The aim of this thesis is to expand current knowledge on the development of corporate entrepreneurship and to contribute new theoretical and empirical insights into strategic entrepreneurship. To those ends, the thesis attempts to answer two research questions. First, how has the field of corporate entrepreneurship research evolved in terms of main themes, applied methods and theory, and what do these developments reveal about the future trajectories of the field? Second, what is the relationship between internal organizational factors and strategic entrepreneurship in the form of sustained regeneration, organizational rejuvenation, and strategic renewal? To answer the first question, a systematic and comprehensive review of 344 articles addressing the development of research on corporate entrepreneurship during 1969–2017 was conducted. To answer the second question, a survey was administered at a major financial services company to examine the relationship among four internal organizational factors and three forms of strategic entrepreneurship. The overall conclusion of the literature review is that corporate entrepreneurship is a growing and, in several respects, maturing field of research. Signs of its maturity are undermined, however, by the lack of commonly applied theories and theoretical frameworks. Those findings take support from the overall conclusion of the second study, which highlights the need to develop and further test empirically existing frameworks, constructs, and theoretical connections within literature on strategic entrepreneurship. Taken together, the findings of the thesis suggest that corporate entrepreneurship faces the difficult challenge of developing a set of more distinct, unifying theories and conceptual frameworks. Concerning strategic entrepreneurship, it is concluded that research on this topic should consider specific organizational structures and conditions of the company and, at the same time, it should also develop greater sensitivity to the effects of industry and institutional settings. The findings also highlight that internal organizational factors could have differentiated effects on the main forms of strategic entrepreneurship. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för framläggningen av avhandlingen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 1 (inskickat), delarbete 2 (inskickat).</p><p>At the time of the defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 1 (submitted), paper 2 (submitted).</p>

Comprehensive research has been done on organisational behaviour, entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship. Literature is however less clear on which organisational behaviour components influence corporate entrepreneurship. This creates a problem for managers and business leaders when they want to influence the entrepreneurial spirit within an organisation. This study summaries the literature on organisational behaviour variables and corporate entrepreneurship, as well as the limited findings linking the two concepts. The empirical study focuses four areas: testing validity and reliability of the measurements used in the study; the correlation between organisational behaviour components and corporate entrepreneurship; the ability of organisational behaviour components to predict corporate entrepreneurship; and finally testing if the grouping of organisational behaviour variables is justified. This cross sectional study was done in 12 non-listed and 5 listed companies in South Africa. Randomly selected employees completed 862 questionnaires. They represented all the local ethnic groups, both genders, and were from all organisational levels. The results of the empirical study indicated that the measurements used in the study were all acceptable being reliable and valid. The correlation between the selected organisational behaviour components and corporate entrepreneurship were all strong and significant, with goal setting the strongest, followed by performance management, then transformational leadership, and communication. The correlation with shared decision making, organisational culture, and power were less strong but still significant. The organisational behaviour components together declare a 46.5% variance in corporate entrepreneurship with organisational culture and goal setting contributing significantly and uniquely. Grouping the organisational behaviour variables in individual level, group level and organisational level, as suggested by many authors, did not provide a satisfactory solution. Suggestions to managers on where to focus when they want to foster corporate entrepreneurship were made. The limitations as well as suggestions for future research were discussed in the final instance. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D.B.L.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-08-05T15:22:56Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) msc-rlc-Final-BB.pdf: 1571813 bytes, checksum: 5798cb50511413addbcfba23f5dcd350 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-05T15:22:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) msc-rlc-Final-BB.pdf: 1571813 bytes, checksum: 5798cb50511413addbcfba23f5dcd350 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-01-29 / As grandes revoluções tecnológicas são cíclicas; ocorrem a cada 50 ou 60 anos. A cada iteração, tecnologias antes tidas como infalíveis e definitivas tornam-se obsoletas, dando lugar a novas formas de resolver problemas até então considerados intransponíveis. A revolução tecnológica em curso é a da Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação, catalisada pela criação de um ambiente aberto e democrático: a Internet. Esta se transforma em uma plataforma ubíqua e permite que empreendedores repensem as dinâmicas sociais e econômicas. Um ecossistema baseado na Lei de Moore, que diz que a capacidade computacional dobra a cada 18 meses sob o mesmo custo, cria uma sensação de inexistência de limites à criatividade. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar como corporações já estabelecidas, também chamadas de incumbentes, podem se comportar a fim de serem as catalisadoras de inovações nos mercados onde elas mesmas atuam, em vez de esperar que outras empresas o façam. Esta dissertação baseia-se nos princípios da pesquisa qualitativa, utilizando um método essencialmente prescritivo, com o objetivo principal de desenvolver recomendações. Para prover as diretivas, descreve-se a realidade, entendendo os fenômenos de inovação, empreendedorismo, intraempreendedorismo e disrupção digital, assim como as relações entre eventos que os geram ou os influenciam. Empresas incumbentes podem utilizar as recomendações descritas neste trabalho com o intuito de serem proativas na curva de disrupção de mercados, deixando de lado o papel de incumbentes disrompidos para serem protagonistas no processo de disrupção, mantendo a liderança nos mercados onde atuam e tornando-se capazes de vislumbrar novos fluxos de receitas estimulados pela inovação. / The great technological revolutions are cyclical; they take place every 50 or 60 years. During each iteration, technologies that were once deemed infallible and definitive become obsolete, giving way for new ways to solve problems once thought insurmountable. The current technological revolution is the Information and Communication one, which is empowered by the creation of an open and democratic environment: the Internet. The Internet is becoming a ubiquitous platform, allowing entrepreneurs to rethink social and economic dynamics. An ecosystem based on Moore’s Law, which states that the computing power doubles every 18 months at the same cost, creates a sensation of lack of limits to creativity. The goal of this work is to analyze how established companies, also called incumbents, should act in order to be the catalysts for innovation in the markets where they operate, rather than waiting for other companies to do so. This dissertation is based on the qualitative research approach and uses an essentially prescriptive method with the main objective to develop recommendations. In order to provide these guidelines, it describes the reality by understanding the phenomena of innovation, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and digital disruption, as well as the relationships among the events that generate or influence them. Incumbent companies may utilize the recommendations here described with the purpose of being proactive on the market disruption curve, leaving aside the disrupted incumbent role to become the protagonists on the disruption process, maintaining their market share leadership and also becoming capable of glimpse new revenue streams inspired by innovation.

Corporate entrepreneurship is dedicated to the continuous exploration of opportunities and leveraging innovation activities to achieve a competitive advantage, improved performance, and prosperity of companies. The problem is that the complex reality of multinational corporations is creating distinct obstacles for subsidiary managers who are attempting to develop and promote entrepreneurial activities. The purpose of this qualitative analytic autoethnographic study was to explore barriers and enablers for corporate entrepreneurship ‎practice by focusing on the individual and organizational processes, culture, and lessons learned from entrepreneurial activities that took place at the selected organization during the last decade. The interviews with 9 participants, who were involved in the activities covered by the study, served to reflect the researcher’s narrative and strengthen the reliability and trustworthiness of the results. The study results are based on the contextual data analysis and involved identified barriers in organizational, cultural, and business environments along with the specific manager’s actions and organizational processes for overcoming them. Findings showed that despite the obstacles in the subsidiary’s internal and external environments, one could achieve acknowledging the value of the subsidiary’s innovation activities and establish foundations for the practice of corporate entrepreneurship. The adaption of the study findings is expected to catalyze social change and strengthen the positive impact of entrepreneurial activities on employees’ motivation and job satisfaction, innovativeness, sustainability, and growth of companies and national economies.

Background: Corporate accelerators (CAs) are a relatively new phenomenon and increasingly used by corporates to increase their level of innovation. However, there are still no best practices on how these CA programs can be structured more efficiently in order to serve the needs of startups and corporates simultaneously. Here, most extant research focuses on the general goals of CA programs and the definition of certain core elements and features which describe a CA (i.e. provision of coworking space; educational programs), while disregarding the objectives of the startups participating. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand how current CA programs can be improved, by analyzing the experiences and perspectives of both corporates and startups. It aims to identify, how CA programs can be more successful for corporates and startups. Method: To satisfy the purpose of this qualitative study, an exploratory research approach was selected and a multi-case research strategy applied. Data was gathered through in-depth, semi-structured expert interviews with five managers and three participants of accelerator programs managed by leading multinational corporates. Through a content analysis, we built new theory based on our findings. Conclusion: This study shed light on current difficulties that arise in CA programs such as internal politics and bureaucracy, internal communication, corporate rigidities, and the important tasks of CA managers navigating those issues. Our study contributes to research on CAs by (1) emphasizing current barriers of CAs; (2) presenting suggestions for creating more successful CAs; (3) showing how CA managers can foster interactions between corporate business units and startups: and (4) creating the SET CA model.

Background: The advancement of digital technologies and hence the emergence of new opportunities but also changing customer needs force incumbent firms to increase their innovation capacities. Therefore, they must find ways to explore the opportunities of digital innovation, while simultaneously exploiting their core business and ensuring a secured revenue stream. This phenomenon, called organizational ambidexterity, can amongst others be achieved by implementing a digital innovation unit (DIU). DIUs, structurally separated units, especially within Germany, Switzerland and Austria are declared to be successful instruments to increase incumbent’s innovativeness but also to foster an innovation culture and advance the corporate digital transformation while the core organization can focus on core business activities. Research Problem: Despite the prevalent perception of DIUs being successful initiatives to find remedy for incumbents’ conflict of being innovative while simultaneously advancing the core business, in recent years more and more DIUs were closed. This development is particularly interesting as the amount of DIUs is still increasing while on the other hand especially business press claims the end of these units. However, regarding this paradox, academic literature is still rare and has until now primarily focused on the challenges of DIUs but not on their closure. Correspondingly, DIU closure poses a significant research gap. Research Purpose: The study primarily aims to clarify why DIUs are being closed and derive a general theory explaining this phenomenon. Above that, a secondary purpose is to advance knowledge regarding DIUs as a digital innovation instrument and what characterizes a DIU. Finally, we aim to examine whether a closure can be equated with a failure. Research Question: Why are Digital Innovation Units being closed? Research Method: Qualitative, inductive research; Ontology – Relativism; Epistemology – Social Constructionism; Methodology – Grounded Theory; Data Collection – 14 semi- structured in-depth Interviews; Sampling – Purposive, Snowball, Theoretical; Data Analysis – Grounded Analysis Conclusion: Resulting from the findings, a model was developed, that explains five major statements related to DIU closure. On the one hand, we ascertained distinct symptoms that anticipate a closure such as personnel measures and budget cuts. On the other hand, we identified factors that significantly influence the fate of a DIU such as corporate politics or cultural dissonances and identified remnants of closed DIUs. Finally, the immediate reasons why DIUs close can be related to strategic changes within the parent company and to how the DIU is evaluated.

This thesis explores the topic of Corporate Entrepreneurship in large organizations with regards to how innovations are transferred from an Innovation Department into a receiving Business Unit. It aims to understand this topic by identifying what challenges are common barriers to this transfer process. It also identifies the causes of these challenges. Finally, this thesis establishes what suitable approach can be adapted to address these challenges. To answer these concerns, this research takes a deductive research approach by conducting a qualitative, empirical research through semi-structured interviews within a large Nordic telecommunication company. It also includes, benchmarking against two examples of companies that have developed solutions to overcome similar challenges. This qualitative methodology involves analyzing the interview and benchmarking results in comparison with literature, to confirm or disprove previous research. From the findings, eight categories of common challenges are discovered which are rooted within the innovation strategy of incumbent companies. Based on this research, a framework is developed as an approach to address the challenges of transferring innovations from an Innovation Department into a receiving Business Unit. As contribution to this field of study, this thesis highlights how multiple academic theories such as Corporate Entrepreneurship, Innovation Management and Innovation Strategy can be synthesized to collectively address these challenges. This is done by proposing a solution that is adaptable for different incumbent organizations. The proposed framework uses a stage-gate process that progresses when certain criteria agreed between an Innovation Department and a receiving Business Unit, are fulfilled. This agreement is based on the extent to which the criteria for each stage-gate is achieved in order to transfer ownership of the innovation solution. / Denna avhandling undersöker ämnet företags entreprenörskap i stora organisationer när det gäller hur innovationer överförs från en innovationsavdelning till en mottagande affärsenhet. Den syftar till att förstå detta ämne genom att identifiera vilka utmaningar som är gemensamma hinder för denna överföringsprocess samt orsakerna till dessa utmaningar. Slutligen fastställs lämpliga tillvägagångsättför att hantera dessa utmaningar. För att svara på dessa utmaningar tillämpas en deduktiv forskningsmetod och en kvalitativ forskningsdesign baserat på semi-strukturerade intervjuer inom ett stort nordiskt telekommunikationsföretag. Den inkluderar också benchmarking med två företag som har utvecklat lösningar för att övervinna liknande utmaningar. Denna kvalitativa metod innebär analys av intervjuer samt benchmarking i jämförelse med litteraturen för att bekräfta eller motbevisa tidigare forskning. I resultaten återfinns åtta kategorier av gemensamma utmaningar som är förankrade i innovationskulturen hos befintliga företag. Baserat på resultaten utvecklades ett ramverk för att hantera utmaningarna kring att överföra innovationer från en innovationsavdelning till en mottagande affärsenhet. Som ett bidrag till detta ämnesområde framhävs i denna avhandling hur flera akademiska teorier som corporate entreprenörskap (or intraprenörskap- look it up), innovationsledning och innovationsstrategi kan syntetiseras för att gemensamt hantera dessa utmaningar . Detta görs genom att föreslå en lösning som är anpassningsbar för olika etablerade organisationer. Den föreslagna ramen använder en steg-grind-modellen (look it up) som fortskrider när vissa kriterier som överenskommits mellan en innovationsavdelning och en mottagande affärsenhet är uppfyllda. Processen är baserad på i vilken utsträckning kriterierna för varje steg är uppnådda för att överföra äganderätten till innovationslösningen.

Entrepreneurship in organizations is defined from different perspectives and subjects, leading to a fragmented body of knowledge when it comes to defining its key characteristics. Moreover, a holistic connection [sa1] between entrepreneurship within organizations and sustainability is yet to be made. This thesis aims at clearing up the numerous definitions of entrepreneurship within organizations and at exploring the relationship between entrepreneurship within organizations and sustainability. The thesis departs from considering the bottom-up approach of intrapreneurship and the top-down perspective of corporate entrepreneurship with their connection to a sustainability context. Methodologically, we [sa2] combine an exploratory research design with an abductive way of reasoning, where we analyze an in-depth case study of a well-established Swedish manufacturing company with the help of intrapreneurship- and corporate entrepreneurship literature. Our result is that, in a sustainability context, corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship are complexly intertwined and dependent on each other. Both concepts are also deeply and mutually connected to the industry environment, organizational issues and sustainability challenges. This leads to the conclusion that corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in a sustainability context cannot be sensibly divided. Therefore, we contribute to theory by developing a conceptual model that promotes the term “corporate intrapreneurship” to reflect the complex and intertwined nature of entrepreneurship within organizations answering to sustainability challenges.

Innovation outside the company’s core business is essential for any company in a fast-changing environment. Companies that want to engage in strategic innovation in order to embrace emerging opportunities need ways of managing the innovation process. There is currently limited research on how to select among and evaluate innovation proposals for emerging opportunities in the context of intrapreneurship. This master thesis investigates how an incumbent high-tech company that promote intrapreneurship uses criteria in the selection process of innovation proposals. The study conducts an embedded single-case study of the case company, referred to as Company A, by collecting qualitative data through archival documents and 19 semi-structured interviews. The study uses Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation to analyse the results. Findings show that an incumbent high-tech company uses a set of criteria that is a mix of the previous findings in the context of new product development and external investors. The criteria utilized in the selection process are within the dimensions market and value, product and technology, operations and financials, corporate alignment, and team. The conducted interviews exposed that personal considerations constitute additional informal criteria for the evaluators, and much emphasis is put on the intrapreneur’s characteristics and presentation. Findings from the interviews suggest that criteria should be utilized less strict in the beginning of the process, which is supported by previous researchers. Criteria also contribute with transparency to the innovation process and can be used as guidelines for the innovator. Christensen’s theory contradicts the use of the criteria market size, corporate alignment and to validate the innovation with a customer because of the nature of emerging markets and technologies. / Innovation utanför företagets kärnverksamhet är viktigt för alla företag på en snabbt föränderlig marknad. Företag som vill satsa på strategisk innovation för att kunna ta tillvara på nya möjligheter behöver metoder för att kunna hantera innovationsprocessen. Detta examensarbete undersöker hur ett etablerat högteknologiskt företag som främjar intraprenörskap använder kriterier i urvalsprocessen att välja mellan olika innovationsförslag. Studien genomför en fallstudie genom att studera ett bolag, benämnt företag A, och samlar in kvalitativa data genom arkivdokument och 19 semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studien använder Christensens teori om disruptiv innovation för att analysera resultaten. Resultaten visar att det studerade högteknologiska företaget använder ett antal kriterier som stöds av tidigare forskares resultat inom området produktutveckling och externa investerare. Kriterierna som identifieras i studien är inom dimensionerna marknad och värdeskapande, produkt och teknik, företagsverksamhet och ekonomi, hur väl innovationen passar företaget och team. Intervjuerna avslöjade att personliga överväganden utgör ytterligare informella kriterier för de som utvärderar, som lägger stor vikt på intraprenörens egenskaper och presentation. Resultaten tyder på att kriterierna bör användas mindre strikt i början av processen, vilket stöds av tidigare forskning. Kriterier bidrar också till insyn i innovationsprocessen och kan användas som riktlinjer för innovatören. Christensens teori stödjer inte användningen av kriterierna marknadsstorlek, hur väl innovationen passar företaget och att verifiera innovationen med en kund på grund av osäkerhet kring framväxande marknader och nya teknologier.

Due to rapid and major economic change in recent years, the need for more flexible, dynamic and innovative companies is widely recognized. Firms must clearly understand and translate customers’ needs in order to foster value creation. Many scholars have focused their attention on the entrepreneurial behavior of owners or top managers and their actions that encourage innovation, venturing and strategic renewal. However, rigorous empirical research examining the factors that support corporate entrepreneurship and lead to sustainable value creation is scarce. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that support corporate entrepreneurship and lead to sustainable value creation in a ship management company, using a case study approach. In this context, the following research question is addressed: -What factors support corporate entrepreneurship and lead to sustainable value creation in a ship management company? This research uses an interpretive paradigm and utilizes three methods for collecting data, consisting of observational technique, surveys and semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal the factors that support corporate entrepreneurship and lead to sustainable value creation in ship management. These are analyzed in relation to the literature and the ship management sector. The study concludes that corporate entrepreneurship, when conducted effectively, can be a significant contributor of sustainable value creation. However, this may or may not be applicable to other sectors.