly need to work on their products, services and business models to maintain a competitive advantage. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) clearly plays a pivotal role in guiding the organization forward and is a key player in the establishment and maintenance of an intrapreneurial climate. This paper explores different characteristics the CEO might use to influence the management and facilitation of an intrapreneurial climate within their organization. The aim of this paper is to identify the characteristics that CEOs consider important in creating and managing an intrapreneurial climate.
This research used an audio recorded structured interview methodology across nine CEOs from six different business sectors. Data analysis has been carried out using NVivo software.
In making an effective contribution towards the nourishment of an innovative intrapreneurial climate, different characteristics are used by CEOs in different situations. CEOs need to display a certain degree of flexibility and adaptability in their work ethics along with good intuition and resilience skills. Communication skills also play a very significant role in the cultivation of an intrapreneurial environment. CEOs need to be confident with their vision for the organization and when situations demand it they have to be risk takers. Being the facilitator, CEOs need to demonstrate a certain level of credibility and trustworthiness to encourage and motivate employees towards the route for innovation practice. All these characteristics significantly influence the promotion and growth of an intrapreneurial climate and a CEO might adopt certain characteristics based on the demands and requirements of various organizational and economic situations.
This paper explores a key research gap identified in this area which is the critical link between CEO characteristics and intrapreneurship. The analysis of the conducted interviews shows that CEOs can act as innovative facilitators of an intrapreneurial climate and understanding the role and importance of different influential characteristics will benefit both CEOs and different organizations in practising intrapreneurial ethics in an effective manner.
Intrapreneurship, or entrepreneurial behaviors such as proactivity, innovativeness and risk taking in existing organizations is more relevant than ever before. For social organizations encompassing both corporate entrepreneurship (i.e., top down practices) and intrapreneurial behavior (bottom up behavior from employees) is crucial. Yet, corporate entrepreneurship has received substantially more research attention than intrapreneurial behavior, and often both are used interchangeably by authors. This paper aims to shed a light on the literature on corporate entrepreneurship, intrapreneurial behavior, and intrapreneurship. Additionally, we will give a literature overview on how team and top leaders affect intrapreneurial behavior. Finally, we will reflect further on the idea of social entrepreneurship as active resistance, how this related to intrapreneurship and its relevance for intrapreneurship as a job requirement, teamwork, and organizational policies as well as share some interesting avenues for further research on intrapreneurial behavior.
This research explores the motivational factors influencing employees' intrapreneurial intentions and provided context-specific conclusions. The study does regression analysis on 340 employees from India's top 50 emerging software product firms for 2020. The findings indicated that motivational factors associated with challenge, power, money, and performance influenced intrapreneurial intents positively. In summary, the findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of intrapreneurs by examining intrinsic and extrinsic motives using the self-determination theory. By investigating the effect of motives on individuals' intents to become entrepreneurs, this research gives new light on the intrapreneurial realm.
The corporate entrepreneurship literature has identified the importance of intrapreneurs for maintaining growth, revitalization, and performance of corporations, but little is known about intrapreneurs and how they perceive their corporate working conditions. The working conditions in the corporation have an effect on employees’ behavior. This paper empirically investigates corporate conditions from the individual’s perspective as well as the types of intrapreneurs that exist. The findings from a cluster analysis of intrapreneurs suggests that there are three types of intrapreneurs: resilient intrapreneurs, neglected intrapreneurs, and privileged intrapreneurs. Overall, the findings show that intrapreneurial behavior and corporate conditions are related and that organizations purposefully can design their corporate environment to support different intrapreneurs.
Objetivo: Identificar os fatores que permeiam o comportamento intraempreendedor dos colaboradores com base na literatura sobre o tema. Método / abordagem: Foi utilizada uma abordagem metodológica qualitativa e exploratória, por meio de uma revisão sistemática da literatura. Principais resultados: Como principal resultado, esta pesquisa apresenta um modelo integrativo que constitui os fatores que facilitam e inibem o intraempreendedorismo, características e traços de personalidade de intraempreendedores, os aspectos do comportamento intraempreendedor, consequências individuais e organizacionais. O modelo contribui para uma melhor compreensão dos fatores que permeiam o comportamento intraempreendedor dos colaboradores. Contribuições metodológicas / sociais / gerenciais: Esta pesquisa contribui teoricamente para ampliar e enriquecer a literatura no campo do intraempreendedorismo, consolidando os fatores que permeiam o comportamento intraempreendedor dos colaboradores. Do ponto de vista prático, fornece subsídios para auxiliar executivos, gerentes e o setor de recursos humanos na contratação, identificação, alocação e desenvolvimento de intraempreendedores dentro das organizações. Originalidade / relevância: O modelo integrativo de intraempreendedorismo dos colaboradores contribui ao agregar antecedentes (facilitadores e inibidores), características e traços de personalidade do intraempreendedor, e consequentes (individuais e organizacionais). O intraempreendedorismo pode contribuir para sustentar uma organização em seu ambiente de negócios, por meio de mudanças, inovação, crescimento econômico, renovação de força e vigor.
Intrapreneurship gilt als vielversprechendes Konzept für Unternehmen, um wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben und gewinnbringende Innovationen auf den Weg zu bringen. Basierend auf den Forschungserkenntnissen der letzten zehn Jahre wird in diesem Beitrag erklärt, wie Intrapreneurship definiert wird und dargelegt, welche positiven Eigenschaften dieses Konzept für den Unternehmenskontext hat. Zudem wird der Einfluss der Führungskraft sowie des organisationalen Rahmens auf den Unternehmergeist der Mitarbeitenden geschildert. Abschließend werden die Charakteristika von Intrapreneuren näher beleuchtet.
Intrapreneurship is becoming a key factor in the growth of a company in a highly dynamic and progressively more competitive business environment. The idea of intrapreneurship is to encourage greater employee involvement within the organisation in which they work, giving them the freedom to innovate and experiment in a proactive, creative, and innovative way. In the startups, the role of intrapreneurship is of great relevance knowing that startups are designed to scale and grow exponentially in a short time and with few resources. Innovation is at the core of a startup and intrapreneurship initiatives allow leveraging this capacity in startups. Accordingly, this study seeks to explore the phenomenon of intrapreneurship in startups, seeking to understand how formal and informal intrapreneurship initiatives are taken on by startups, and also exploring the role played by existing resources to support these initiatives. The results of the study allow us to conclude that startups value intrapreneurship initiatives despite financial constraints that overlap with time constraints that affect what can be allocated to these activities. Finally, medium-sized startups and those with more qualified human capital tend to value and support intrapreneur initiatives more intensely. In contrast, startups with less academically qualified human capital offer worse conditions and support to intrapreneur activities.
Intrapreneurship provides a strategic route for many organizations to achieve growth, keep up with changing trends and improve business performance. Today's technology-based firms face a lot of pressure to innovate, meet increasing customer demands, and build a competitive advantage to survive and sustain successfully in a volatile economic environment. In this context, these firms are seeking to be more intrapreneurial in nature by unleashing the intrapreneurial capabilities of their employees. Technology-based Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in particular, have certain limitations in comparison to large organizations in terms of resources and innovation capabilities. These, therefore, impose more pressures among SMEs to utilize their resources more efficiently. This involves stimulating and tapping into their engineers' intrapreneurial potential. In such SMEs, managers play a significant role in facilitating intrapreneurship and empowering and supporting engineers to act as intrapreneurs. There is, however, a scarcity of research on the management support for engineers in such SMEs. This paper addresses this gap using qualitative case study research. Two technology-based SMEs were selected in the UK that are engineering intensive and have successful reputations for introducing innovative products and solutions over the years. This exploratory study investigates how managers in technology-based SMEs encourage, promote, and motivate engineers to contribute towards intrapreneurship and facilitate their intrapreneurial initiatives. The results from these case studies revealed that managers play a significant role in empowering engineers to actively engage with intrapreneurship. They influence an intrapreneurial culture through open communication with their engineers and being receptive to their ideas. They provide continuous support throughout the innovation process, starting from idea generation to execution and planning. They facilitate a culture conducive to intrapreneurship that ensures freedom and flexibility to engineers with their roles and rewards their innovation efforts. Moreover, managers seem to play a crucial part in implementing the business strategy by explaining and clarifying the vision to their engineers and driving them to execute these through their active engagement with intrapreneurship. To successfully drive and sustain an intrapreneurial culture, managers need to provide adequate support so as to keep engineers motivated and engaged with their roles.
We critically assess the comparative efficiency advantages and disadvantages of capitalist and cooperative firms using team production as a frame of reference. We revisit the debate about such (dis)advantages in the context of open team production (OTP), a situation where team members are both internal and external to the firm. In contrast to the case of traditional (closed) team production, which focuses on the problem of monitoring team members within the firm, open team production, requires incentivizing both internal and external team members to commit to firm-specific cospecialized investments, as well as orchestrating and monitoring these continued investments. We identify some comparative efficiency (dis)advantages of traditional cooperative and capitalist firms in dealing with the novel challenges posed by OTP and we conclude that, in its context, a new type of a hybrid firm can possess comparative efficiency advantages vis-à-vis both types of traditional firms.
Employees are considered as important contributors to service innovation, but the literature is not unanimous about what employee involvement in service innovation entails. To advance theoretical understanding of the topic, this paper develops a conceptual framework for analysing employee involvement in service innovations, reviews existing research on the topic and proposes a research agenda.
Different modes of employee involvement in service innovation are distinguished based on two dimensions: (1) the intensity of employee influence on service innovation and (2) the breadth of the innovation activity in which employees are involved. This conceptual framework is abductively developed through a literature review of empirical service innovation studies to identify and analyse whether and how these modes of employee involvement are manifested in the service innovation literature. The findings delineate six modes of employee involvement in the reviewed service innovation studies. Employees are primarily seen as having a strong influence on situated innovation activities but a limited influence on systemic innovation activities. The findings show that more research is needed to assess the connections between different modes of employee involvement.The findings can be used by practitioners to assess the possibilities different modes of employee involvement may bring to service innovation activities. The proposed conceptual framework and the analysis of current research and research gaps in service innovation studies provide a clear research agenda for progressing multidimensional understanding of employee involvement in service innovation.
The purpose of the article is a theoretical and empirical analysis of the job insecurity due its influence on the employee job attitudes. Design. The design of the study was longitudinal. The empirical results were collected in 2018–2019. The empirical basis of the research is the separate structural department of the bank. The organization has realized downsizing project during the collection of empirical data. It has made possible to analyze the job satisfaction and work engagement before, during and after the downsizing project. The measures used in the present study are: 1) the “Utrecht Work Engagement Scale”; 2) “Brief Job Satisfaction Measure; 3) “The Job Insecurity Scale”. An empirical analysis of the dynamics of job attitudes in the groups differ in age and gender has found out a short-term motivating effect of the threat of job loss. The motivating effect of the threat of job loss is lost during six months. The most significance motivating effect was wound out in within the group of ordinary employees in the senior category over 45 years. The threat of dismissal also has the greatest impact on the behavior change of that part of the staff that is most susceptible to experiencing job insecurity. The employees who perceived the job insecurity are more satisfied with their work and value it more highly.
Purpose: The reason for this investigation was to check the notability of intrapreneurship for business education faculty members and look at how its credits and practices identify with faculty's' work inspiration and socioeconomics. • Design/methodology/approach: From a sample frame of 851 university business education faculty members in KPK region, Pakistan, 376 faculty members finished an online poll for a reaction rate of 44.1%. Results demonstrated statistically substantial contrasts in faculty members' intrapreneurial introduction relying upon background, level and specialization of position, and university. • Findings: Greater trust in and relevant help for intrapreneurship enhanced faculty encouragement. Responders who self-recognized as ambitious innovators encouraged coordinated efforts between their students and active businesspeople, directed new methodologies for showing inventiveness and designed creative educational programs. While responders for the most part felt a sense of freedom, they didn't feel they had satisfactory skills and resources for propelling new enterprises, and they saw less resilience for hazard and risks inside their universities. • Originality/value: Discoveries of this examination may help separate explicit intrapreneurial characteristics and authoritative components that could strengthen faculty driven instructional method and lessen faculty motivation
This study aims to develop theoretical arguments about the factors promoting nascent
intrapreneurship relative to role theory. These arguments principally draw on contributions from interactional and structural sociology. Fixed theoretical tools for intrapreneurship are not quite enough. So, structural and interactionist perspective of sociology is necessary to understand the intrapreneurship concept because intrapreneurs live in a society and shape their course per the expectations of others. Previous approaches depend on individual, organizations or environment to push potential employees to be intrapreneurs. Expectations may be a keystone for intrapreneurship because intrapreneurs have been trying to explain or make progress about what is seen as crucial; more importantly, they learn their roles.
This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship research by offering an overview of the literature on how the development of intrapreneurship and corporate venture capital
improves the retention of talent within an entrepreneurial group and satisfies the entrepreneurial desire of young talent. The research on intrapreneurship has increased in the previous years. This paper will describe the most significant attributes and features of the intrapreneurship concept itself, the intrapreneur and the intrapreneurial organization and therefore clarify what defines intrapreneurship and talent retention with its relation to organizational performance and development.
This study aims at understanding the impact of intrapreneurial skill (IS) on intrapreneur’s performance (IPER) with mediation of rewards (RWD) in the software houses in Pakistan. The study employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for the empirical analysis of data from 517 respondents employed by software houses of Pakistan. The results confirmed positive and significant relationship between intrapreneur’s skills and intrapreneur’s performance. Mediating role of reward was also confirmed between intrapreneur’s skills and intrapreneur’s performance. The findings of the study indicate towards the important role that intrapreneur’s skills including political skills, creativity and transformational leadership can play to attain intrapreneur’s performance. The study also highlights the important role of rewards which through their mediation can further improve intrapreneur’s performance based on intrapreneur’s skills. The study implies that the managers of the firms can use the findings of this study to find the potential intrapreneurs and manage rewards to enhance their intrapreneurial performance.
Purpose
This study aims to develop conceptual arguments about intrapreneurship relative to role theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The challenge to the intrapreneurship concept is that no single or combination of personality traits, individual characteristics or attitudes can fulfill the causes of the phenomenon, as these factors are context-bound. One explanation for individual- and macro-level contrasting outcomes is the diverging effect of expectations. The structural and interactionist perspective of sociology is used to understand the intrapreneurship concept because intrapreneurs live within a society and shape their course per the expectations of others.
Findings
Intrapreneurs have been trying to infer about what is seen as crucial individually related to interactions within the existing context; more importantly, acting in an intrapreneurship role can be defined and learned by expectations.
Practical implications
With the convenient expectations from other members, families or environments, organization members will value the innovation and self-direction of intrapreneurship more highly that such a taste for an acting role may be an important factor in the decision to become an intrapreneur.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper emphasized for the first time that the consequences of exposure to social expectations for the development of intrapreneur roles, particularly the broad portfolios of skills and motivation, are relevant to intrapreneurship. Previous approaches depend on individuals, organizations or the environment to have different approaches to likely employees to be intrapreneurs. The paper first argues that context is important for understanding how and why context can be linked to individual intrapreneurs and how intrapreneurship can be defined as roles rather than a task or unique potential entrepreneurs.
This article develops arguments about the factors that promote intrapreneurship in relation to role theory. These are based on contributions from interactional and structural sociology. Fixed theoretical tools for intrapreneurship are not enough. So, the structural and interactionist perspective of sociology is necessary to understand the concept of intrapreneurship. The above approaches depend on individuals, organizations or environments to encourage potential employees to be intrapreneurs. Thus, Expectations can be a cornerstone for intrapreneurship because intrapreneurs learn from their roles.
As the ongoing evolution in the higher education sector changes the roles of universities, entrepreneurial practices become more prominent in their agendas. The literature on academic entrepreneurship focuses predominantly on the commercialization of research and less on other intrapreneurial activities—namely those performed by non-academic employees. To fill this gap, this study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence universities’ faculty members and non-academic staff to engage in intrapreneurial activities. The article analyzes Latvian university employees’ perceptions of 13 organizational, individual, and environmental factors and how they influence intrapreneurial behavior. Regarding the organizational factors, the results show that higher trust in managers, more available resources for innovative ideas, less formal rules and procedures, and greater freedom in decision-making can lead to higher levels of intrapreneurial behavior. With regard to individual factors, intrapreneurial behavior is associated with an employee’s initiative, but is not correlated with risk-taking and personal initiative. As to external factors, while environmental munificence is positively correlated with innovativeness, dynamism and unfavorable change influence employees’ engagement in intrapreneurial activities.
Innovations are key factors for economic growth. In times of globalisation, rapidly changing markets, and economic crises, they represent an essential competitive factor for companies. This outstanding role of innovations has resulted in the requirement of new skills. The labour market is showing an increased interest in entrepreneurially oriented staff members, so-called intrapreneurs. In this context, intrapreneurship competence – the entrepreneurial thinking and acting ability of employees – constitutes an important 21st century skill. As we understand it, intrapreneurship is directed towards individuals’ innovative behaviour with regard to the generation of innovative project ideas and the planning and implementation of such projects within the organisational practice. Previous research on intrapreneurship has particularly focused on the organisational perspective (e.g. Antoncic and Hisrich, J Bus Ventur 16(5):495–527, 2001; Alpkan et al. Manag Decision, 48(5):732–755, 2010), rather than on the individual-oriented level. While considering this individual behavioural perspective of intrapreneurship, it is our aim to (a) highlight significant dispositions concerning the facets of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) that are identified as being characteristic for mastering typical intrapreneurship challenges and (b) consolidate these findings within a competence model for intrapreneurship that is derived from the identified dispositions. For this purpose, we ran a comprehensive literature review according to the methodological procedure suggested by Cooper. Synthesizing research: a guide for literature reviews, 3rd edn. Sage Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks, 2006.
Whilst Vora et al. (2012) suggest that studies of entrepreneurship have been prolific since their origins in the 1930s, it is not until relatively recently in academic and business literature that we find the expression intrapreneur documented. Two names are commonly linked to its first usage: Gifford Pinchot III and Norman Macrae. The term was credited to Pinchot by Macrae in 1982. Bouchard and Basso (2011), Franco and Haase (2009), and Kneale (2011), among other authors also attribute Pinchot as the primary source of intrapreneurship to describe entrepreneurship inside the corporation, and that intrapreneurs will act as champions for new ideas progressing from inception to actuality. The infamous quote found in most references to Pinchot’s writings is that “intrapreneurs are dreamers who do” Cottam (1989: 522). Pinchot (1985) explains, “The intrapreneur may be the creator or inventor but it is always the dreamer who figures out how to turn and idea into a profitable reality” (p ix). Other widely used terms are internal entrepreneur, administrative entrepreneur (Gundogdu 2012: 298), intra-corporate entrepreneur (Antoncic and Hisrich 2004: 520), and corporate entrepreneur, the latter being attributed to the work of Drucker (1994). Kenney (2010) introduces an advanced term, globalpreneurship, to define the process of intrapreneurship in large multinational companies, introducing a further employee profile of globalpreneurs, capturing the specific challenges for intrapreneurship in corporate environments where stakeholder and stockholder requirements put considerable external pressures on operational performance metrics.
p> Background: Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is credited for many positive organisational outcomes, including systemic growth and increased revenue. Several terms associated with CE, including strategic renewal, corporate venturing and intrapreneurship are frequently used interchangeably and often confuse scholars, researchers and practitioners. The lack of clarity about the exact meaning of these terms is detrimental to the synergy in the current body of knowledge and the development of models involving these concepts. Objective: The aim of this paper was to describe CE as a unique concept, distinguishable from related concepts. Methodology: Several definitions of CE as well as the related terms were dissected, to identify core elements associated with each of them. The validity of these comprehensive definitions was tested by requesting 68 master’s degree students to classify the definitions. Inter-rater reliabilities were calculated in order to assess the level of agreement in the classification of the constructs. Results: The results indicate that CE is difficult to distinguish from strategic renewal and corporate venturing, but that intrapreneurship seems to be better defined and separate from the other constructs. Conclusion: These results emphasise the conceptual confusion that exists around CE and the need for further clarification of terminology.
KEY WORDS
Corporate entrepreneurship, strategic renewal, corporate venturing, intrapreneurship.</p
The aim of this study is to demonstrate how the archivist and all the professionals dealing with
the municipal archives can be intrapreneurs in the organization where they perform duties,
through their creativity, better services, using their personal involvement and ingenuity in
creating products or new services. The results obtained, based on a quantitative approach
whose data-collecting instrument was a questionnaire sent to a sample of 311 Portuguese
municipal archives, showed evidence of a gradual change in work mentality and in archive and
archivists’ procedures, noting a certain awakening to the practice of intrapreneurship. In
identifying the main practices stimulating intrapreneurship in the archives studied, it was
possible to retain some explanatory dimensions (factors) of this phenomenon: (1) Autonomy,
pro-activeness, creation of products and climate, (2) Orientation towards goals, competence and
risk, (3) Market, social and decision, (4) Functionality and status, and (5) Reward and
competitiveness. This study is seen as being of the greatest importance, due to the Information
and Knowledge Society becoming increasingly important for the economy, especially
following one of the most serious crises in Portugal’s history. It was therefore necessary to find
out to what extent these information professionals are intrapreneurs within their archives,
taking advantage of existing resources but also of their wisdom and competences in its service.
Presents the findings in respect of two research objectives, which form part of a larger research project on the status and nature of Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes in South Africa. In a summary form, the relevant research objectives are: to compare and contrast the opinions of MBA graduates and employers (representing business practice) on the relative importance of core courses for running a business, and management skills and traits required in the business environment; to achieve the above, two independent empirical surveys were conducted, canvassing the perceptions and opinions of 633 MBA graduates and 245 employers. The main findings emphasised the relative importance attached to core courses and management skills and traits by both MBA graduate and employer respondents, but also the substantial disparities between these two groups. Concludes with the implications of these findings.
It is hypothesised that a positive relationship exists between the financial performance of an organisation and the level of intrapreneurship within the organisation with causation running from entrepreneurship to financial outcomes. Using a three-factor key intrapreneurship model developed by Goosen, De Coning and Smit (2002) and financial outcomes from a sample of companies listed in the industrial sector of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, this proposition is put to the test. The results support the hypothesis that the key factors innovativeness, proactiveness and management’s internal influence all significantly contribute to financial performance if regarded individually, but that the last factor dominates the first two external factors when used simultaneously. The conclusion underscores the importance of the impact of leadership on financial outcomes.
The current research identifies constructs that are supportive of an innovative culture in small to medium-sized enterprises. A sample of 429 employees in 23 small to medium-sized manufacturing firms was used to identify constructs associated with an innovative culture. Supervisory support and reward system support are both positively related to an innovative culture. Perceived work overload is negatively related. Companies with cultures supportive of innovation tend to be smaller, have fewer formalized human resource practices, and less munificent resources. There is no direct relationship between an innovative culture and firm performance; however, when the competitive environment is changing rapidly firm earnings are enhanced by an innovative culture.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree of satisfaction and perceived relevance of the Graduate Business Education (GBE) programme at the University of Botswana.
Design/methodology/approach
A self‐administered questionnaire and face to face interviews were used to collect data from Master of Business Administration (MBA) participants on their reason for studying MBA, level of satisfaction, and the extent to which the skills and experiences obtained correlate with those required by the corporate world. The data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics.
Findings
The majority of the respondents are male adults attending part time MBA classes and working full time in administrative positions in the public and private sectors. The study found that improved managerial skills, career development and broader business insights are major reasons for joining the MBA programme, while employability and economic gains were ranked low as driving forces. Even though the overall satisfaction with the programme is mixed and inconclusive, the MBA programme has assisted participants to develop basic management and administration skills. However, the programme puts greater emphasis on conceptual, technical and analytical skills than on problem solving, innovation, communication and entrepreneurial skills which are perceived to be most needed by employers, implying a relevance gap. What the MBA participants learnt does not correlate with what they perceived to be most needed by employers.
Research limitations/implications
Since the findings are based on perceptions of MBA participants, the conclusions drawn from these findings must be considered tentative and interpreted with care. Future research must include representative sample of all MBA stakeholders such as faculty, students, graduates, employers and administrators to get rich information about quality of inputs, processes and products of MBA programme.
Practical implications
There is strong need for the MBA programme to integrate traditional management and administrative skills with experiences and skills relevant for today's world of work. Bridging the growing theory‐practice gap requires attracting professors with practical business experience, revising staff recruitment policies and procedures, establishing formal partnership with external organization, and develop long‐term strategies to reduce teaching load and staff turnover.
Originality/value
Most of the studies on the relevance and quality of GBE programmes are conducted in western higher education institutions, very little has been done in African universities. This is the first of its kind in the context of Botswana, an important contribution to existing literature and foundation for further advanced studies in the area.
This study extends the conceptualisation and measurement of brand personality to the online environment. We contend that websites are an important element of corporate identity management in today's competitive environment. We investigated the websites of South African Business Schools in order to find out what brand personality each school features. Our multistage methodology revealed a measure of business school brand personality that to some extent portrays the dimensions Aaker postulated. This study illustrates a powerful, but simple and relatively inexpensive way business school managers can study communicated brand personality. The results also offer new ways for business schools (and other organisations) to strengthen their brand and market position in a competitive environment. It also is a relatively simple way to differentiate their school in the crowded MBA education marketplace.
In this field experiment, we first compared the performance effects of money systematically administered through the organizational behavior modification (O.B. Mad.) model and routine pay for performance and then compared the effects of O.B. Mod.-administered money, social recognition, and performance feedback. The money intervention based on the O.B. Mod. outperformed routine pay for performance (performance increase = 37% vs. 11%) and also had stronger effects on performance than social recognition (24%) and performance feedback (20%).
The critical cross-field outcomes (CCFOs) formulated by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) are generic competencies designed to underpin all national qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). They are intended to provide the basis for lifelong learning, personal growth, honest business acumen, critical, creative thinking and aesthetic appreciation. However, little work on these important learning outcomes has been published, despite their high face validity, and this exploratory study amongst MBA graduates is intended to stimulate interest and further research into this important area.
Although the findings cannot necessarily be generalised due to the specific sampling methodology among 53 MBA graduates from Wits Business School (graduating between 1998 and 2002), it was found that the CCFOs were collectively important to their careers, although individually, some were considered more important than others. The sample also perceived that the CCFOs were developed through the course of their studies, with use of information being developed the most, and use of technology the least.
These findings are encouraging as they imply that most of the CCFOs are intuitively important to both faculty and management students and mechanisms for systematically embedding the CCFOs into curricula may be sought and implemented to the benefit of MBA students and the business community.
One of the biggest challenges that managers face in executing business strategies to achieve competitive advantage, is the employment of motivational techniques that build wholehearted commitment to operating excellence. Much confusion however still exists on the question of which rewards really motivate employees. This study investigates which rewards motivate lower-level employees (N = 367) in both manufacturing and clothing retail firms. The results show that the most important individual motivational reward for blue-collar employees is paid holidays and for frontline employees, retirement plans. The most important motivational reward category for both blue-collar and frontline employees is fringe benefits (paid holidays, sick leave and housing loans).
In this paper we present the results of a study analyzing the impact of an entrepreneurial company’s initial organization on the structure of its reward and incentive systems, using data from entrepreneurial firms in Germany. The results suggest that the educational level of employees has the strongest impact on the application of different financial and nonfinancial rewards. Our findings also suggest that entrepreneurial companies in Germany rarely implement sophisticated financial reward systems.
Recent studies argue that the spread-adjusted Taylor rule (STR), which includes a response to the credit spread, replicates monetary policy in the United State. We show (1) STR is a theoretically optimal monetary policy under heterogeneous loan interest rate contracts in both discretionay and commitment monetary policies, (2) however, the optimal response to the credit spread is ambiguous given the financial market structure in theoretically derived STR, and (3) there, a commitment policy is effective in narrowing the credit spread when the central bank hits the zero lower bound constraint of the policy rate.
Strategic Management Concepts & Cases
Drawing on the literature involving the venture start-up process, integrated with motivational theory from the field of organizational behavior, a model describing the factors that affect firm start-up, strategic implementation, and the entrepreneur's decision to sustain entrepreneurship is proposed. Several hypotheses for future research are suggested.
Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has become an important and extensively researched topic in the literature. Empirical results suggest that EO may influence firm performance. However, it is important to determine whether the EO-performance relationship is sustainable since EO can be a resource-consuming strategic orientation. This research examines the sustainability of the EO-performance relationship; i.e., whether EO affects performance during an extended period of time or is a “quick fix” where performance is only temporarily affected. Using data from Swedish small firms, the results indicate that there is indeed a positive relationship between EO and performance. This relationship also increases over time. The results show that investments in EO may be worthwhile for small firms since they pay off over an extended period of time.
Although authors generally agree on the nature of entrepreneurial activities within existing firms, differences in the terminology used to describe those activities have created confusion. This article discusses existing definitions in the field of corporate entrepreneurship, reconciles these definitions, and provides criteria for classifying and understanding the activities associated with corporate venturing.
This study examines the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship intensity and five specific strategic management practices in a sample of 169 U.S. manufacturing firms. The five strategic management practices include: scanning intensity, planning flexibility, planning horizon, locus of planning, and control attributes. The results of the study indicated a positive relationship between corporate entrepreneurship intensity and scanning intensity, planning flexibility, locus of planning, and strategic controls. The fine‐grained nature of these results may be of practical use to firms that are trying to become more entrepreneurial and may help researchers better understand the subtleties of the interface between strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The primary purpose of this article is to clarify the nature of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) construct and to propose a contingency framework for investigating the relationship between EO and firm performance. We first explore and refine the dimensions of EO and discuss the usefulness of viewing a firm's EO as a multidimensional construct. Then, drawing on examples from the EO-related contingencies literature, we suggest alternative models (moderating effects, mediating effects, independent effects, interaction effects) for testing the EO-performance relationship.
We endeavor to propose counterintuitive ideas or, alternatively, deny the “assumption bases” (Davis, 1971) of ETP's readers. Major sections of the paper suggest research questions concerning strategies, structures, and processes in the context of corporate entrepreneurship (CE). The issues we propose include: Are cost leadership strategies and corporate entrepreneurship inherently at odds? Are contemporary organizational forms always more compatible with CE than traditional structures? and; How can the normative guidance that permeates the popular press on entrepreneurial processes lead managers astray? Corporate entrepreneurship's unique relationship to strategy, structure, and process issues and future research questions are discussed.
This study examines the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship intensity and five specific strategic management practices in a sample of 169 U.S. manufacturing firms. The five strategic management practices include: scanning intensity, planning flexibility, planning horizon, locus of planning, and control attributes. The results of the study indicated a positive relationship between corporate entrepreneurship intensity and scanning intensity, planning flexibility, locus of planning, and strategic controls. The fine-grained nature of these results may be of practical use to firms that are trying to become more entrepreneurial and may help researchers better understand the subtleties of the interface between strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Even among internet companies, Google stands out as an enterprise designed with the explicit goal of succeeding at rapid, profuse innovation. Much of what the company does is rooted in its legendary IT infrastructure, but technology and strategy at Google are inseparable and mutually permeable - making it hard to say whether technology is the DNA of its strategy or the other way around. Whichever it is, Iyer and Davenport, of Babson College, believe Google may well be the internet-era heir to such companies as General Electric and IBM as an exemplar of management practice. Google has spent billions of dollars creating its internet-based operating platform and developing proprietary technology that allows the company to rapidly develop and roll out new services of its own or its partners' devising. As owner and operator of its innovation "ecosystem," Google can control the platform's evolution and claim a disproportionate percentage of the value created within it. Because every transaction is performed through the platform, the company has perfect, continuous awareness of, and access to, the by-product information and is the hub of all germinal revenue streams. In addition to technology explicitly designed and built for innovation, Google has a well-considered organizational and cultural strategy that helps the company attract the most talented people in the land - and keep them working hard. For instance, Google budgets innovation into job descriptions, eliminates friction from development processes, and cultivates a taste for failure and chaos. While some elements of Google's success as an innovator would be very hard and very costly to emulate, others can be profitably adopted by almost any business.
Technology strategy (TS) is one of the most important aspects of any firm's strategic posture especially in dynamic environments such as the computer software industry. Not only do new ventures face the pressures that accompany all young companies (e.g., shortages of capital), but they also have to keep up with a rapid rate of technological change. Consequently TS, the sum of a firm's choices on how to develop and exploit its technological resources, can profoundly affect a venture's performance and survival.This empirical study examines the relationships between TS and new venture performance (NVP). By focusing on TS variables and analyzing their performance outcomes, the study offers insights into the factors that can influence the success of new ventures in a fast-paced environment. This study also examines key environmental moderators, those external environmental forces, which can significantly impact the strength or direction of the relationship between a firm's TS and NVP.The study examines five TSs that can enhance NPV. The first is radicality, which means developing and introducing new products ahead of competitors. The second is the intensity of product upgrades, which refers to a venture's commitment to introducing more refinements and extensions of its products than its competition. The third is the level of R&D spending, which indicates a venture's strong investment in internal research and development activities. The fourth is the use of external technology sources (e.g., strategic alliances and licenses) to augment a firm's own R&D efforts. The final dimension is the use of
Intrapreneurship (entrepreneurship within existing organizations) has been of interest to scholars and practitioners for the past two decades. Intrapreneurship is viewed as being beneficial for revitalization and performance of corporations, as well as for small and medium-sized enterprises. The concept has four distinct dimensions. First, the new-business–venturing dimension refers to pursuing and entering new businesses related to the firm's current products or markets. Second, the innovativeness dimension refers to the creation of new products, services, and technologies. Third, the self-renewal dimension emphasizes the strategy reformulation, reorganization, and organizational change. Finally, the proactiveness dimension reflects top management orientation in pursuing enhanced competitiveness and includes initiative and risk-taking, and competitive aggressiveness, and boldness. While differing somewhat in their emphasis, activities and orientations, the four dimensions pertain to the same concept of intrapreneurship because they are factors of Schumpeterian innovation, the building block of entrepreneurship. The pursuit of creative or new solutions to challenges confronting the firm, including the development or enhancement of old and new products and services, markets, administrative techniques, and technologies for performing organizational functions (e.g., production, marketing, sales, and distribution), as well as changes in strategy, organizing, and dealings with competitors are innovations in the broadest sense.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on measuring competencies of higher education graduates and employers' needs, and using these measurements in the quality development of higher education study programmes.
Design/methodology/approach
Results of a survey among Danish employers and their perception of the competencies of MSc graduates from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) are presented and discussed. In addition to assessing the competencies, the respondents were also asked to assess the importance of the individual competencies.
Findings
The estimated importance score and performance score for each competency can be combined in a competency map, and it is shown how the four cells in the map can be interpreted in useful ways, when essential areas for quality improvement of the study programme are to be identified.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited to the Danish employers' perceptions of MSc graduates from CBS.
Practical implications
The presented linking of competencies to employers' needs have clear managerial implications in the strategic development of higher education study programmes.
Originality/value
The study identifies and measures 16 essential graduate competencies and links these to employers' needs in a competency map.
The authors outline an updated paradigm for scale development that incorporates confirmatory factor analysis for the assessment of unidimensionality. Under this paradigm, item-total correlations and exploratory factor analysis are used to provide preliminary scales. The unidimensionality of each scale then is assessed simultaneously with confirmatory factor analysis. After unidimensional measurement has been acceptably achieved, the reliability of each scale is assessed. Additional evidence for construct validity beyond the establishment of unidimensionality then can be provided by embedding the unidimensional sets of indicators within a nomological network defined by the complete structural model.
Reviews the contributions to the understanding of creativity and innovation in organisations and interprets the implications for training and development. Highlights key and recurrent principles: the benefits of an integrated organisational approach, the right climate for creativity, appropriate incentives for innovators, a structured means of search and a systematic way to convert an opportunity into an innovation. It implies a broad range of skills development including: team working, communications, coaching, project management, learning to learn, visioning, change management and leadership. Even though techniques for the development of innovation and enhancing creativity in individuals are well founded, there are relatively few reports on the practice of mainstreaming creativity in an organisational setting. Likewise, although the transition from idea to innovation can be systematised, problems arise from customised applications that involve the management of the change process. The application of Internet and intranet communications for innovation are beginning to emerge but the literature base lags the speed of applications. The paper concludes with a synopsis of the training and development implications of stimulating creativity and innovation in organisations.
Intellectual capital (IC) and intangibles offer a possible pathway for reconciling our business and economic models in an environment of global interdependencies, environmental concern and larger social responsibility. However, the most common intellectual capital frameworks still operate within a traditional view of the enterprise that limits the type of business and economic analysis that might be. Realizing the larger impact of the IC and intangibles perspective requires expanding potential value domains to include: business relationships; human competence; internal structures; social citizenship; environmental health and corporate identity. An expanded view of value allows us to begin redefining value to understand knowledge and intangible benefits as currency in their own right and attend to more types of value exchange. At the macro-economic level this new thinking allows us to more fully appreciate intangible assets such as the social fabric of a country, healthy ecosystems, and previously unseen social and economic contributions.
Purpose
Aims to explore the future challenges and opportunities for business schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Reviews the existing situation for business schools, and draws inferences for the future.
Findings
In rapidly developing markets the traditional business school model will most likely survive, assuming that it can be scaled up successfully to meet strong but standard demand for management education. In mature countries it will have to evolve to satisfy a more complex environment with peculiar demands from both students and their employers.
Originality/value
In mature markets, top business schools will either transform themselves to meet those demands or cede some of the terrain to alternative providers of business education.
Middle-level managers’ entrepreneurial behavior is linked to successful corporate entrepreneurship. Herein, we integrate knowledge about corporate entrepreneurship and middle-level managers’ behaviors to develop and explore a conceptual model. The model depicts the organizational antecedents of middle-level managers’ entrepreneurial behavior, the entrepreneurial actions describing that behavior, and outcomes of that behavior as well as factors influencing its continuance. Following discussion of the model’s contents, we describe its potential value for researchers and those engaging in corporate entrepreneurship.
Examines the strategic postures, competitive tactics, and organization structures of small manufacturing firms that are associated with high performance in both hostile and benign environments. Hostile environments have such characteristics as difficult business climates, intense competition, and few opportunities, making such environments difficult for smaller, resource poor firms, and such environments are increasingly common in manufacturing. Two hypotheses suggest that the relationships between the organization structure and strategic posture can be determined by the level of hostility in the environment. Data were collected via surveys sent to single-industry, independently owned firms in western Pennsylvania, of which 161 responses were analyzed from among those in business for at least five years. Findings indicate that: (1) small firms with organic structures perform best in hostile environments, while small firms with mechanistic structures perform best in more benign environments; and (2) entrepreneurial firms perform better in hostile environments, while small conservative firms perform best in more benign environments. (SFL)
The purpose of this study was to explore how three different human resource variables affect employment growth of small-scale enterprises: human capital of business owners, human capital of employees, and human resource development and utilization. The literature suggests different models of how these human resource variables affect business outcomes. Longitudinal data from 119 German business owners provided support for a main effect model indicating that owners’ human capital as well as employee human resource development and utilization affect employment growth. Moreover, human resources development and utilization was most effective when the human capital of employees was high. We conclude that human resources are important factors predicting growth of small-scale enterprises.
The objective of the research was to discover the chief determinants of entrepreneurship, the process by which organizations renew themselves and their markets by pioneering, innovation, and risk taking. Some authors have argued that personality factors of the leader are what determine entrepreneurship, others have highlighted the role played by the structure of the organization, while a final group have pointed to the importance of strategy making. We believed that the manner and extent to which entrepreneurship would be influenced by all of these factors would in large measure depend upon the nature of the organization. Based upon the work of a number of authors we derived a crude typology of firms: Simple firms are small and their power is centralized at the top. Planning firms are bigger, their goal being smooth and efficient operation through the use of formal controls and plans. Organic firms strive to be adaptive to their environments, emphasizing expertise-based power and open communications. The predictiveness of the typology was established upon a sample of 52 firms using hypothesis-testing and analysis of variance techniques. We conjectured that in Simple firms entrepreneurship would be determined by the characteristics of the leader; in Planning firms it would be facilitated by explicit and well integrated product-market strategies, and in Organic firms it would be a function of environment and structure. These hypotheses were largely borne out by correlational and multiple regression analyses. Any programs which aim to stimulate entrepreneurship would benefit greatly from tailoring recommendations to the nature of the target firms.
As environments become more complex and dynamic, firms must become more entrepreneurial in order to identify new opportunities for sustained superior performance. Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) involves organizational learning, driven by collaboration, creativity and individual commitment. Therefore, it is widely held that HRM practices are an important driver of success. However, there is a pressing need for empirical research that addresses the contributions that HRM makes to a firm's ability to accept risk, be innovative and be proactive. This paper reviews empirical research linking human resource management (HRM) practices with CE. It is found that although there is consensus as to the importance of HRM to CE, the empirical evidence is mixed and tends to lack a clear theoretical explanation. This review identifies two central themes that need to be addressed as we seek a theoretical explanation for this important relationship: individual risk acceptance and the encouragement of discretionary entrepreneurial contributions. It is suggested that these two issues are interdependent. Potential theoretical avenues and future research directions are discussed.
This study examined the association between a firm's external environment, corporate entrepreneurship, and financial performance. The study emphasized three propositions: (1) perceived—rather than objective-characteristics of the environment significantly influenced entrepreneurship activities; (2) a multidimensional definition of a firm's environment was essential to unravel the interplay between the environment, orporate entrepreneurship activities, and financial performance; and (3) a taxonomic approach had the advantage of accounting for the interrelationships among the dimensions of the environment in classifying firms.
The influence of history on an organization is a powerful but often overlooked force. Managers, in their haste to build companies, frequently fail to ask such critical developmental questions as, Where has our organization been? Where is it newt and What do the answers to these questions mean for where it is going? Instead, when confronted with problems, managers fix their gaze outward on the environment and toward the future, as if more precise market projections will provide the organization with a new identity. In this HER Classic, Larry Greiner identifies a series of developmental phases that companies tend to pass through as they grow. He distinguishes the phases by their dominant themes: creativity, direction, delegation, coordination, and collaboration. Each phase begins with a period of evolution, steady growth, and stability, and ends with a revolutionary period of organizational turmoil and change. The critical task for management in each revolutionary period is to find a new set of organizational practices that will become the basis for managing the next period of evolutionary growth. Those new practices eventually outlast their usefulness and lead to another period of revolution. Managers therefore experience the irony of seeing a major solution in one period become a major problem in a later period. Originally published in 1972, the article's argument and insights remain relevant to managers today. Accompanying the original article is a commentary by the author updating his earlier observations.
Abstract in English. Thesis (PhD (Entrepreneurship)) - University of Pretoria, 2006. Includes bibliographical references.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. Includes bibliographical references.
Theory suggests that firms may derive the greatest benefits from an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) when they concurrently exhibit a high degree of strategic reactiveness. This paper explores the relationship between strategic reactiveness and EO as well as the moderating effect of structure-style fit on this relationship. Data collected from 110 manufacturing firms indicate that strategic reactiveness is not significantly related to EO. However, firms that exhibit theoretically-congruent alignments between their organization structures and top management decision-making styles tend to have positive strategic reactiveness-EO relationships.
We introduce a new hybrid approach to joint estimation of Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) for high quantiles of return distributions. We investigate the relative performance of VaR and ES models using daily returns for sixteen stock market indices (eight from developed and eight from emerging markets) prior to and during the 2008 financial crisis. In addition to widely used VaR and ES models, we also study the behavior of conditional and unconditional extreme value (EV) models to generate 99 percent confidence level estimates as well as developing a new loss function that relates tail losses to ES forecasts. Backtesting results show that only our proposed new hybrid and Extreme Value (EV)-based VaR models provide adequate protection in both developed and emerging markets, but that the hybrid approach does this at a significantly lower cost in capital reserves. In ES estimation the hybrid model yields the smallest error statistics surpassing even the EV models, especially in the developed markets.
The New Era of Management
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Bringing Out the Best in People
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Intrapreneurship: A strategy for managing change and innovation
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Assessing the impact of remuneration systems on corporate entrepreneurship: A critical view
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Education does matter
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The relationship between the practice of strategic planning and levels of corporate entrepreneurship in South African public companies
- S Dhilwayo